The development of musical instruments has a long history. Through continuous upgrading and integration of modern display technology, the display content is richer, and the display effect also brings a very good experience to the experiencer. Following the advancement of display screens, let us feel the contribution that display screens bring to musical instruments!

1970s: Early electronic synthesizers

• Moog synthesizer: Although early Moog synthesizers had no display, they laid the foundation for modern synthesizers. Knobs, switches, and wiring were used to control parameters.

• Yamaha CS-80 (1977): Synthesizers of this period began to use simple LED displays to indicate basic parameters such as volume and effects.

1980s: Digital synthesizers and early LCD screens

• Yamaha DX7 (1983): Yamaha introduces the DX7 synthesizer keyboard. This became a milestone in music-making history, becoming a hot-selling synthesizer at the time, and was particularly popular with users because it was equipped with a small STN LCD display. The 16x2 monochrome character display was revolutionary in the 80s, and the user created "Patch" through the UI, which was used to display parameters and patch names. This display made it more intuitive for users to edit and save patches. However, there was a disadvantage that the sound was lost when the power was turned off.

(2X16 Character LCD Module Display | STN+ Grey Display with White Side Backlight - Arduino)

• 1984: The first commercial LCD displays are introduced, and displays are becoming more common in the market, and soon many portable devices begin to use these higher-quality displays. During this period, character LCD displays are ubiquitous. Roland's MC series of micro-composers, AKAI's hardware samplers, and YAMAHA's growing line of synthesizers are among the top instruments that use character LCD displays.

• Roland D-50 (1987): The Roland D-50 synthesizer used a larger LCD display to further enhance user interaction with the synthesizer.

1990s: Multi-function displays and workstations

• Korg M1 (1988): The M1 was the first device to combine a synthesizer, sampler, and workstation, with a larger, more sophisticated display for editing sounds, setting effects, and multitrack recording.

  
  

• Yamaha SY77 (1989): The SY77 and subsequent SY99 used a higher-resolution LCD display, making the visualization of sounds and parameters more intuitive.

2000s: Touchscreens and color displays

• Korg Triton (1999): The Triton series of synthesizers introduced a touchscreen display, greatly improving the interactivity and ease of use of the user interface.

  
  

• Roland Fantom (2001): The Fantom series of synthesizers are equipped with a large color display, making sound selection, effect editing, and multi-track recording more intuitive.

2010s to present: High-resolution touchscreens and smart integration

• Korg Kronos (2011)：The Kronos series uses a high-resolution touch screen and combines multiple synthesis engines to provide powerful sound editing and performance functions.

• Native Instruments Maschine (2009)：

  This hardware MIDI controller integrates tightly with the software, using a color display to provide real-time feedback and parameter control.

  Yamaha Montage (2016)：The Montage series synthesizers are equipped with a high-resolution touch screen, further integrating sounds, effects and multi-track recording functions.

Application of display screen on other musical instruments

• Digital pianos: Recent digital pianos, such as the Yamaha Clavinova series, are equipped with color touch screens for music display and teaching functions.

  
  

• Electronic drums: Modern electronic drums, such as the Roland V-Drums series, are equipped with LCD or color displays for setting and displaying information such as hitting force and rhythm guidance.

  
  

• Guitar effects: Such as the Line 6 Helix and Boss GT-1000, these multi-effects processors are equipped with large color displays, which make it easy for users to edit and manage complex effects chains.

The cost and lifespan of musical instruments are very important to the music industry, as musicians are used to working in studios for long periods of time and touring the world for days on end. Musicians know that the backlights of these displays may burn out before the equipment is retired. So we can imagine that if there is no need for a backlight and the experiencer can still get a beautiful display effect, it would be perfect. To this end, the Hot Display team developed an OLED type display based on user needs. This new technology will bring different surprises to the experiencer.

(128x64 2.4 inch monochrome display blue OLED graphic OLED module SSD1309)

In addition to OLED, we also have dot matrix module LCD (character COB, graphic COB & COG) with various resolutions, which can be matched with different sizes and different backlight colors. There are also bright color TFT display or TFT LCD Module and customized segment code display, IPS full viewing angle, wide color gamut, rich interface selection (RGB/LVDS/MIPI/MCU/SPI/eDP/, with or without touch function, and TFT visible in sunlight, which may be more suitable for outdoor instruments!

The application of display screens on musical instruments continues to evolve, from the initial simple parameter indication to the current high-resolution touch screen, making the instrument more intelligent and user-friendly. In the future, this trend is expected to continue, and the display screens will become larger, clearer, and more closely integrated with other smart technologies.

For more solutions for musical instrument displays, please contact us directly!