Hi Gary!
first let me clarify what i said above.. the atmosphere im talking about is just the sound of the instrument. i think im looking for the overtones, that's why i guessed that u were playing on a digital piano.. or maybe the recrding equipment? don't know.
You are absolutely correct. I live in a small condo, and I have absolutely NO privacy. At work, I teach on an electronic keyboard, and most of my students start out with simply 61 key keyboards because their parents do not have the money to invest in a real piano BEFORE they find out if their kids are serious. But the Yamaha I use at work is far superior to most of the accoustic pianos my students are playing on at home, those who have them, which are out of tune, out of regulation, etc. You know what it's like playing on such beasts.
I had a 7 foot Yamaha grand, but it was destroyed in a fire, along with everything else I owned. However—and I have to stress this—if I still had that piano, I would have no place to put it. We don't even have room for it. When you have a family, you have to make some hard, hard choices. At least working on an electronic instrument allows me to play and record, usually well after mignight. And the reason is that I am able to work with earphones, allowing me to work until I drop without bothering anyone.
I've had many years of experience now trying to "beat the best" out of these electronic things, and although they can be quite nice at times, and they are very convenient for recording (since "splicing", or the electronic version of that), is so simple, you are quite right. Tone color is missing. For me, such a piano is at its absolute worst in miniatures. Sometimes it sounds quite good in other kinds of music, but I miss the soft pedal (una corda, which should really be due corde), because it introduces a whole extra set of sounds or colors. The keyboard I use at work, though inferior in sound to what I have at home in most ways (only a P-250, very artificial sounding and TERRIBLE sound in the very upper treble) has a much better feel, and the soft pedal there actually creates a change in sound. It is also programmable, meaning that I can set how "strong" the effect is.
I think that's what you are missing more than anything else when you listen. It's what I miss. The soft pedal on this old Clavinova simply decreases the velocity recorded as the keys strike, and that creates a slight difference in perceived sound, since playing softer, of course, always causes a change in perceived "tone". But it's not enough. So if, for example, you want to repeat a phrase, first very softly with all three strings, then the same phrase with only two, perhaps softer but not necessarily, it's just not there.
The problem? The technology is available to make a much more realistic sounding electronic piano, but it is not being used, and I don't foresee it happneing. Unfortunately.
So there's the story of the piano. That's why I've said that I cuss at the piano. I need the extra "takes" to get things right, because something I could nail in my sleep on a great piano will always screw up somewhere. A note won't sound, another sticks out. It's harder to get the keys to strike at the same time too. Woes of recording.
Thank you for the kind words. As I've said elsewhere, my family just barely survived Wilma in Broward County, and I'm not exactly feeling at the top of the world right now.
All the best,
Gary
Topic: Kinderscenen