What Is the Difference Between a Keyboard and Synthesizer? - Daniel Fisher

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Daniel Fisher, Sweetwater‘s resident synth expert, delves into the core features of keyboards and synthesizers while highlighting the differences between them. Check it out!
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0:00 - Early ‘60s Keyboards
0:24 - ‘70s Keyboard Features
0:49 - Casiotone CT-S1
1:34 - Features Needed to Be a Synth
2:01 - Novation Summit Synthesizer
2:20 - More Synthesizer Features
3:45 - Thanks for Watching!
#Sweetwater #DanielFisherSweetwater #DanielFisher

[@sweetwater]

Synth guru Daniel Fisher lays out the "key" differences between keyboards and synthesizers 🎹

[@teegees]

What’s a “workstation”, and the difference between a digital piano, a stage piano, and a keyboard?

[@hermask815]

@@teegees as a knob twisting synthesist, this is exactly my difficulty too, these terms manufacturers uses randomly. He should also explain which words mean the same but are used by one company so the other invented another because they didn’t want to use the same. Add “performer keyboard “ to your list.

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

A keyboard is just the keys and can be on a piano, a sythersizor or other instrument it's got nothing to do with what defines the instrument. A sythersizor dont have to have a keyboard included such as the Novation Peak.

[@bingobango4840]

Please do more videos like this. I'm a guitarist interested in getting into keyboard/synth, and videos like this are extremely helpful to people like me, who are completely new to it all.

[@sweetwater]

Thanks, Robert! Check out my Free SYNTH CLIPS Tutorial series: kzbin.info/aero/PLlczpwSXEOybYYaBCTcjxxKz1QmxytbIf -_Daniel_

[@bingobango4840]

@@sweetwater Will do now!

[@noodlessynth7777]

In my younger days I too played guitar. Now I am a synth nut and just started my own little synth channel. My prospective is that a synthesizer is more about making music by manipulating sounds where as a keyboard is better suited to someone who wants to play keys in the more traditional musical sense.

[@gavinnaicker6393]

This is my exact situation, I thought I'm the only one.

[@why_do_you_care]

I'd say, a synthesizer is an instrument that actually generates ("synthesizes") the sound coming from it instead of playing a recorded file. One can have filters and asdr features for a sample-playback keyboard as well but that doesn't make it a synth. Also, technically an organ is a synthesizer in itself. Its a form of synthesis called additive synthesis wherein you add harmonics to a sine wave to create different sounds. An organ does it using wind/pipes/mutes instead of electronics.

[@iamlegend8120]

Great comment. You seem to be very knowledgeable, very impressive.

[@JBF-GST-Tanda]

Some synths do use recorded files (samples), but they have the ability of applying lots of modulation and re-shaping instead of just playing them exactly like what they're recorded to be.

[@boqsc0]

The difference is how much control the item gives: Synthesizer is an advanced keyboard, that can Synthesize sounds. There are controllers on the keyboard to adjust the sounding in many ways. Many keyboards do introduce some features of Synthesizer. The most basic one is the keyboard. The keyboard that has some features of Sythesizer is a Half-Sythesizer Keyboard.

[@Smordor_Stormcrow]

Daniel Fisher is undeniably one of the coolest people on the internet

[@kircillarincihan]

God bless you Mr. Fisher. You're a true teacher.

[@patrickarend8707]

Excellent! The MAGNUS was the first instrument i ever played. I was five years old, and my parents had one. Been hooked on keys ever since. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[@albind8622]

Great work on these videos!

[@dawnsky11]

Very helpful! Thanks Daniel!!

[@kenkastle5970]

I’d like to see Daniel surrounded by synthesizers doing a complete performance.

[@Blade-Runner1982]

Awesome video man!

[@swervature]

Going by this, my 22-year old Casio WK-1800 is a synth. Woohoo! Now I can say I have 2 synths, lol. My Wavestate and my Casio 😁

[@marcosa.catena6414]

Excelente información! 🙌🏻

[@kingphil4073]

Great vid 👌🏾

[@GlamourSwinexXx]

This was super helpful to a keyboard noob like me - thank you!!!

