9. Additional Facilities
So far we have covered the standard features expected from a portable keyboard, but there are a variety of other facilities in existence that vary from model to model, and which further expand the portable keyboard feature set. Modern portable keyboards often have quite large LCD displays of the type commonly found on laptop computers. Amongst other things, this allows the lyric information that is stored in a MIDI File to be clearly displayed as the song is being played, and even standard music notation. Sometimes an additional external monitor can be connected to allow others to view whats on the screen.
Korg PA-4X76
Taking their lead from software samplers, a number of the more fully-featured portable keyboards offer sounds made up from layers of samples that are dynamically switched between to provide more realistic articulation of instrumental sounds. They may also have the ability to sample audio into the keyboard to enable you to create your own sound libraries. Amongst other notable features, Yamaha have provided an Internet Direct Connection on some of their models, bypassing the computer and simplifying the process of accessing MIDI Files and updates from websites.
