The top of the line Yamaha Clavinova already achieves all of this. Their sampling and reproducing technology is simply amazing. It also has built in microphones that capture the sound of the surrounding environment and generates appropriate sympathetic strings sounds in response. Just like a real piano. Sitting side by side with a real piano you would still be able to easily tell the difference, and I think that will continue to be the major hurdle, but the lines are definitely blurring. -- Geoff Sykes -- Assoc. Los Angeles -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Porritt, David Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 11:19 AM To: Pianotech List Subject: RE: electronics replacing pianos Ric and all the others who worry about the acoustic piano going away: One of the things that we hear in an acoustic piano is the resonance of the other strings on the piano when a chord (or single note) are being played and the pedal is lifted. Lots of other sounds enter the picture. The CPU cycles needed to duplicate these effects and the programming to calculate them when the sustain pedal is in use are tremendous. I discussed this with the head of our Electronic Music department and he didn't think this would happen in his lifetime (and he's much younger than I). I think digital instruments will become a bigger and bigger part of the music market but I don't think I'm young enough to live until solo piano recitals are played on a digital keyboard. dp David M. Porritt dporritt at smu.edu -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of RicB Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 12:26 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: electronics replacing pianos All of which only goes to underline one of the main points I see in all this. The replica does not really need to ever fully reproduce the sound of the acoustic to be able to take over. It only needs to become good enough so that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks enough the the buying public... which as Stephane so eloquently points out are already so very willing to accept a vulgarization of the instrument, are seduced into buying the replica instead of the acoustic. Its a sad development in so many ways to be sure. Just today I was sitting most of the day with Edward Griegs old B having technical responsibilities for a recording session with Simax, and English recording studio. These thoughts this discussion deals with went through my mind several times this morning during the initial tuning, and I thought to myself.... my my my... when THIS so intimate connection between human and acoustic instruments disappears, what a sad day that will be... if it be. Ok... so I am afeared and and many others are far more optimistic. But in the end.... well... who was it that said there is no magic in our work, no soul to a piano ? If they ever do manage to fully imitate the acoustic world (and I rather believe sooner or later they will)... they do indeed have a major task in front of them. Cheers RicB I confess, I have no idea what a clavinova costs. The point is the same. My guess is that a lot of consumers would pay more for technology. Schools know the costs, they have done it for years. The 30 year old piano is sitting there and the school is on their 4th keyboard in 15 years. They spent a lot on replacement to save tuning costs. People buy it because they want it. The schools mission statement mentions the teaching of technology, some pricipals have asked music teachers to use their keyboards as part of the technology education. We buy stuff everyday that has no value the next and know that we have to upgrade. The larger point of the Yamaha ad is that I was astonished that they really left no room for the acoustic piano. Phil Mosley A complete new Yamaha grand action plus fancy keyboard for $2K? Seems hard to imagine.. Farrell
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