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Modern digital sound processing allows the flawless recreation of a piano, and even to create an instrument with qualities no piano built in the old style could

by retrac 4y ago

Modern digital sound processing allows the flawless recreation of a piano, and even to create an instrument with qualities no piano built in the old style could have. Everything, and more. Cheaper, probably portable, and it doesn't require tuning. In fact, most people who play the piano now play on such instruments, most of the time. Yet some people still buy actual pianos. Because there's an art and craft and history to pianos, and they're majestic, slightly intimidating machines; and they're expensive status symbols. A tube amp for a guitar is much the same.

teddyh 4y ago
Yes, because pianos are still viewed as special, which is in turn because they are expensive to buy, hard to transport, take up a lot of space, and requires regular service (tuning). But tubes lack (or could potentially be made to lack) all of these qualities, which is why it would be risky to try to make tubes more cheaply available.
- retrac 4y ago
  A tube amplifier made in the style of mid-20th century ones is expensive, hard to transport, bulky, and requires regular tuning/maintenance (when compared to a solid-state device). Like you say, that's why people still buy and make them.
kazinator 4y ago
> Modern digital sound processing allows ... ... what the power amplifier and speakers that you can afford then forbid. You will simply not re-create the sound that a real piano creates in a room with a digital signal, going into some amp and pair of ordinary speakers.
- Blackthorn 4y ago
  How fortunate, then, that 99.9% of all piano music heard is going through an amp and a pair of ordinary speakers! I've made it a point to attend classical music concerts, and even I think that 0.1% might be pushing it when it comes to the piano sounds I've heard in a room. I've got nice flat-response studio monitors so I could get a close enough room sound if I wanted (not that I could play a piano worth a damn in order to do that LOL). Honestly they weren't particularly expensive. Certainly less expensive than a single piano tuning!
  - kazinator 4y ago
    A piano is a 3D object; it has long, vibrating string courses, and a large sound board. When you're playing a piano, sound is coming at your head from various angles. It changes depending on how you turn/move your head. All of that is condensed into a single voltage signal and sent to a speaker. A speaker is also a 3D object; it has various modes of vibration. With multiple speakers in a cabinet (even with just a mono signal, not talking about stereo), and reflections from walls and so on, you can hear different things in the 3D space. These are not related; the speaker cabinet just won't reproduce the experience of playing a piano, or being right next to one. It reproduces its own sonic 3D signature. Now if you're listening to a piano from a distance in a big hall, some of this matters less. Your head movements don't make much of a difference; it's almost just coming from a single point that could be represented by a single point source (one mic capture), panned into a stereo sound stage.
    - Blackthorn 4y ago
      I'm aware of all of that. However: 99.9% of all piano music heard is not heard through a live piano directly. Make that several more nines if you're talking about someone who doesn't even play piano and occasionally hears something in a huge audience hall. It's heard recorded, and then played through a speaker. Then let's say I want to play. If I'm trying to match something I've heard, it doesn't even make sense to take that physical piano into account. What I heard was a recording. I lose nothing by playing it out of a speaker. If I want to play just for the joy of playing a physical object or something, that's a different story. But if I'm playing for a purpose other than that, the speaker loses nothing. And best of all? It's light and cheap!
      - kazinator 4y ago
        > However: 99.9% of all piano music heard is not heard through a live piano directly. That's obviously false for the individual who is a life-long, dedicated pianist, who listens to the piano in front of him or her for hours, daily, more than any other piano. They would be short-changed by some piano synthesizer patch coming out of a pair of speakers. > But if I'm playing for a purpose other than that, In particular: the purpose of creating a quality recorded sound without the hassle of an acoustic space, with excellent microphones, placed expertly, going into quality preamps, and all that. Synthesized and modeled sound makes it easier to produce (or fake, depending on your viewpoint) quality recorded music.

by retrac 4y ago

teddyh 4y ago

Yes, because pianos are still viewed as special, which is in turn because they are expensive to buy, hard to transport, take up a lot of space, and requires regular service (tuning). But tubes lack (or could potentially be made to lack) all of these qualities, which is why it would be risky to try to make tubes more cheaply available.

retrac 4y ago
A tube amplifier made in the style of mid-20th century ones is expensive, hard to transport, bulky, and requires regular tuning/maintenance (when compared to a solid-state device). Like you say, that's why people still buy and make them.

kazinator 4y ago

> Modern digital sound processing allows ... ... what the power amplifier and speakers that you can afford then forbid. You will simply not re-create the sound that a real piano creates in a room with a digital signal, going into some amp and pair of ordinary speakers.

Blackthorn 4y ago
How fortunate, then, that 99.9% of all piano music heard is going through an amp and a pair of ordinary speakers! I've made it a point to attend classical music concerts, and even I think that 0.1% might be pushing it when it comes to the piano sounds I've heard in a room. I've got nice flat-response studio monitors so I could get a close enough room sound if I wanted (not that I could play a piano worth a damn in order to do that LOL). Honestly they weren't particularly expensive. Certainly less expensive than a single piano tuning!
- kazinator 4y ago
  A piano is a 3D object; it has long, vibrating string courses, and a large sound board. When you're playing a piano, sound is coming at your head from various angles. It changes depending on how you turn/move your head. All of that is condensed into a single voltage signal and sent to a speaker. A speaker is also a 3D object; it has various modes of vibration. With multiple speakers in a cabinet (even with just a mono signal, not talking about stereo), and reflections from walls and so on, you can hear different things in the 3D space. These are not related; the speaker cabinet just won't reproduce the experience of playing a piano, or being right next to one. It reproduces its own sonic 3D signature. Now if you're listening to a piano from a distance in a big hall, some of this matters less. Your head movements don't make much of a difference; it's almost just coming from a single point that could be represented by a single point source (one mic capture), panned into a stereo sound stage.
  - Blackthorn 4y ago
    I'm aware of all of that. However: 99.9% of all piano music heard is not heard through a live piano directly. Make that several more nines if you're talking about someone who doesn't even play piano and occasionally hears something in a huge audience hall. It's heard recorded, and then played through a speaker. Then let's say I want to play. If I'm trying to match something I've heard, it doesn't even make sense to take that physical piano into account. What I heard was a recording. I lose nothing by playing it out of a speaker. If I want to play just for the joy of playing a physical object or something, that's a different story. But if I'm playing for a purpose other than that, the speaker loses nothing. And best of all? It's light and cheap!
    - kazinator 4y ago
      > However: 99.9% of all piano music heard is not heard through a live piano directly. That's obviously false for the individual who is a life-long, dedicated pianist, who listens to the piano in front of him or her for hours, daily, more than any other piano. They would be short-changed by some piano synthesizer patch coming out of a pair of speakers. > But if I'm playing for a purpose other than that, In particular: the purpose of creating a quality recorded sound without the hassle of an acoustic space, with excellent microphones, placed expertly, going into quality preamps, and all that. Synthesized and modeled sound makes it easier to produce (or fake, depending on your viewpoint) quality recorded music.