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Most of these terms are universal but a couple of them are terms that relate to a particular manufacturer!

Check out this thread for your glossary!

A feature that produces a rhythmic, albeit rather simple, pattern which can also produce a chordal/arpeggiated accompaniment.

Short for Advanced Wave Memory. It’s the method used by Yamaha for capturing the sound sample from an original acoustic instrument.

Allows two instruments (or more) voice to be played at the same time when keys are pressed. Sometimes, zone panels on stage pianos can allow you to manually edit voices without the need for going into the keyboard settings.

A portable and/or removable memory device (e.g. pen drive) for storing compositions or performances for easy transferral to a computer or other device.

A digital piano which uses hammers attached to the keys to replicate the feel of an acoustic piano. Note, this is not the same as the Graded Hammer Action or Graded Hammer Action 3 (GH3). Check with the dealer for a precise expression of what he/she means by “weighted action” (see later).

This means Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It’s the universal language (or interface) by which instruments and music hardware and their software can interact and communicate, irrespective of instrument ‘brand’. Instruments or computers that receive this form of communication can then translate this back into music, depending on the set parameters.

A device converts light intensity and speed into a varying electrical signal that gives you your louds, softs, mp, fff, etc. depending on the force being applied to the keys.

This feature replicates the “echo” that reduces the sound decay of the voice being used. Good concert halls take great pains to regulate and perfect the natural reverb so that the sound does not become too dead-sounding, but equally not too echoey or muddy to the ear.

The technology used to record an acoustic instrument for storage onto the digital instrument.

This is an external device that has a huge library of voices saved on it. This can be connected via MIDI to your keyboard, which allows you to access the voices on the sound module. This significantly expands the options available to you on your digital piano/stage piano.

This allows you to split the keyboard at any given point on the digital piano that allows you to play a different instrument within a particular zone. Mostly, digital pianos will allow you to split the keyboard into two zones that will allow you to play one instrument with the left hand and a different one with the right hand. It is becoming more popular for stage pianos to split into three or four zones.

Closely related to the digital piano save for the fact that it does not necessarily have to specialise in simulating a piano. It will have a vast library of other sounds and can also have quite advanced recording and production software on board. In the case of the Motif XS, the synthesiser is designed with advanced computer interactive software and powerful sequencing software. This is also where “arranger keyboards” get their name.

A term that is closely related to “weighted keyboard” in that it is not hammer action. The keyboard with “touch sensitivity” is becoming a less-used term in the digital piano world. A keyboard with touch sensitivity does not have to have any weighted action attached to its keys, but is mostly geared towards responding to the force of the player and not the counter-action we have come to appreciate in the hammer action keyboards.

This is the chosen “sound” on a keyboard. Most digital pianos will come with at least 8 voices or choice of sound, e.g. Electric Piano 1, Strings, etc.