I just connected a USB midi out/in device and hooked it up properly to my dinky Yamaha keyboard here, loaded up FLstudio8 and set the midi input and enabled it, then tried to play.
My problem is that FLstudio only recognizes a note played every few seconds, rather than simultaneous or even successive notes. How do I fix this so I can properly use my keyboard?
If I understand you correctly, you have connected a MIDI keyboard via a MIDI cable to a USB MIDI interface, which you have connected to your computer via USB. Have you installed the drivers for your USB MIDI interface? most USB MIDI keyboards and interfaces work out of the box, without installing any drivers, but if drivers are supplied, it is always advisory to install those to reduce latency. What might very well also be the problem is your sound card. It might have too much latency. Do you use an onboard sound card or a sound card which is meant for playing games for example, then you will experience latency. in this case you will need to purchase a proper sound card, for example by Edirol, Tascam, EMU, M-Audio or ESI. If you have more questions, feel free to contact me.
Which is the best compact keyboard available with raised keys, function keys without spacing from numeral keys, including number pad, and without flashy lights, media controls or useless bulk. Essentially a simple keyboard, but with the function keys being directly above the numeral keys with the same amount of spacing as any other WASD keys.
I know it has something to do with making it easier for us….but why?
It's designed to avoid most clashings of keys (in other words, where one finger and/or hand has to do most fo the work). It's not perfect with this, sicne the standard was created in the early 1900s before computer analysis could have put the keyboard together in a more efficient manner,b ut it works well enough for people to stick with it. Changing the standard would create more problems than sticking with the current QWERTY layout.
History and purposes
Main article: Sholes and Glidden typewriter
If two neighboring typebars are hit at the same time, a jam may result; avoiding this was the basis of the QWERTY layout.
This layout was devised and created in the early 1870s by Christopher Latham Sholes, a newspaper editor and printer who lived in Milwaukee. with the assistance of his friends Carlos Glidden and Samuel W. Soule he built an early writing machine for which a patent application was filed in October 1867.[3]
The first model constructed by Sholes used a piano-like keyboard with two rows of characters arranged alphabetically as follows:[4]
3 5 7 9 N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
2 4 6 8 . A B C D E F G H I J K L M
His "Type Writer" had two features which made jams a serious issue. Firstly, characters were mounted on metal arms or typebars, which would clash and jam if neighboring arms were depressed at the same time or in rapid succession.[1] Secondly, its printing point was located beneath the paper carriage, invisible to the operator, a so-called "up-stroke" design. consequently, jams were especially serious, because the typist could only discover the mishap by raising the carriage to inspect what he had typed. The solution was to place commonly used letter-pairs (like "th" or "st") so that their typebars were not neighboring, avoiding jams. While it is often said that QWERTY was designed to "slow down" typists, this is incorrect – it was designed to prevent jams[1] while typing at speed, yet some of the layout decisions, such as placing only one vowel on the home row, did have the effect of hobbling more modern keyboards.[5]
Sholes struggled for the next six years to perfect his invention, making many trial-and-error rearrangements of the original machine's alphabetical key arrangement in an effort to reduce the frequency of typebar clashes, and using a study of letter-pair frequency by educator Amos Densmore, brother of the financial backer, James Densmore.[1][6] Typebars corresponding to letters in commonly occurring alphabetical pairs, such as S and T, were placed on opposite sides on the disk.[7]
Eventually he arrived at a four-row, upper case keyboard approaching the modern QWERTY standard. In 1873 Sholes' backer, James Densmore, succeeded in selling manufacturing rights for the Sholes-Glidden "Type Writer" to E. Remington and Sons, and within a few months the keyboard layout was finalized by Remington's mechanics. The keyboard ultimately presented to Remington was arranged as follows:[6]
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 – ,
Q W E . T Y I U O P
Z S D F G H J K L M
A X & C V B N ? ; R
After it purchased the device, Remington made several adjustments which created a keyboard with what is essentially the modern QWERTY layout. Their adjustments included placing the "R" key in the place previously allotted to the full stop, thus enabling salesmen to impress customers by pecking out the brand name "TYPE WRITER" from one keyboard row.[citation needed] Vestiges of the original alphabetical layout remained in the "home row" sequence DFGHJKL.[8]
The QWERTY layout became popular with the success of the Remington no. 2 of 1878, the first typewriter to include both upper and lower case letters, via a shift key.[1]
Keys are arranged on diagonal columns, to give space for the levers.
Much less commented-on than the order of the keys is that the keys are not on a grid, but rather that each column slants diagonally; this is due to the mechanical linkages – each key being attached to a lever, and hence the offset prevents the levers from running into each other – and has been retained in most electronic keyboards.[citation needed] Some keyboards, such as the Kinesis, retain the QWERTY layout but arrange the keys in vertical columns, to reduce unnecessary lateral finger motion.[9]
i think its funny that they spaced out common letters. i guess they didnt think about cell phones and our poor, little thumbs. haha.
hunt and peck, hunt and peck
The creaters figured that if it was alphabetical, people would type way too fast, so they gave it a random layout.
It's something to do with how often you use each letter in a word
So the keys in in a typewriter would not jam