Acoustic piano vs digital piano: is there any solid evidence for one being better than the other?

Question

As someone who'll have to buy a piano soon, I'm at the old question of acoustic vs digital. I've done a fair deal of research on the internet, as well as heard the opinion of a piano teacher, and everyone says - "digital is never as good as the acoustic, it's just not possible, yadda yadda yadda".

Yet, I'm skeptical. There's no proof of this anywhere, it's just stated as the truth that everyone knows. And also, drawing on the experience of audiophiles and other digital audio experiments, it seems that today's audio technology is pretty advanced already, and humans tend to greatly overestimate their own hearing abilities.

Which leads me to wonder - just how much difference is there between a decent contemporary digital piano (something on the order of $1000 or more) and an acoustic piano? If put to the test, would the experts be able to tell the difference? Or perhaps it's time we revised this "old truth"?

Does anybody have any hard evidence on this? Any double-blind AB tests or something?

Answer 1

I'm only a guitarist, but I play once a week on a real piano at my teacher's studio, and I have a Yamaha P-115 digital piano at home (weighted keys, $600 retail most places -- I got lucky and paid $400 at a salvage store). The feel is a bit different between the two, but it's in the ballpark (for a tyro like me). No trouble adjusting. I originally started with an unweighted "synth action" MIDI controller keyboard, and that was different enough to be a problem. It only has 47 keys or something too. Just not a good idea all around.

I asked my teacher for recommendations in my price range. He gave me a short list of instruments with weighted keys, with some pros and cons for each one. I would recommend that you talk to your teacher (or some other experienced person, if you don't have a teacher yet) and ask for advice. Be prepared with your best current understanding of your needs and desires, even though you'll learn more about your needs and desires after the decision is irrevocable. I've found that knowledgeable people in a lot of fields are amazingly generous with thoughtful advice for newbies. Mind you, this doesn't include the salesman at the music store or the motorcycle dealership; they have a conflict of interest.

Aside from keyboard feel, there are pros and cons to the P115: The P115 is in better tune than my teacher's beater piano, works with headphones, plays its metronome through the headphones, takes up relatively little room, can be stuffed in a closet, speaks MIDI to GarageBand, and has other sounds besides piano, which I sometimes use. Of course, tuning is easy to fix if you own the instrument, and the other points may be totally irrelevant to you. I started piano lessons to learn to play keyboards, not to be a pianist.

There's one big downside to the P115: Play a note, and hold it down until it decays to nothing. Do it again with the same note. It's the same. It's not just the same pitch, it's the same exact recording. On a physical piano, they will never be precisely the same twice (especially on notes with more than one string, which will produce audible interference patterns). But if you play the same sample twice in a row, it will be precisely the same, every... single... time. For me, there is noticeably artificial and distracting at the end of long sustained notes -- and that's my guess at what it might be. But I don't spend all that much of my practice time listening to the very ends of long sustained notes.

Smart engineers can fix that. If they haven't yet, they will. On a $1000+ instrument, they may have done it already. I can't say, I haven't played any $1000+ digital pianos. If you're in the market for one, I urge you to try letting a note die away to nothing, while listening with headphones, and then repeat a few times. See if it sounds fake to your ears. Then decide whether that's a deal-breaker anyhow. It isn't one for me.

Through headphones, the total absence of any extraneous sounds out of the instrument is also weird and creepy, and the built-in speakers are... OK, if you don't expect miracles. They sound better if you turn it up a bit. Again, a $600 instrument isn't a $1000+ instrument, and any given $1000+ instrument isn't any other $1000+ instrument.

But the only way to choose an instrument for you is for you to sit down in front of it (or pick it up, or sit in it, behind it, or under it) and play it. Weighted keys are a must. The rest is a matter of what meets your own unique needs. There is no general answer to the question of which instrument to buy. That's why there are so many different instruments out there. Is a saxophone better than a Hammond? Well, I dunno: Are you trying to sound like Benny Goodman, or Jeff Porcaro?

All things considered, I'm satisfied with my own choice, given my needs, desires, the high cost of my other hobbies, and the finite size of my living room.

