Yamaha Corporation

Yamaha Corporation

Founded	October 12, 1887
Headquarters	10-1, Nakazawacho, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan
Other Names	ヤマハ株式会社 Yamaha Kabushiki-gaisha Yamaha

Yamaha Corporation (ヤマハ株式会社 - Yamaha Kabushiki Gaisha) is a Japanese multinational corporation and conglomerate that specializes primarily with audio synthesization and musical instruments. The corporation has brought some of the most successful and widely used chips to the market, particularly those used in arcade machines, but also those in newer systems such as late 1990s computers.

In the world of video game music, Yamaha is perhaps known for the creation of the YM2151; the first sound chip to use FM synthesis. It was first used in the 1984 arcade game Marble Madness (ARC) by Atari. Earl Vickers, one of Atari's premiere sound designers at the time, made a deal with Yamaha in that Atari would be the first company to use the technology.

In addition, Yamaha created a line of MSX music computers in Japan, as well as various pieces of software to go along with them including music programs and instrument creation programs. They also created the sound devices used in these music computers.