Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Once you go AP you don't go back

Not to sound like SL but once you go acoustic can you really go back?

I spent a day in Manchester and wandered into Dawsons, had a noodle on their FP80, touch felt way too light, and brick on pedal seemed to be fine (lacked string resonance and it didn't go as mushy as an AP).

Maybe it was the built in speakers which limited it.

Went to fiddle with their 700NX wasn't plugged in but the touch was firmer but still felt kinda light.

My thought is, once you go AP can you ever really go back? I was initially interested in the RD64 as a travel piano but the touch seemed kind of slow... and 64 keys while being 76keys long is a waste.

Seems like an odd statement (or is it a question?) .

There are many people - myself included - who grew up with APs, but discovered the advantages of DPs late in life. In my case, I'm lucky that I found the right DP at the right time (i.e. when the V-Piano appeared, which behaves uncannily like the real thing in a way no other DP has then, nor since), otherwise, I'd have been looking forward hopefully, at each coming NAMM, for a DP that I can finally live with as my only piano at home. Much like many others here, albeit (maybe) not for the same reasons.

But no matter how much I adore my DP, and enjoy playing it, I cannot deny that I'd still rather have a Bösendorfer Imperial, or a Fazioli F278/F308. Why, I'd even rather have a Steinway D (very much far down on my list of preferred pianos) .

However, I live in the real world, and I don't own a mansion, and I have neighbors. So, I play my DP at home, and occasionally moonlight on acoustics (OK, at least once a month these days, as I have a regular monthly recital on an acoustic grand). Or to put it another way, since 2010, I've been going back and forth between my DP and APs.

I coundn`t go back to an AP. Wouldn`t thank you for a Steinway, Bosend. or anything else. If I want to play an AP soundalike, I de-tune my DGX . . . . ! Still sounds better.

I occasionally set my ES7 temperament to Werckmeister or Kirnberger just to get that AP feeling.

I pretty regularly perform on a couple of acoustics and though they are both deeply flawed I enjoy them. I couldn't reasonably get much use out of them in my home, though. My kids would be all over them and I wouldn't be able to play after they go to bed. Just too dang big and loud. Maybe some day I'll have a big house with a room where a grand piano won't bother anyone and an acoustic that I really like.

Until then I always practice on my DP and I really like it. It's unobtrusive, quiet, and fun. The digital aspect of it is pretty great in itself. Always gives me something to talk about on the forum. At times in my life I may have an acoustic, but I will always have a digital.

Digital pianos will never replace a fine acoustic piano, but they sure supplement them well in several ways: portability, for recording at home (miking an acoustic is difficult and expensive), playing silently, leyring sounds, etc.

Digitials have made piano playing possible in many additionnal situations.

I completely agree!

I don't know I have 2 concert grand AP's and still play my other boards much more regularly.

How could you not know you have 2 concert grand AP's ?

too funny Don......LOL
I am a rank amateur. but very into playing.
was limited to DP for decades, Yamaha pf88 (which I liked a lot), but craved an AP. finally got one 7 years ago. never touched a DP again until 3 weeks ago. my AP was in need of repair. I was forced to play my Yamaha DGX-505. I liked it. a lot. I went in search of a new DP. got a Kawai CA65. the AP is fixed. its cool, a Knabe WKV121. I love the CA65 DP. I played it yesterday. it was freakin heaven on earth baby.
so all those years that I looked down my nose at DP's. and look at me now. things that make you go hmmmmmmmmm.......
and speaking of things that make you go hmmmmm, now that you mention it, how could someone have 2 grand pianos and not know it?
I mean I could, I suppose, sorta kinda maybe understand maybe if they only had one......and it was a like a super tiny one.......hmmmmmmmmm

Can't speak for others, but I do all my practicing on an acoustic grand. However, when I play for pleasure, I'm as likely to sit down at my DP and synths as my AP. For me, they are different musical instruments and I greatly enjoy both.

