Living in a small apartment in NYC with a multi-floor walkup, there is no conceivable way I could even have an acoustic piano here. I've been happily using a Roland F701 the past few years, because for 88 keys it fits in my apartment perfectly, feels great (with adjustable hammer action response), sounds really good, and even looks like a nice piece of furniture when not being played. I also enjoy having a built-in metronome that is easy to change on the fly. And finally, I can practice at midnight if I want to without bothering any neighbors. It's a great pleasure when I have the opportunity to play a high-end acoustic grand piano, but for my day-to-day practice it's simply not possible, so my digital piano is literally the only way I can get practice in and for that reason, I love it!
I like the overall message of this video, but what bothers me most is still the implication that "Now, more than likely you're going to be playing on a grand piano or an acoustic instrument of some kind." As someone who makes a living playing piano, this simply isn't the case. Piano culture likes to act like everyone is training to be a concert pianist, but virtually nobody is making their living doing that. Most hobbyists aren't going to be actively performing on grands regularly, and most working musicians are going to find themselves playing on a HUGE variety of instruments. I oddly think one huge disservice most schools do to students is that they do always have access to fantastically maintained instruments of high quality... even worse if it's a single-brand (...Steinway). The reality is that, like you said at the top, you are at the mercy of the venue. That venue is almost NEVER a concert hall and even when it is you're rarely playing on a full size concert grand. It's very important to learn to play with your ears and not your hands... not just getting used tot he physics of how your hands feels playing a perfect instrument, but using your ears to adjust and bring out the best performance from whatever instrument you ACTUALLY end up playing on. Even across acoustic instruments the actions, tonal variety, and "EQ" is vastly different... and the acoustic space can vastly change the difference between two pianos of the same make. You have to learn to very quickly gauge an instrument (often without hearing it ahead of time) and then adjust your mental audiaton to the reality of the instrument in front of you. And that also applies to digital instruments that almost any working pianist who has been playing for any amount of time can tell you they have had to play on. Also, for working pianists, having an instrument you can take with you to some gigs not only opens doors, but it can also save you from being forced to play on absolutely broken pianos or much worse digitals. There are some gigs where if all you have is an acoustic piano, it might as well be a door stop if the gig venue doesn't have an instrument. Digital and acoustic instruments are different, but the subtle differences don't matter enough for the average person whether they are a hobbyist or honestly even aiming to work as a pianist. As much as we can get trained to hear and feel the differences on acoustic instruments, those not trained in our instrument can't hear those differences the way we can. If you're a pianist, ask yourself, can you hear the difference between an Eb and Bb trumpet? Tenor and alto sax in the same register? Oboe and English horn in the same register? Can you tell a steel string acoustic guitar from a nylon? If so, can you hear if the player is playing sul tasto? These subtle difference stick out a ton to people who are trained in these instruments, but probably not to you if you're ONLY a pianist... and likewise, the subtleties of an acoustic piano are lost to most of even these highly trained musicians... and they are certainly lost on your average audience. So worrying so much about that last 5% difference simply isn't nearly as big of a deal as pianists want to make it out to be. Meanwhile, a digital is portable (mostly people are NOT living in their forever home yet), the volume is adjustable, it's always in tune, it doesn't need maintenance, you don't have to be terrified to stick it by a window or near a vent. Probably the most important is the the ability to use headphones, which means you're simply more likely to practice because you won't be psychologically worried about neighbors, siblings, or parents hearing you practice the same repetitive section over and over. Not only are you going to be more likely to practice MORE, but hopefully you'll also practice stuff that actually matters... the shit you suck at. That's also a frequent problem even in college practice rooms. Nobody wants to be heard playing "simple" things badly and if you hear someone in the next room, suddenly you feel like you should "work" on the portions you're already the best at. A digital removes this psychological barrier that a lot of people have. Also, digitals just continue to improve. String resonance is a stock feature in almost all of even the lowest price HA digitals. Any reputable brand has string resonance, so that argument is a very outdated one. It's a red flag to me that a pianist/teacher is arguing against digital instruments from 10-20 years ago and haven't touch most modern digitals. I've also caught too many of my piano teacher friends using confirmation bias against students with digitals. If the student has poor dynamic control, it's because the practice on a digital.... but if a student who practices on a an acoustic has poor dynamic control, that's just because they are practicing dynamics.... or maybe that's the case for BOTH students, but man do teachers love to blame a digital any time the students struggle. Realistically a huge part of the problem of many students is just that adjustment between their home piano and their teachers' piano. That's true regardless of what the students' home piano is, but obviously it's a bigger gap if it's a digital. But those issues can be addressed specifically rather than the student denigrated for their lack of an acoustic. As to the skill of adjusting to different pianos, that's something I'll often do on my Nord. The samples are fairly solid and so if I know I'll be performing on a Yamaha I'll actually practice with those samples which can prep me for that slightly heavier bass. Or honesty, just playing the same piece with different samples can really make you aurally aware to adjust your touch to get the sound you want out of an instrument that responds differently, which absolutely transfers over to the real-life situation of playing an unfamiliar acoustic.
