Are rhythm/drum sections on student keyboards capable of more?

[Mark Hammer]

While the rhythms that many all-in-one student keyboards (e.g., the various Casio and Yamaha units you find for under $300) produce can often be quite acceptable, the tone is generally pretty tinny. I gather, this is in anticipation of the often small on-board speakers. Deep bass drum thuds would likely fart out on a 4" full range speaker.

Is that because that simly IS the tone of those sections, or do these things deliberately stick in too-small caps in that signal path to shave off all the bass?

Just idle curiosity.

[Enzo]

I know I used to use one of those little Yamahas as an occasional test signal SOme PSR something, it had mid size keys, a bunch of voices and some rhythms. The demo tube was DOn;t go changin' and it cycled through the voices.

The tiny internal speaker had its limits, but the line out sounded OK as I recall.

[doctor]

I know I used to use one of those little Yamahas as an occasional test signal SOme PSR something, it had mid size keys, a bunch of voices and some rhythms. The demo tube was DOn;t go changin' and it cycled through the voices.

The tiny internal speaker had its limits, but the line out sounded OK as I recall.

There are two main reasons for absence of the low frequencies:

1. As a rule speakers used in the cheap keyboards are non-compression type (without elastic rubber ring attaching the cone to the gasket).
These speakers compared with compression type ones have higher efficiency (higher sound pressure at the same power) and higher resonant frequency in free space - in this case about 200Hz.

2. Elasticity of the air within the keyboard enclosure strongly influences the speaker resonant frequency, namely increases it. Air volume within the keyboard enclosure is very small (enclosure volume minus volume of internal parts) and as a result resonant frequency of the speaker mounted into keyboard increases from 200Hz in free space up to 400Hz.

All frequencies below speaker resonant frequency are reproduced very inefficiently, in other words, almost absent in the emitted spectrum.