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A sampled or modeled tone generator is not a hammer and string.

A speaker is not a soundboard.

Isn't that the truth.

All true. But I wonder if any of this applies to pianos anyway? DPs are not stressing the technical limits of their embedded computers. Rather, the limits are found in the way the sound signals are produced and in the way they're reproduced.

A sampled or modeled tone generator is not a hammer and string.

A speaker is not a soundboard.

In time, the straight line of Moore's "law" will curve downward and become asymptotic to a horizontal line.

Which means that the "law" doesn't hold up, and thus isn't a law.

I'd like to see an open soure DP also. A pure sampler would not be hard to implement but the samples are not easy to get and that is the part that really matters. How many people have a concert grand, an anechoic chamber and about $6,000 worth of microphones? That is a high bar to entry. The big trouble is always going to be getting the samples. OK there are studios near my house that rent time for only $50 an hour. But how to get a piano there?

As for the hardware, It takes more compute power than that. For example Pianoteq can't run on the Atom processor without turning off some features. They suggest using a dual core Intel chip. More sophisticated models will require more compute and DSP power. The sky is really the limit but even the high end of this range is getting cheap. By definition an open source project has the source availabel so it could be recompiled onto user's hardware, whatever that is. You would have to select a common, free Real-Time operating system.

Morodienne,

I prefer classical music to any other category for listening. I was not putting down classical music in any way. However, reality is reality. Chances are that one day the romantic lit of the mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which made the modern acoustic concert grand piano the 'beast' (that many refer to it as) will take its place with the instrument employed to make it next to Gregorian chant, baroque, etc. I do not know when and exactly how that will happen. I'm just making an observation.

In terms of practice and performance, each player can make his own judgment about what genre appeals to him and suits his particular talents. As I said, it's all good even though it's personally annoying to me when some derivative classical throwaway piece by Mozart or Haydn concocted for a Duke, Duchess, or even an Emperor is considered superior based on its genre to something like Chick Corea's My Spanish Heart.

I'll stand on my post despite your bruised feelings (which I in no way intended to provoke). Classical lit requires tremendous self-discipline to achieve mastery. Mastery is judged by the ability to execute all the prescribed details. Can you dispute the fact that in classical lit virtually everything is prescribed?

Every generation produces a few acoustic players who can simultaneously honor the composer's intent to the fullest yet somehow get beyond it, Richter being an example in my mind. However, even at the highest level of concert pianists, most performances break no new ground and are mainly judged in comparison to other recorded or simply recalled performances.

A digital piano offers deviant options. I use the word 'deviant' because those button pushes lead away from a dedication to mastery to a world of exploration. I honestly believe that the resistance of successful classical method piano teachers towards students with digital instruments is more about those deviant options than it is about a lack of action quality and/or precise action control.

For recreational players, exploration and whatever creativity results from it can be more fulfilling and more fun than the fulfillment of a relative mastery of prescribed lit. In contemporary lifestyle patterns, whether you like them or not, the trend is toward expression of self, not about revering the past. For this the digital is a better fit. That said, those who aspire toward mastery of classical lit have my total respect. It's an arduous lifelong endeavor with few external rewards.

Please do not take my comments as condescending in any way. I was simply expressing my honest opinion. Each of us has a right to do that. However, I'm done here and will not post further on this because I don't want to engage in some meaningless debate with those who bruise so easily. My opinion is not what I want. It is simply what I see around me.

I'm going to go against my better judgement and stir the hornet's nest a bit.

Things I really, really hate about Classical music instruction (let me count the ways):

1. Overarching rigidity stifles creativity.
2. Competition kills the very soul of music.

Mothers, don't let your kids grow up to be concert pianists.

I'm going to go against my better judgement and stir the hornet's nest a bit.

Things I really, really hate about Classical music instruction (let me count the ways):

1. Overarching rigidity stifles creativity.
2. Competition kills the very soul of music.

Mothers, don't let your kids grow up to be concert pianists.

1. It helps if they have enough basic skills to become creative.

2. Competition often brings out the best in students.

All true. But I wonder if any of this applies to pianos anyway? DPs are not stressing the technical limits of their embedded computers. Rather, the limits are found in the way the sound signals are produced and in the way they're reproduced.

A sampled or modeled tone generator is not a hammer and string.

A speaker is not a soundboard.

Things I really, really hate about Classical music instruction (let me count the ways):

1. Overarching rigidity stifles creativity.
2. Competition kills the very soul of music.

Yea, but there are ways to develop skills other than rigidly requiring students to perform a repertoire from old dead guys, in a manner dictated by a bunch of old undead white guys. Improvising is verboten!

2. Competition often brings out the best in students.

I have never in my life picked up a musical instrument in order to "win". I play because I enjoy it. Pitting young student against student in an already stressful performance environment is punishment. No wonder Glenn Gould was so tormented, the poor boy ran the entire gauntlet of crazy.

edited to add: It seems as though many people are confusing classical music with those that play it, and their experiences with those that play it. Every single example given of people being strict, non-musical, killing creativity, etc. can also be said for any genre out there. And none of it has to do with classical music itself.

Yea, but there are ways to develop skills other than rigidly requiring students to perform a repertoire from old dead guys, in a manner dictated by a bunch of old undead white guys. Improvising is verboten!


I have never in my life picked up a musical instrument in order to "win". I play because I enjoy it. Pitting young student against student in an already stressful performance environment is punishment. No wonder Glenn Gould was so tormented, the poor boy ran the entire gauntlet of crazy.

This is probably why digital pianos are only used when the rest of the music are coming from amplified instruments and the audience is experiencing the concert from speakers to begin with.

The exception would be jazz bands and even big swing bands. they routinely mix electric and acoustic instruments.

I absolutely agree with both of these statements. Astounding that the fast majority of classical training ignores "playing by ear" and improvisation. Also, the championing of memorization kills the music as well.

Lawrence