You are making a ton of great points! It's also definitely the case that for a lot of pianists -- not just hobbyists, but professionals in different genres, the digital piano is the primary instrument, and there's a lot of flexibility with it!
Very sensible comment with many relatable scenarios mentioned... Do you have any advice for adjusting between pianos if you don't have a digital that can play various samples?
Great and very encouraging points you make for all the passionate amateur pianists who just want to play great music for family and friends or just for themselves, whether it is on a digital or a honky tonky accoustic.
I think my favourite point is encouraging users to try other instrument settings. That can absolutely reveal weaknesses and also give you new ways of practicing.
Practically speaking, a quality digital today fits much better in daily life. ALWAYS in tune, headphones when needed, and much less space taken up. I've been using the Casio GP 500 since 2018, and any "affordable" acoustic usually sounds like it needs work, in comparison. Where I live, humidity through the course of a year really varies from below 20% up to 90+%. Did I mention ALWAYS in tune? The various voice samples offer a change where acoustic is always the same(not a bad thing), and too often out of tune. The key action on the Casio is excellent while most home acoustic instruments need maintenance(sluggish or sticking keys!). For too many years we had an inherited Gulbransen upright player(heavy to move!!), which was hardly touched after getting our first digital with weighted keys years ago. Even slightly out of tune wrecks any enjoyment or incentive for those with picky ears. With the good digital models available today, getting an acoustic for the average home makes little sense. It's like going back to film with today's outstanding digital cameras. Playing on a really good grand might sway me back towards an acoustic instrument, but then there's all the $$$$'s that would be involved. Not within my budget presently.
The majority of pianist / teacher who speak badly about electric piano have not played on a good one in years. Also, so many grand piano are very peculiar and badly maintained
I think that's true. If you're thinking about digital pianos as just the keyboards from 20 years ago, you're out of touch with the myriad of options today from keyboards to hybrid pianos that use actual hammers. Of course those are quite expensive but an option nonetheless. Lots of option in between for sure!
I just don’t think one will ever feel as good as a decently maintained acoustic piano. I’ve played three different stupidly expensive digital grands by major makers and none of them (this won’t make total sense but this is how I feel it) allow me to resonate (literally and figuratively) with the piano like an acoustic.
Thank you very much for this episode. I have a digital piano, with weighted keys, and it has always been useful for practicing and get me aware of the physicality of any acoustic piano I go to. And of course you feel blessed of being able to afford an instrument that resembles the original one.
In the recent documentary Pianoforte or was it Fortepiano, the hotel rooms had digital pianos and IIRC there were scenes where the competitors played them to prepare. The Chopin Competition.
My teacher has a Kawaii grand... I NEED that thing in my life. The growl of the lower registers and how it vibrates my chest is addicting in a way I never could have anticipated.
@@richardlehoux But you don't feel it in your chest the way you do with a physical instrument because it is digital and can only be heard through speakers or amplifiers.
@@nanthilrodriguez you understand that you are implying that sound generated by speakers are different then from an instrument which is not true. But I will agree that a grand piano is quite loud and not all electronic one can match it without bigger sound systems.
I also play the SV2! It is fantastic. Sometimes playing classic pieces with the EPiano presets I am close to tears from the sheer beauty of the sound - but the piano sounds are also top class stuff. And the keybed is simply rewarding. You exercise, it works. You come back, do the same thing, works. I never had this with my Steinway B, this is every day a different dragon to slay.
Good video for anyone thinking about using a digital piano or perhaps someone who feels like they are somewhat inferior to acoustic. Fact is that digitals are amazing and for daily use, rival most acoustics.
The challenge of practicing on different keyboard instruments and sounds enhances tolerance towards the various characteristics of pianos encountered in performance settings. For example, keys without weights promote precise striking.
