Are digital instruments easier to play?

[Derek]

So, I've been playing piano about ten years now. I started out on an acoustic upright, eventually my parents got a grand piano, and then finally I got a digital when I moved out on my own. There's no question but that my playing is dramatically better on the digital than these other two instruments. Does this simply mean that digitals are easier to play? Since I'm an amateur, I'm thinking of simply embracing this fact. I'm sure I'll continue to play acoustic pianos, but the reality is...I play better on digitals. I'd go so far as to say digitals spoil me, they make me sound better than I really am. That being the case is it "wrong" to keep playing them? 

[quantum]

With the ease in playing digital, also comes with the limitations of playing digital.  Such instruments do not possess the ability to direct as fine granularity of control that an acoustic instrument does.  While an acoustic possess vastly more creative potential, it also comes with the additional demand to control and direct such potential. 

If you understand the differences between acoustic and digital and can make music convincingly on digital, I see nothing wrong with that. 

Personally I find acoustic pianos easier to play, especially in an ensemble setting.  Using a digital piano in an ensemble, you often find yourself riding the volume slider in order to achieve appropriate balance.   

[monkeydudexd]

the only thing about digitals, for me, is that it's very hard to have 'bad tone.' all the notes are always in tune, but it lacks something natural and doesn't allow the pianist to express as much raw emotion. when i play an acoustic, i can imagine the strings vibrating and can almost feel the vibrato, but on a digital, it's kind of missing an element of... reality? don't know how to put it. in my opinion, it is much harder to play an acoustic and sometimes i get frustrated because i produce a bad tone on an acoustic compared to my digital.

[jimbo320]

Playing an acoustic piano is heavier on the keys and like Monkeydude says, the real feel of the strings is missing. I play digitals and synths mostly because of portability and all the different sounds. I love the feeling of a grand but try to lug one around. If there's one handy, I'll play it. Otherwise I play my gear. A lot can be said for good sound effects too ya know....

[oxy60]

And if you are buried in a wall of sound, you will still need to mike up the grand. Bringing the grand up to the sound around you requires some careful engineering because depending where you place the mikes you may amplify your piano along with everybody else.

Has anyone heard of a stereo wah-wah pedal? I've seen them in mono but I want to run both of my keyboard outputs through one. Then I won't need to take my hands off the keys to move the slider when I need to make big changes in the volume.

[jimbo320]

Oxy60,
If I understand your question correctly you need to plug a wah-wah pedal to two keyboards? I use one pedal, an Ibanez WD7, and a split-chord with one jack at one end and two jacks at the other. One keyboard is a Yamaha PSR and the other an Alesis Micron. Both which is plugged into the pedal and the pedal into a home-made switch pedal which is plugged to a pre-amp and a Leslie amp. This system works well. Was this your problem? 

[oxy60]

Thank you jimbo! No this is not my problem but your solution is very ingenious.

My Yamaha piano keyboard puts out a stereo signal which if used through two speakers gives a very realistic and full sound. (It's the same system as they use on their "console" pianos to get a realistic sound.)

What I want to do is to be able to control the volume on both channels with my foot, hence my question.

I saw your solution last night in action coupling a nord and a roland. It worked well because the nord and the roland both put out mono signals. As the evening wore on things got louder and the keyboard man just pushed his "pedal to the metal."

EDIT: After serious looking based on some information from the keyboard player last night I found a volume pedal that can handle two active channels. Problem solved!

[hbofinger]

This is an interesting thread. Before I put in my five cents worth, a quick background: I play classical, and had training in a prepatory division at a University here in Washington, D.C.

I started out on a full upright by the Wellington Cable Company from Pennsylvania. Enough said. The problem I ran into was the action. So my dad bought me an old, run down 6" Blüthner. The pinblock was shot, so I learned how to tune (somewhat). But I could not complain about the action anymore. My father passed away very suddenly, my mother made me sell the thing, and for years I did not play.

Then, when I was able to, I bought what seemed to be a perfectly fine starter piano - a Samick upright. I got back to working with my piano professor. Within a short period of time, I ran again into the limitations of the action, at speed, and of course the tone. So this time I decided to really solve the problem for good, and bought a Bösendorfer 200 grand. Which, five years later, I sold again, because of big changes (gave up apartment where I kept it, moved in with girlfriend (now wife), and so on). 