[@futur_sunds]

I don’t think there is a distinguished dividing line between the two, but I feel like this video summed it up pretty good 😊

[@0711RC]

Thanks Daniel

[@wbabe2012]

I love the synthesizer

[@sweetwater]

"Synthesizers been beddy, beddy good to me." -_Daniel_

[@disomniatijuana2363]

In few words: Digital pianos: Has prerecorded sounds/patches, that has fixed parameters, that becomes the source of the sound. Synth: You have oscilators, which you can modulate and control to have different sounds, Take in mind that All sounds in universe are composed by many Frequencies and harmonics, which in a synth you can tune them to recreate any sound.

[@julianho4774]

thanks sir.............. i'm big fan of digital piano + some sync sounds!

[@classicarcadeamusementpark4242]

I also started out with a Magnus organ exactly like the one shown, only we got ours at a flea market around 1976. We had a piano in the house since before I was born. About the same time we got the Magnus, we got a slightly large piece of furniture organ (still easy to pick up) and an accordion. I played around with all that stuff, but took a lot more interest in our Casio keyboard around 1980. But I still didn't get serious about wanting to learn to play too much until I got my Amiga 1000 computer in 1985 with incredible sampling, and my Casio CZ keyboard as a MIDI controller for it and it's great on board sounds. The piano and organs didn't hold near the same level of interest. Maybe if we had a B3 or something. Defining a synthesizer as you said, seems to come down to it's ability to edit sounds. It could be through menus like my Korg M1, but it needs some ability to edit sounds on it or via computer at least. The Casio in your video seems to be a sample playback machine. Still a form of a synthesizer, but not the same.

[@MrPeter924]

Awesome great so sound. 🎹

[@jenna2026]

Synth is more specialized and more expensive. A Keyboard is usually cheaper and does many things at once, but does not have the extensive library of sounds a synth has (a keyboard might have 5 different piano sounds built in, a synth would have 1000 different piano sounds, but you would need to buy them and install them into the synth) a Keyboard can be a general purpose all in one band and music making solution...a synth is usually attached to another piece of hardware/software to work. Most synths have no speakers either, where all keyboards have speakers built in. Synths also have (or at least at one time) had a higher quality level of sound, it sounded fuller and deeper. Although keyboards today have come close to those fuller deeper sounds as well now. That's my observation anyways.

[@cathymain5525]

Such a great explanation for someone like me just beginning to look. Carrying it around is important to me, needs to be lightest.

[@ElcanaldeReyesManuel]

Excelente

[@SpacePatrollerLaser]

ACtually, some of the more modern keyboards, called "arranger keyboards", along with full accompaniment, have full bore synths in them, like the GEM Ensembe, which has two synths in it; a typical ADSR synth and a "world class" 8-stage envelope generator. The Casio WK3500 has both sheels

[@neol07707]

Can we talk about that clean flattop tho lol

[@sweetwater]

Sure! In 2013 I rode my Harley Davidson Nightrod Special to a motorcycle rally in Chicago. One of the outdoor tents had barbers who were cutting hair for free if you got a flattop. Afterward, I received so many positive comments that I've done it that way ever since. -_Daniel_

[@Fakinos_Konstantinos]

The main difference is that in synthesizers every preset sound on them or any sound that comes out from the machine can be recreated from scratch. In keyboards we have some control of the sound but is somehow pre-made and we have a limit of how much we can alter the sound. Of course there are hybrids of synths and keyboards which are something in between.

[@hermeslord]

Simplest defmiton is that if it has preset banks and maybe auto accompaniment then its a keyboard. If it allows sound creation, editing and programming then it'd be a synthesiser.

[@ShibuyasBeat]

Can i use a synth alongside a keyboard? For example if I have like a 41 key synth and would like to use something with 61 keys

[@TakeTheRide]

I recently bought a Kauai K5 synthesizer and I honestly have no idea what it can do. I would like to figure out how to get a deeper sound out of it and run it through a loop, in a new age fashion and to be able to add my cello into it. Can you teach me how? Can you show me what it can do? I grew up playing an upright and I'm used to having all these base notes and these electronic keyboards all sound so high pitched to me. Can I lower the pitch an octave or two? If so how? I want some depth of sound through this thing. Help. Thanks. Enjoyed your display on here.

