question: What exactly is a mechanical keyboard, is it something different from the kind of keyboard on a laptop or the kind of peripheral laptop you get at Staples? Is there something better about it?
comment: Mechanical keyboards are distinguished in contrast to "membrane" keyboards which use a flexible membrane to separate two layers of conductive material from touching with small "bubbles". When pressure is applied to the raised areas of the membrane it completes the circuit and signals a key press. This is really cheap to produce and so it is most commonly used, but it feels spongy and wears out relatively quickly. In contrast a mechanical action for each key provides a better ~~tactical~~ tactile experience at the cost of.. well, cost.
passages: A mechanical desk is usually an antique desk type which was produced during the 18th or the 19th century. At one extreme there are desks furnished with a multitude of panels that swing out while stacks of small drawers pop up when a user lowers or extracts the main writing surface or desktop from a closed position, thanks to some well placed levers and gears. At the other extreme are mechanically simple desks like the Wooton desk whose two panels open up separately by hand and whose desktop is also opened in a separate manual operation, without exploiting any gears or levers. The term is used quite loosely.
   BULLET::::- Wheels and knobs: Used to add effects to a sound that are not present by default, such as vibrato, panning, tremolo, pitch bending, and so on. A common wheel on contemporary keyboards is the pitch bend, adjusting the pitch of a note usually in the range of ±1 tone. The pitch bend wheel is usually on the left of the keyboard and is a spring-loaded potentiometer.
   Most electronic keyboards also have a socket at the back, into which a foot switch can be plugged. The most common function is to simulate the sustain on a piano by turning on and off the MIDI control which adds sustain to a note. However, since they are also simple MIDI devices, foot switches can usually be configured to turn on and off any MIDI controlled function, such as switching one of the DSP effects, or the auto-harmony.
  
  Section::::Keyboard ensemble.
   BULLET::::- Stage piano - A type of high-quality digital piano with weighted keys, designed for professional touring use on stage or in a recording studio. The Hammond organ and electric piano sounds on a stage piano are typically more realistic than those found on a digital piano.
  
  BULLET::::- Synthesizer - Electronic keyboards that use various sound synthesis technologies to produce a wide variety of electronic sounds.
   BULLET::::- Musical keyboard: The white and black piano-style keys which the player presses, thus connecting the switches, which trigger the electronic circuits to generate sound. Most keyboards use a keyboard matrix circuit to reduce the amount of wiring necessary. Electronic keyboards often use unweighted synthesizer-style keys to save costs and reduce the weight of the instrument. In contrast, stage piano and digital pianos typically have weighted or semi-weighted keys, which replicate the feel of an acoustic piano.
   Two decades later, the term instead describes low-profile, low-travel scissor keyboards with simplified, flat keycaps separated by a bezel. Sony was the first modern laptop manufacturer to make use of this keyboard style with the release of the VAIO X505 in 2004.
  
  Section::::Design.
  
  The underlying technology used by such keyboards varies considerably. In some cases the keys themselves are integral to the backing membrane and deform when pressed to complete an electrical contact, while in other cases the keys have individual low-travel scissor switches.
   MIDI keyboards often have the ability to accept foot controllers, of which there are four main types: piano pedals, expression pedals, stomp boxes, and organ-styie foot pedal keyboards.
  
  BULLET::::- Piano pedals: can be a single sustain pedal (two types) or up to a full grand piano-style triple pedal, with sostenuto and una corda pedals, like an acoustic piano
   The term "electronic keyboard" may also be used to refer to a synthesizer or digital piano on colloquial usage.
  
  Section::::Components.
  
  The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:
   Section::::Terminology.
  
  An electronic keyboard may also be called a digital keyboard, portable keyboard, or home keyboard referring to their digital-based sound generation, light-weight and portable build. In China, Japan, India, and Southeast Asia (particularly Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand), electronic keyboards were often mistakenly referred to as an organ, due to popularity of home electronic organs in those countries and keyboards/synthesizers being considered a similar instrument.
  
  In Russia, most kinds of keyboards (including digital pianos and stage pianos) were simply often referred to as a synthesizer (Russian: синтезатор, "sintezator"), usually with no other term to distinguish them from actual digital synthesizers.
   Keyboard instrument
  
  A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital pianos. Other keyboard instruments include celestas, which are struck idiophones operated by a keyboard, and carillons, which are usually housed in bell towers or belfries of churches or municipal buildings.
   Electromechanical keyboards and electronic keyboards offer a range of other expression devices. Electromechanical keyboards such as the Hammond organ offer additional means of keyboard expression by modifying the starting, stopping, or speed of the rotating Leslie speaker or by engaging a variety of vibrato or chorus effects. Digital "clones" of Hammond organs offer recreations of these effects, along with other effects. The VK-9 digital organ, for example, offers a proximity-sensitive detector that triggers the Leslie speaker, a ring modulator, or other effects.
   Electronic keyboard
  
  Keyboard electronic musical instrument, an electronic or digital derivative of keyboard instruments.
  
