Keyboard Connection - Uses of all the input and output connectors!

Keyboard Connection - Keyboards and Digital Pianos have a number of inputs and outputs which you can use for various reasons. They also have options to write to external storage devices like Floppy disks, CDs, and smart cards.

You can send the output of your keyboard to Headphones, Speakers, Amplifiers, and Mixers. You can connect Microphones and other electronic instruments to the Keyboard's inputs. You can also find connectors for external Pedals and MIDI. Let us have a quick walkthrough of these keyboard connections.

Phones - You will use this output often as you will connect your headphones here. On most of the keyboards this output is named as Phones/Output as you can connect this output to an external stereo system as well but if your keyboard has a dedicated audio output besides the phones output, you should use that to connect to external amplifiers.

Output - You can use the audio Output connector to connect your keyboard to an external amplifier. This output is also known as Line out/Audio Out or just Output on some instruments. This Output usually has two connectors, one for the left and one for the right channel.

Audio In - You can connect a CD player or an external sound module to your keyboard/Digital Piano using this input. This input is also known as "Line in" on some instruments.

Assignable Jack - You can use this jack to connect a Pedal. A pedal can be used for a lot of reasons depending on your keyboards capability but the most commonly used pedal is the sustain pedal. On some keyboards this will be labelled as Damper/sustain. click here for more details.

Microphone - Lot of keyboards now feature a dedicated microphone input in addition to the standard keyboard connections. The microphone input lets you add voice or any acoustic instrument to your music thus making your keyboard a mini recording studio. In some models, besides the normal effects like reverb, you can add special effects like the vocoder to your vocals.

MIDI - You can connect your instrument to other digital devices and to the Computer using MIDI. MIDI has already been covered in another section, click here for more details.

Host/Computer - Some keyboards can be directly connected to the Computer using the connector called "to host" or "Computer". You will need to install a software called the "driver" which comes along with the keyboard.

External Display Monitor - You can connect you keyboard to large external display monitors or TV. Useful for other people to see the lyrics/notations of the music being played.

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