DIGITAL PIANOS


Should I get a digital over an acoustic piano?

More and more as time passes digital technology is replacing physical media. Slowly books are becoming eBooks as they are more practical, you can fit your entire library in one portable device and back it up, CD’s would scratch, digital audio is saved on a server that is backed up by a company several times. In a word, digital formats are more practical.

Tonal quality of digital pianos

But are digital pianos purely digital? The top models attempt to replicate wooden soundboards and the synthetic resonance (combined sound) of the mechanical parts of a piano. Speaker technology is the weakest link in terms of the main difference in tonal quality from an acoustic instrument.

Top end digital piano sounds struggle when they meet the  real world. Whereas words on a page will be the same or similar to words on a screen. Audio prescribes to the physical law of sound which technology is catching up on, but not quite there. It’s similar to the difference between the experience of using a digital stylus and using a pencil, the grip, the shading, the infinite sensitivity. There is a difference in investment which reflects itself in the speed of digital piano development. In the tablet world companies are pouring in millions towards competing to a mass market, the digital piano market may lag slightly in investment. The larger the market the faster the pace of progress.

When Digital Pianos will help and when they aren’t good enough


kawai digital piano with wooden soundboard

A Kawai CA-97 has a wooden soundboard. You can hear the difference, even feel it, compared to those without.

The case, soundboard, frame, adjacent strings, legs and lyre of a good acoustic piano will resonate sympathetically to the notes you play. The whole instrument is vibrating sympathetically to the note you’ve placed. Adjacent strings, soundboard, case, frame will all vibrate in harmony generating the unique sound of a piano. Manufactures craft all the components for the aim of a natural rich tone. On digital pianos you are listening to the tone of a piano reproduced through speakers of a specified wattage from defined positions. Whereas the whole of an acoustic piano is resonating to the hammer that has just struck.

Identity – Instead of a unique acoustic fingerprint, the piano is the same as the next digital piano sound of another digital. Each digital piano from a manufacturer includes a recording or a digital modelling that is identically the same as the previous one. They are a recording or modelling of a top range concert grand piano either a Steinway D, Bosendorfer, Yamaha concert piano or similar. The most popular being Yamaha and Steinway.

However, we understand that in some cases an acoustic will not fit or be convenient. Several of our clients for instance part exchange their grand piano for a digital piano when moving into a shared space such as a retirement home where personal practice with headphones is important. For that reason we aim to provide the best digital pianos that provide a piano-like experience.

The top manufacturers are Japanese Kawai, Roland and Yamaha. All of them are based in the same city, Hamamatsu, Japan.

Action – the mechanics/feel of a piano

In the majority of cases when a piano student is using a lower-mid range quality digital piano the teacher will require them to upgrade to an acoustic as the spring action on a digital does not reinforce the muscle strength required for expressive and accurate piano playing.

The action of a piano marks the pleasure of your connection between the movements of your hands and the sound that is produced. The control you have allows increased nuances in expression and sensitivity in quiet playing. A good action will increase the amount of expression you have between fortissimo and pianissimo passages. Not too heavy that it is hard to play softly and not too light that it does not reinforce your finger muscles for increased control and perform on any weight piano action.

Keyboard imitation is perhaps the largest area of positive improvements in digital piano technology. Digital piano manufacturer Kawai appear to lead the way in this area with keys that pivot at the same length as acoustic pianos and imitate the pivotal difference between the black and white keys. Coupled with digital modelling which is no longer a sampling of different dynamics but provides an infinite number of dynamic expressions. A good wooden key action is not far from the real thing!

The Kawai CA97 and top range CS7 CS10 models include counter weights to imitate the weight and movement of the action and are wooden with the same washers as a grand piano. This makes for a pleasurable playing experience. We recommend coming to compare them with other digital pianos at our digital piano centre.

Other manufacturers such as Roland still use spring action keys. Whilst they feel accurate in their replicating an acoustic piano, their reasoning is that plastic keys will not morph under humidity variation in the environment.

digital pianos oxford comparison with acoustic

A Kawai wooden action, this is only included on the top digital models.

Initial cost, investment value and maintenance cost

For a top quality digital piano that includes a wooden soundboard and wooden keys, will cost c.£2.500. The price of a high quality, rich piano acoustic experience of an upright piano is from c.£1,900 – £10,000. From a Japanese/British upright to a German Steinway.

The value of a good quality German piano will maintain and potentially increase as the Asian market continues to show a great interest in these models, whereas the value of a digital will immediately drop and half way through the year as the next model is released, will likely loose around 1/4th of its value year on year. We have known clients to purchase a digital grand for £13,000 to then only sell it for c.£1,000 a few years later. An acoustic piano at £13,000 will likely be worth c.£5,000 within the same time period.

Acoustic pianos reached their culmination of development so whereas an older digital piano is much inferior to a new one due to sample size/modelling/action. An acoustic piano is much the same, hence the stability of value.

piano tuning. Steinway piano tuning pins
Acoustic piano

Conclusion

When purchasing a top quality digital piano you are purchasing a high quality imitation of an acoustic piano. And today models are developing rapidly as more companies invest into new technologies, with limitations in tonal quality. Roland and Kawai allow you to adjust and tone your own digital piano with an app to your taste. However, as with all digital devices, it is when they make the transition into the acoustic world of physics and synthetics that the speaker technology is not quite there yet. The action has been effectively been reproduced. Therefore as a second practice/night time practice/retirement home/student accommodation replacement of an acoustic, we recommend a digital piano. However for the best piano playing experience,  individual character of tone, look and touch we recommend a restored acoustic piano or a modern Japanese instrument.

The acoustic piano has a character to its tone that has inspired countless musical ideas and for now it will still maintain it’s unique tonal dominance until technology bridges several differences in sound creation that seem to currently only be achieved through wood, iron, steel, and copper.