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Electronic Music Wiki
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A keyboard that uses a mircoprocessor to detect which keys are pressed at a given time, and outputs this information as a stream of digital data. The scanning keyboard was essential to the design of affordable [[polyphonic]] synthesizers, starting in the late 1970s. Prior to that time, most synths used keyboards which produced a [[control voltage]] using an array of diodes and precision resistors known as a [[resistor ladder]]. This worked well for [[monophonic]] synths, and clever designers managed to extend the design to produce control voltages corresponding to two pressed keys for [[duophonic]] synths, but it was unworkable for true polyphony. In 1973, designers at [[E-mu Systems]] developed a design that used a microprocessor to check each key, one at a time. This was done very fast so that the player had the impression that all keys responded simultaneously. [[Yamaha]] independently developed the concept at about the same time, in Japan, although their version saw little use (other than in the massive and expensive [[GX-1]]) until later in the decade. Later, the design had the additional advantage of making it easy to add [[velocity]] sensing. And, once the cost of microprocessors dropped, it was cheaper to manufacture than the resistor-ladder keyboards. E-mu licensed their design to several other manufacturers; it was notably used by [[Oberheim]] in its [[Four Voice]] series, and a few years later by [[Sequential Circuits]] in the [[Prophet-5]]. Royalties from the scanning keyboard patents were a lucrative source of income to E-mu for a number of years. Today, most synthesizers on the market use some form of scanning keyboard. [[Category:User interfaces]] [[Category:Keyboard features]]
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