Examples

Moog Liberation (1980)

Yamaha SHS-10

Main article: List of keytars

[edit] 1980s

The Moog Liberation was released in 1980 by Moog Music. It included two monophonic VCOs and a polyphonic section that could play organ sounds. The neck had spring-loaded wheels for filter cutoff, modulation, and volume as well as a ribbon-controlled pitch bend. The Liberation had a single VCF and two ADS envelope generators.
The Roland SH-101 is a small, 32 key, monophonic analog synthesizer from the early 1980s. It has one oscillator with two waveforms, an 'octave-divided' sub-oscillator, and a low-pass filter/VCF capable of self oscillation. When a shoulder strap is connected to it, and the small handgrip with a pitch bend wheel and a pitch modulation trigger is used, the SH-101 becomes a keytar.
The Yamaha SHS-10 from the late 1980s has a small keyboard with 32 minikeys and a pitch-bend wheel, an internal Frequency modulation (usually referred to as FM) synthesizer offering 25 different voices with 6-note polyphony. Onboard voices include a range of keyboard instruments (pipe organ, piano, electric piano, etc.); strings (violin, guitar, double bass, etc.); and wind and brass (clarinet, flute, trumpet, etc.).

[edit] 1990s–2000s

Herbie Hancock performing with a Roland AX-7 at the XM Sonic Stage at The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival

The Roland AX-7, which was manufactured from 2001 to 2007, contains many more advanced features than early keytars. It has 45 velocity sensitive keys (without aftertouch), and a 3-character LED display. Several features aimed towards stage performance are present, such as a pitch bend ribbon, touchpad-like expression bar, sustain switch, and volume control knob, all on the upper neck of the instrument. There is also a proprietary "D-Beam" interface, made up of infrared sensors that detect nearby motion. This interface can be used to trigger and control effects.
In August 2009, Roland released the Roland AX-Synth, a model of keytar that contains its own synthesizer sounds in addition to being a MIDI controller.

[edit] Related instruments

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While some inexpensive children’s toys are manufactured in the same shape as a keytar,^{[citation needed]} and marketed with the keytar name,^{[citation needed]} these toys have very limited capabilities. They can typically only perform one note at a time (monophonic) or in some cases, two-note polyphony.^{[citation needed]} Professional models allow the performer to play many notes at once (except for older instruments such as the aforementioned Roland SH-101). As well, the sound quality for the samples or synthesis is usually very rudimentary.^{[citation needed]}