A digital piano is a modern electronic musical instrument designed to serve primarily as an alternative to a traditional piano, both in the way it feels to play and in the sound produced. Some digital pianos are also designed to look like an acoustic piano. While digital pianos may fall short of the genuine article in feel and sound, they nevertheless have many advantages over normal pianos: An electronic musical instrument is a musical instrument that produces its sounds using electronics. ... A grand piano A piano is a musical instrument which is classified as a keyboard, percussion or string instrument, depending on the system of classification used. ...

• They are relatively inexpensive.
• They are smaller and considerably lighter.
• They do not require tuning.
• They usually produce several different piano timbres.
• They incorporate MIDI implementation.
• They may have additional features to assist in learning and composition.
• They usually include headphone output.
• They often have a transposition feature.
• They do not require the use of microphones, eliminating the problem of audio feedback in sound reinforcement, as well as simplifying the recording process.

In music, tuning is the process of producing or preparing to produce a certain pitch in relation to another, usually at the unison but often at some other interval. ... Note names and MIDI note numbers Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, is an industry-standard electronic communications protocol that defines each musical note in an electronic musical instrument such as a synthesizer, precisely and concisely, allowing electronic musical instruments and computers to exchange data, or talk, with each other. ... Musical composition is: an original piece of music the structure of a musical piece the process of creating a new piece of music // A musical composition A piece of music exists in the form of a written composition in musical notation or as a single acoustic event (a live performance... Closed Headphones Earbuds or Earphones Canalphones Headphones (also known as earphones, earbuds, stereophones, headsets, or the slang term cans) are a pair of transducers that receive an electrical signal from a media player or receiver and use speakers placed in close proximity to the ears (hence the name earphone) to... In music transposition is moving a note or collection of notes (or pitches) up or down in pitch by a constant interval. ... A microphone, sometimes called a mic (pronounced mike), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. ... Audio feedback (also known as the Larson effect) is a special kind of feedback which occurs when a loop exists between an audio input (for example, a microphone or guitar pickup) and an audio output (for example, a loudspeaker). ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with public address. ...

Sounds

In most implementations, a digital piano produces a variety of piano timbres and usually other sounds as well. For example, a digital piano may have settings for a concert grand piano, an upright piano, a tack piano, and various electric pianos such as the Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer, for example. Some digital pianos incorporate other basic "synthesizer" sounds such as string ensemble, for example, and offer settings to combine them with piano. In music, timbre, also timber, (French, IPA /tæmbər/ as in the first two syllables of tambourine) is the quality of a musical note or sound which distinguishes different types of sound production or musical instruments. ... A grand piano from Schiedmayer & Söhne, Stuttgart. ... The tack piano is an altered version of an ordinary piano, in which tacks or nails are placed on the hammers of the instrument, giving it a tinny, more percussive sound. ... An electric piano (e-piano) is an electric musical instrument of the 1960s and 1970s, which was built to replace a (heavy) piano on stage. ... A Rhodes piano is a musical instrument, a brand of electric piano. ... One of a series of electromechanical stringless pianos manufactured and marketed by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, Corinth, Mississippi, USA. The Wurlitzer company actually called the instrument (inaccurately in retrospect) the Electronic Piano, but musicians usually describe it correctly as an electric piano. ... The Yamaha PSR-295, an entry-level electronic keyboard synthesizer. ...

The sounds produced by a digital piano are sometimes PCM samples stored in ROM. Despite the fact that a digital piano plays samples, it is not a sampler because it lacks the ability to record samples. It does, however, qualify as a rompler. Other, more advanced brands (such as Yamaha & Kawai) use other sound sampling systems such as AWM (advanced wave memory) or Harmonic Imaging. Go to Yamaha's Website for more information. Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a digital representation of an analog signal where the magnitude of the signal is sampled regularly at uniform intervals, then quantized to a series of symbols in a digital (usually binary) code. ... Digital sampling, PCM sampling, or just sampling is the process of representing a signal waveform as a series of numbers which represent the measurement of the signals amplitude, taken at regular intervals. ... Read-only memory (ROM) is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. ... An AKAI MPC2000 sampler A sampler is an electronic musical instrument that can record and store audio signal samples, generally recordings of existing sounds, and play them back at a range of pitches. ... Rompler is a nickname for an electronic musical instrument that specializes in the playback of samples stored in ROM chips. ...

