Third Generation Music Workstations
Although many music workstations have a keyboard, this is not always the case. In the 1990s, Yamaha, and then Roland, released a series of portable music workstations (starting with the Yamaha QY10). These are sometimes called walkstations.
The concept of the workstation mutated around mid-1990s by the emergence of groove machine-concept birthed in mid-1980s - a keyless version of a workstation, still with a self-contained sound source and sequencer, mostly aimed at dance. Again, nowadays they also feature a sampler. The groove machines were realized in 1980s (ex. Linn 9000 (1984), SCI Studio 440 (1986), Simmons SDX (1987), well known E-mu SP-12/SP-1200 (1985/1987) and Akai MPC60 (1988)), and finally the concept have been widely accepted. Then in mid 1990s, Roland entered to the hype, with the MC-303, and also Korg and Yamaha followed suit. Korg created the much-used Electribe series.
Akai developed and refined the idea of the keyboard-less workstation, with the Music Production Center series of sampler workstations. The MPC breed of sampler freed the composer from the rigidity of step sequencing which was a limitation of earlier grooveboxes.
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