Posts Tagged: Electric Piano

by Dead Air

Electrical Pianos Versus Electronic Keyboards And Synthesizers

An electric piano is, as can be understood by the name, an electronic device that can produce sounds just like in a piano. It is essentially an instrument that looks like a keyboard with the difference that in any electronic keyboard many sounds can be reproduced among which the piano will be present but in the electrical version, you can play only the sound of the piano. It is specially developed so as to create only one sound. Even so, today, these instruments can also reproduce the sound of an organ too. A harpsichord is yet another instrument whose sound is usually created.

The name electrical piano initially originated from the trade name, which Wurlitzer employed for their instruments that were run on electricity. Even so, the electronic keyboard that we are speaking of is fairly different from that. These use analog circuits for functioning. To clarify somewhat clearly, there are analog synthesizers present in these keyboards. These then make tones through a range of oscillators. The older electrical piano had a mechanical sometimes-exclusive sound and utilized pickups to create the sound. A Fender Rhodes is a great example.

A lot of electric pianos that are employed these days date back a lengthy lengthy time. These were mainly created in the late seventies and numerous of the keyboards were designed in Italy. But there is an exception right here since the US had made a couple of in the year 1967. The RMI Organization of the US produced these right up until the 1980’s and then production stopped. This is due to the fact, up right up until that time expert musicians utilised the electrical piano but right after the 1980’s with the coming of electronic synth keyboards they were discarded and men and women took to the synthesizers.  

However, there had been some technical good reasons behind the discarding of the piano. Most of the real keyboards had been not at all sensitive to touch velocity and modulation of tone was not probable. The electronic keyboard on the other hand gave a lot more choices and you could adjust the depth of your note according to the touch pressure on the keys. As a result, electrical pianos became obsolete only to be utilized now and then, but nonetheless a excellent sound.

Uncover More Electronic Keyboard Articles

• Keyboard – 76 keys with selectable touch response (OFF/1/2/3) Tones – 400 Advanced Tones + 200 Preset Tones + 20 Drum Sets + 100 standard user tones + 20 user tones with waves*1 + 4 user drum sets with waves 1 + 50 drawbar organ tones + 100 user drawbar organ tones (894 tones total); layer/split
• Polyphony – 32 notes maximum (10 for certain tones)
• Effects – DSP (200 types – internal, 100 user areas) + Reverb (16 types) + Chorus (16 types) + Equalizer (10 types, 4 bands)
• 182 Rhythms
• Tempo – Variable (226 steps)

Product Description
The WK-3300 has 76 Full size keys with 400 DSP programmed Advanced Tones like stereo piano and Tremolo Electric Piano for a total of 620 tones including 50 drawbar organ tones. This powerful instrument features an on-board sequencer and a mixer, for unmatched creative possibilities, plus powerful 2-way bass reflex speakers to take your performance to the next level. This keyboard is ideal for home/project studio use, open-mic performance, education/classroom applic… More >>

76-KEY Smartmedia Keyboard

• The core sound of SCM (Spectral Component Modeling) technology
• 17 selected acoustic and vintage electric piano sounds
• 305 additional sounds (clavs, organs, strings and more) and various effects
• NW-STAGE wooden weighted keyboard
• Customize function to create your original piano sound

Product Description
Yamaha’s CP5 stage piano takes the core sounds and technology of the CP1 and offers it in an instrument that is flexible and affordable enough to appeal to a wide range of people. In fact, the CP5 electronic piano adds a wide range of sounds to the CP1. Clavs, organs, strings and more make the CP5 perfect for church and live situations where everything needs to be performed on one piano keyboard. Moreover, the Yamaha CP5 features not only Virtual Circuit Modeling ef… More >>

Yamaha CP5 88 Key STAGE PIANO, Black

Image taken on 2005-01-04 00:32:21 by blackdenimgumby.

Many people have the opinion that digital pianos do not sound like original pianos, while some people say about the upright piano that they take too much space in a room. You will find this kind of conflict about electric pianos and upright pianos very off and on. This conflict is a never-ending one and will also never be solved.

People have their personal preferences. Some like the older style and old quality of the music in pianos while some love the new technologies used in the modern day digital piano. The electric piano is not a very old innovation. It has been around for about 20 years now. But they are the most widely used musical instruments today.

When the digital piano was first introduced, it was like a blunder. The keys used on the keyboard were extremely light and spongy and the quality of the piano as well as the music was nowhere near the real piano. The sound of these early pianos was too bright and the sampling was quite awful. All these points were working against this new revolution.

These early pianos did not feel right at all. The sweetness as well as the sharpness of the original piano was missing out somewhere. The manufacturers of the digital piano had to work really hard to bring it to a stage when it could be something like an original piano.
The look of these pianos was also not a good one. It had quite an ugly look. The cases looked liked cheap plastic and it was very difficult to match it with any other furniture in the home. But today digital pianos have become a sensation. Today new models of electric pianos are coming out every two to three years. Today there are many advantages of a digital piano over an upright piano. They have a lot more features and they are portable so they can be easily moved and of course, they sound fantastic.

