Keyboard/electric piano vs. acoustic piano

[Vu Nguyen]

To a pianist, an acoustic piano are most likely preferred to a keyboard or an electronic piano due to the 2 aspects: the weighed touch and the fullness of vibration.

 

However, modern technology has improved the keyboard and electronic piano tremendously in both those aspects. The Korg's Triton Studio keyboard, for example, beside the favorite responsive touch, has it's keys weighed exactly like an acoustic with the lower notes heavier than the higher notes. Its sounds, beside the advantages of the sharpness, variation,and effects available, can be close to the fullness of an acoustic.

 

Listened from a CD record, acoustic and electronic seem not much different. Let's put aside the pianist's feeling during performance, let's not choose Chopin so the pianist does not have to stress on emotion, instead let's take Richard Clayderman which is more easy on the heart rate. From the CD listener's standpoint, is there much difference??? (to be continued)

[burlingame2]

The feel of weighted keyboards has probably made the differece for some musicians otherwise uncomfortable with performing on electric equipment. Though I don`t seek out this feature in a keyboard, I certainly enjoy the instruments that have it.

As to hearing a difference on a CD, maybe you are referring to a sampled piano tone rather then electric piano. I don`t use the best sampled tone and I can tell after awhile that it won`t replace the acoustic. Often you can discern the sampled piano as well as other sampled instruments. Sometimes the difference is just in passing and other instances can be rather glaring.

[cg1155]

I think that it is difficult to pick a good sampled acoustic piano out of a rock mix or something similar unless you are used to hearing them both day in and out, for example most of the regular studio guys here could probably do it without too much difficulty but your average listener sure can't. But in a solo piano work I think that the sampled pianos lack a certain room interaction that comes across as "fake" when you listen to the recording. So there it is, JMHO

 

Casey

[Zeke Smith.]

There's also a "plinkyness" present in the middle of the upper range in most sampled pianos that is a dead giveaway. The other thing that gives it all away is the lack of the interaction of the acoustic piano sound board with the harmonics of multiple notes (that underlying "wash" beneath each note of an acoustic piano). It's easy to sample this on a note-by-note basis, but just about impossible to capture the infinite note, chord, and dynamic combinations that occur in the space of a single piece in real life. This is most evident in exposed passages, and can be convered up very well in a dense mix, in which case, there's less difference.

 

There have only been a couple of sampled pianos that have fooled me in exposed playing. That said, I play on some very nice acoustic pianos almost daily, and have lived with the thing for years and years. Most people will never be able to tell the difference with a good sample. And for the average studio owner or musician, it's a $20-50 thousand dollar difference.

 

The Triton Studio piano is a vast improvement over that of the original Triton, but it's not going to ever fool a pianist into thinking that it's real. For pop, it's fine. For solo piano, it's not gonna cut it. Still sounds very "sampled" to my ears.

[bearded yeti]

Originally posted by ZekeSmith:

The other thing that gives it all away is the lack of the interaction of the acoustic piano sound board with the harmonics of multiple notes (that underlying "wash" beneath each note of an acoustic piano). It's easy to sample this on a note-by-note basis, but just about impossible to capture the infinite note, chord, and dynamic combinations that occur in the space of a single piece in real life.

There is a Korg Piano Soundboard effect that simulates this very well.

[Zeke Smith.]

Which Korgs use it? I'm still looking for a great digital/sampled piano, and I still haven't found what I'm looking for (check out my other post). I'll try anything!

 

I dumped my SG Pro-X about 9 months ago because it wasn't cutting it. I also dumped a Roland FP9C that had a similar sympathetic resonance effect that was pretty decent, but still thin and one-dimensional.