Comparison Yamaha MODX6 vs Roland BK-3

— Unweighted. Keys with a very low pressing force, literally "failing" under the fingers. This option is well suited for inexpensive synthesizers with passive mechanics (see above), but is rarely used in active models — a small resistance force makes it difficult to choose the optimal pressing force.

— Semi- weighted. Medium-strength keys, not up to the hardness of a full-fledged piano, but showing noticeably more resistance than unweighted ones. This variant is most popular among instruments with active mechanics (see above) — the force on the keys provides adequate feedback and at the same time playing such an instrument does not cause any special difficulties even for those who previously dealt only with unweighted keyboards.

— Weighted. Keys with high actuation force, comparable to that of a classical piano. Used only in professional hammer action instruments (see above) — high rigidity is a must for such mechanics (more precisely, for the response that it must provide).

The number of built-in sounds provided in the synthesizer.

The number of timbres is often described as the number of instruments that a given model can imitate. However, this is not entirely true — rather, this parameter can be called "the number of instruments and sound effects." For example, the same instrument — an electric guitar — with different "gadgets" (distortion, overdrive) will sound differently, and in the synthesizer each such gadget will be considered a separate timbre. The “drums” timbre usually combines different types of drums and other percussion instruments — in other words, it allows you to portray both the “bass drum” and the cymbals without switching settings, just by pressing the desired keys. And some timbres may not have analogues among real instruments at all.

The more built-in timbres, the more extensive the possibilities of the synthesizer, the more diverse the sounds that can be extracted from it. At the same time, in high-end models like workstations (see "Type"), this number can reach 1000 or even more.

The presence of the auto accompaniment function in the synthesizer.

This function allows the instrument to automatically play an accompaniment melody that you can play along with the main part on the keyboard. At the same time, the left hand of the musician can control the accompaniment: it is enough to take a chord on the left half of the keyboard, and the auto accompaniment will automatically “decompose” it into instrument parts that sound in accompaniment. Thus, the musician turns into a "man-orchestra": one synthesizer can replace the whole ensemble, or at least a solid part of the ensemble. Of course, the sound quality in such models can be different, and not every synthesizer with accompaniment is suitable for an event more serious than a children's party, although there are quite advanced models.

In addition, playing to accompaniment can also be useful for educational purposes: it contributes to the development of general technique, a sense of rhythm, and additional accompaniment is very convenient during improvisation exercises.

It should be taken into account that not only the sound quality, but also the number of accompaniment styles (melodies) can be different; and some models allow you to record your own melodies. See below for more details on these features.

The number of auto accompaniment styles (see above) originally provided in the synthesizer, in other words, the number of accompaniment options available to the user.

The more extensive this set, the higher the probability of finding among these melodies suitable options for a particular case. At the same time, the abundance of styles in itself is not yet a 100% guarantee that among them there will be a suitable one, especially since different synthesizer models can differ markedly in a specific set of melodies. So the list does not hurt to clarify before buying. Also note that the situation can be corrected by user styles (see below) — many synthesizers with auto accompaniment support them.

The range in which you can change the tempo of the programme played by the synthesizer — auto accompaniment, lesson tune (see above), metronome (see below), recorded sample, etc.

Pace is measured in beats per minute. Changing it allows you to adjust the speed of the synthesizer to the specifics of the situation — for example, slightly slow down the tutorial if it is too hard to master at the initial pace. The wider the range of tempo adjustment, the more options the musician has to choose from, especially in the area of very slow and very fast tempos.

Note that the traditional range of musical tempos covers values from 40 beats / min (“grave”, “very slowly”) to 208 beats / min (“prestissimo”, “very fast”), however, in synthesizers it can be more extensive — for example, 30 – 255 bpm.

The presence of a mixer in the design of the synthesizer.

A mixer in this case is a device designed to control individual audio channels that make up the sound of a synthesizer as a whole. The list of these channels includes, in particular, the main voice, the layered voice (see “Dubbing voices”), several auto accompaniment channels (main, bass, drums, etc.). With a mixer, the musician can manually control these channels — turn some of them on and off, switch the timbre, tempo, key, etc. This greatly expands the possibilities for using the synthesizer.

The presence of built-in compositions in the design of the synthesizer.

This function is similar to the auto accompaniment described above — in the sense that it involves playing songs on the synthesizer itself. However, unlike Auto Accompaniment, Preset Songs play strictly by note and cannot be controlled using chords on the left half of the keyboard. In other words, with auto accompaniment, the musician has a lot of freedom, and you have to play along with melodies in strict accordance with it.

Built-in compositions can be used for a variety of purposes. One of the options is training: the musician listens to a reference recording and then tries to reproduce it, either plays along with the melodies according to the given notes, or improvises to it. In addition, in some cases (for example, at mass events), the ability to turn on the synthesizer as a player can be very useful. Also, built-in songs are used to test and demonstrate the general capabilities of the instrument: it is assumed that the recorded song can be repeated using the synthesizer itself.

Synthesizer support for octave shift function.

This function allows you to shift the sound of the instrument one or more octaves up or down — for example, so that the keys of the first octave sound the notes of the second, or vice versa. This function can be used for both simple convenience and more practical purposes — it allows you to play very low and very high notes that are not initially covered by the keyboard range. This is especially useful for shortened 49- or 61-key synths that do not initially fit the full range of the piano.

The presence of a chorus effect in the synthesizer.

The word "chorus" comes from chorus, "chorus", and the purpose of this function is quite consistent with the origin of its name — it creates the effect of the choral sound of several instruments. To do this, the original sound signal is copied (one or more times) and the copies are added to the overall sound with a small, up to 30 ms, time shift, and this shift is constantly changing. In this way, a small but noticeable difference in individual "voices", characteristic of a real choir, is imitated. However it is worth noting that a full-fledged resemblance to a choral performance with the help of a chorus cannot be achieved even on the most advanced synthesizer; however, this effect in itself sounds very interesting, thanks to which it does not lose its popularity.