[@cesar_m.p.]

There's a tutorial that I haven't seen yet anywhere: the use of a synthesizer as both a synth and as a midi controller for a DAW. I understand each has its own role, but I was about to upgrade my modest m-audio 61 keys midi controller to the Native Instruments S88 which is about $1,150 then I released a nice entry-level Yamaha MX88 is $1,050. What would I miss? The faders? Well, the NI S88 doesn't have faders....... the drum pad? The NI S88 doesn't have drum pads either (and I don't use them anyway). So, instead of buying a midi controller that can't do anything without being hooked to a computer, why not get a synthesizer instead?

[@reltius2993]

I’m lookin to get into piano so realistic feel and sound is important to me, but I also want features that I will appreciate growing into that synthesizers/workstations have too, but don’t want to compromise on the feel and sound of the piano. That said, I am having a difficult time deciding between something like the similarly priced Roland Fantom 8, Nord Grand, and Kawaii MP11SE. The Fantom seems to have the most features, but I’m concerned it isn’t as realistic of a piano as the other two and I may regret getting it.

[@RobertFisher1969]

I wish there was a good, accepted term for the kind of sound module in that Casiotone. If it has keys, its a keyboard-which is going to cover any of these things if they have keys as well as keyboards that are just controllers. If it synthesizes sound, its a synthesizer. If it records sounds for playback, its a sampler. But if it essentially just plays back recorded sounds (the modern equivalent of a Mellotron), we don’t have a good word for that, do we?

[@jjrusy7438]

ROMpler ( ROM -player , plays samples stored in some type of non-volatile memory)

[@Jenairaslebol27merde]

it may be "rompler". i picked this up some times ago .. obviously made up from "ROM" and "sampler".

[@sweetwater]

Hi Robert. ROMpler is definitely a term used in our industry, going back at least as far as the Kurzweil K2000 and Korg M1. Thanks for watching! -_Daniel_

[@liouxliouxisgod]

We need mellotrons more accessible. We as in, the poor.

[@mahmoudkhaled6197]

Thanks very much Daniel, that was so informative, and if it's possible, can you please give me a nurshell description of what a sequencer do? Does it only mix music tracks? Thanks in advance

[@sweetwater]

Hi mahmoudkhaled, Here's a Sequencer video I made that should help: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z5rNk5WCiqp0bqc -_Daniel_

[@rinoking88]

I have a synth and an electric piano. I find I play the electric piano way more. Synth is fun if you are making a song on your computer with a midi or are playing with other musicians. Sometimes a lot of fun too to just sit there and tinker on it, almost like a meditation. But the electric piano is a much better instrument for solo playing overall imo. All the solo songs that exist out there with sheet music 99% of them just won't really work on a synth. A good electric piano with the weighted keys and sensitivity opens up the entire realm of piano and rhodes/keyboard songs. Idk, this video just got me reflecting, because I have a korg and a yamaha electric piano, and I play the yamaha way more often as just a better, utilitarian solo instrument, like an acoustic guitar. But I do love my korg, I just play them for different reasons

[@leewightman8619]

Iv got a Yamaha DJx and it has pitch bend mod attack release ect but it's no synth it's a rompler and when I try using it to layer stuff with it on the tascam it sounds so week and sounds muddy af but my Roland synth sounds amazing

[@justinjoshua1648]

Wow!

[@jonahardayfio7746]

synthesizer seems so fun to mess around with

[@sweetwater]

Hi Jonah. That statement is so true. Sometimes my job feels like a job. But other times I realize that I'm having fun messing around with synthesizers! -_Daniel_

[@fredrickotsemobor7239]

Can I use a synthesizer without connecting it to speakers? Let's say like the Yamaha motif xf8

[@0000song0000]

i wanna be a professional knob-turner 😍

[@izme4700]

So what you’re saying is that keyboards purchase samplers that have sampled either genuine instruments or synthesizers

[@sweetwater]

Hi Iz Me. It's not so much whether the instrument uses samples or not - there are lots of synthesizers that use samples. It's more about what the instrument can do to that sampled sound. If you can adjust its filter, its envelopes, its LFOs, its responses to velocity and aftertouch, and its effects... then it's a synthesizer, regardless if the oscillators are true analog, digital, or sample-based. -_Daniel_

[@StopWars420]

Synth = sound production Keyboard = has sounds Getting a sub 200$ USB midi keyboard is best cheap option because you can use free digital synths or vsts to learn.

