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I think that's far too cynical. Is it (just) marketing that keeps actual pianos being built? A keyboard with a good software synthesizer attached is, I think,
by retrac 4y ago
I think that's far too cynical. Is it (just) marketing that keeps actual pianos being built? A keyboard with a good software synthesizer attached is, I think, objectively, a better instrument these days. Greater dynamic range, never needs to be tuned, you can swap in any particular timbre you prefer, whatever. So why build an actual piano?
With the electric guitar, the tube amp is part of the classic form of the instrument, as it was known for half a century, and first came to be played. It's the physical instrument present on most of the classic recordings and which older players learned to play with.
This quest for authenticity, or whatever you want to call it, is surely psychological, and often, in my opinion, a bit silly. Marketing often plays on it, for sinister marketing reasons, sure. Still, when it comes to pianos (or violins or trumpets or whatever), making and using period-accurate instruments, in the way they were made historically, and played historically, is both rather popular as a hobby/art, and also a serious academic field. Why would the electric guitar be exempted?
- feet 4y agoMost electronic pianos can't replicate the reverberation of a full body grand or upright, that isn't an equivalent comparison. When it comes to audio quality from amps, it's replication of a signal which is pretty cut and dry from an engineering standpoint. If your amp is altering the signal, it's generally just bad. Modern solid state amps can also distort the signal of electric guitars just the same as tubes
- retrac 4y ago> from an engineering standpoint Yes. The class-D amp I got for $20 runs circles around anything that can be done in tube technology, just in terms of fidelity. But a musical instrument is not viewed purely from an engineering standpoint. Using your piano example, the material you build the piano frame out of affects its resonance. Early pianos, not steel-framed, sound different. Even if we can capture this with a synth some day, the art of piano-making, the tools, physically making the musical instrument, will be an art and science worth preserving and practicing. Same is true for the electric guitar. And so part of that art and science, will involve tube amplifiers. Just as the study and making of pianos, involves the study and making of making wood vs. bronze vs. iron vs. steel frames. Even if most of us piano players just play on an electronic keyboard most of the time.
- hulitu 4y ago> A keyboard with a good software synthesizer attached is, I think, objectively, a better instrument these days. Greater dynamic range depends on the DAC's resolution