Hi to all,

I see often on this forum guys to say the piano sound of this KB is good, or not, or very bad ...I accept this is a personal taste and very subjectif..But..
As a pianist I'm just curious to hear how you test this sound ?

- Do you play with chords on the left hand,and one finger with the right hand ? Do you play with rhythms..
- Do you play in full KB with your two hands,
with one finger on the right or with all your fingers like a real pianist ?
- What kind of music are you playing for this test ? Classic, jazz, pop ,scales ....or just listen to the demo??

If you find this topic have any intrest, please give your "point of view"...

Regards,

Daddy JJ

[This message has been edited by Daddy JJ (edited 01-05-2004).]

DaddyJJ,
Everyone will differ on their opinion when judging a piano sound. I've heard some say they love the Yamaha pianos in PSR's, and some say they've heard better on cheaper Casio's Personally I listen for several things. I listen for a natural sound.., listening to see if the sample has noticable looping. I also listen for realistic characteristics such as string noise, hammers hitting strings. I also look for velocity switching in the sound.. A good sampled piano will have this.. A good example: Test the lower reigister. Hit a key with medium force, and then hit it hard.. When you hit it hard you should hear more of a metallic ring, as this is what happens on a real acoustic. If the keyboard is only 61 keys, I will always use the octave shift and test both the upper and lower registers to see what they sound like.. Sometimes a keyboard will sound great on the 61 keys, but when you listen to lower and upper rigisters they don't sound so good. I also listen to how long the sample is, meaning I'll hit the key with medium pressure and listen to how long it takes for it to fade out..

Squeak

Daddy JJ,

You are absolutely right--it is very subjective. Having listened to dozens of pianos from various manufacturers, they too have vast differences in sound. With a keyboard, if the sound it produces is not the same, full, rich sound that comes from the mid range of a grand piano, then to me, that keyboard is not worth owning.

Gary

Last year we had a similar discussion that resulted in the "Piano Shootout" that can be found here:
http://www.svpworld.com/tyrospiano.htm

Basically, the idea was to compare the then-new Yamaha Tyros acoustic piano with other digital piano emulations in as fair a manner as possible that would allow listeners to judge for themselves the quality of the piano sounds that were presented. I created three midi files consisting of scale walk-ups at two consistant velocities and a full-keyboard rendition of "Moon River". These midi files were then played on many different keyboards and MP3 files were created and posted so that each keyboard's best acoustic piano sound could be compared directly with the others. Although this was not meant to be a contest, it was very interesting to see that there was no "winner" anyway - practically everyone who listened and offered their opinion had a different preference of what made for the "best" acoustic piano.

If you haven't checked it out yet then it's well worth a listen.

To my ears the Tyros has the best piano sound I've ever heard on a keyboard--arranger or not. It almost made me buy one.
DonM

I would suggest anyone that hasn't played a Promega (Promega 3,2)Piano (aka, DRAKE piano) must truly hear one for themselves, spend some time with the piano. Honestly, I have NEVER heard anyone say anything but praises about this instrument. Unlike any digital piano out there, it doesn't have sample switching that has always been a distraction to myself when playing; I personally almost forget that I am playing a digital piano whilst I am playing it with headphones on, or a really good pair of speakers with ample sub frequencies.

I agree with all the comments on tone in this thread. One thing I would do is play every note chromatically up the keyboard and listen for abrupt changes in the samples as you move up the keyboard. Although multisampling is how all digital pianos work, change between sample sets should be smooth and relatively unperceptable in normal playing. Also sustain the notes to hear how they decay over time. The velocity response is also important to making a piano feel good.

And try the piano out using headphones. Speaker systems will always color sound, but headphones give a much truer image of the actual sound even if it may sometimes not sound as good. Any imperfections in the sound quality will be much easier to hear. If you can easily bypass the onboard effects then you will get an even clearer impression of the sound because reverb can often be used to mask sound problems.


[This message has been edited by Nigel (edited 01-08-2004).]