Gearslutz.com - View Single Post - Grand Piano or Virtual Piano?? Who Has Both???

1954U1 · 30th July 2008

I've not a grand piano..
but consider myself very lucky for having a 1954's U1 Yamaha 1st series upright [the better upright I've ever played IMO],
this one never stayed in dry environments, so the soundboard is still good.

I can say you that for maybe a single note, the virtual ones I've tried are very similar if not better
[apart for the lacks of dynamics a true hammer-action has].

But every emulation lacks all the things that happen in a real piano in terms of complex interactions between the strings.. not to say the soundboard..
Try to do on a real piano some passages with more than one note played simultaneously,
or also think about the tone added by simply leaving a key pressed while playing others..
The emulation cant handle all of these calculations, and you can hear it instantly.

So, with a virtual piano you lose a lot of sound's attributes.

30th July 2008	#13
1954U1 Gear nut Joined: Mar 2007 Location: Milano, Italy Posts: 122	I've not a grand piano.. but consider myself very lucky for having a 1954's U1 Yamaha 1st series upright [the better upright I've ever played IMO], this one never stayed in dry environments, so the soundboard is still good. I can say you that for maybe a single note, the virtual ones I've tried are very similar if not better [apart for the lacks of dynamics a true hammer-action has]. But every emulation lacks all the things that happen in a real piano in terms of complex interactions between the strings.. not to say the soundboard.. Try to do on a real piano some passages with more than one note played simultaneously, or also think about the tone added by simply leaving a key pressed while playing others.. The emulation cant handle all of these calculations, and you can hear it instantly. So, with a virtual piano you lose a lot of sound's attributes.