A decent digital piano (not an unweighted keyboard) is an amazing instrument. You can record and listen to yourself, play each hand separately on top of the recording of the other, improvise over a harmony, connect to a computer to compose or train your ear... If the sound and touch are close enough to an acoustic piano, it is worth so so much more than any of them.
Great discussion. I've kept a digital piano as a second piano since 2006. It is definitely possible to increase technique and learning on a digital, as well as having a lot of fun using what it has to offer. I studied with a student of Vengerova and Llevinne for several years. The most important thing is to keep the arm/wrist tension minimal. Using a proper amount of key resistance is important for this, as well as sitting at a comfortable height (invest in a decent adjustable bench).
A bit unrelated, however I think the word "electric piano" is always misused to call digital pianos mostly because digital pianos use electricity. Just something I've noticed I have nothing against the video or anything🎹🎶
Another great tool on digital pianos, is the fact that you can record a slow practice session, and then play it back fast-forwarded, to see if your slow practice is going to result in the performance you want, or some weird clunky monstrosity.
I have a MIDI controller that I use with piano VSTs such as Garritan CFX, VSL Bosendorfer 280VC, Pianoteq and few other. I also practice on Yamaha C7 grand piano.
I use Studiologic grand touch on the road for dynamic live giving best action as I prefer true piano. I believe Kawai mp11se is the best digital emulator I use which is the most consistent for performance and practice. Light tough is for extreme emulation of tone. Organ and harpsichord requires this light touch scheme. That are many aspects of each that govern technical approaches that depends on the ability of overall performance. Just practice with what you can afford and you will be progressing well. 🎹
here are some things I’ve noticed in my experience. I’m just some rando on the Internet so take this all as you will, but digital pianos can be fantastic for teaching purposes. Roland digital pianos in particular are primo these days tbh - their technology with weighting and the sound acoustics are actually pretty incredible. they even have stuff like sympathetic resonance and for certain extended techniques (like where you silently depress a key or keys silently and play another note staccato and the other keys will sympathetically resonate). on the other hand, the onset and decay (or lack thereof) of the note when played on settings like harpsichord and/or organ are really cool and useful to help students have an actual experience of playing something similar to said instruments, especially since your typical, run of the mill students are unlikely to have access to harpsichords/pipe organs very often if ever. the una corda pedal is unfortunately basically just an on/off switch so you can’t capture the timbre of the una corda the same as it would sound on an acoustic instrument. that said, if I recall correct (I’ll have to check this out later) when you use the 8x4 harpsichord setting, using the una corda pedal gives an effect somewhat similar to that of switching between the manuals which is kinda cool. for accompanying students, it can be useful - a few years ago, one of my adult trumpet students really wanted to play a transcription of a Bach piece for trumpet with a piano accompaniment written for it, but wanted the sound of an organ since I think it was originally orchestral (I truly do not recall the specific work off the top of my head, pls don’t ask). their higher end upright models even have different grand piano settings sometimes which is cool, and with a pair of high quality headphones with a super long cord, you can even practice without causing disturbances to others (say, in the dead of night in an apartment with thin walls) they even have a piano designer function so you can mimic different levels of acoustics, weight of key (not in terms of the actual physical weight/resistance of the key itself but rather via the key’s responsiveness), how open the ‘lid’ is, the reverb (or lack thereof) found in various spaces, among many other things. the transpose function is useful in a pinch when working with vocalists if they’re working on art song and you want your experiment with a few different keys before picking one out (as long as you as a pianist don’t have perfect or quasi pitch. I’m also allegedly a trumpet/trombone player and I’ve developed quasi pitch over the years and actually struggle with the transpose function as a result) I’m not super well versed in this regard, but to my understanding, there are ways to connect most digital pianos to your laptop/computer/etc for recording music, and if you want something that’s better than a crappy midi from a music notation software or something without having to do all of the audio engineering stuff that is beyond me, it’s definitely better than nothing if resources are limited and/or if it’s not something worth investing the resources into for a simple insignificant project that doesn’t need to be a concert pianist level of recording. something else that can be great is that, for example, I live in the middle of the Canadian prairies in a city with a river running through the middle of it. we have +40(c) summers with drastically varying humidity and nearly desert-dry -40(c) winters. the humidity as seasons change or when it rains causes incredible