Choosing A Digital Piano Options

[Solari]

Beware that with an onboard soundcard, it may not support ASIO, so you may get some latency between the time you hit the key on the piano and when the sound and any effects are actually produced on the computer's audio output. You can usually tweak a few parameters to make this much less noticeable, but a decent sound card is a must IMO (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

If you find you are getting delay, this will be the reason (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

There is a VST instrument called "The Grand" IIRC, which blew me away when I heard it.

I don't really understand why anyone still bothers with the sounds built into digital pianos. But you do need plenty of disk space and RAM.

Depending on what you buy, the inbuilt sounds can be extremely good. I'd personally say there's no point using the computer and a different sample unless you have decent quality speakers and sound card/amp to deliver it properly.

[mel2]

That may well blow it. I've just got the mac without extra speakers.
I shall ask the oracle when I get home. Thanks for the advice.

I've still never heard of anyone else (going back to the original question) who has an Akai Professional. I think I must have bought the only one but it still works beautifully after 13 years hard (ish) use. It has the usual bells and whistles (useless, but relieve the boredom in scales) and midi but I wish it had a recording facility because that is really useful. I don't think the keyboard will divide either but it may be that I've just never found the gizmo.

[bristol_paul]

Mad Tom

I take your point about practise on an acoustic piano however I'm not originally from Bristol and don't know anyone down here who owns one and I think I'd struggle to persuade a school or pub to let me use theirs. The money they got would be very small compared to the perceived risk to their instrument (not to mention it would soon bring the cost of a cheap keyboard up to the cost of an expensive DP) and I'm not advanced enough to be able to provide any entertainment in return.

Anything I buy that isn't an acoustic will be a compromise I'm just trying to make sure I get the best value for money. As it is I already spend almost a third of my lessons getting back to grips with my teachers pianos if I can spend a bit more and reduce that time (and frustration) I'm happy to.

maggiemay

I'd actually assumed that the manufacturers would put in something that would break soon after the warranty ran out (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

Regarding connection to a computer

Does the midi connection overrule the pianos speakers and use whatever is connected to your computer?

[primrose]

Does the midi connection overrule the pianos speakers and use whatever is connected to your computer?

You turn the piano speakers off, and use whatever device (speaker, monitor, headphones) you normally use for listening to the computer. I get excellent sound from a Mac mini (the cheapest Mac) plus decent (but not top-of-the-range) headphones. No noticeable latency either. I believe it helps if you have the piano samples on a separate hard disk, which I do.

Shame I can't play the piano.

[Solari]

You turn the piano speakers off, and use whatever device (speaker, monitor, headphones) you normally use for listening to the computer. I get excellent sound from a Mac mini (the cheapest Mac) plus decent (but not top-of-the-range) headphones. No noticeable latency either. I believe it helps if you have the piano samples on a separate hard disk, which I do.

Shame I can't play the piano.

The samples are big and take up a fair bit of Hard Disk space, but when you select a patch, they are loaded into memory, so it should make no difference where they are stored.

I'd think a Mac, being pretty much designed for media usage, would have a decent sound-card as standard so latency may not be an issue (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[music margaret]

Hi Bristol paul

Just referring back to your previous post to me. The stage piano is pretty sturdy, it came with a pretty good stand (negociated as part of package - not difficult). It has good volume in it's own right. It is amped up through speakers in a large hall, but it's own volume creates plenty of foldback on the stage area. I set it up and played it at home when I first purchased it and the volume was more than enough for home use. Again, I wouldn't advise buying anything unless you can try it in your situation before making a firm commitment, this way you can iron out any of those kind of problems.

Using computers is very variable! I worked on a technics attached to my computer until recently, and even though my sound card was high spec, I always used the technics sounds as these were definately superior!

[Solari]

Using computers is very variable! I worked on a technics attached to my computer until recently, and even though my sound card was high spec, I always used the technics sounds as these were definately superior!

The actual sounds (or patches) on the computer will vary according to what software instruments you are using. Just using standard XG sounds for example will be pretty pointless, but if you were to use something a bit higher end that emulated, say, a lot of the sounds on a Korg Triton, that would be a lot more fun and satisfying (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I wish I hadn't got rid of my Novation Nova, that was so much fun with it's arpeggiator and millions of possibilities (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Mad Tom]

It is not that difficult to set up a computer to generate your sounds and you can get superior sound, but there is a lot to be said for a computer-less set up where you just switch on the piano (and maybe power up an external speaker) and play, even if the sound is not quite so good.

[river]

why is it that a computer-based patch can produce such a good sound, but no one thought to take one of those patches and put them in the digital piano? after all, they are basically just computers with a piano keyboard, right?

[Solari]

why is it that a computer-based patch can produce such a good sound, but no one thought to take one of those patches and put them in the digital piano? after all, they are basically just computers with a piano keyboard, right?

As a correction to a previous post, it seems Gigasampler stuff does stream from a HDD, so a separate disk would be prudent in those cases!

Good question anyhow...

High quality patches/samples take up a LOT of space. However storage is very cheap these days. They could easily use something like a solid state drive to store an OS and samples on, and a decent amount of RAM without impacting price too much. There is however, the issue of needing a decent processor to achieve a good level of polyphony.

I'd think most manufacturing costs on a digital piano are the keyboard and action along with the cabinet. There has to be a compromise on price somewhere (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[primrose]

It is not that difficult to set up a computer to generate your sounds and you can get superior sound, but there is a lot to be said for a computer-less set up where you just switch on the piano (and maybe power up an external speaker) and play, even if the sound is not quite so good.

I agree, but the "not quite" is crucial. With the possible exception of the Yamaha Grantouch (which is very expensive), no digital piano I have ever tried sounded anywhere near as good as the best software.

Another thing to bear in mind is that decent speakers/monitors are a lot more expensive than decent headphones. So the speakers built into a digital piano are not usually very good, and the piano sounds a lot better with decent headphones. The snag is that you then don't feel the vibrations under your fingers as you play, which undermines the illusion of playing a real piano (assuming that you know what that feels like). Best of all would be to have state-of-the-art software built into the piano, as river suggests, with really good monitors built into the cabinet. But that wouldn't have much advantage over an acoustic, or at any rate an acoustic with a "silent system" built in.

Incidentally Synthogy recommend that you install the Ivory samples on a disk other than the one with your system files on it. In the case of a Mac mini, there is also the consideration that the system disk is not really fast enough.

[Solari]

Incidentally Synthogy recommend that you install the Ivory samples on a disk other than the one with your system files on it. In the case of a Mac mini, there is also the consideration that the system disk is not really fast enough.

If you have the pennies, a solid state drive will blitz all performance issues that could possibly arise (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Mad Tom]

Best of all would be to have state-of-the-art software built into the piano, as river suggests, with really good monitors built into the cabinet.

No no no no no no no NO!!

"Best of all" would be to have a custom built studio with a couple of Bosendorfers/Faziolis/Steinways/... (select your favourite).

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

[primrose]

Point taken!

[bobziekins]

I was in exactly the same situation as you (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I started learning on a flimsy little plasticy keyboard with flashing keys (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

Then my parents agreed to upgrade to a digital piano (because I'm taking grade 2).

We got a Yamaha Aria Clavinova. It's AMAZING and I LOVE IT. It's really pretty too, with a wooden finish (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wub.gif)

It was £600. But we bought the last one in the store, because Yamaha had just put the price up to £800, and the shop were selling off the last in store for £600. So we saved ourselves £200 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

But yeah, I love it. You can get dynamics, it has pedals (3 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) ), and the keys feel like a real piano's. Plus it has headphones so I can play at 2am and the neighbours don't even notice.