What is the difference between acoustic piano and digital piano

Instead of just a piano sound, they can switch between brass instruments, strings, percussion and even cool sound effects. As a teacher, these pianos are fun to work with because they contain other features like metronomes, digital assistants, play-along accompaniments, transposition and more. Acoustic pianos might not offer a variety of sounds, but they do offer the purest piano sound one can hope to achieve.

The sound is produced from a real soundboard with copper strings, hammers, dampers, pedals and the instruments wood casing. An investment in something like this Yamaha keyboard would give the be the best comparison to an acoustic piano. Tuning is something that simply has to be done. In fact, you can change the tuning to any pitch you want via modulation controls.

At most you might have to purchase new batteries, blow dust out of the keys and replace cables and pedals; all very small costs. The touch and feel of pianos are really important; especially in performance and practice. Outside of price, this is where digital and acoustic pianos have the biggest separation. Digital pianos are known for their extremely light key action.

They almost feel weightless, so as a result pianists can play extremely fast on them with little effort. That might seem great on the surface, but dig deeper and it presents a tough situation when transitioning to an acoustic instrument. This is because some weighted and semi-weighted digital pianos use a spring mechanism for key resistance. Digital pianos with hammer action, however, do a much better job at replicating an acoustic piano.

These digital pianos have a lever mechanism and small hammer built-in so that you can get the feeling of natural weight and resistance. Ultimately a pianist needs to have a good hammer feel to be as expressive as possible. Digital pianos are low cost and are quite durable. Something durable like the Yamaha Smart Piano or Clavinova would be an excellent choice. I actually advocate against getting a digital piano that needs a keyboard stand in order to be used.

This is because the likelihood of a child knocking it over is quite high. The primary factor that requires attention is the strings. Tuning drift is common across nearly every acoustic instrument, whether guitars, violins, oboe, or even drums. What separates the piano from those instruments is complexity. Tuning a cello or guitar is as easy as turning a knob.

Even drums can be tuned within minutes, given the right knowhow a must for jazz drummers. Professional tuners and equipment are necessary because of the strings per key and due to the slight pitch variations that give the piano its rich sound. Depending on the moisture conditions of where your piano is situated, these tuning sessions may need to happen anywhere between once every 2 years to once every 3 months. A friend of mine had a Yamaha CLP-series console digital piano, which he bought second-hand in , and it still functions well today 7 years old at the time of writing.

It has only required maintenance once throughout this period. The problem? Fun fact! If a piano string breaks, professional help is required. Everything mechanical will undergo wear and tear over time, and pianos are no different. The many moving parts will deteriorate slowly, hindering your experience and requiring external help which is not cheap. A report showed that acoustic upright sales have dropped by Even professionals face the conundrum of deciding whether tens of thousands of dollars of investment is worth it for their job or hobby.

For absolute beginners, there is no reason to go with an acoustic piano. In fact, for the longest time, price was the biggest barrier to entry, something budget digital pianos have remedied wonderfully. The biggest pro of digital pianos is their affordability. Digital piano models are available at nearly every price point.

Similarly, massive console-style keyboards are both good practice options and excellent furniture pieces, ideal for people who want something closer to the real deal. Speaking of the massive console digital pianos , they are often cheaper than a brand-new acoustic piano. Even uprights tend to go for higher asking prices, which is further compounded by the next point. Acoustic pianos sound absolutely amazing, but there are many major downsides compared to their digital counterparts.

Cost is a major factor and may be the primary turn-off for most people. My friends taking graduate and undergraduate level courses in music have a digital piano for practice outside of class, yet clock in as many hours as they can on the university acoustics. Their skills are nothing to scoff at, and I believe that the best of both worlds is ideal if the option presents itself.

The hassle of maintenance and the constantly increasing cost of ownership is something I find hard to swallow, so the choice is clear for stingy spenders like me. As someone who occasionally performs live, I need a portable solution that produces more than a single piano sound. For someone like me, digital pianos are the only option.

That said, I love the sound of acoustic pianos. For a good record, the sound is always worth the hassle. For more practical purposes though, I prefer a digital piano. The modern grand piano comes in a few variations, but they include most of the improvements made throughout history. The hammer mechanisms are responsive but retain a large degree of dynamic expressiveness , and the 3- and 2-string per key standard has been adopted wholesale. The other word in the name, concert , describes where you would commonly find these pianos.

They are often seen in concert halls, which help enhance the naturally wide sound these pianos produce. Many digital pianos, even from other manufacturers, include C7 or CFX samples due to their versatility. The Steinways are more classically modeled and have a richer low end which some may consider muddy , taking inspiration from Romanticism era grands with their thicker strings.

While concert grands are amazing, their cost is a little unrealistic for the general public. However, alternatives do exist for the acoustic purists. These pianos may not be in the spotlight much, but they are common purchases among those who want the rich tones and stylistics of a concert grand without the monstrous price tag. I have mixed recordings of baby grands. The internal structures are certainly similar, but the smaller size means stereo recordings lack the same sense of width as their full-sized counterparts.

Note: Most acoustic pianos have 88 keys and therefore have approximately the same width. This is the budget option of this category, and it is also part of the American accessibility resurgence we briefly covered in the history section. This model brought the piano to the masses, giving a large portion of the population a chance to actually learn this instrument.

Chances are, you can attribute a lot of modern music to the inception of the acoustic upright. These pianos are compressed versions of the classic grand design, but by no means simplified. Typically, a acoustic piano is going to produce a much louder sound when played whilst maintaining high quality. Although digital pianos can sometimes be plugged into further amplification, this is often at the expense of their already inferior sound quality.

Of course, in some cases, the quieter nature of digital pianos can be beneficial, especially if you have neighbours who you are keen not to disturb. One of the biggest differentiators between a digital and acoustic piano is the experience you have when playing them. There is something majestic about sitting as a grand piano, lifting the fallboard and feeling the weight of the keys beneath your fingers as you play.

Those who appreciate great craftmanship will also love being in the presence of a custom-made piano. This is why we offer our customers the option of a transparent lid so you can see the strings and workings of the piano underneath.

Digital pianos do not offer the same experience in terms of quality. When these vibrations combine with the resonances of strings other than the ones that were struck, it creates a unique sound. In contrast, the digital piano has no strings. Each key is a switch to produce a specific sound, so to speak. An electronic tone generator produces the sounds, which are amplified using a speaker. Digital pianos made by Yamaha are equipped with hammers, though.

These are not for the purpose of striking the strings, as with an acoustic piano, but instead are employed to capture the dynamics with which the key is played, yielding a dynamic response to touch that more closely approximates the experience of playing an acoustic piano.

When the key is depressed: The hammer rises sharply for a touch response comparable to that of a piano. When the key is released: The key returns to its resting position naturally under the weight of the hammer. In an acoustic piano, the tone varies infinitely according to the pianist's touch. It is an instrument that can bring out emotions by playing musical pieces with great expressiveness. At the same time, advances in technology have made it possible for digital pianos to reproduce sounds very close to those of an acoustic piano, and even the feel of the keyboard can be closely simulated by various mechanisms.

Musical Instrument Guide.