Electronic keyboards often use unweighted synthesizer-style keys to save costs and reduce the weight of the instrument. Most keyboards use a keyboard matrix circuit to reduce the amount of wiring necessary.

Musical keyboard: The white and black piano-style keys which the player presses, thus connecting the switches, which trigger the electronic circuits to generate sound.

The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:

The term electronic keyboard may also be used to refer to a synthesizer or digital piano in colloquial usage. In Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, most types of electronic keyboards (including digital pianos and stage pianos) were simply often referred to as a ' synthesizer' ( Russian: синтезатор, sintezator), usually with no other term to distinguish them from actual digital synthesizers. The obscure term 'portable organ' was widely used to refer to electronic keyboards in the 1990s, due to the similar features between electronic keyboards and electronic home organs, the latter of which were popular in the late 20th century. Ĭasio CTK-530, an early-1990s electronic keyboard with PCM sound technology.Īn electronic keyboard may also be called a digital keyboard, or home keyboard, the latter often refers to less advanced or inexpensive models intended for beginners.

Alesis, Casio and Yamaha are among the leading manufacturers of home keyboards. Home keyboards have a much lower cost than professional synthesizers. The user typically selects from a range of preset 'voices' or sounds, which include imitations of many instruments and some electronic synthesizer sounds. Home keyboards typically have little, if any, digital sound editing capacity. The least expensive models do not have velocity-sensitive keys, but mid- to high-priced models do. Electronic keyboards are usually designed for home users, beginners and other non-professional users. However, an electronic keyboard is more specifically a synthesizer with a built-in low-wattage power amplifier and small loudspeakers.Įlectronic keyboards are capable of recreating a wide range of instrument sounds ( piano, Hammond organ, pipe organ, violin, etc.) and synthesizer tones with less complex sound synthesis. These include synthesizers, digital pianos, stage pianos, electronic organs and digital audio workstations. īroadly speaking, the term electronic keyboard or just a keyboard can refer to any type of digital or electronic keyboard instrument. A MIDI song played on a Casio electronic keyboardĪn electronic keyboard, portable keyboard, or digital keyboard is an electronic musical instrument, an electronic or digital derivative of keyboard instruments.

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