Answer 2

I own, and have performed on both kinds. I use them for different reasons, in different scenarios. If you can have only one, you should choose according to your needs. What kind of music will you mostly play? Does your digital need to be portable?

ACOUSTIC: A good many classical composers have written piano music that deliberately creates an interesting interaction of harmonics from the open, vibrating strings. Debussy and Ravel, with their impressionist writing come to mind. If I play their works on a digital, I don't hear any of the ethereal harmonic effects they wrote. Many pianists also enjoy the touch-responsiveness of the acoustic piano. They adjust their playing based on the sensory feedback they get through the key bed. You don't get this on a digital. Acoustic is good for developing and maintaining your dynamic range. I find even the most dynamic digitals with the deepest and most bouncy keys do not have an adequate dynamic range or responsiveness on virtuosic pieces. I miss it on a good piece of solo classical writing.

DIGITAL: I like the versatility of a digital piano, though. I really like the range of sounds and re-tunings I can get from it, without all the bother of mucking up with wires and whatnot in a prepared piano. I can use midi, I can use headphones, I can drive it to a theatre, I can easily mix and amplify when playing with an ensemble of other electro instruments; just a clean signal - no mucking around with mics. I can trigger samples. I can't do this on an acoustic piano. And for some genres of writing, a really wide expressive range doesn't matter much, when an OK one will do.

Answer 3

The whole point of a digital piano is attempt to re-create an acoustic one. Maybe better isn't the right way to think.

There is an instrument called the piano. It's big and feels and sounds a certain way. There are many digital imitations of the real things called pianos. The primary reasons why digital pianos exist in the first place are cost and size. They can be very similar in sound to an acoustic piano at a much lower cost and in a portable format. They are not the same. The digital options approximate the acoustic ones. There are nuances that one can feel and hear on an acoustic piano that are not present or are a bit wierd on digital ones.

You might prefer a digital piano to an acoustic one, but that's a rare opinion. If you want to be able to explore and enjoy all the subtleties of an acoustic piano, you have to get an acoustic piano. If you want to get pretty close and spend less money and possibly have it be portable, then a digital piano might be better for your situation.

Which leads me to wonder - just how much difference is there between a decent contemporary digital piano (something on the order of $1000 or more) and an acoustic piano? If put to the test, would the experts be able to tell the difference?

People who have never played a piano or keyboard instrument before could instantly tell the difference, even if blindfolded. They might not know which is which, but the feel and sound will be clearly different. Anyone who has played an acoustic piano for a few weeks could almost certainly tell which is which in a blindfolded comparison between acoustic and digital.

Answer 4

Which leads me to wonder - just how much difference is there between a decent contemporary digital piano (something on the order of $1000 or more) and an acoustic piano? If put to the test, would the experts be able to tell the difference? Or perhaps it's time we revised this "old truth"?

Does anybody have any hard evidence on this? Any double-blind AB tests or something?

After a few hours of searching I haven't been able to find a single decent piece of written evidence on this. (A negative answer isn't much good, I know.)

The most interesting thing I found was a forum post - Taste Test Digital vs Acoustic. It rapidly went off the topic though pulled up a few interesting references on players' perceptions of touch. Interesting psychology but even this is not on the subject though...

Answer 5

It can become quite confusing when you are looking at different kinds of the piano as to which is the best. Ultimately this comes down to your personal needs and preferences, but digital pianos are a popular choice.

There are several features that make up a digital piano. One of the main features of digital pianos is that they are usually very portable so you can easily transport it to gigs and concerts with you. They are quite lightweight so all you need to do is use a folding stand and stool and you will be able to put the whole instrument into a carrying case.

Unlike acoustic pianos, digital pianos require very little maintenance. You won’t need to tune the piano and as long as you keep it dust-free, you will not experience any deterioration in sound or performance.

Digital pianos have adjustable sound levels with volume controls. There is also a headphone input so that you can play the digital piano without disturbing those around you.