fluctuations. I used to take lessons in a house that was near the river, and my teacher between the weather and the random influxes of high humidity from the nearby river, one year she had to tune her piano at least 6 times (that was her record year for most tunings if I had to guess - I still take lessons with her and she is a dear friend). I have students who have super old grand pianos that have very light actions that are poorly regulated and as a result, they tend to underplay their instruments immensely since it’s very easy to play forte on their instruments at home. early in the pandemic, I learned that one of my students’ pianos had shifted an entire semitone flat across the bulk of the instrument from not having been tuned for so long. I could go on with stories, but IMO, having the precise consistent conditions to practice on with a digital piano can help students learn and understand the instrument to a high enough of a baseline over time that since they know what to expect with consistent conditions, with a few tips, it can be helpful to prepare them for on the fly adjustments on various acoustic pianos since they have a clear idea of the sound they desire and can make quicker decisions on what to prioritize. sometimes people also just don’t want to tune their instruments regularly enough and as a result, they don’t, and it’s not fantastic for long term learning. tbc I’m definitely not paid by Roland, I just have a lot of experience with their instruments and I’m referencing them specifically because I can’t speak to other brands. an academy I teach at uses them in their classrooms and I have grown quite fond of many aspects of them (though I obviously love playing on acoustics generally speaking)
one significant difference that doesn’t come up super often, but it is a thing, is that I haven’t found a great workaround for the flat and concrete backboard on an acoustic vs the ‘backboard’ of a digital a) having buttons in front of it (and thus you risk accidentally clicking them or turning knobs mid-playing in a situation where you absolutely do not want that to happen!) or b) having no tangible backboard at all (and also usually same re the buttons). I think this could easily be remedied with some sort of ‘lock settings’ mechanism button or function for if you’re wanting to play through an entire piece or work and eliminate the chance of the disruption entirely
additionally, re unweighted keys - I was astonished and honestly somewhat baffled the first time I played an organ at a church. I was playing on it solely for the purpose of research for a composition assignment, but I didn’t really know what to do with the effectively unweighted keys and dynamics initially and being able to experiment with that on a digital after this revelation really helped.
re it being a different type of instrument - yes! it’s like how not all acoustics are the same. full concert grand pianos differ from baby grands, which differ from many varieties of uprights, which differ from digital pianos.
I always practice on a digital piano and its progress is breathtaking. The keys got perfect options to balance the sound and if I play after on a real grand piano, it's no problem. I own a "Roland" in Germany and a "Yamaha" in the US. Because of my neighbors I can't replace a real grand piano.
I would also highly recommend going for a hybrid solution, that is a reliable MIDI master keyboard coupled with proper sound libraries that generate realistic piano samples out of a DAW. That has been my go-to practice solution for decades and I must confess I'm 50% of the time disappointed when playing pieces on real pianos, as they're not as great as this solution.
I use a fairly cheap Yamaha digital piano, key feel isn’t great for trills but it’s not bad. Hook up via USB to laptop with a Vienna Symphonic Library Bosendorfer sample piano, hooked up to Adam T7v studio monitors. Almost sounds real, but not quite. Still great though.
Would I choose an acoustic piano over my Roland FP-90X? Sure, if the acoustic was, say, a well-kept Steinway M. And if I had room for one of those. And if the acoustics of that room were good. But the fact is, my digital is better than all the other acoustics I have (or am likely to have) access to. My Roland has infinite polyphony, with acoustic overtones and sympathetic vibrations of strings that an acoustic does (and way better than an upright). Hold down the notes of a chord in your right hand and play different bass notes and you get different overtones. The touch is good and even, but not the best I've ever played, although I'll take EVEN over the potluck variability I experience on many acoustic instruments. Short answer: I don't feel guilty playing a digital. I feel liberated!
My Baldwin is very jealous of my FP90. All in all, my Baldwin is similar to the Steinway M you mention. The Roland is definitely capable of more tricks.
@@geoff7517 I could wish the Roland had a more generous music stand, though. When I have to use four- or five- or even six-page taped together scores I have to use a wide piece of cardboard backing. But that's a small price to pay for even and adjustable touch and always-in-tune (not to mention the ability to suit the sound (concert piano, concert bright, stage bright, even two stops of harpsichord (with residual plectrum drops!) and the rest). Yep, the Roland is definitely "capable of more tricks"!
About the music stand ... I use a traditional music stand behind my keyboard. It still doesn't give much space but it's deep and fully adjustable up and down.
