The digital piano thread
Do you own one? Is it in addition to owning an acoustic piano?
I own a Kawai ES920, which is my main practice instrument. I do own an acoustic piano as well, as many of you know, but it's a monster concert grand, so I cannot practice late in the evening for obvious reasons.
I find that my digital piano fulfills its role perfectly. Of course I will never find the sound of a digital to be as enjoyable as that of an acoustic instrument, but I still prefer my digital piano to an upright acoustic one, because I find its action to be closer to that of a grand piano, which it was designed to mimic.
What's your digital piano story? What led you to choosing the one you currently own? Let's discuss!
60 replies
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I have just now purchased a Kawai CA901. I am currently using a Roland FP-10 so it will be a substantial upgrade. I have 2 young children so the time that I get to play is usually when we get them to sleep. I play with headphones the majority of the time. Would love to get an acoustic further down the track, perhaps if my kids take a liking to the instrument it can be a reward for me... I mean, them. Does anyone have experience playing the CA901, I have heard only good things and am very much looking forward to its delivery next week!
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Another underrated advantage of digitals: the possibility to choose between different piano tones! Just the other day, after too much Liszt practice (with the default SK Concert Grand tone), I explored the other piano tones for the first time and stumbled upon a magnificient (to me) "Pop grand" tone. I almost never play pop, but it inspired me to record something in that genre, namely my transcription of an italian pop song😅, "In assenza di te". My playing is probably too slow (I'm never sure which tempi to choose with pop), but listen the the beauty of the Pop Grand tone by Kawai. Sure, it may sound artificial, but I believe that's kind of the point here!:
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Ok so this isn't even really a "digital piano", but in addition to my acoustic piano, I have a 20 year old M-AUDIO midi keyboard, the most basic 88key version (they still make the exact same model, last I checked). It feels nothing like a real piano, and has a glitch where treble notes will sometimes play at full velocity against my will, but I love it because I use it with Pianoteq and the virtual instruments are soooo good. Apart from experimenting with various historical instrument sounds, I mainly use it for composing, and any grind-y practise that I don't want to bother my neighbors or housemates with. Because the keys are so light, it's much easier to slip and hit adjacent notes than on a real piano, so anything I practise to performance standard on the midi keyboard is basically impossible to get wrong on a real piano!