Thank you, Ken. Electronic keyboards have come a long way in their design and the sounds they are capable of producing and reproducing. There are some that somewhat resemble a real piano in their cabinetry. There are some that somewhat resemble a real piano in the touch and feel of their keyboards. There are some that produce sounds that do a pretty good job of imitating a real piano. So far, I've never played an electronic keyboard that has done a good job of imitating a high end, well tuned, well regulated piano. I have played a few of them that were way better than some of the low end pianos out there. To be fair, there are also some electronic keyboards that are little more than toys. I hardly even consider those to be worth bringing home from the store and don't even think of them in the same category as serious performance level electronic keyboards. The electronic keyboards that come closest to approaching a real piano often come with price tags that equal or exceed that of some pretty decent pianos. Plus, much of the sound that a keyboard produces or reproduces is dependant upon the quality levels of the audio system called upon to change those electronic signals into sound, and often, that's a very weak link. Given my choice between my old Roland Fantom X8 and a cheap Asian import at it's very best tuning and regulation, I'll go for the Roland every time. Sorry. Now when we get to something like a 6'+ M&H grand that's tweaked out to the max, my preferences definitely go in that direction. FWIW... I've been a part of a few Rodgers organ installations where they had both electronics and pipes. And even the "hell bent, pipes only or die" types couldn't tell the difference on some of those stops. The best sounds I've heard on electronic keyboards that are intended to be piano type sounds have been samples of real piano sounds carefully recorded at numerous levels. And the most irritating thing in that regard is the lack of good prep work to make the real piano being sampled sound the best it possibly can. The typical S&S killer octave twangs, honks, thunks and other noises are often recorded for all to hear every time that key on the keyboard is depressed. Keyboards may not be to everyone's liking, and in this group, I can understand why. But I believe they may have a place in our world as we know it. In my case, it's my only hope for a "piano resembling object" as I live fulltime in an rv. If it were not for a keyboard, I'd have nothing as I don't have the room or the weight capacity for the real thing. Just my reality... Brian From: kenneth.gerler at prodigy.net To: pianotech at ptg.org Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2011 20:00:30 -0600 Subject: Re: [pianotech] Electronic Keyboards - Piano Hide a bed For those of you that are not versed in the electronics of instruments with "piano like" keys on them, the manufacturers are going two ways. One is to make the instrument feel and work as closely to an acoustic piano as possible, and the other was to feel as closely to the feel of the electronic organ, not a Pipe Tractor organ - key that are very easy to play. Yamaha's latest product in the line to "feel" like a piano has transducers built into it so when you play it, the cabinet vibrates to feel like an acoustic piano. Ken Gerler -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110220/4eb37bbd/attachment-0001.htm>
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