A.R. Rahman mentions about his discovery with his first MIDI computer Yamaha CX5M in 3:05 section of this video . This is the first MIDI based keyboard used by A.R. Rahman. It came in 1984. His friend gifted him in the same year. After experimenting with synthesizers and working as a Keyboard player for music directors for many years, he discovered Yamaha CX5M MIDI computer. He experiments many sounds with this MIDI computer.

In the source article, Geir Jenssen (Biosphere) is quoted as saying: "As an archaeology student, I managed to save some money because I took part in several archaeological excavations in northern Norway during summertime. In 1983-84 I had a quite impressive collection of gear: Roland TR-808 drum machine, TR-606 Drumatix, TB-303 Bassline, MC-202 sequencer, SH-101 synthesizer, Korg Poly-61 synthesizer, and a Teac 4-track tape recorder. Many of these items are worth a fortune today, but I sold all of them only two years later to buy the Yamaha CX-5M Music Computer with a built-in FM-synth! I still have it 35 years later, and it still works!"

"I was really enraptured when I bought one of the first Yamaha CX5M computers. The idea of being able to program eight different tracks of music into it, and being taught to read music as I was writing into it, was very emotional -- especially for everybody else who lived around me at the time. I didn't have a monitor, so I had to use the only available television."

"On the way to that pursuit, I was working in a music shop. Two guys came in one day - [Rare founders] Tim and Chris Stamper - and I was demonstrating a Yamaha CX5 music computer to them. This was the early days of MIDI, and the CX5 let you connect keyboards to computers. I'd written some of the stuff I was demonstrating, told them when they asked, Tim asked if I had an office. I thought 'yes, I've sold another one', so I took them upstairs, started getting the finance papers out - and they offered me a job."

"...The item can be seen 25:10 into this video..."

I was using the first Yamaha CX5 computer with MIDI ports when it came out. I was very into the old Atari computers running Cubase and samplers like the Synclavier and the Fairlight, and then the AMS and the Publison, and all those other subsequent digital recorders.

Shown Mikko synths he used and listed in 2006 from his website.

Current gear:

Apple PowerMac G5 DP running Logic Pro 7 Alesis QS8 master keyboard Roland JP-8000 synthesizer Clavia Nord Rack 2 synthesizer Gibson Les Paul Studio and POD 2.0 Genelec monitoring Collection of acoustic instruments

Some 80's stuff:

Akai MPC-60 sampler/sequencer (fully expanded) Roland D-10 synthesizer Yamaha CX5M music computer with YK-20 keyboard