Chopin - Nocturne Op. 62 No. 1 in B major 

The hybrid piano I have uses a modified version of Kawai's midrange grand piano series from what I understand so in terms of action alone it would be like comparing a midrange grand piano to concert grand piano. The action is even lighter than the Steinway's but it's less smooth and there's a bigger disconnect between what the keys are doing with the sound that's actually produced. Mostly near the upper end of loudness because the actual volume maxes out far sooner than you'd expect. So it's actually a bit painful to play loud pieces for too long on the digital because psychologically I'm trying to force out more volume than is actually possible. In terms of actual sound produced though there is a much larger difference in a few ways. The most noticeable is that digital piano samples are recorded separately one note at a time. There is no blending of overtones that occurs in real time as with an acoustic piano. This is why my digital piano recordings sound so "clear". In a real piano you must not only contend with controlling individual notes but how they sound blended together. Pedalling becomes much more difficult because you can muddy the notes together far easier by accident. Overall, I'd say it's simultaneously easier and harder to play on a digital than on a Steinway. With digital pianos you are limited to 128 levels of MIDI volume, and most of the time the individual notes are only recorded with a couple of velocity layers, and rest are interpolated to fill all 128 events. So the upshot is that you are working with a much more constrained tonal palette. But on the flip side, because of this, I find I can control each individual note in a performance exactly to how I want it to sound within the limitations of what is possible. In the Steinway, I just have to accept that in a performance there will always be some unexpected note expressions that occur since the tonal palette becomes practically infinite and the slightest deviation in playing can result in a change of tonal quality, not just for individual notes but also how tones blend together as mentioned above. On a side note, in the grand piano it becomes possible to ghost notes, where you can depress the key slowly with the intention of playing softly, except that no sound comes out because the mechanical hammer hasn't accelerated to the string fast enough. So on a grand piano in order to produce very soft sounds you must depress the note with low velocity but high initial acceleration. Easier said than done. On my digital hybrid piano this is never an issue. If I depress the note at any speed it will sound no matter what.

@@rach3master Very interesting, thank you so much for the very elaborate and thoughtful reply! You do bring up some points which could explain the "limitations" that I am starting to feel, such as the limited loudness and the interpolated note samples. With regards of the note blending and ghost notes you mentioned, I have the impression that my piano's sound engine actually performs some physical modelling of the sound, but indeed it feels more forgiving than the upright I play in my lessons when it comes to sloppy pedaling and mushy sound (and ghost notes on my piano are a bit tricky to avoid as well when playing quietly). At the end of the day, the digital is still an imitation (even if rather convincing in my case when I compare to your experience) and you've probably pointed out the exact limiting factors I am starting to notice! Thank you so much once again!

@@VinLudensYou are probably correct regarding modeling for the actual digital piano. I was thinking more specifically about the VST I use, which uses sampling rather modeling.

@@rach3master Did you consider pianoteq for the same reason?

*9 foot

Thanks! It was not tuned because it’s probably better to let the instrument settle a bit in the new environment before tuning.

@@rach3master Your recording is so nice! As you mentioned in another thread I can hear the detail, the ambiance and the bass at the same time! Would it be possible to share how you mix those signals from different mics? How much volume for each mic? Are those the same?

@@avantpianist6636 Close mics are a bit more, followed by ambient mics, and then bass mic. But the placement of the mics themselves matter more than the specific proportions.

Thanks! I’m wondering if you would like to take a photo of your mic placement and post that to RU-vid Community? That would help us know exactly how you place the mics, especially the close mics are quite tricky for classical piano.

@@avantpianist6636 I probably won't, as I don't want to give the impression that you need this much gear to get a good recording. My close mics are close to the bend of the piano and pointing diagonally downwards towards the dampers for each register roughly, although I'm still experimenting with positioning.

Thanks man! That just means all my efforts to make my digital piano sound good paid off!

I had dreams of being a concert pianist in my youth, but quickly realized I wasn’t nearly good enough to compete with and stand apart from unbelievable supervirtuoso rising talent across the country. So I abandoned music completely as a possible profession and now it’s just a fun hobby for me.