The Keytar is a keyboard that can be used on a strap like an electric guitar and allows the keyboardist a greater range of movement than a conventional keyboard.

Its name is a play of words referring to “Key” from “Keyboard” and “Tar” from “Guitar”.

This instrument was highly popular in the 80’s thanks to the success of Synth Pop bands, where it was very common to see their keyboardists using them.

Many of the big brands made iconic keytars, such as the Moog Liberation, the Roland SH-101, the Yamaha SHS-10 and the Casio AZ-1, among many others.

Although in the following years this instrument was not so popular, in the last two decades it has regained some popularity in genres such as pop, urban music, progressive rock and metal and cumbia villera from Argentina.

It is common to see great artists like Herbie Hancock, Jordan Rudess from Dream Theater, Lady Gaga and Matt Bellamy from Muse, using this instrument in their shows causing a great impact on their fans.

The first difference between a Keytar and a conventional keyboard is the most obvious one, the Keytar can be hung with a strap, like an electric guitar, while the conventional keyboard must be fixed on a base.

Another notorious detail is that it is more common in Keytars, a more limited number of keys, while in a conventional keyboard it is common to have 5 to 7 octaves, in a Keytar it is more common to have 3 to 4 octaves, even some models with 2 octaves.

It is also very typical that the Keytars have less features than conventional keyboards, in order to have less weight and portability, it is also normal that the Keytars have few controls, much less than those used by conventional keyboards.

As for sounds, it is also common that Keytars do not have such wide sound libraries as conventional mid and high range keyboards, but those few sounds are ideal for the needs of the “Keytarist“.

Finally, it is not very typical that the Keytar is used as the main keyboard but more as a complement for some parts of the show.

Roland AX-Edge

At the beginning of the 2000’s, Roland launched the AX-7, a Keytar that marked a difference in the history of this instrument, because it included better features than the usual ones in the keytars seen before. Since then, the AX series of Roland Keytars has been a great reference for this instrument and that has led this brand to carry the Keytar flag among its fans.

The most recent release in the series is the AX-Edge, a quite attractive bet for Keytars lovers.

One of the most striking features of this powerful Keytar, is the ability to add screw mounts to customize this equipment.

It has a library of over 500 factory sounds with sounds of all kinds, but with an emphasis on solo sounds and 256 banks for user sounds.

Its body includes 4 octaves of touch-sensitive keys and comes in 2 colors, Black and White.

It includes 79 types of global effects, Equalizer, 79 types of effects per part, 8 types of Chorus, 6 types of Reverb, Compressor, Arpeggiator, Vocoder and a microphone input for it.

Its controls include a Ribbon control, Modulation Bar, an assignable knob, Main Volume knob, 7 assignable buttons, Pedal and Aftertouch on its keys.

It is also possible to install a mobile application in which you can modify your sounds via Bluetooth.

Alesis Vortex Wireless 2

The Alesis Vortex Wireless 2 is a MIDI controller, which means that it does not have its own sound engine, but relies on an external sound source, such as a computer with DAW software, a synthesizer or a rack mount sound bank.

This keytar has gained popularity among the younger generations for its affordable price and practicality for use with virtual synthesizers.

This equipment has 3 octaves of soft keys with touch sensitivity and aftertouch, it also has 8 faders, 8 backlit touch sensitive pads, with a Ribbon control with 3 assignable modes, a bend wheel, sustain button, up and down octave control and zone buttons.

This powerful controller sends all MIDI information wirelessly, via Bluethoot, to give the keyboardist more freedom and freedom from wires

Yamaha Reface

Although Yamaha‘s Reface line of synths were not originally designed as a keytar, there is an accessory called the KT-Reface Strap Kit, which allows these mini-synths to be used keytar-style with a guitar strap.

The Reface line refers to 4 synthesizers released by Yamaha dedicated to 4 different types of synthesis in a very small size with an incredible sound.

These synthesizers are characterized by the fact that they weigh approximately 2 kilos and measure a little more than 50 centimeters, have small speakers and 3 octaves of mini-classes.

In this video, you can see how a Reface unit looks like with the accessory to convert it into a Keytar:

The 4 synthesizers in this series are:

Yamaha Reface CS

An analog synthesizer with 8-voice polyphony, 5 waveforms, low-pass resonant filter, envelope generator, portamento and assignable LFO.

It also has looper and 4 effects available of which only one can be used simultaneously (Distortion, Chorus/Flanger, Phaser and Delay) with a depth and radio control.

Like many analog synthesizer models, this model does not have the ability to save presets.

Additionally a Pitch Bend lever.

Yamaha Reface DX

This is an FM synthesizer, the kind of synthesis that made Yamaha famous with its legendary DX7.

Thanks to its LED display, it is possible to view and edit the many parameters that define the complex FM synthesis.

It has 32 sound memories, 8 polyphony voices, looper and 2 simultaneous effects, from which you can select Distortion, Wah, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Delay or Reverb.

Yamaha Reface CP

An ultra-portable size electronic piano, with a sound engine specialized in keyboard/electronic piano sounds with 128 polyphony voices.

It has 6 types of bell: Wurlitzer, Rhodes 1, Rhodes 2, Clavinet, Toy Piano and the classic line of Yamaha, CP.

It also has Drive, Tremolo, Chorus, Delay and Reverb with the possibility of using all of them in parallel.

Like Reface CS, this computer also does not have the ability to save presets or sounds you make.

Yamaha Reface YC

A portable electronic organ with drawbars and 128 polyphonic voices.

It has 5 types of organs: American Tonewheel, English Transistor Organ, Italian Transistor Organ, Japanese Transistor Organ, and Yamaha YC-45D Organ.

It has rotor speed control, vibrato or chorus selector, percussion, distortion and reverberation selector.