  Broadly speaking, the term "electronic keyboard" or just a "keyboard" can refer to any type of digital or electronic keyboard instrument. These include synthesizers, digital pianos, stage pianos, electronic organs and digital audio workstations. However, an electronic keyboard is more specifically a synthesizer with a built-in low-wattage power amplifier and small loudspeakers.
   Maltron manufactures several models of keyboards, in varying levels of adaptation. Lillian Malt's original invention and the company's flagship design known as the Fully Ergonomic 3D Keyboard is the most highly adapted; it incorporates a curved surface for the keyboard, in which the keys' angles and depth are staggered to compensate for the different lengths and placement of the fingers. An integral trackball mouse is a customer-selectable option at additional cost. Other keyboard types available are single hand keyboards which are ergonomically designed to be used by only the left or right hand, a flat version of the fully ergonomic keyboard, a keyboard designed to be used by a single digit or head stick or mouth stick, and a robust expanded keyboard designed primarily to assist people with cerebral palsy. Maltron keyboards are electrically compatible with IBM PC keyboards and Apple Macintosh keyboards, using USB connectors. Earlier connectors included DIN and PS2 but these are now discontinued.
   BULLET::::- Minikeys: Most electronic keyboards have keys that are similar to the size of keys on an acoustic piano. Some electronic keyboards have minikeys, either because they are targeted at child users or to make the instrument smaller and more portable.
   Future is the owner of "Keyboard" which was launched in 1975. During the initial years the magazine was named "Contemporary Keyboard". Over the years, the print and online editions of the magazine have moved into discussions on anything related to gear. The editors and writers of the magazine have covered historical information and stories on the development of keyboards from their inception with pioneers such as Moog Music. At times, editorial and guest articles in the magazine have covered subjects including music philosophy, keyboarding instruction, music theory, and harmonics.
   Most home computers of the late 1970s and during the 1980s were keyboard computers, the Commodore VIC-20 and the Atari ST being prime examples. While this form factor went out of style around 1990 in favour for more standard PC setups, some notable x86 keyboard computers have been built, like the Olivetti Prodest PC1 in 1988 and the Schneider EuroPC Series between 1988 and 1995. Cybernet Manufacturing is still producing similar devices, using Intel Quad Core processors.
   During development, the Sculpt keyboard was codenamed "Manta Ray" for its resemblance to the animal.
  
  Section::::Models.:Surface Ergonomic Keyboard.
  
  The Microsoft "Surface Ergonomic" keyboard was announced in October 2016 at a retail price of , alongside other accessories for the Surface Studio.
   Section::::Design.:Use on instruments other than organs.:Pedal piano.
  
  The pedal piano (or pedalier piano) is a kind of piano that includes a pedalboard
  
  There are two types of pedal piano:
  
  BULLET::::- A pedal board integrated with a manual piano instrument, using the same strings and mechanism as the manual keyboard
  
  BULLET::::- An independent, pedal played piano with its own mechanics and strings, placed below a regular piano
   Handheld ergonomic keyboards are designed to be held like a game controller, and can be used as such, instead of laid out flat on top of a table surface. 
   Full-travel membrane-based keyboards are the most common computer keyboards today. They have one-piece plastic keytop/switch plungers which press down on a membrane to actuate a contact in an electrical switch matrix.
  
  Section::::Types.:Dome-switch keyboard.
   MIDI controllers in this category have keys meant to resemble those of a grand piano, pipe organ, or synthesizer. Each of these action types is designed differently from the next, which, in turn, gives the action a particular "feel" to the player and lends it to an ideal usage.
  
  BULLET::::- Synth action: un-weighted, often spring-loaded— ideal for playing quickly and may be favored by those with no piano or keyboard experience due to less required effort to depress the keys
   BULLET::::- Music stand: A metal or plastic rack for holding sheet music or music books upright. The music stand is usually removable to facilitate storage and transportation.
   BULLET::::- Keytar - A small synthesizer that resembles a guitar which can be played in similar position as an electric guitar: worn on a strap over the shoulders, enabling the performer to move around on a stage. The name is a portmanteau of "keyboard" and "guitar".
   Keyboard instruments were further developed in the early twentieth century. Early electromechanical instruments, such as the Ondes Martenot, appeared early in the century. This was a very important contribution to the keyboard's history.
  
  Section::::Modern keyboards.
   BULLET::::- Amplifier and speakers: an internal audio power amplifier, typically a few watts, connected to the sound generator chip. The amplifier is then connected to small, low-powered speakers that reproduce the synthesized sounds so that the listener can hear them. Less expensive instruments may have a single mono speaker. More expensive models may have two speakers producing stereo sound.
  
  BULLET::::- Power supply: Keyboards may or may not have an internal power supply system built to the main circuit board, but most modern keyboards are often equipped with an included AC adapter.
  