The Yamaha YDS-120 Digital Saxophone is an electronic breath controller that is capable – thanks to its cutting-edge software – of reproducing a huge variety of analogue sounds, from wind instruments to more unusual options. It's been designed to look like a saxophone, one that can make the joy of music-making accessible to everyone. As such, while it's capable of replicating a saxophone's full range of emotional expression, unlike a traditional sax, it can also be played as quietly as necessary, everywhere and anytime – in the kitchen, in the middle of the night, the possibilities are endless. The YDS-120's integrated app is constantly at work to optimise both the instrument's overall performance and to expand the ways it can create music, including the sound settings, the choice of instrument, and the sonic processing: Many of the instrument's capacities can be controlled simply by playing it like a sax, such as the combinations of keys or the general tone – and for everything else, there's the app.
Yamaha's patented Integrated Bell Acoustic System combines the traditional construction of a saxophone with futuristic digital technology. Conversely, the YDS-120 has the simple mouthpiece of a recorder – musicians can play it just like an analogue sax, making even the most complex rhythmic sections a breeze. And the YDS-120's keys and pads react to even the gentlest of touches, which means it's unbelievably comfortable to play, while also making it a great practice instrument, because it's easy to hear even slight inaccuracies in fingering. Because it is a genuinely, authentically resonant instrument, saxophonists can really feel the music move when they're playing. By combining the key-and-pad mechanism of its traditional counterparts with a breath sensor for dynamics, volume, and expressivity, the YDS-120 gives musicians a real sense of freedom.
The Yamaha YDS-120 has a clear goal – to make genuinely expressive music easy for both beginners and more advanced players, while giving them a huge variety of options and configurations. For instance, the YDS-120 has an AUX input that allows users to feed in external audio sources for a more complete musical experience; the resulting sound mix is then sent to the device's headphone jack. Similarly, when more sound output is required – that is, when the sax's integrated loudspeaker isn't enough – then the headphone jack can be used as a cinch out to connect it to an external sound system. All this means that the Yamaha YDS-120 can be used for everything from simple beginner's lessons to highly complex, even experimental sounds in almost any genre, both in the studio and live on stage. There are so many possible creative uses – from tiny to titanic – that it'd be impossible to list them all here.
For decades, Yamaha has been one of the world's best-known manufacturers of musical instruments and audio technology. The Japanese company's long history began at the end of the 19th century with the harmonium. The product range has constantly expanded since then, which has made Yamaha one of the few manufacturers today to offer almost the entire range of existing musical instruments: From upright and grand pianos to guitars, wind instruments, and bowed string instruments and from drums and percussion to electronic keyboards and synthesizers. Yamaha is also a major force in the field of audio engineering as a manufacturer of mixing consoles, amplifiers, PA systems, and more. Yamaha's guiding principle is to combine traditional craftsmanship with state-of-the-art technology.
Using a standard USA-A to micro USB cable, the YDS-120 can be patched into any MIDI environment or paired with a computer or similar device. This means the library of available sounds can be massively expanded, because DAWs like Ableton, Cubase, and Protools will immediately recognise the instrument, allowing it to be used to play music virtually via the DAW. And because it's a breath controller, the play-feel is entirely different to using a standard workstation keyboard: Segues are suddenly much smoother than on a digital piano, for instance, giving saxophonists, keyboard players, and home producers of all kinds entirely new modes of creativity. With the YDS Controller App, which is available online, users can even configure their own fingerings and craft their own sounds.