• The core sound of SCM (Spectral Component Modeling) technology.
• 17 selected acoustic and vintage electric piano sounds.
• 305 additional sounds (clavs, organs, strings and more) and various effects.
• New NWSTAGE wooden weighted keyboard.
• Customize function to create your original piano sound.

Product Description
Yamaha’s CP5 stage piano takes the core sounds and technology of the CP1 and offers it in an instrument that is flexible and affordable enough to appeal to a wide range of people. In fact, the CP5 electronic piano adds a wide range of sounds to the CP1. Clavs, organs, strings and more make the CP5 perfect for church and live situations where everything needs to be performed on one piano keyboard. Moreover, the Yamaha CP5 features not only Virtual Circuit Modeling ef… More >>

Yamaha CP-5 88 Key Digital Stage Piano

In these times of the internet, it’s never been a better time to learn how to play the piano. Why is that? I hear you ask, because, information on virtually any subject you can think of is available, with a little research on the internet, and learning to play the piano, is no different than any other subject you might wish to learn.

Do I need a piano?

Obviously, if you want to learn to play the piano, then a piano keyboard of some sort is essential. While advanced piano playing would require a full size piano keyboard, normally eighty-eight notes. To start learning, all you would need is any type of keyboard, such as a Yamaha PSR keyboard, which have forty-nine and sixty-one note versions or an electric piano, which are available in seventy-six notes versions. You could even start learning with an accordion or a roll up piano, as long as you have a keyboard, you can start to learn.

Should you buy a new piano keyboard?

If you don’t have a piano or keyboard then you do need to buy one, but you defiantly don’t need to buy a new keyboard. Again, the internet comes to the rescue. There are thousands of auction listings offering second hand electronic keyboards, electric pianos, in fact all kinds of keyboards. For a beginner, there really is no point in buying an expensive keyboard because when starting to learn to play the piano you will only use a fraction of a piano keyboards features including the keyboard. From a beginner’s point of view, you only need between five and eight notes on the keyboard to start learning.

What’s the best make of keyboard to buy?

I am asked this question a lot, and from a beginners point of view there really is no worst and best because it’s the actual keyboard, the black and white notes that are important to start learning to play. Yes, as you become more advanced in your playing ability, you will need a better quality keyboard but not at the beginning. The best advice I can give to anybody wanting to buy there first keyboard, is to first, set you budget and second try to stick with the more popular makes of keyboards, for beginners these are Yamaha and Casio. Both of these companies have been making electronic keyboards for many years and they know what they are doing. This of course is just my opinion and it’s the same advice I give to my pupils.

So to recap, if you don’t have a keyboard, then borrow one or buy one second hand. It doesn’t have to be a traditional piano with a full size keyboard, as a beginner you will only use up to eight notes. It’s a fact, that not everybody will take to learning to play the piano, so why spend a fortune on a keyboard when you don’t need to. If you don’t take to it you haven’t lost a fortune, if you do take to it, buy a better keyboard.

Learning how to play the keyboard has several advantages over learning how to play the piano. Although you might think learning one is as simple as the other, the keyboard as an instrument is superior in many ways.

With a piano, you only have one type of instrument that you can play…the piano itself. Electronic keyboards allow you to mimic the sounds of dozens of different instruments. Some more expensive models can mimic the sounds of hundreds of instruments and allow your to lay tracks…right on the keyboard!

When you learn how to play the keyboard, you are learning all of those instruments without having to take additional lessons. Sounds can include:

Many types of pianos (grand piano, electronic, etc.)

Percussion instruments

Organs of all kinds (even harmonica!)

Stringed instruments (violin, viola, cello, contrabass)

Brass instruments (trumpet, tuba, trombone)

All of the Woodwinds (clarinet, flute, saxophone)

Sitar

Banjo

Bag Pipe

The piano sounds that come from a keyboard can include grand piano, electric piano, honky-tonk and many, many more! There may even be special effects available like bird noises, telephone rings and other novelty sounds.

When you learn how to play the keyboard, you’ll also get to choose from a variety of background sounds that can accompany your main melody. You can normally choose from one of the following:

Pop

Dance

Rock

Jazz

Latin

Hip-hop

More advanced keyboard models may have more choices.

Learning play the keyboard is perfect for beginning music students. There are keyboard models that will show you each note that needs to be played next. It is an easy method of learning that guides students into a better understanding of music.

Playing with a keyboard is also more portable than playing a piano. A keyboard, if it is small enough, can go anywhere with you. This makes it easy to practice in different environments.

Keyboards are easy to find. While pianos can cost thousands of dollars, you can find a keyboard for as low as in the classified ads.

There are more complex keyboards that cost much, much more. But for a small investment you can decide if playing the keyboard is really right for you. In the future, you can upgrade your keyboard choice to a more featured model.

Learning play the keyboard is one of the easiest and most fun ways to get into music. There are plenty of songs available for the keyboard, and with practice there is no limit to what you can play! You can experiment a lot with the keyboard; and even create your own one-man band, complete with drums, piano, horns, string instruments and possibly even your own voice. Who knows? You may even produce a demo that you could send to a music executive. The possibilities can be endless!