I got into my master of music program for classical piano by preparing for my audition on an electric piano! i've also seen a lot of improvement now that I'm practicing on my nord grand at home and the various acoustic pianos at school. i think of my home board as a tool for score study, learning jazz, and doing some practicing in a "low impact" way. i am a pianist though, so i do need to get time on an acoustic piano regularly.
lovely and smart video-2 points your team brings up: learning on a digital, and living in an apartment and having to use it for practice--a child should learn on an acoustic, weighted instrument; there are resources available to parents for a child who seriously wants to learn: rental rooms (in north hollywood in mid 60's there were several studios offering that resource to parents; 60 years later i'm sure there're a lot more possibilities of rental practice rooms most places)--practicing on your digital in your apartment: no matter if you're wearing headphones if you have downstairs neighbors they're going to hear you TAP DANCING, and if your digital is against the wall your neighbor is going to hear you DRUMMING--you need to find the place in your apartment that has the smallest floor and wall-contact with your neighbors, and set up there--then you need to raise your digital off the floor with layers of solid and alternating cushion to absorb key impacts (the impacts are propagated down through the stand into the floor and are actually amplified: that's why downstairs they hear tap dancing and we barely hear tiny thudding, while next door they hear how good you're getting at sustained thunder-drumming), and then you have to raise your bench--moral of the story: i'm a lowly ballet accompanist, and for the last 30 years i've had to make do with a clavinova for work at home--and every morning when i prepare for class on that trusty steed i'm grateful knowing that i'm decently prepared for the rickety out-of-tune kawai and everett uprights at the studio, and that my neighbors have no idea what i'm up to
As long as it has 3 pedals, weighted keys and 88 keys, you should be fine... You can practice many things on the eletric piano, and if you know your musical theory, you will be fine with the resonance and harmony study, and the decision of the pedal use.
Entry-level digital pianos are *so* much better and so much more affordable now than when I was in college. A portable 88-key weighted instrument with headphones will be a lifeline for many beginning hobbyists and students, possibly for many years. Everyone with even a modest interest in music should have one. Even university music majors with access to practice rooms can benefit from an instrument at home. The remarks about weighted keys are interesting! As someone who plays both a high-end furniture-style digital piano and unweighted synthesizer keybeds, I would insist that they be considered different instruments that develop different skills. By all means play synths too if you can, and I agree you can learn a lot about music in general and even develop some pianism with them. But entry-level weighted options are affordable, and I don't see a reason to favor synth keybeds if your goal is to develop piano skills, especially if it's going to be your primary practice instrument. Not all weighted options are equal, but unweighted synth keybeds are just a different animal. I'm in my 40's and lucky to own a house, and I'm very much looking forward to someday owning an acoustic piano. But I wouldn't have had nearly as much music in my life if it weren't for digital pianos. Headphones are just too essential when living with other people. Even when I do get an acoustic, I'll probably keep the digital right next to it.
Nord makes amazing keyboards that can sound and feel like the real thing. You can hold down multiple keys on your right hand (no sound) and play notes with your left. Stop playing the notes while still holding the notes on your right hand, and you'll hear the "strings" reverberating since the "hammers" are still up. They are amazing. It's a little pricey, so that could be a deterant.
I treated myself to a Kawai CN 501 and it's great. I've had uprights and they sounded horrible. I'm not a professional pianist but I'm not an amateur either. I did my grades back in the 70s and I've just continued playing into my retirement.
Today's actions are not what they used to be. The actions out there, roland pha 50 or Korg RH3, are quite amazing these days, and quite transferable to piano. You can try to add a real piano practice whenever you're able to. Sometimes you have similar issues with real paino because there is so much differences amongst pianos themselves. Even with real pianos, you want to play as many pianos as you can. The action on my roland and korg is Sometimes better feeling than some pianos I've played. However, I do prefer my kawai grand piano.
Except for top models such as Novus and Avangrand and hybrid pianos, I think none of the digitals can replace a real piano. First of all, most digital pianos have short keys. You might say that upright pianos also have short keys. They are short but not heavy. Maybe they are lighter than digital pianos.The problem with short keys is that there are too many weight differences at different points on the key surface. The second difference is that the hammer never leaves the keys. The hammer is connected to the key when pressing and releasing it, and the key weight is constant, I think this is a factor that especially tires people. In an acoustic piano, the key lightens to a certain extent after the hammer hits the string. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Had a Baldwin model R for years. Sold it because technicians couldn’t find the source for the strange noises that would just appear from nowhere. Bought a good digital with headphones and love it!
