It has hammers and steel strings that are enclosed by a wooden exterior. The keys are connected to the hammers. When a key is pressed, the hammer moves and strikes the strings, causing them to vibrate and produce the sound. There are two types of acoustic pianos: the grand piano and the upright piano.
A grand piano has a frame and strings that are extended horizontally. It has a longer body and thus takes up more space. After playing the keys and releasing your fingers, gravity resets the keys and brings them back to their resting positions. An upright piano has strings that run vertically. The upright piano often fit comfortably in houses or apartments and is thus a more convenient choice. When your fingers are released from the keys, they are reset via a spring mechanism, which is subject to wear and tear.
Inharmonicity is another factor that distinguishes the grand piano from the upright piano. Inharmonicity is the degree to which an overtone sounds higher in pitch than its primary pitch. A sound with lower inharmonicity is therefore more accurate. The grand piano has longer strings that give it not only a richer tone but also less inharmonicity.
The upright piano has shorter strings and thus more inharmonicity, leading to octaves that sound less in tune. Many other things can also determine the sound, such as the quality of the materials used and the craftsmanship. The digital piano is an adapted, more modern version of its acoustic counterpart. There are three types of digital pianos: the grand piano, upright piano, and portable piano.
The grand piano has a higher-quality sound system and better key movements. It is, however, costlier and only offered by certain manufacturers. Like its acoustic counterpart, the upright digital piano is commonly used in homes. The digital and acoustic versions are similar in size, but the digital version weighs less. The portable piano is the lightest of the three. One of the most important factors to consider is the sound of the instrument.
Unsurprisingly, the acoustic piano produces a better sound. The acoustic piano, as mentioned before, produces a sound when the hammer strikes a string. It gives you an authentic, acoustic sound that has a warmer, more resonant tone. You also have better control over the articulation and expression of the musical notes. A digital piano, on the other hand, can only mimic the sound of the acoustic piano.
Nonetheless, a high-end digital piano could sound better than a low-end acoustic piano. An acoustic piano requires more maintenance. The wooden exterior, the felt on its hammers, and the steel strings are all delicate features that need proper care.
A technician can restore your piano to optimal precision in a process called regulation, which involves adjustments ranging from turning screws to sanding down wood surfaces. What the digital piano may lack in terms of sound, they make it up with some additional features. These features allow you to use the digital piano in more than one way, making it a more versatile instrument:. The touch and feel of playing a digital piano and an acoustic piano can be very different.
One reason is the weight of the keys. Some strength is required when you strike the keys of an acoustic piano. As for digital pianos, a gentle touch on their keys could produce a sound. Many manufacturers make up for this by introducing weighted keys, which mimic the heaviness of the acoustic piano keys.
Some pianists turn away from digital pianos because of their lack of touch sensitivity. The acoustic piano is more touch-sensitive. The strength and movement of your fingers determine the tone of the sound, and you can produce different shades of sound on the same key. But on the digital piano, because the sounds produced are digital, there is a finite number of tones that can be produced. In other words, even though you played a key differently, the sound might be the same.
This limitation can in turn affect the expression of your music. In general, an acoustic piano costs more than a digital piano. With that said, the resale value of a digital piano is much lower than that of an acoustic piano. It is difficult to gauge the resale value, which largely depends on the model and the condition of the piano. But a digital piano depreciates much quicker than an acoustic piano, because many new, more advanced models of digital pianos are released every year.
Therefore, while the acoustic piano is more costly, it is a better investment in the long-run. An acoustic piano comes with three pedals: soft pedal, sostenuto pedal, and sustain pedal. I t is thus important to determine whether the presence of the pedals will make a difference in your playing experience. To recap the information in the previous section, the following table provides a concise and comprehensive pros-and-cons comparison and includes some new points to note.
The green boxes indicate that the corresponding piano is better for that criterion, and the red boxes tell you that it isn't as good. Warmer, authentic sound with more room for musical expressions.
For all the budding classical musicians out there, the acoustic piano would be more suitable. Firstly, the acoustic sound is a better fit for classical music. Leave a Reply Cancel reply You must be logged in to post a comment. This website uses cookies to improve your experience, but you may opt out if you wish. Accept Reject Read More. Close Privacy Overview This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website.
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It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Using a keyboard with weighted action is beneficial for multiple reasons. First, it helps you build finger strength while practicing a spring-based action only minimally addresses this.
Second, it allows for more variation and musicality in the way you play a note. Hammer action best replicates those possibilities. Once we established the basic parameters, I reached out to colleagues who are piano teachers or musical directors to get a sense of what models were in highest rotation in the professional world.
