Digital vs Real

[Clark]

There have been some fairly critical opinions voiced on this list about synthesizers in
the past, the idea not loosely rooted simply in the symbology of their name. Indeed, very
clearly the trend has been toward electronically imitating (more) acoustic instruments,
dating back to the Mellotron and the French school of _musique concrete,_ and more
successfully to mechano-magnetic, electronic and digital organs. The digital piano is no
exception, nor are MIDI modules or soundcards.

This development illustrates a division in thought regarding synthesis, on one hand the
preset and the other the often complicated programming usually associated with modern
electronic music. No such division can exist with acoustic instruments, for instance where
the preset of a real piano is very programmable both in person and through speakers.


To depart a little, recorded pianos often sound as bad as digital pianos to me; some of
this because of the means of imprinting and reproducing their sound, but most of it is due
to microphone selection and placement also which would be the source for the samples that
drive digital pianos. The myth is that it is difficult to mike pianos, really when often
it only would be ugly and a little unwieldy.

Clark