Learners often use digital pianos, as they come with features to assist effective learning. As the digital piano has a real feel and sound to it, learners can get used to the feel of an acoustic piano, but they can also take advantages of the additional features. Play along backing tracks often come with digital pianos as well as sets of basic drum patterns. Whilst those who learn on an acoustic piano have to rely on a metronome to keep in time, digital piano users can use drum patterns to keep time with different styles of music. This adds an element of fun to learning.

If you would like to, you can connect a digital piano to a computer with ease. This will allow you to record the tracks that you play directly to sound recording software.

Playing a digital piano feels a lot like playing an acoustic piano. Hammer detection and weighted keys mean that you have to use a little more pressure for lower pitched notes in comparison to the higher pitched notes. Realistic feel pedals also add to the feel of playing a traditional piano.

Answer 6

A digital piano is built to mimic an acoustic one, not the other way round. It is a way to produce good recordings with piano samples in a way that a piano player is right at home with. In that respect, it's better for the listener than for the player. For the player, it's a piano avatar. This has the advantage that you can switch personalities while staying at the same console.

This is conceptually different from something like an electric piano (Fender Rhodes, for example) which have an identity of their own and are not a means to a different end.

You compare digital pianos to acoustic pianos, and you compare acoustic pianos to other acoustic pianos. That's the metric.

Good digital pianos may be more expensive than cheap acoustic ones but quite more affordable than those acoustic ones they are supposed to mimic.

Is the deal right? It depends on your personal standards and availability of space and money. And whether you want to placate the listener or the player.

Answer 7

I tried multiple acoustic and top-of-the-line digital pianos in stores recently. The gap between acoustic and digital piano has been GREATLY reduced. They are doing their due diligence of including a ton of samples per note so the sound will be varied rather than fake. The speakers are very good -- still not good enough to sound like a real piano, but pretty close. There are also some subtleties like that if you play a note with the damper pedal held down it will sound different on a real piano, and digital pianos may not be able to replicate this effect yet. Normal people might not notice the difference.

A lot of people are complaining about the feel of the piano, but in 2017, high-end digital pianos replicate the feel of a real one with real hammers. There are also "optionally silent pianos" which are fully functioning acoustic pianos with the option to flip a switch that blocks all the hammers from touching the string and plays sound through headphones instead. So in this case obviously the feel is pretty much identical to a real piano.

In 2017, by far the biggest weakness of the digital piano, is in the RELEASE of the key. In a real piano, when you release a key, felt covers the string. In a fake piano, when you release a key, they turn down the volume rapidly. Similar, but not same. Although they've greatly improved the samples of notes in general, they have not addressed the release aspect. So the difference between real and fake is very noticeable when you play staccato. I really wish the developers would catch onto this, because all they have to do is replace the naive fade-out with a quick cross-fade to a recorded release sample in a real piano. You don't even need to make extra parts; it is a software-side fix. Once they start doing this, I think a lot more people would be buying digital pianos.

Answer 8

Yes, the issue of sound is important, and I've heard some really convincing digital pianos over the last few years. But for me, it's another issue entirely: the touch of a digital keyboard compared to a piano. (As such, it may seem like I'm not answering your final two questions, but I am trying to answer the general inquiry from a different perspective.)

Some digital keyboards are so flimsy (that is, overly easy to play) that a player who has learned on one may be rendered absolutely mute the moment s/he sits in front of a Steinway. In my experience, this is not something that's easily fixed in a week or two; a student that learns how to play on an improper keyboard will create bad technical habits and will not build the proper finger dexterity that would result from beginning on a proper keyboard. As such, the student will really need to re-learn and overwrite the bad habits that s/he built at the start of his/her learning. Speaking from personal experience, this is incredibly frustrating: a student that can "play" something on a digital keyboard is not going to have a fun time when they realize that their hard work has seemingly been for nothing when they're sitting in front of the real thing.

I'm not an expert on digital pianos; perhaps there are keyboards out there that mimic the touch of a true piano really, really well. But if you're dropping >$1000 on a digital piano, I say you at least spend some time checking out some want ads for some good used pianos.

Edit: Thanks for those two links, I'll have to check them out; they look interesting!

Answer 9

Digital and acoustic piano's are 2 different beasts and it completely depends on what you are using them for wether the analog or the digital is the best.