This step gave me a list of 21 models from nine different companies. I then set off to a few Los Angeles music stores to get my hands on some keys, talk to the store employees—who work around these instruments every day—and whittle down the list. After contacting manufacturers to request samples and to get suggestions on pianos that might better fit our guidelines, we narrowed the list down to seven keyboards. For our original tests, we evaluated all the keyboards in our Los Angeles office.
After unboxing them and setting them up, I invited the panel testers to come in and try them out. I asked them to rate the key action and the sound of each piano and to evaluate features from the perspective of a beginner. After playing through all of them over a couple hours, we talked through the pros and cons of each keyboard, and our panelists gave me their top three choices.
In , we brought in a few more keyboards that had been released since the initial publication of this guide.
Due to pandemic restrictions, we could not conduct our testing with everyone together; instead, Brent Butterworth, Phil Metzler, and I individually played the keyboards at an isolated location, and I then conversed with them separately to get their opinions.
The Casio CDP-S is an excellent keyboard for anyone in search of a light, compact, key option for their home. The action feels similar to that of an acoustic piano, and the included sounds are very good—in particular, we love the grand piano sounds.
The small size and light weight make the CDP-S easy to stow away when necessary. In our most recent round of testing, all three testers ranked this keyboard first or second. The keybed felt a little shallow, though, so overall I found the touch to be a bit light and lacking in the depth my fingers are used to, especially as my fingers got closer to the keyboard body between the black keys.
Phil said that the sound of the upper keys seemed a bit artificial and less natural compared with that of the rest of the keyboard, though still very acceptable, and both he and Brent thought the lighter touch felt great and suitable for their styles of playing Brent ranked the Casio as his favorite.
It took Phil some getting used to, but he ended up really liking the texture, as did I. The CDP-S has 10 total sounds, and the three grand piano sounds—standard, mellow, and bright—were the best of the bunch. The electric piano and organ sounds were also very good. Brent particularly liked the B3 organ sound, and I thought the rotary-speaker sound effect added to the realism.
The two 8-watt, 4. Instead, the available adjustments including sounds, reverb, chorus, and the like are labeled above certain keys; by pressing the function button and the appropriate key, you can make that particular adjustment.
You can return to the grand piano sound with a single press of the function button, and the keyboard also has a dedicated button for starting and stopping the record feature. The volume dial feels firm and moves smoothly, with no chance of your changing the volume unintentionally. The PX is very similar to the PX as far as piano playing goes, but the PX does have an upgraded piano sound and better onboard speakers, which results in a slightly better piano playing expirience. On the other hand, the PX is nowhere near as good as the PX is terms of all the extra features that come with it.
You deserved it! You did a great job, because this is the ultimate Bible for non acoustic piano buyers. Hi, Thanks for this Post, This has been very helpful. In fact, most portable keyboards and digital pianos today have all the main connectors including a headphone jack, sustain jack and USB to Host port, which will be enough for most players, not just beginners. So overall it will provide a considerably more realistic playing experience than the keyboards I mentioned above.
Hi Lucas, I was checking online for digital piano reviews and came across your review, and I most say it was very comprehensive, thank you for sharing it. I bought a used Yamaha DGX but noticed after playing it for a while that the keys make a noise when played as you described in your review.
I usually use headphones to avoid hearing the noise and have started to consider purchasing another piano. What do you think of the Alesis Coda Pro?
I have never played it but have seen online reviews of it on YouTube, I will like your opinion of it. Thanks, Great information. My oldest son, 14, liked the Roland FP the best of the limited electric pianos he has tried so far he has yet to try the FP I did listen to a Roland FP and it did sound very good to me from the built in speakers.
My boys are quite advanced, my oldest plays chamber music at a local university program, and I was wondering if it would be worth looking into a Nord Piano 3. Yes, you need external speakers, but does it really give you significantly better sound and action compared to a Roland FP for an advanced kid? I have yet to find a Nord Piano 3 in a local store to try out. It has no built-in speakers and has various knobs for changing sound effects on the fly, which is very handy for a performer.
Fantastic site. Thank you! People use different criteria when looking for a digital piano. Some people doing their research depending on the price , others on their level of experience, some are looking for a particular type of digital pianos portable, console, stage. So in order to not duplicate my articles strictly saying and write about every type, every price range, and every level separately, I try to combine at least two criteria in each article, since they often correlate with each other.
