Question: What's the difference?

[Diane Hofstetter]

Graeme,

  You are right on.   A digital piano has only a fraction of the mix of 
harmonics that an acoustic piano does. The samples are relatively short in 
duration (frequently only a few seconds) and then the sample is looped over 
and over for greater sustain so you hear only the harmonics from the first 
attack of the key.  Furthermore, the sound engineer almost always finds a 
few notes he thinks are the best and builds all the others from those.

  In addition, the note on a digital is either "off" or "on" and there is no 
sympathetic resonance through the bridges and soundboard between notes which 
share partials as there is in an acoustic piano.  Thus whole layers of sound 
are lost.

  Next time you do get to see a digital try this experiment, first on an 
acoustic piano and then on the digital:

  Hold the keys of a chord down so that the strings are open, but no sound 
is being created (neither damper nor hammer touch string) and with your 
right hand play a run using the keys in that cord, then, while the sound is 
continuing, let the keys of the chord up one by one and listen to the 
changing sound.

  Diane



>From: "Graeme Harvey" <gharvey@netsource.co.nz>
>Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org
>To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
>Subject: Re: Question: What's the difference?
>Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 14:15:54 +1300
>
>Kris,
>
>I have very limited experience with digital pianos, and the little I have
>played them I tend to find I tire of the sound after 20 minutes or so. I
>have often wondered what is missing, taking into account a soundboard etc.
>Could it be the mix of harmonics / partials in the chords? Do the notes in
>these "pianos" have similar partial characteristics to acoustic pianos? ( I
>should measure sometime with RCT pianalyser but I never get close enough to
>this type of piano to do this)
>One thought I had was that although each note is digitally sampled
>(therefore possibly contains the partial series from the sampled piano) how
>about when more than one note is played at once. Electronic pianos must (?)
>produce their chords as a collection of single sampled notes without the
>blend of partials that would occur in an acoustic piano. Perhaps the blend
>of notes once amplified and put through a speaker creates the blend?
>Maybe I'm off track here but I too am interested in this question.
>
>So many questions, so little time....
>
>Graeme Harvey
>New Plymouth NZ
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: K Anderson <pno2nr1@juno.com>
>To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
>Sent: Sunday, November 07, 1999 6:30 AM
>Subject: Question: What's the difference?
>
>
> > Maybe I really am nuts... but maybe not ?  It seems to me that there is 
>a
> > definite difference between the sound of an electronic "piano"  and a
> > REAL piano.  It's hard to convince our church pianist of this... she
> > loves her Clavinova, and while it can do some pretty neat things I just
> > ache to hear the grand played.  It sits right next to her Clavinova. 
>It's
> > a well-maintained Kawai 7-footer.  I've wondered what is it about the
> > electonic sounds that make my ears want to squirm and run away.  The
> > sounds seem hollow, tasteless.... but how can I explain this to the dear
> > pianist? (She doesn't know when the grand is out of tune, either. She
> > frankly acknowledges that she needs someone to tell her that.) So... is
> > there an actual, definable physical difference between the sounds
> > produced by the two instruments? something that would confirm my balance
> > and explain  the unsettled, unsatisfied feeling I have when she plays 
>the
> > Clavinova?
> >
> > Thanks much, all...
> > Kris
> >
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