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Pianos

PostPosted: 22 Aug 2018 12:07
by Brian007
Hi ALL,

I read a lot of posts where the keyboard player say that the pianos are not to their liking on their keyboards, I am no expert but these sound pretty good to me




Brian007

Re: Pianos

PostPosted: 22 Aug 2018 15:11
by dragon
Going back about forty years or so whenever organists met and discussed new models the first question always asked was ' What's the piano like?' That question is rarely asked these days. .. Fred

Re: Pianos

PostPosted: 22 Aug 2018 17:55
by Brian007
Hi Fred,

Must be honest I never really bothered that much myself until lately, but as I have grown older I have moved away from guitars and organs
and now more into Brass and Pianos, funny how things change

Brian007

Re: Pianos

PostPosted: 22 Aug 2018 22:10
by Hugh-AR
Brian,

There wasn't a lot of difference in the sound of those pianos and I would be happy with any of them. But to me, the most important part of playing a piano is having a 'loud' pedal, as I used to call it.

From Wikipedia:
A sustain pedal or sustaining pedal (also called damper pedal, loud pedal, or open pedal) is the most commonly used pedal in a modern piano. It is typically the rightmost of two or three pedals. When pressed, the sustain pedal "sustains" all the damped strings on the piano by moving all the dampers away from the strings and allowing them to vibrate freely. All notes played will continue to sound until the vibration naturally ceases, or until the pedal is released.

This lets the pianist sustain notes which would otherwise be out of reach, for instance in accompanying chords - and accomplish legato passages (smoothly connected notes) which would have no possible fingering otherwise. Raising the sustain pedal also causes all the strings to vibrate sympathetically with whichever notes are being played, which greatly enriches the piano's tone.

How to use the sustain pedal is the essence of playing the piano, and without it you may have a 'piano sound' but not a piano you can play 'as a piano'. And that for me is the problem. On my AR I do have a nice sounding piano, and I can adjust the 'sustain' on it (how long the note 'holds') but this is not the same as what you get when you use the loud pedal on a real piano. And that last comment in the Wikipedia description above, the vibrating of other strings in sympathy with whichever notes are being played, will tell you that the piano is a very difficult instrument to replicate electronically. This vibrating of other strings will cease as soon as you take your foot off the 'loud' pedal and the piano will sound different in this mode.

Listening to the above YouTube DEMO it seems to me that he has just increased the 'sustain' of the notes in general and all the notes he plays just run one into the other. Sounds a bit 'messy' to me. This is not how a piano really sounds.

Hugh

Re: Pianos

PostPosted: 22 Aug 2018 22:38
by Hugh-AR
Here is a recording I have done on my AR using the 'piano' voice. I'm very happy with how this sounds, but I am just playing single notes, so can hold a note down and let it fade away naturally, or lift my finger off the note which stops it sounding immediately, as in a real piano. Another effect I have is I can alter the 'attack', which basically means the harder I hit the note the louder it sounds. This is what happens when you play a real piano, but I must qualify this statement for what actually happens when you play a keyboard. It is the speed at which you play the note that makes it louder, not how hard you hit it. My local organ/keyboard engineer says he can always tell when one of his customers 'used to play a piano' before playing a keyboard as they make holes in the membrane under the keys by continually 'hammering' them, a technique that is not necessary when playing a keyboard.

https://app.box.com/s/8e13554oifoynptwn7ye8363i3gcg2jw

Hugh

Re: Pianos

PostPosted: 23 Aug 2018 06:40
by Brian007
Hi Hugh,

That was a nice performance of that number, which I thought you played pretty well, the piano sounded good to me,

All the best, Brian007

Re: Pianos

PostPosted: 23 Aug 2018 09:56
by Hugh-AR
Topic continued here ...

viewtopic.php?f=323&t=6637