Do not play acoustic piano contemptuously

[Theo Verelst]

In this age of electronic gadgets, digital mush making and every boy and his friends working in their "home studio", it can be easy to look down on piano playing and it's joys and proper challenges. Some are convinced of this and need no reminder their software piano usually works best when it sounds like a real one. Others might think "it still might be recorded or put on  a live amplification system". Ok, but the sound of a piano without phase cancellation in stereo, broadband sound, and no latency has it's own musical power, also without special acoustics.

 

I like the idea that even though there are differences, harmonic structures will "work" on a acoustic piano regardless of using a grand or an old barrel. Dynamics will always have some space, unless it would be a toy piano, and I can easily be amused or play myself for an hour without the need fr nerdy production tricks, sound on sound layers, cutting and pasting, or the rest of a band.

 

T.

[JamPro]

I have to confess: playing my $3000 digital keyboard has ruined me for playing acoustic pianos.  Why?  Because the action of my $3000 digital keyboard is far superior to all but the most expensive of acoustic grand pianos: more reactive, better control of dynamics, smoother and more consistent, less side-to-side wiggle, and the digital keyboard holds its tuning forever.

 

A while back, I wandered in a piano store trying out different instruments.  I hated the feel of all of them except for the six-figure grand - and I didn't like playing that one because it needed a tune up. 

[stoken6]

I'm with Theo on this one, but not for the reasons he mentions. It's the FtEC, the expressiveness, the resonance and other nuances that are missed in the sampling process. My baby grand doesn't have an amazing action, but it's so joyous to play.

 

Cheers, Mike.

 

[vonnor]

5 hours ago, Theo Verelst said:

...I can easily be amused or play myself for an hour without the need fr nerdy production tricks, sound on sound layers, cutting and pasting, or the rest of a band.

You're in a band? 

👍

[BenWaB3]

For me it comes down to the spatial aspect of a real piano as opposed to digital. Probably how the soundboard disperses the sound as opposed to 2 (or possibly more) speakers. that said, I still use both & enjoy each for their own advantages.

[MathOfInsects]

This might be my favorite subject line.

For playing piano or playing organ, piano or organ are best. For playing the sounds of piano or playing the sounds of organ, the robots often win. I just can't mic or maintain my stuff well enough to compete (in the recording context).

 

[KuruPrionz]

I'm totally with you on this one!!!!

I'm a guitarist but acoustic guitar is where you learn to really play and then electric allows you to do anything.

In the Student Union Lounge at California State University Fresno (don't laugh) there is a solid rosewood Steinway full grand that is properly maintained and in a huge, somewhat reflective room with carpets to soften the natural reverb. The story is that it was brought around the Cape of Good Hope a long time ago, pre Panama Canal I don't know if that is true but it's an amazing instrument. I've heard students play on it and I've pressed notes and drooled at the tone myself. 

 

Plus I saw Artur Rubenstien as a solo pianist when I was maybe 8 years old. I've never forgotten that, he sort of precisely poked away and invoked thunder and lighting with seemingly little effort. Magnificent. 

 

But not as fun as my Rainsong 12 string! 😇

[Baggypants]

Acoustic piano? It doesn't even have pitchbend.

[DeltaJockey]

15 minutes ago, Baggypants said:

Acoustic piano? It doesn't even have pitchbend.

yes it's does! Over 200 of them

[stoken6]

1 hour ago, DeltaJockey said:

yes it's does! Over 200 of them

With our "tuning hammer" alternate performance controller, you can even pitch-bend a note against itself - supporting up to three pitches per key!*

 

(* Not all keys support three pitches)

[DeltaJockey]

1 hour ago, stoken6 said:

With our "tuning hammer" alternate performance controller, you can even pitch-bend a note against itself - supporting up to three pitches per key!*

 

(* Not all keys support three pitches)

I think you'll find that's chorus.. See..acoustics even have adjustable insert effects

[Stokely]

Most people that have seen me play agree that I play very contemptuously, despite my best efforts.

[GovernorSilver]

My grandparents' acoustic piano sounded most contemptuous whenever its C (octave below middle C) got played.

 

They couldn't afford to pay a pro piano tuner to fix its tuning

[Ed A.]

11 hours ago, Baggypants said:

Acoustic piano? It doesn't even have pitchbend.

Yanni? Is that you?

[Theo Verelst]

At the moment it's a lonesome track with no bands. Learning A grade synthesis and production is a b*tch..

 

T

[marino]

Even with long/good samples, round-robin, continuous sustain pedal, sympathetic resonance, programmabile hammer and pedal noise, eq, reverb, etc. - there's still nothing that gives me the same response of a good acoustic piano.

I'm aware that if you know what you're doing, *sometimes* you can fool people in a recording. *And* it's easier to record and to edit. But the little nuances, the infinite dynamic gradations, the little tricks with the pedal, and the physical feeling of the metal and wood vibrating, are irreplaceable. I love synths and electronic music, but I'm grateful every day for the existence of the acoustic piano.

[ProfD]

Whenever I get to lay hands on an acoustic piano, regardless of its condition, I play it with the utmost reverence. 

 

I *know* that our digital facsimiles are great for playing the sounds as brotha @MathOfInsects wrote. 

 

But, playing a real acoustic piano or electromechanical especially when it's in great shape is a completely different experience. 

 

Yeah, I would feel contempt all right.  Mad as mf'er that I couldn't own and/or use that particular instrument at all times. 🤣😎

[Adam Burgess]

I'm playing an average Young Chang acoustic grand today.

There's a few intonation things going on, like in a B chord, the D# (4th line in treble stave) is awful, but that same note in an Eb or a Db9 sounds beautiful. (Sure there's a reason for that (done with a digital tuner?), but, then, I wouldn't dare tune a whole piano!). The middle E is getting stuck now and again, but, hey! I'm loving it. Feels lovely - and that resonance you get when you can play a chord with every note of the scale in it! - never had that with digital.

It may be a lot heavier than my Kronos, Arturia, and SV1 88s, but I don't have to move it and set it up; an iPad is all I need. Lift lid - GO!

 

[stoken6]

3 hours ago, Adam Burgess said:

The middle E is getting stuck now and again

Is the damper getting stuck against adjacent dampers and not returning fully? The trick is to heat a knife (e.g. over a gas flame) and use it to burn off the straggling bits of felt that have been pushed beyond the edges of the damper. 

 

(The author assumes no responsibility for injury or damage caused as result of this advice).

 

Cheers, Mike.

[RABid]

As a child I first learned to play on an old Boston piano. It had been a player piano and was over 100 years old. In high school I started lessons again and my mother bought a new Wurlitzer spinet and gave the old piano to my sister. That Wurlitzer piano was awful. The keys were slow and after a couple years they started to stick. By the time I was learning Bach and having to play trills the piano was a stone wall preventing me from playing the notes I needed to play. Piano technicians did everything to get that piano to play better including putting in an internal dehumidifier. I sometimes wonder if that piano contributed to my stage fright. My Roland RD 2000 is a dream to play compared to it. Sure, the Roland does not have sympathetic resonance, but I will choose it any day.

[Mark Schmieder]

At first I thought auto-correct had messed up the topic and that it was supposed to say "contemplatively".