This was great, thanks for making the video. I'm currently in an ongoing debate over replacing my old upright with another upright (used) or digital. I've had my piano since I was 13, so it's been played for a while. At the moment, I'm using my Yamaha P-71 for practice but want to get something better. I do notice a difference when I play on my old piano vs the digital piano, or when I play another acoustic piano at a practice room or stage. Aside from having to adjust to the nuances of different pianos, which is the same with digital pianos, acoustic pianos do feel more alive. With digital pianos though, I've been considering the Yamaha Clavinova series. Does anyone have any experience on these?
I am likely stating the obvious but, the gap between acoustic and digital instruments continues to narrow. Some recent digital offerings, especially hybrid instruments, offer touch and sound that are so close to an acoustic piano that I would think for the “average” pianist the difference would not be significant or even noticeable. Often a good digital instrument sampled off a concert grand piano will sound better for example than a low to mid range upright acoustic piano (at least to my less then expert ears). For some pianist the size, lack of maintenance , ability to play with headphones, multiple instrument sounds, etc. may make a digital instrument a better choice than an acoustic one. Too often piano teachers continue to tell students that only an acoustic piano is acceptable even when it may not the best choice for the student’s situation. This may have been true in the past when digital pianos were a poor substitute for an acoustic one, but the situation has changed and the notion seems outdated.
If you're shopping digital keyboards, just be sure to learn the differences between: - Digital Pianos - Workstation Keyboards - Synthesizers - MIDI controllers Each of these categories is distinct and come with their own advantages/disadvantages
Do the actions of digital pianos vary across models and manufacturers? Read in a Faber book a modern acoustic piano requires 110 grams to push down vs older acoustics 65 grams. Wonder where digital pianos come in with respect to above.
Yes, they vary greatly between manufacturers and models. Different manufacturers will often have several "tiers" of patented unique key action mechanisms which give variety in weight, escapement, return speed, inertia, how close the fulcrum is to the key, etc. Therefore, when buying a Yamaha digital, for example, their huge range of instruments vary in key feel from feeling like actual dog shit to feeling reasonably good, and several stages in between. Keep in mind, though, that acoustic pianos also vary enormously in key feel, weight, and quality.
You probably mean digital pianos Electric pianos are represented by Rhodes and Wurlitzer E-pianos (An electric piano is a musical instrument that has a piano-style musical keyboard, where sound is produced by means of mechanical hammers striking metal strings or reeds or wire tines, which leads to vibrations which are then converted into electrical signals by pickups)
The best digital piano currently is the Kawai Mp11se. It has the best action in any digital piano. It makes all other digital piano that use the most common action, the (RH3) action, obsolete in comparison. Not saying the RH3 action is bad far from it, but once you played the Mp11se the quality in the action is a big difference. If you have the chance to buy or even try one out then I'd highly recommend it. Side note, STAY AWAY FROM CASIO, WILLIAMS, and ALESIS!!!. Just bad keyboards overall.
@@peterpeper4837 yes!!! You'd be correct. They sell a version that acts as a midi controller, without any sounds. And it's still has the same action too.
Surprised you didn't mention pedalling. All but most expensive models can't replicate nuanced pedal action (quarter at best) and doesn't translate very well to an acoustic.
This was one of the biggest developments I worked on in college, coming from practicing almost exclusively on a pretty good kawaii digital piano, then in having to learn very complex and nuanced pedaling was very new to me
From Studiologic you get a very good three-pedals, they even offer Organ pedaling. The three pedals add 130 € to the price of your Midi keyboard, I hope a Studiologic SL88 Grand. That is not asked too much.
Acoustic snobs never get how out-of-touch they are. 😂 "Actual sound waves coming from an acoustic piano is something that is... Irreplaceable." ...as opposed to actual sound waves coming from a speaker? Now I get that there is still character to an acoustic instrument you'd lose with a digital instrument, but when they don't even know what factors those are or how to articulate them to a student or client, they just sound uneducated. Now if you're shopping digital keyboards, there is a big difference between a "digital piano" that is trying to recapture all the character and nuance of an acoustic piano, A "workstation keyboard" which is more of a live production tool and space-filler for a band, offering a very wide variety of sounds, but very little character or articulation (and they usually sound pretty lame unless they use Sample-Based engines) and a synthesizer, which is not a piano at all, but an electric instrument with components that generate voltage and other components that reshape that voltage so you can craft a sound.. but a sound that will never sound like a piano. Some synthesizers even adopt modeling engines in order to become more of a hybrid where they can sound somewhat like a piano or another acoustic instrument, but they're still using oscillators, filters and such to generate a synthesized sound. The best digital keyboards make use of samples, which are actual little recordings of individual key presses, now even at different velocities. These keyboards will sound very much like the real deal because they are recorded from the real deal. Also, we're living in the 21st century. F*** the snobs. Digital pianos are here to stay.
