After going through the previous posts and considering your options, you have decided to purchase a digital keyboard. However, decision-making for you is not over yet. Now that you are done choosing between acoustic and digital, you now need to decide what type of digital keyboard you want. There are usually 5 categories or 5 kinds of digital keyboards available. For regular piano enthusiast and not a professional, many of these are not an option. Also the line between the different kinds digital keyboards is getting blurred with advancement in technology as even digital pianos and organs can give you a large array of sound effects and features just like a digital arranger or a workstation.
These are the 5 basic categories of the displayed keyboard.
Digital pianos and organs. Arrangers. Stage pianos. Workstations. Synthesizers.
You may have automatically decided to go with a digital keyboard option as opposed to the acoustic piano with the aim of saving money in mind. You are perfectly right in making this assumption. However, when you get around to seeing different models of the digital keyboard available to you, you will realize that some of these instruments can get quite expensive as well. Some may even cost as much as an acoustic piano. In fact the highest models of digital keyboards are called stage pianos or digital upgrades. These pianos look much like an acoustic piano and are sometimes almost just as large. Well, not quite but they are intended to take up a more or less permanent space in your home just like their acoustic counterpart.
You might or might not want to concern yourself with the various permutation of digital keyboards such as processor, memory, storage space etc. which is very similar to purchasing a computer. As far as I’m concerned, the number 1 factor that should be looked at when purchasing a digital keyboard is the quality of the sampled sounds. I wish to learn and play the piano on the keyboard and am not much concerned whether it can also produce a realistic trombone sound. While many people look for extra features and entertaining assortment of extras in the digital keyboard, this is not my criteria. I want the best experience that is as close to performing on an acoustic piano. Here are a few things you should know regardless of which of the 5 categories of digital keyboard you purchase.
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All digital keyboards today use sample sounds. The quality of the sound may differ in quality from one brand to another as well as the price you are ready to pay for your purchase.
There is a variety of keyboard actions such as touch sensitivity and weighted action keys that mimic the touch and feel of an acoustic piano.
3 common keyboard sizes are standard 61 key, 76 key and 88 keys.
Digital keyboards can come in very portable sizes and can also be much like their acoustic counterpart. Some digital keyboards are like a smaller upright piano and meant to occupy a prominent place in your home. These digital instruments cannot be carried from one place to the other and you definitely cannot make a road trip with them in the back seat of your car.
Nearly all these 2 models come with a music rack, a plug in sustain pedal and MIDI capability. You also have options for connectivity to the Internet through wireless or LAN port. There may also be a USB port on your digital keyboard.
The way to differentiate between different categories of keyboard will be things like sequencing capabilities, built-in speakers, sound effects, metronome, auto compliment features, recording features, extra pedals and other plug-in devices.