[@JULIOAIS]

I am a musician since I was 7 (now I'm 87). But now I like to "make music". An I have a dilema: I own a Keylab49 essenti9al (from which I can't listen any sound) and a Komplete Kontrol 32. I want to have the possibility of playing my instrument. Should I keep the Keylab adding an interface, or use the Komplete? Please, I trust your advise.

[@biopower5160]

1:30 got me omg im dying :)))

[@jammyjam353]

So it sounds like simply put, a synthesizer is a piece of equipment that manipulates sounds. If u can manipulate your sounds on the equipment, it’s a synth. What he’s saying is a lot of new equipment has sounds already in it that had been manipulated, but those are just locked, stock sounds on that machine. But if you can’t manipulate your own sounds on the machine, then the machine is not a synthesizer

[@manuelcuevas4418]

Can it make guitar ,strungs, trumpet sounds ???

[@jjp002]

i need the second one lol

[@manuelcuevas4418]

Help please can you please show strings,guitar , trumpets sax please ??? Thanks much

[@javajuls2u]

Everybody goes right to that lead in for journey

[@keenankenmuir945]

I really want to start playing a weighted action keyboard (The Rohland fp30x), it sounds like a real piano and is quite versatile. I've been wondering if it would be a good substitue for a synth using it's midi function, a DAW and a synth plugin/ analog synth. Does anyone know what the experince of using a midi keyboard as a synth is like ? Is it worth it ? The fp30x is quite pricey so it would be lovely if it can double as both so I can record synth and piano parts. Thanks in advance to anyone who shares some insight ;) Have a nice day

[@soumyajitdas1647]

Fp30 x got a good action. But, it lacks mod wheel, pitch bend and onboard faders , sliders not even a rotary knob. You have to rely on either mouse to manipulate the sound of any plugin in a DAW (which might me exhausting) or you need a separate slimline midi controller to control stuff in real time. But, I see no harm for home/ personal use.

[@sjfarrell2.03]

Does a keyboard have an init patch button? A synth does.

[@sweetwater]

Hi SJ Farrell 2.0. As far as I've seen, most keyboards that aren't synthesizers don't have an INIT Patch button. Thanks for watching! -_Daniel_

[@dougp7545]

SWEETWATER ROCKS

[@harm285]

Really great for 0% knowledge people!❤

[@lesalmin]

I call all more or less portable electronic instruments with a single keyboard "keyboards". Then some of those keyboards are synths (in my vocabulary) if their main function is sound design, not playing ready made sounds and/or rhythms. And yes, still there are a lot of intermediate products with both features. 🤯

[@robertosonzogni]

So, can any synth play piano sounds with the same quality of a keyboard? I guess this is the most asked question... Or is it just for "weird" sounds?

[@sweetwater]

Hi Roberto. It depends on the synth. Generally speaking, some synths are based on recorded samples of actual instruments. Other synths are based on oscillators with various wave shapes. If the synth has recordings of piano notes then it'll be easy to make a piano sound. If it only has waveform oscillators you *might* be able to create something that is almost, but not entirely, unlike a grand piano. -_Daniel_

[@robertosonzogni]

@@sweetwater Thank you Daniel ! Can you please name some synths that have recorded samples of analog instruments?

[@jennoscura2381]

I would define a keyboard as an electric instrument with keys like piano. A synthesizer is an electronic instrument that creates the sounds via circuitry or software. As opposed to playing back internally stored sounds. Not all synthesizers are keyboards and not all keyboards are synthesizers.

[@user-gi8kr8hu4h]

Which is for music beginner please? I want my son to learn synthesiser in future, does he need to learn keyboard as a basic first ?

