The release of the first musical keyboard of Singapore with ethnic local sounds has been announced. The players at Korg, one of Japan's makers of musical instruments has coupled with a local Japanese distributor to create the instrument. City Music Co. Pte Ltd is this Japanese distributor partnered with Korg. Thanks to the popularity of electronic keyboard and their vast array of instrument sounds from the western world has put the traditional keyboard design all but obsolete. There are not that many people that are familiar with the traditional music instrument and this helps to reduce the popularity of the traditional keyboard.
The idea of Singapore's local traditional ethnic sounds being forgotten was just something that could not be allowed. This was the same thought that Korg shared and as they say great minds think alike, hence the collaboration and the creation of the new fashioned keyboard. Singapore shares three different ethnicity, Chinese, Malay, and Indian. It took the duo of companies approximately a year plus, working with musicians, studios and engineers, to develop the sound of the traditional instrument along with the many different music styles.
The keyboard as referred to as the Pa600SG and this start of the art keyboard boast an expansive database of quality musical sounds and realistic support that make it best to use at home or during a performance. With over three hundred and sixty music styles preloaded within and more than nine hundred sounds that can be fully edited, the Pa600SG is based mainly off the Pa600 that is also created by Korg.
The instrument is also preloaded with over forty different styles of music and thirty one traditional musical instruments. The styles preloaded on the keyboard are all native styles that are generated from the three ethnic groups that make the country. This includes the Cak Lengpong, Gu Zheng, Mridangam, Pi Pa, Dholak and Angklung. The Pa600SG is the owner of a seven inches color display, touch screen and for sound amplification it is equipped with two fifteen watt speakers. The keyboard is equipped with a variety of features and some include four stereo effects master along with the ability to playback files in MP3, KAR and MIDI formats.
For the first time in history, the Republic Polytechnic School for the Arts has collaborated with City Music Co for the City Music's SG50 initiative. Piano, Strings, Brass, Percussion instruments and woodwind are some conventional tones that have long been established in keyboards with very powerful functionality. The music you enjoy today was shaped by these same conventional sounds. There is a lost in interest of some of Singapore's local heritage as it concerns music and with the introduction of the Pa600SG's vast array of local and traditional musical sounds and styles it is the hope of the collaboration that it will help perverse the half a century musical style and sounds of Singapore's history. The keyboard was designed to help with the promotion of Singapore's local music styles. It was also design as Singapore's own musical keyboard. The two companies have shared that they designed the instrument to provide the best traditional musical sounds and music styles that can be used to capture the authenticity of Singapore's traditional music diverged from the country's three ethnic groups. This is the first time that the Chinese, the Malay and the Indian ethnicity has been combined in such a way to provide a bit tradition. This is an idea to ensure that the tradition in terms of the Singapore music stays current or at least relevant, even if it only stays relevant in the minds of the Singaporeans.