Both articles list best digital pianos intended for intermediate players. Now back to your question. Hi Pete, thanks for your suggestion! Yeah physical modeling definitely deserves to be in the article, will add it ASAP! Hi, thank you so much for the reviews. It is very helpful in guiding me to learn more about digital pianos and be able to make a wiser decision. So considering that, which one would you recommend the most? My personal pick would probably be the Kawai, although the RP is also a very successful model, in my opinion.
Hi Lucas, thank you very much for all the useful information here. Thanks so much!! Roland Go Piano is not one of them. Thank you for your realy helpful post. I only want to play for fun. Is Yamaha p enough for my whole life?!!!!!! How about roland fp?
The sound of the FP can hardly be called metallic, the instrument will handle classical music just fine. Thank you so much for the wonderful info in this article. I have always had an acoustic piano, the last one for about 45 years. Since I was planning to move into a condo, I was concerned about possibly having to move it into a second story dwelling.
I also felt that I should have the ability to use headphones out of consideration of possible neighbors. It was harder to sell my piano than to sell the home my children grew up in!
Many thanks! Ivamae, thank you for the kind words! Thanks for the very helpful guide. On the other hand, a lot of portable digital pianos are easily transportable, and in most cases, you can separately buy a furniture-style wooden stand designed just for that particular model, which in your case would probably be a better option. Sure, check out this guide, all digital pianos listed there are fully-weighted and budget friendly. I particularly recommend taking a look at the Casio Privia PX Hope this helps.
I am a novice. I am 80 years old. Want a hobby to work at full time. My only current hobby is ball room dancing. I want to buy a good Baby Grand Digital Piano. The information above is great. However I am still lost. I am looking for other options. Will you provide other options. Hi Elaine, of course! In fact, I always recommend getting a proper digital piano with fully-weighted keyboard for all of my students including those who are just starting out. Any plans to include this new company in your reviews?
Hey Andreas, thanks for the suggestion! Korg B1 bundle in amazon with it bench and furniture stand for dollars or Casio Privia PX bundle also in amazon, with the bench and stand as well, I really love the design of Korg B1 but I want an expert opinion.
Thank you for this very helpful post?? Also check out my comparison on these two here and here. Thank you so much for this review. It helps a lot. My used upright lasted over 30 years. What can I expect from a digital and what are things that can go wrong which can or cannot be fixed? Hi Gracelyn, appreciate your comment!
Here is the link or just add lifespan to the URL of this page. I hope this helps. So thank you! Hi Lucas, I will buy a piano with the pitch bend and modulation wheel. Could you suggest which the best is? Thanks, Algot. To be honest, not a big fan of Kurzweil lower end digital pianos their key actions in particular , so I may be a little biased here but who knows maybe the SP1 will prove me wrong. Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. Keys Modern acoustic pianos have 88 keys.
Most digital pianos and keyboards have 88, 76, 73, or 61 keys. Action Type There are 3 most common types of key actions: 1 Non-weighted - most organs, synths and entry-level keyboards are not weighted. Spring-loaded mechanism adds more resistance to the keys compared to the non-weighted action. It uses small hammers rather than springs attached to each key to recreate the mechanical movements and resistance similar to the acoustic piano action.
Extra Features Extra features include all the additional functionality not directly related to piano-playing. This may include preset songs, rhythms, recording functions, lesson modes, sound design options, etc.
Price The price ranges are based on prices of digital pianos from major brands such Yamaha, Casio, Roland, etc. Instruments from lesser-known China brands cost less but we don't recommend them.
Don't require a lot of space Easy to move around Affordable Versatile Perfect for beginners and musicians on the move. Home practice Classroom environment Gigs On the road. The closest you can get to an acoustic State-of-the-art hammer mechanisms and speaker systems No-compomise playing experience The best of acoustic and digital worlds. Expensive compared to classic DPs Even heavier and less portable than console DPs Can be hard to find in local music stores.
Features oriented at stage performers sound shaping, hands-on control. No built-in speakers in most cases Relatively expensive Not necessarily beginner-friendly. Gigs Studio Events. Touch Sensitivity The volume produced by the instrument changes depending on how hard or soft you play the keys. Many digital pianos allow you to adjust touch sensitivity make the keyboard more or less sensitive to the force of your keystrokes to better suit your playing style.
Polyphony The number of notes a piano can play at once. The more polyphony the better , especially when layering several sounds or using backing tracks, etc.
When you reach the polyphony cap, the piano starts to drop the earliest played notes to free up memory for the new ones, which affects the sound and its fullness.
Dynamic Range The difference in volume between the loudest possible note and the softest one.
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