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| | What is an Electronic Keyboard ?
| An article from Electronic Keyboards and Digital Pianos
| | An electronic keyboard is a musical instrument that works by replaying sound samples when you hit the keys. This makes it extremely
versatile as it is able to emulate any instrument, not just a piano, by selecting the samples from different ranges according to the type of
instrument selected.
The electronic keyboard is made up of the following components:
The musical keyboard which consists of the black and white piano keys, plus a keyboard matrix circuit than picks up the key
depression and initiates the process of selecting and amplifying the sound.
Software to control the menus and switches to allow the user to select instruments, play sample tunes, record and playback, connect to a computer and
other functions. The software also contains a tone generator which takes the MIDI commands from the keyboard or recorded song
and generates the sounds and a rhythm and chord generator which generates rhythms and chords from MIDI commands.
Amplifier and Speakers to amplify the sounds generated by the software.
An electronic keyboard uses an industry standard protocol called MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) which defines how music is encoded into
data. The protocol defines how to convert the different components of music into data, for example pitch, volume, and tempo, and allows different
electronic instruments or software to communicate.
MIDI is also used by an electronic keyboard to send a signal from the key
to the controlling software when a key is pressed. In many keyboards this signal includes not just the note being played but the pressure on the key,
thus allowing the amplitude of the note to be varied with pressure. Look for touch sensitive or touch response
keyboards for this feature.
Computer connectivity. Most musical keyboards come with a USB interface and the relevant software so you can connect your keyboard to
your computer for transferring data. Some also have a MIDI interface to transfer MIDI encoded songs. | |
| | More articles from Electronic Keyboards and Digital Pianos: | | |
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