The samples stored in digital pianos are usually of very high quality and made using world class pianos, expensive microphones, and high-quality preamps in a professional recording studio. A microphone, sometimes called a mic (pronounced mike), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. ... A preamplifier (preamp) is an amplifier which precedes another amplifier to prepare an electrical signal for further amplification or processing. ... A recording studio is a facility for sound recording. ...

Digital pianos do have limitations on the faithfulness with which they reproduce the sound of an acoustic piano. These include the lack of implementation of harmonic tones that result when certain combinations of notes are sounded, limited polyphony, and a lack of natural reverberation when the instrument is played percussively. They also lack the incidental acoustic noises associated with piano playing, such as the sounds of pedals being depressed and the associated machinery shifting within the piano. These limitations apply to most acoustic instruments and their sampled counterparts, the difference often being described as "visceral". In acoustics and telecommunication, the harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency. ... Polyphony is a musical texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony). ... When sound is produced in an enclosed space multiple reflections build up and blend together creating reverberation or reverb. ...

For the vast majority of listeners, however, professional recordings made with a digital piano are difficult or impossible to distinguish from a recording made with a real piano.

Many digital pianos include an amplifier and loudspeakers so that no additional equipment is required to play the instrument. Some do not. Most digital pianos incorporate headphone output. An amplifier can be considered to be any device that uses a small amount of energy to control a source of a larger amount of energy, although the term today usually refers to an electronic amplifier. ... Closeup of a loudspeaker driver Yamaha loudspeaker. ...

Shape and form

The physical form of a digital piano can vary considerably. Most vaguely resemble a low upright piano (but usually lacking a fully enclosed lower section)[1]. Others, notably Yamaha's "GranTouch" range[2] are based on the casework of traditional upright or grand instruments. An opposite and recent trend is to produce an instrument which has a unique and distinctive appearance, unobtainable with a conventional instrument. Yamaha make a model which is designed to stand against a wall and is far shallower from keyboard to back than any possible upright design.[3]

Yet another form is the "stage piano", designed for use with a live band. This type of digital piano normally makes no attempt to imitate the physical appearance of an acoustic piano, rather resembling a modern synthesizer or music workstation[4]. A distinguishing feature of most stage pianos is a lack of internal loudspeakers and amplification - it is normally assumed that a powerful keyboard amplifier or PA system will be used. Roland RD-700 - a typical digital stage piano Yamaha P-250 - a digital stage piano with built-in speakers Casio AP-38 - a typical digital piano- notice the integrated modesty panel & pedals A stage piano is a digital piano that reproduces sound electronically by the use of sampled or digitally... The Yamaha PSR-295, an entry-level electronic keyboard synthesizer. ... A music workstation is piece of electronic musical equipment providing the facilities of: a sound module, a music sequencer and (usually) a musical keyboard. ...

There are also digital piano modules, which are simply keyboardless sound modules chiefly containing piano samples. One early example of a digital piano module is the Roland MKS-20 Digital Piano. A Sound module is an electronic musical instrument without a human-playable interface such as a keyboard, for example. ... Roland EXR-3 Keyboard Roland Corporation TYO: 7944 is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. ...

Keyboard and pedals

Just like a real piano, a digital piano features a keyboard. A digital piano's keyboard is weighted to simulate the action of a real piano and is velocity sensitive so that the volume of the sounds depends on how hard the keys are pressed. Many instruments now have a complex action incorporating actual hammers in order to better simulate the touch of a grand piano; these hammers do not actually hit strings, but since a real piano's hammer is in free flight when it contacts the string it could be argued that this difference would not affect the instrument's touch anyway. Hello People who love keyboards!!!!!!!!!!!! Headline text This article is about keyboards on musical instruments. ...

Many digital pianos, especially those which physically resemble a piano, have built-in pedals which modify the instrument's behavior in the same way pedals on a regular piano do. As with real pianos, some digital pianos omit the sostenuto and/or the una corda pedals. Some digital pianos have jacks for pedals to be attached at the user's option. In music, sostenuto is a term from Italian which means sustained, and occasionally also implies a slowing of tempo. ...

