SouthPark
1.) The question was not whether an acoustic piano can satisfy a user of digital/computer/electronic technologies. The question was whether a hybrid piano can satisfy a grand user. Nobody who plays a grand piano AND is looking for a digital version of a grand piano (as the OPâs question presents) would want âpitch bendâ or any other such effects. Moreover, if anybody wanted any of those effects, a hybrid would not necessarily be the best choice - a workstation keyboard would.
2.) What you have linked to is ONE study done by an organization that clearly has an agenda and an interest in this technology (25th International Conference on Digital Audio Effects) that surveyed a tiny group of 52 people (only 29 of whom actually play the instrument at levels and genres that arenât disclosed and many of whom may not even be capable of differentiation). They played different random samples of 99 potential tracks, two real and two modeled - which means that not all of the surveyed people were listening to the same tracks. Thereâs no data to support whether it was truly random or not, no control group, no retests to confirm the results, no disclosure of whether it was double-blind or not. Thereâs no way to confirm this data. This is extremely unscientific and holds almost no merit. (And interestingly, they, too, also use the word ârealâ as a differentiator).
3.) I think at this point, whether based on what youâve posted here, or what youâve historically shared for those of us who are familiar with your posts: we are very, very, very clear on your opinion.
4.) That said, I disagree. Theyâre not all real pianos. Itâs not âdigital pianoâ and âacoustic pianoâ. Itâs âdigital pianoâ and âacoustic pianoâ. Notice the bolding. The âacoustic pianoâ is a piano, full stop, and the only reason we now put âacousticâ in front of it is because of the arrival of electronic versions, which necessitated differentiation. A âdigital pianoâ is an instrument that functions as an electronic and computerized approximation (and sometimes a superb one) of a real piano. They are not the same.
Youâve shared in the past that you believe that a piano is called that simply because it is an instrument that can be soft or loud and have a keyboard layout. That is untrue. A piano has a very specific definition, that is about more than itâs dynamic abilities and keyboard layout, and can be gleaned from the original name and invention descriptor the inventor gave it: Un Arpicembalo di Bartolomeo Cristofori di nuova inventione, che fa' il piano, e il forte, a due registri principali unisoni, con fondo di cipresso senza rosa, or âAn arpicembalo/harp-harpsichord by Bartolomeo Cristofori, of new invention, which plays soft and loud, with two unison principal registers (two sets of unison pitch strings), and a bottom/foundation (soundboard) made of cypress without roseâ.
It was never just the dynamic capabilities of the piano that make it a piano, as a clavichord, which existed before the piano, was capable of dynamic variation also. Not was it the keyboard layout used on pianos, as that layout was used two centuries before the piano even existed on the harpsichord and spinetta. Cristoforiâs own definition of his invention gives us insight into what makes a piano.
A piano, whether in itâs original form or the modern version of it, is an instrument made of metals, woods, and nowadays, plastic and carbon, that has 88 keys which trigger a complex system of levers, joints, and connect parts to cause a hammer to strike a string, and amplifies that sound with a bridge and other elements of the body, which can be horizontal or vertical. A digital piano is a computerized and electronic instrument which uses different technologies to emulate the full-stop piano.*
At present, there isnât a digital that is better at being a piano than a real piano. However there are many that are able to approximate it at superb levels, although requiring help to accomplish that goal. And as musical instruments, they are excellent, can even be better for certain use cases, and can also present other options and effects that an acoustic piano cannot. However, they are not better at simply being a piano than a piano.
