Piano Keyboard (Ins/Outs) Connectors. Find out the uses of all the input and output jacks, connectors that are available in electric keyboards and pianos nowadays. Learn about the various connections available on your digital keyboard, including those for power adapter, headphones, foot pedal and Midi.
Introduction
Electronic music keyboards and digital pianos have a number of inputs and outputs (accessory jacks) which you can use for various reasons.
Beginner keyboards will commonly have the sustain, MIDI, headphones and OUT function (usually shares one slot). If its an old keyboard, you can bet the MIDI connection is going to be through the MIDI In/Out jacks and probably not through USB. On most recent keyboards, you’ll have a USB slot to connect to a computer and also to portable USB storage devices. Some keyboards also have mic input, and/or the ability to connect an external device such as smartphone/mp3 player
They also have options for expansion and to write to external storage devices like Floppy disks, CDs, and smart cards.
Digital Piano & Keyboards: Ins / Output / Jacks / Connectors
Let us have a quick walk-through of these keyboard connections.
Power/DC-In Jack
The most important one is the connection to the power adapter. Without it, your keyboard won’t start (there are some models that work on batteries). This is where you will connect the power adapter – an important keyboard accessory needed to power up Yamaha keyboards. Read more here on power adapters and batteries for Yamaha keyboards.
Video showing the various jacks/connections available on
Yamaha Digital Keyboards
Headphones
This allows you to do two things. You can plug in your headphones or you can take the output to an external system like your stereo/external amplifiers. The most common use of this Jack for most students is to connect headphones so that you can practice without disturbing others.
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.
Line Out (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.
You can send the output of your keyboard to Headphones, Speakers, Amplifiers, stereo system and Mixers. “Phones / Output’ connector is commonly available that is used to make this connection.
Audio In
You can connect mp3 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.
Sustain Pedal Jack
: This jack allows you to connect an optional sustain pedal (like the Yamaha FC4 or the FC5 pedals).
The purpose of connecting an external sustain pedal is so that you can emulate the right pedal/damper pedal of a real acoustic piano.
This is a great accessory to have if you are keen to take piano lessons and hope to graduate to a real piano sometime in the future.
On some keyboards, this is also known as the ‘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 or sustain.
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.
Host/Computer
Some keyboards can be directly connected to the Computer using the connector called “to host” or “Computer” slot. this is usually a USB slot which allows you to easily make the connection to a computer (older keyboards may require installation of software called “drivers”).
MIDI
Use this to connect your Yamaha digital keyboard to a computer. The possibilities are endless once you are connected to computer as you can use a variety of music learning as well as music composition software.
You can connect your instrument to other digital devices and to the Computer.
Most recent keyboards allow midi connection via USB but in older models, you had MIDI In/Out jacks for making this connection.
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.
Summary
It’s important to know the capabilities of your keyboard and how it can work with external keyboard accessories if you have to make the most out of your instrument. This page is sort of a quick guide to help you understand the various jacks/slots and their uses. Power Adapter is something that you will use as soon as you get your piano keyboard and maybe the headphones as well in some time. The Foot pedal and MIDI is something that you may not need immediately unless you intend to learn using a piano learning software, in which case you will have to use the MIDI slot. Foot pedal is especially useful for students who are keen to learn piano songs on. I hope it was easy to understand the installation and the connections on Digital Keyboards.
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KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
I want to buy an affordable electronic keyboard and like the LCD display feature and lighted keys. However, the display seems a little small for me to read. What is the most affordable model with the largest display? Or, what low end models allow me to plug in an external monitor to make it more readable?
hi , does the jack socket for headphones on an old yamaha also double as a microphone outlet ?