So for many years I did not play, and then I got seduced by simply spending $1,500 on a Kawai digital. Boom! Up went the practice time, Schubert and Beethoven were back in my life, and so on. I kind of felt sheepish - what would I tell my friends, after a Bösi 200 to a Kawai digital!!! I think even the salesmen at the dealership where looking at me kind of funny.

So here is what I think: Digitals are perfectly good for working in basic technique and learning a piece. They are very unforgiving, much more so then acustic pianos. But they are not good for the actual finishing and building the final performance presentation. If you get one with a good action, however, they beat a bad acustic piano by a long shot. I like the fact that when I am working on a challenging piece I can practice it without anyone hearing my mistakes, and I hear with absolute clarity what I am doing wrong. But I also now that it does not replace working on a real instrument. So for me the philosophy is: Own both. Have a digital to do your basic working in, use the acustic to make it art. No - I don't think digitals are not really easier to play, by the way. They may be easier to work with, but in the end I see the digital as a simulator for the real thing. Today I had the chance to try out my work on Beethoven's Tempest first movement on a C. Bechstein B. It is really interesting how things that seem hard on the digital are easier on this quality level of a piano.

[jimbo320]

Oxy60,
After reading your last post I now got a grasp on your original question. Glad the whole thing got solved.
FYI:My PSR and Micron both put out in stereo too but the PSR only has one output female jack so a split stereo guitar chord does the job. Left side is the tip of the jack and right side is the post. The post and tip are separated by a washer looking ring. As long as I use this chord the stereo effect is delivered through the pedal. The split chord is stereo at each jack so one end of the split is plugged into My PSR and the other into My Micron, which needs it's own split chord  because of two mono output females, with the single end into my pedal. Another split stereo chord with the single end on the output side of the pedal and the two split ends are going to two separate amps and wahla.

[oxy60]

That pedal is made by Ernie Ball and sold at Guitar Center +/- $165. It does so many things that I need to study it a little to get the best results.

That cord you're talking about has TSR plugs. You and I call them stereo but the correct name is TSR (tip send, ring return). My mixing board has special effects loop jacks and I'm supposed to plug in a TSR plug and cord that splits into two mono plugs that would go the effects processor.

[jimbo320]

That's how my Micron works....

[lostinidlewonder]

I was forced to practice with a digital for 5 years, it might feel easier on the fingers but the pedal will not help your understanding. Pedal on digtals in my experience have all been rough estimations of the real instrument. You never get the right notes sustained and notes always tend to disappear the more you add to a sustained passage. I have also played digitals (older Yamaha Clavinova's) which have action that is much heavier and stiffer than the average real piano.

Digital pianos might not require tuning but after a while of heavy playing the sensitivity of the keys is reduced. My digital after 5 years of playing was totally broken, about 1/3 of the keys played at full volume no matter how softly you played. You need to hire technicians or open the digital yourself and fix the contacts (not really worth your time).

The overall sound of digitals is dead and lifeless. I have played very expensive digitals at piano shows and have been quite impressed but after playing on them for a little while you do notice that it has only one character to it, not like a real piano which can shape itself around your physical transfer to the keyboard, digitals tend to always be estimations an produce the same shades of sound with no real subtle variation. I speak for professional and advanced pianists, certainly the digital is a perfect instrument for those still developing their piano skills.

Many of my students use digitals and it works very well for them, but a few have advanced past the use of their digitals. I let some early beginners use their cheap keyboards which do not even have pedals and cover about 1/2 the keys of a real piano! It works for them, some get more interested in piano then invest in a better instrument. Digitals are a fine instrument for most people but for the more serious pianist digitals should only be used to practice your fingering and play around with other instrument sounds! I have to admit I love playing Bach on my Korg digital with Cathedral organ setting, then set it on loudest and scare my whole neighborhood




 

[jimbo320]

Very interesting post Lost but that's not what we use the pedals we're talking about for. The pedals we're talking about are wah-wahs for controlling volume. I guess I'm spoiled. I don't care for clavs either. To me the action is sort of stiff feeling. I love how a grand sounds and plays but try lugging one around...

[lostinidlewonder]

Yeah I was just talking about the experience I have had with the pedal of digitals vs real piano and wasn't considering what you guys where talking about