I spend most of my piano time on my RD-700NX -- always with headphones. It doesn't disrupt others in the house; it's always in tune; its regulation is consistent -- even -- from bottom to top. Out of regulation APs have always annoyed me. Tuning and voicing issues also annoy. I like watching the development of DPs; I'm grateful for their comparative inexpensiveness; I like their variety of sounds (concert grand bright; concert grand dark; small grand; upright; old upright; honky tonk; historical piano), though harpsichords I can generally live without.

i wouldn't get nearly as much playing/practice in if i didn't have a DP. i am somewhat of an ADD player anyway and wind up improvising and playing song fragments 90% of the time, and this drives my wife crazy. so the headset gives her peace and me privacy. I really do need to move my AP into a smaller, quieter room if i am going to play it regularly. it just generates too much volume and takes over the entire house. i also am incredibly finicky (anal) about "tuning". if the acoustic is just the slightest bit detuned i absolutely notice it and give up playing. If you live in a humid, changeable climate as i do in the Southeastern USA, you just can't keep an AP in good tuning for very long.


if you told me playing DP's destroys technique i wouldn't argue that at all. its far too easy to turn the volume down to accommodate too heavy a touch. life is a tradeoff.

Just curious. Do you still own the N2, but rather play on the RD?

Just a note. I think It's hard to gauge a key-bed when the DP is not turned on. For me, the keys on my CA95 feel mushy when it's not turned on; it feels much better once it's on.

I've been fortunate enough to own 3 great pianos since 1985--a Yamaha C7E, S6 and now my D. Also have been blessed to have always had a detached space from the house to practice in. I'm well aware that makes a huge difference with family, wife or neighbor concerns.

The older, and hopefully better I get, the more I appreciate a good serious instrument over any DP. Plus the space to practice when and what I want to at any time. Then again, I'm a long time pro and have worked and set up my lifestyle where all that takes priority over everything else.

Like I've stated more then once here, DPs only exist in my world for gigging. My Nord piano sits in its case until the next gig. I try very hard not to have to play pop/rock music for a living (although sometimes you gotta do what ya gotta do), don't futz around in *the studio* laying down tracks and overall don't really find anything too inspirational in playing them.

At NAMM I briefly played a Bluthner 49" upright that was very nice. I could see myself being very content with something like that over any Avantgrand or other high end digital as my only piano, if for some reason I had to move and downsize at some point in my life.. It had a very nice touch and tone ( yes would've been nice to hear it better outside the cacophony of NAMM), for an upright, that I thought was very musically inspiring. It just seemed real and not sterile.

I did enjoy however , when I owned the CP5, blowing off steam at the end of an intense practice session by playing along with "modern jazz " drum groove. It was a nice break sometimes from setting the metronome on 2 & 4 and blowing over tunes.

I keep up with the newest releases like anyone else here, but really know that anything new in electronics is short lived with regard to long term musical satisfaction. For me after a short time and the newness wears off it's still always--it ain't a piano.

That said, I do strive to make what I do have sound optimum on gigs, by investing in higher end sound systems. And as long as I'm gigging I will replace whatever I'm using if I feel there's enough of a sonic and overall playability improvement. But I can honestly say--looking forward to the day when I never have to hit an *on* switch on an electronic keyboard.

I play the RD mostly. The N2 doesn't sound very good through phones, so it's something I tend to play when no one is home. I like the action on the N2 and the record function (for practicing). I wish it didn't have a noise gate, preventing the use of software pianos. But the noise gate is there for a reason: Last month, I had a shielded Monster cable plugged into the line ins and was hearing a radio station through the DP. Completely odd, this piano. That's the type of thing that you'd see back in the 70s. I like the N2. I'll probably keep it a very long time. But it has its quirks.

Hello, I agree, but I found that through the multiple speaker, then the sound is really good
Then the multi channel sampling is effective

What is your opinion on this ? (I am curious as I would like to buy one N2 )

Coming from AP, once you go DP you always go back.

Dr P - what are you missing in your grands? Rhodes sounds? Layers? Effects? Accompaniment? I guess your tendency toward DPs must have to do with the kind of music you are making

No wonder. For a while, I thought you like the key action of RD more than the N2.