Yamaha Design Laboratory

Yamaha Silent Violin : SV-100 (1997)

garnish a cropped contour line

① Find out the interface between the player’s body and the object then extract its minimal

structure.

② Elaborate its shape by developing this minimal structure.

The Silent Violin is an electric violin designed for quiet practice in order not to disturb surrounding people. It has a

customized digital sound processor that allows the player to perform with a natural sound reverb through a pair of

headphones. Some successors are available on the market due to the concept success.

Yamaha Design Laboratory

Electric Violin : Prototype (2013)

integrate it into a mono form

① Find out the interface between the player’s body and the object then extract its minimal

structure.

② Elaborate its shape by developing this minimal structure.

One of the design studies for a future electric violin. The electric violins are still seen as "experimental" instruments, being

less established than electric guitar or bass. But their sound is often preferred in alternative rock, pop, and some

avant-garde genres. This project was aimed to find a distinctive design which represents such transboundary music

genres, also which inspires the artists.

Yamaha Design Laboratory

Yamaha Wind MIDI Controller : WX7 (1987)

Maximum Subtraction

① Find out the interface between the player's body and the object from the original wind

instrument in order to extract its minimum structure.

② Then subtract unnecessary parts totally.

The WX7 is a wind instrument capable of controlling MIDI devices (music synthesizers, tone generators, music software,

and so on). So it can sound like almost anything depending on the capabilities of the connected MIDI devices.It is played

and fingered like a wood wind instrument such as a saxophone or a recorder.

Yamaha Design Laboratory

Yamaha Tone Generator : TQ5 (1989)

Locate & Crop

① Arrange all the interface elements logically and align them sparsely.

② Then located them toward the player, while crop the body along the area to place it.

The TQ5 is an external unit of tone generator and a music sequencer. It was designed particularly for electronic pianos

to enhance their playability.After placing it on the left side of an electronic piano music desk, its unusual form was

extracted.

Yamaha Design Laboratory

Portable Personal Guitar : Prototype (2013)

Reframe

① Find respectable elements from a guitar.

② Then recompose them to be in a rectangular shape.

A design study aiming to create new occasions to play with an acoustic musical instrument.The instrument form evokes

the travel and is convenient to put in a conventional bag.The player feels a rich sound vibration by the acoustic design.

The sound is not so loud due to the size, but it allows to perform anywhere at anytime.

Yamaha Design Laboratory

Yamaha TENORI-ON : TNR-W (2008)

Quantize

① Reconfigure system & interface of the traditional music sequencer.

② Then quantize and array to be a tactile display.

The TENORI-ON is an electronic musical instrument designed and created in collaboration with the Japanese artist

Toshio Iwai.It consists of a hand-held screen of 16 by 16 grid of LED switches. Each of these switches may be activated

in a number of different ways to create sounds.

Yamaha Design Laboratory

Steinberg USB Controller : CMC Series (2011)

Assort

① Gather interfaces be in used very often from software GUI.

② Then arrange them to be assorted on the elaborated Platform.

The CMC series is modular controller system for Cubase (a music production software). Consisting of six unique USB

controllers, this system allows the player to make up his/her ideal environment from the various control options — along

with flexibility and ease of use.

Yamaha Design Laboratory

Prototypes based on Yamaha Desk top Audio TSX-112 (2011)

Stencil

① Create a graphic material from the musicality of a sound context.

② Then paste it and shape it by using the graphic patterns.

A design study for finding what is the design synchronizing in modern music culture.In collaboration with the British

graphic designer Neville Broody.

Yamaha Design Laboratory

A pair of keyboard stands : Prototype (2013)

Fill

Fill hollow or delicate frame objects to emphasis their substantial and stability.

A monolith doesn’t need any stabilizer to be upright; it stands by its own weight. Exchange the fragile structure

underneath a keyboard by two independent solid wood pieces that will firmly connect it to the ground.

Yamaha Design Laboratory

Horizontal Free Keyboard Concept : Prototype (2013)

Face & Taper

Identify each single element, find the material that matches each one, and juxtapose them in

the most reasonable way. Then face toward the audience and taper the whole shape.

A keyboard which enables to tilt from a top flat surface to a diving one provides several layers of expression and

stimulates the creativity.It stands up on the border between versatility and emotion by its shape, the choice of the

materials and its configurations

Yamaha Design Laboratory

sound as memory : A shaker prototype (2013)

Squash

Feed the contents into the pipe.Then squash both ends to seal your experience.

Experience the making of your own shaker. Once squashed, the contents are invisible from outside, but when you play

with it, you will playback your memory of inside.

Yamaha Design Laboratory

Ripple : A sound device prototype (2013)

Drawing

Draw the action of sound spreading from a point to far like a child may do. Then install it into

the air to be felt as a landscape.

A design study for creating a new category of sound device.Free from thinking typical instruments, the project focuses on

the primitive sound phenomenon, and intends to be a space. The chain of the sound affects the sense of the listener and

promotes the behavior — like landscape.

Yamaha Design Laboratory

Guitar stand stool : Prototype (2010)

Mash Up

Give two modes to a single substance. Mash up.

One of the design study for creating a new category positioned somewhere in between musical instrument and

furniture.A guitar stand becomes a guitar stool, vice versa.

Yamaha Design Laboratory

Wide wide music stand : Prototype (2010)

Treble

Find an object. Then treble (make object three times wider).

One of the design study for creating a new category positioned somewhere in between musical instrument and

furniture.The design enables to spread six sheets of music score and also may allow playing more pleasantly.

Yamaha Design Laboratory

Musician’s Mirror : Prototype (2010)

Tilt

Find an object, then tilt it to shift dimension in order to get new perspectives.

One of the design study for creating a new category positioned somewhere in between musical instrument and

furniture.The object provides to the player a view of an imaginary audience.

Yamaha Design Laboratory

A Bluetooth speaker : Prototype (2013)

Wrap & blur

Find an object. Wrap it with a soft and permeable material to blur the boundary between the

object and the space.

A design study to reconsider the relation between the speaker and the listener.The low presence design may be

appropriate for “listening while working” style.