Oh, bonus category: MIDI keyboards/controllers. These do NOT produce sounds on their own, but send MIDI notes externally to another instrument or software. They are usually only semi-weighted (like a synthesizer key, NOT like a piano key) except most 88-key ones are fully weighted (counter-weight simulates piano hammer action) These may or may not be a good option to consider. If you're trying to keep it as simple as possible and only want to have to move the keyboard itself around, avoid these. However, software samplers like Kontakt and Keyscape offer some of the most realistic and controllable sampled piano sounds available, and would cost a fraction of actual workstation keyboards. However, to get the most out of this option, you'd need at least a semi-powerful laptop, a desktop audio interface (for better sound resolution and consistent low-latency output), an 88-key fully-weight MIDI keyboard, and the software itself. Like I said, more complicated. But if you're also looking to get into music production (like I have done) it's all things you'd need for that anyway. Plus, with the literal troves of software instruments and effects you can easily acquire, your sound library can expand indefinitely.
We have them. Vienna classic, or Pianoteq, or Realtone for Kontakt offer absolutely fine instruments. Choose a Midi Keyboard that suits your fingers and go ahead. And you do not have to tune them daily!
Any acoustic is better than any digital piano Extreme pianissimos on digital pianos are terrible Even the top digital pianos do not have a "calibrated" setting where key non-linear sensitivity and volume output completely match the sampled piano. The digital keyboard can be taken with you traveling and also when your acoustic piano is down or you are between acoustics.
This is no longer the case. It depended on a lot of things, most notably the software reacting, "reading", key-up messages from the keyboard, if the keyboard sent this. Try Studiologic SL 88 Grand with Pianoteq software properly adjusted to your power of playing and tell me that you cannot play pppp. I doubt it.
@@JanMeinhartSachau No, it's the other way around: the point is to NOT adjust the piano to my technique, instead making the digital piano match a real piano. That's something only the digital manufacturer can do. Set the digital to "Steinway Model D" and it will be like playing on a D in all respects. The tech is already used in home theater sound systems which use calibration microphones to tune the sound to room acoustics - that same technique could tune the digital piano sound system to the room so that it sounds like you are playing a D (the way the key is struck produces the proper volume.
@ 9:10 how arrogant can you be ??? Only play if you learned on the acoustic ?? what the .... Its like they talk like everyone is practicing to be the next Horowitz. This guy, like others, has rich parents for sure
let me add for your younger readers a note of appreciation for a detail in this video: the tiny snippet of amy irving on a plane studying a schirmer piano reduction score and actually working her fingering on the page is from the 1980 movie the competition (she’s on her way to a san francisco competition where she’s going to re-encounter richard dreyfus whom she met a few years before), and the old man next to her watches a few seconds and then asks, “are you a pianist?” (or something like that) and the whole theater laughs, but every pianist in the audience is praying that she gives him a look and says, “no, why do you ask?”-it’s a fun movie, dreyfus’ character’s specialty is gaspard and beethoven 5, and amy’s ready to play the mozart coronation (i think) but suddenly switches to prokofief 3, and lee remick is amy’s famous chain-smoking teacher (a grim little funeral note to the audience)-there’s some inside jokes about certain popular concertos and aleatoric music and conducting, and some dated business about sexism in mid-late 20th century competitions-check it out
I’m so glad you caught this reference! That movie is so fun, I’m particularly fond of Lee Remick’s performance. Absolutely worth a watch for pianists and piano lovers as a strange and charming piece of culture.
@@tonebasePiano you got it, buddy--the fake hood who's playing the saint saens 2, the russian drooper who's playing brahms 1, and the gorgeous rich black guy who's gonna finish last with the chopin but is throwing the post awards party--or does he finish 4th?--loved this movie and love that you know it--and am loving the tonebase archive--i'm slowly digging in--thank you for wonderful uploads
