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My parents own a Yamaha Silent Grand. If you switch that from normal to silent there is barely a noticable difference if you just play single notes. It becomes more noticable when you play longer and with lot's of sustain etc. but my dad says it's very close to the real thing.

Now that's very interesting, Flo. The complexity of sound is in the sustain, resonances and clatter of the keys etc. and is more difficult to reproduce.
Would you consider the key noise, when on silent, to be noticeable?
And also, when playing in silent, do you still feel you're playing a "proper" piano?

I don't play this piano very often, I'll ask my Dad tonight. To me it feels the same, not matter if I play it on silent or loud. First I wasn't sure if it's even set to silent, they have some nice open back headphones and the illusion is pretty good with the binaural samples.

The key noise is noticable because of the open back headphones, but not as prominent as when you play normally. With closed back you probably wouldn't hear anything. I don't think that Yamaha samples the key noice, I'm not sure though I have to check. They have some resonance modeling technology, but there you can definitly hear a difference if you listen closely.

Also what I noticed is that you have to turn down the reverb, or set it to room or something. If you play on the piano and then switch to silent with a massive reverb it definitly breaks the illusion. So if you want it to be as close as possible you have to keep the reverb to something that makes sense in the room you sit in.

It isn't a free world! whoever told you that?
But there are those amongst us who can quantify things without having a print-out. I do not have pointy ears.
I ask a simple question; to most it's obvious what I want.
I get answers, I decide which information I find useful; I decide what to eventually do with such.

On the verge of coughing up £4.5 big ones, I will reign in whatever info I can get - from those who have both the acoustic and the digital.
Note; I learned on a clear sounding straight strung upright, which never seemed to need tuning and was far superior to any of my music teachers' instruments.

I do not believe than a man could possess both AP or DP without attempting to get the digital to emulate the acoustic to the best of his ability, in terms of sound and touch. After all, the DP is usually for silent practice anyway so, to add to the exercise, headphones will probably enter into the fray.
Men are inquisitive, and they tend not to give up, even on such time wasting stuff as this.
Now, everytime I frequent the piano-shop which is but a ten minutes bike ride away, I'm reminded of the difference in tone and complexity between the two.

It fascinates me unfortunately.

The DP manufacturers give us this booming bass, mellow, pleasant sweet sounding sickly stuff that sells. They also give us the means to configure a change, God bless 'em. So we do.
And this is the point of my posting.
Just how close do we get?

I bandied the term "90%" which indicates "close"

But I suppose for most of us the answer would be "good enough" which is why I asked the Q of those who have both.

Look and hear this advertising from a silent piano, you will have an idea of the keys noises (at 0:28).it is a yamaha silent, but I guess it is the same with the piano from other brands.


It helps me relativise all these key noises problems on digitals.

I have a Yamaha C2X Silent. The silent function is very good, but, for me, it pales in comparison to the sound and feel of the acoustic grand. I can imagine that if I played the silent too much that I might get bored. I can't imagine getting bored of the acoustic sound. My family (and therefore I) do appreciate the ability to play silently though... especially when I'm practising a single bar over and over again!

I just practiced for an hour at 2:30 in the morning. Anyone want to guess if I used my AP or my DP? That might be the name of my next band: AP/DP…….. YEP, time for bed.

if you are rich enough to afford the environment that playing AP loud at 02h30 in the morning without disturbing your
family and neighbors, then you have my envy and my praise.

And his neighbours will end up with PT/SD

Lol—love it Pete! I’m sure they already do from my daytime playing. They keep moving out…..

I have both - acoustic grand and digital hybrid.

In terms of 'authentic acoustic sound' - the Digital hybrid (with VST or without) is nowhere close to 90% of the acoustic sound. It is at best 20% (very subjectively defined percentage of course). That is after trying out many of the best VSTs (Garritan CFX, VSL Concert D-274, Pianoteq etc.) paired with high quality monitor speakers (Genelec 8050bs).

In terms of 'authentic acoustic action' - I would say it is close to 95% of grand acoustic experience for Kawai Novus NV10 (and I would expect the same for Yamaha AvantGrand pianos with grand action).

Osho

Where have you been, Osho?

You can’t just disappear like that; without advanced notice and/or even a note.

then in this case, make sure I am not the neighbor.

on the other hand, in Japan even for DP they are selling such carpets to ensure the key actions do not disturb the neighbors.
so it is not to say that we can avoid such complaints for a DP.

Since all acoustics sound different within their own camp, this discussion will never be resolved, as there is no consistent 100% standard to even see if anything can be 90% of that. Beauty is in the ear of the beholder. I like my DP more than my AP, but who cares? Play what you like and what fits your living space.

Work has been brutal - it just comes and hits me - and I have to disappear for a few months whenever that happens .

Osho

+1

I own both, analogue and digital instruments (keys) + strings and of course they all have a different sound. I like each instrument. Each has its "advantages" and "disadvantages". As long as you can live with any disadvantages, they should not be considered as such, but as a character. Nothing and nobody is absolutely perfect. In germany we have a saying that fits this very well. "No rose without thorns."

Kind regards
MBiG

It's impossible due to limitations of the speakers/hps.

The binaural samples on the Yamaha SH2, which are the same used on the latest Avant Grands, are indeed very good and due to binaural recording sometimes you question if the sound is coming out of the piano or from the headphones. However, those binaural samples when played over headphones are a world apart from the acoustic sound produced by the piano. I think you have an issue if you cannot tell apart the sound coming out of a large acoustic instrument played live with the sound coming out of headphones...

The key noise is only noticeable if you play at a low volume with open headphones. The same happens with most digital pianos. If you set the headphones volume to a level comparable to the acoustic sound, the key noise is not noticeable.

Hybrid pianos produce the same noise. And the noise of a silent upright piano typically sounds louder than silent grands due to the location of the stop rail. The big difference is that many digitals produce a plastic hollow "clicky" noise, whereas a silent acoustic piano produces a softer wood noise. Kawai DPs featuring the GF2/3 are certainly quieter than a silent acoustic piano. In any case, this noise is the tradeoff for playing a real piano action that no DP can match.

Lol, sure. Whatever you say.