Digital versus Acoustic Pianos / Kawai

Gevaert Pierre pierre.gevaert at belgacom.net
Sun Jan 20 06:56:53 MST 2008


And how would you name this new Kawai  CA91 which combines an electronic
keyboard and a real soundboard ?

If I understood the electronic sound is transmitted with transducers and
metal rods to a spruce soundboard.

I don’t like electronic keyboards but I’ve read that this one produces good
sounds.

 

Pierre Gevaert

 

  _____  

De : pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] De la part
de tompiano at bellsouth.net
Envoyé : dimanche 20 janvier 2008 13:40
À : Pianotech List
Objet : Re: Digital versus Acoustic Pianos

 

They aren't pianos. They are electronic keyboards. Part of the appeal of a
piano ( over a keyboard) include points you've correctly stated. However,
add the element of an omni-directional soundwave ( which a piano produces)
vs the 2 dimensional soundwave ( of any electronic device with a speaker)
and you have a stark difference in tonal ambiance. In the 70's there was
much mumbling and groaning of the fact that the electronic keyboard's
popularity would take over the piano industry by the year 2000. The
prediction was for a demise of the piano industry soon after 2000. 

Well, well, well...that hasn't been the case. If anything, the introduction
of the keyboard has helped put into perspective how nice a piano is. 

Add also the fact that the keyboard's lifespan is, what 5-8 yrs. And also to
the fact that the value of the keyboard drops  as fast as a computer.

The keyboards have their place. Our family owns one and we enjoy it for it's
convience, it's mobility, and you can use headphones those moments. But
that's as far as the positives go,I find keyboards very boring and
unteresting to play. 

  

Tom Servinsky

-------------- Original message from "Lorenzo Lacovara" <Lacovara at msn.com>:
-------------- 

 

I originated this thread and feel that I did not articulate more clearly the
problem I have with digital "pianos".

 

1. Touch sensitivity. I play the piano and have to date not found a single
digital instrument that has the touch sensitivity of even the worst
acoustical. This seems to do mostly with the length of the key and
associated leverage. There are big differences between playing arpeggios on
longer keys where the weight is more uniform because of the action geometry.
and keys that are short and artificially loaded by springs.

 

2. The sound board in an acoustical piano sums  (read capital Sigma) the
vibrations that are transmitted to it via the bridge from all currently
moving strings thus, providing the unique characteristics of individual
instruments.

 

For those more familiar with the artists of the "Golden age of piano"  is it
possible to imagine Horowitz playing his version of the Liszt second
Hungarian Rhapsody on a Beckstein?? Or more recently, Murray Perahia
playing Mozart on a Bosendorfer Imperial?. Digital Instruments flatten them
all out into the same glat-kultur sound.

 

Yes , digital instruments certainly do have a place, but certainly not as
solo instruments.

 

I just have a real hard time calling them pianos.

 

Lorenzo Lacovara

 

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