Real/digital/silence system

[Ritz]

Hello piano lovers,

I have a few questions I hope you can answer for me.

The situation is as follows. I live in a flat so 10 years ago I decided that my housing and budget made buying a piano impossible, so I bought synthesizer.
Nowadays I only play piano pieces on it, so you can imagine my frustration about the electronic sound and the shortage of octaves. I can afford a real piano now, but I still live in a flat (built in 1970). I have no idea how much the sound will penetrate the walls and wooden floor.

Is it possible (social) to have a piano in a flat?

Of course I have considered buying a digital piano, but after playing on some, I'm afraid to make the same mistake I made 10 years ago. It's just not the real thing.
Now there are also "silent piano's". I particularly like the "silent" sound of Yamaha (as compared to Kawai and Technics), but is it also a better system?

And finally my last question: How does such a "silent system" compare to a digital piano?

[Axtremus]

I've seen acoustic pianos in flats before... but it really depends on the building and how tolerant your neighbours are, doesn't it?

A "silent piano" these days is basically a digital piano built inside an acoustic piano's case --  you're playing on the wooden keys of an acoustic, but as soon as you turn on the silent mode, you'll be hearing sound that comes off of the digital piano.

Why not go play some top-of-the-line digital pianos, those with the full 88-key keyboard, sampled sound (i.e., not synthesized), pedals, and weighted touch, then see if it's close enough to a real piano that you can live with it?

Go ito a piano store, ask to play digital pianos that are as close to a real piano as possible, try a few different brand/models, and see if you find digital piano an acceptable option.

Good luck!

[jr11]

Hi Ritz!  Do you ever get complaints from neighbours from playing you're playing your stereo or TV too loudly? Can you hear your neighbour's noise? Perhaps ask yourself if you might find it tough to listen to a semi-muffled piano playing scales and broken bits of pieces for hours a day. I have several friends with pianos in apartments, and when I start to play they always ask me to "not play too hard because of the neighbours". To practice effectively under this type of restriction wouldn't work for me at all.

After the frustration of trying to voice properly on an upright when used to a grand, I would debate whether an upright is the real thing either. Frankly, my digital voices much better, because no matter how gently the keys are depressed, the note still sounds. As long as a keyboard has 88 keys and an industry-standard weighted action, I am happy enough.

Digitals are cheaper than accoustics. They are easy to move and store. They do not require tuning and the maintenance an accoustic does. You can play through a speaker and control the volume, or through headphones. A few sounds like strings, electric piano, and a couple organ voices are useful, and sound very nice and refreshing with some pieces (try Bach).

Now that I have made a convincing argument for the digital, I would like to point out the obvious shortcoming as well... a digital is NOT a piano, but we are piano players. If we consider ourselves keyboard players instead (ie: accept that instruments are different and exploit their advantages), suddenly we become more complete and versatile musicians. Even a Steinway D is just an expensive hunk 'a firewood without a competent musician behind it.

[Axtremus]

If we consider ourselves keyboard players instead (ie: accept that instruments are different and exploit their advantages), suddenly we become more complete and versatile musicians.

Great advise! Great attitude!

[Ritz]

Thank you very much.

I must have played on the wrong digital piano's, because today I convinced myself (with help from you) that it's better to buy a very good digital piano, then to buy an average upright piano with silent mode.

I just bought a Yamaha CLP170PE.