Other features

Most digital pianos implement a variety of features not found on a real piano.

Digital pianos are implemented for MIDI, so they can control or be controlled by other electronic instruments and sequencers. They may also have a disk drive or other external media slot to load MIDI data, which the piano can play automatically. In this way, a digital piano can function as a player piano. In the field of electronic music, a sequencer was originally any device that recorded and played back a sequence of control information for an electronic musical instrument. ... The player piano is a type of piano that plays music without the need for a human pianist to depress the normal keys or pedals. ...

Some digital pianos have a built-in sequencer to aid in composition. They usually let you record a minium of 2 tracks. This is useful for beginners and piano enthusiasts.

A digital piano may have lights associated with keys so that a beginning piano player can learn a piece by playing lit keys.

Some digital pianos can transpose music as it is played. This allows the pianist to play a piece using the fingering of a familiar key while the piece is actually heard in another. A pianist is a person who plays the piano. ...

A standard piano creates natural reverberation inside its soundboard and in the room where it is played. Digital pianos often have a feature to electronically simulate reverb as well. Other digital pianos may have additional reverberation options such as a "stage simulation." The sounding board is the largest part of a string musical instruments body. ...

In addition to reverberation, some (as seen on Yamaha's & Kawai's websites) have additional effects to add to the sound such as a "chorus" effect.

Other typical high-quality voices that go along with piano are strings, harpsichords, organs, etc.

Since the 1980s, computers and digital pianos have connected via MIDI to perform various functions such as software synthesis (computer-generated sound), musical notation (printing of music), Musical sequencer (recording of MIDI and digital audio) and interactive music lessons (from lesson supplements to complete courses of study). Since 2000, a generation of CEMI (Computer Enhanced Musical Instruments) has emerged that incorporates software and internet technologies into musical instruments. Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI, is a system designed to transmit information between electronic musical instruments. ... Music notation is a system of writing for music. ...

The ePiano ([5]) is one example of how CEMI technology is incorporated into digital pianos.

Alternatives

A digital piano is essentially nothing more than a keyboard controller married to a sample playback device which specializes in piano sounds. Other electronic instruments are capable of playing piano samples. These include sample-based synthesizers, hardware and software samplers, sound modules, and music workstations. These instruments may contain piano samples as good as or perhaps even better than a digital piano. Keyboard controllers (keyboards which make no sounds on their own) are also available from many manufacturers and vary greatly in feel and feature set. Thus, one can combine a favorite controller and instrument and effectively have everything that a digital piano delivers. Sample-based synthesis is a form of audio synthesis that can be similar in structure to either subtractive synthesis or additive synthesis. ... A Sound module is an electronic musical instrument without a human-playable interface such as a keyboard, for example. ... A music workstation is piece of electronic musical equipment providing the facilities of: a sound module, a music sequencer and (usually) a musical keyboard. ... A device, real or virtual, which generates and transmits MIDI data for operating musical devices or other devices which are electronically enabled for MIDI operation. ...

Real, acoustic pianos can be made to compensate for some of the advantages which digital pianos ordinarily hold over them. Pianos may be retrofitted with or designed to include a MIDI interface, allowing them to control or, with the addition of electromechanical actuators under each key, be controlled by other MIDI hardware. (See player piano for more information.) The player piano is a type of piano that plays music without the need for a human pianist to depress the normal keys or pedals. ...

Manufacturers

Manufacturers continue to develop technology of both sound and feel. Quality and cost are highly correlated. Well-known manufacturers of digital pianos include Yamaha, Roland, Kurzweil, Casio, Kawai and ePiano. The Yamaha Corporation (ヤマハ株式会社; TYO: 7951 ) is a Japanese company with a large number of product areas. ... Roland EXR-3 Keyboard Roland Corporation TYO: 7944 is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. ... Kurzweil Music Systems is a company that produces electronic musical instruments for professionals and home users. ... Casio Computer Co. ... The Kawai Musical Instruments Mfg. ...

See also

• Electronic piano