[@sweetwater]

Hello - great question. Generally, a keyboard is better and easier to learn on. A synthesizer can be fun for a beginner but it will likely be overwhelming to learn sound design principles on top of basic piano playing. Regards, Jason Filloramo, Sweetwater Sales Engineer, [phone] ext. 1281, [e-mail]

[@user-gi8kr8hu4h]

@@sweetwater Thank you very much!

[@alienzardsketter.9076]

I had Yamaha ex5 , Alesis ion, Alesis Micron, Novation Mini nova,, Roland jp8000, Roland Juno G , Roland jdxi,,every electronic keybed interment that can be altered.,,by affects ,is synths sounds, I have had so many synths I forgot them , and I Love to use arrangers for base boards , and a digital piano for just hands free piano , each is different and gives you something different ,, I have Yamaha psrsx900, and Yamaha Tyros ,3 and Korg Pa5x ,,and studiologic sledge wish I Love it , I have not played the Korg so much ,I will next spring 2024, and the studio Logic I was Moog 37,,I have many more groove synths , Korg Electribe's I love guitars , when I was young I started playing drums and singing very young , then Piano and guitar at the same time ,around fourteen years old ,I begin lessons ,for both ,basic accostic guitar ,, and piano , and then I bought my first Casio and Kawai synths ,and from that point it changed me I can still play interments in bands , but I dont want to any more , I want to play keyboards and synths , I really dont like to hear a human voice unless it has be changed to some different sound ,,some kind of affect ,, I will still play electric guitars , on real guitars and keyboard guitars ,,I want to change my face use covering not to be seen anymore use a mask something creative and new...as a artist musician I feel that is the direction I want to go with art music story events statements...I prefer to be called alien ...just not human.

[@theinnermostsanctum]

Price for one

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

A keyboard is a keyboard and can be on a piano a midi controller or on a sythersizor. Sythersizors and midi controllers might include a keyboard but they dont have to.

[@kaoruakimoto7167]

2:24 😇

[@arthurdiniz7469]

Synthesizers make me wanna go to space 😂

[@WildernessMusic_GentleSerene]

:) I thought you would have a difficult time explaining the difference? :) Could we say in strict definition that a true synthesizer produces its own waveforms from an oscillator, and not a VA, or wavetable, or recording of an oscillator. Hmmmm? Maybe? :)

[@sweetwater]

Hi Wilderness Music. Your stricter definition would certainly apply to a "true analog" synthesizer, but I would have a hard time saying that a Kurzweil K2700 (sample-based oscillators), or ASM Hydrasynth, or Novation Summit (digital oscillators) aren't "synthesizers". They definitely are synthesizers (and powerful ones at that). Thanks for watching! -_Daniel_

[@WildernessMusic_GentleSerene]

​@@sweetwater Thanks for letting me have a little fun with you. Yea those Peak/Summit oscillators are a tough call, as well as any digital that allows shaping a sound. My DAWless studio is all hardware and 95% of it is digital, so I'm not an analog snob :). Can we say that any device that allows shaping of any sound source a synth? But then add a percentage estimation to both the sound shaping and modulation design? Example: Casio CTX3000/20%/20%/Poly.....or....Arturia MatrixBrute/100%/100%/Mono. (then we can all argue about the percentage class ;)

[@bengagliardo1080]

funny when we needed a new piano player all we cared about is was if he could play a piano like a piano and keyboards like a hamond b3.. nothing elce mattered. didn't even care if he could sing.... small bluse band.. with gospil overtones. lol..

[@jonahvocalsofficialuganda9492]

1:30

[@vincentflannigan2727]

JUMP

[@asifsiddique7888]

Okay.....i watched the whole.........still haven't got a clue LOL

[@hadleymanmusic]

God synth money please

[@bloo-d4421]

Both are Keybords

[@slayerftwrongdoers8657]

Keyboards are cheaper than Synth and easy to use.

[@thedishonestjeffsokol2489]

This is a terrible video for anyone who doesn't know what a synthesizer is. You should always open with a definition and a demonstration straight off the bat before going into details.