It is not the same as comparing an electric and acoustic guitar. Both are guitars with strings the only difference is how the sound of the strings is amplified. A digital piano on the other hand contains no strings but switches of sensors (depending on the price range). If your digital piano is of the decent kind, it will have a sensor the calculates what the sound would be from the speed and the force applied to the keys. While it might come close to the acoustic piano sound, it will never be the same. But most digital piano players are not looking for acoustic piano sound and you have the added bonusses of the extra sounds, no need for tuning, midi, easy to amplify, etc...

My major concern with digital pianos is that the feel of the keyboard itself is totally different. you need to play on the with a different technique. Even a good weighted keyboard will not feel as mechanical as an acoustic piano. But again it's a matter of preference.

However, after said all this: if you want to study acoustic piano and if you want to do that on a decent level, I would recomend you to buy an acoustic piano. You won't play soccer with a basket ball either altho they are both balls. The transition from acoustic to digital piano is easier than the other way round.

Answer 10

If you’re looking at it from a scientific point a view there is not much difference. It is true that 99.99% (maybe, not this number, but you get the idea) of people would not tell the difference between the best synthesizers and acoustic pianos. But first of all, this is this is the best digital equipment that simulates ideally the sound of a traditional instrument, not your average keyboard and your standard speaker. Second, acoustic pianos have other qualities to them that people appreciate. It’s like digital watches, everyone though that they would bring an end to the era of Rolex. But what we see today is that people still buying an analogue version for purely aesthetic reasons. Just look at the example of some luxury lucid pianos. It is not just an instrument, but rather a work of art and people take pride and joy in simply possessing it. I certainly do. And although it is not very practical, it is not mobile, after a certain time it would also have an antique quality. Electronics are getting replaced each year, it’s a constant race. While acoustic would have a timeless quality.

Answer 11

I won't try to get to a single conclusion of which is "better", as digital and acoustic are after all two different species.

A good keyboard player, if he or she has accumulated a certain experience of playing on both, will know how to adjust their touch and fingerings to make the best of both, depending on the pieces they're playing.

But one could never undermine the versatility of a "decent" digital piano, and the technologies of being capable of synthesizing so so so close the acoustic qualities of an acoustic piano!

Price is another big decisive factor. A new entry level acoustic can likely get you a fairly sophisticated digital, both in sounds and keyboard touch. It opens up more opportunities to families with kids who can't afford an investment on an acoustic (and maintenance).

My two cents.

Answer 12

Well here's my two cents.

There are obvious advantages to a bit of electronic kit that weighs next to nothing and stays - more or less - in tune after being moved around. But that is not what is being asked about. If I have understood correctly the OP is asking about the sound quality.

So lets do a thought experiment: would you ever consider using electronic sound production in place of mechanical sound production for a clarinet or an oboe or a trumpet? By this I mean that you still blow the thing and use your fingers on the keys/valves, but the sound is produced by sensors detecting what you are keying and making the sound as appropriate. Whilst that might work there is no input that you can have as a player to affect the quality of the sound. Whoever is playing it, the sound quality will be the same. With a real instrument some clarinettists sound better than others because they create a better sound from the instrument and that is down to their skill when blowing (breath control etc.).

And guess what - its the same with a piano. A good pianist can get a better sound from a real piano because the way they press the keys affects the way that the hammers strike the strings. There appears to be no way, with current technology anyway, to duplicate this with a digital piano. And even if there was a way I doubt that anyone would use it. Why would they? - it makes the instrument harder to play and people would avoid it because they struggle to make a decent sound.

So for me the point about being a skilled pianist is the ability to make the instrument sound nice, just like a skilled clarinettist makes the clarinet sound nice.

But the bottom line here is this: digital and acoustic pianos are different instruments. Yes there is lots of overlap but the differences will start to matter if you are serious about your playing. For almost everything written for the keyboard from the mid 1700s to the mid 1970s the composer had an acoustic piano in mind. After that I don't know but certainly many composers in the pop/rock etc. genres are thinking keyboard rather than piano when they write.

If you can't learn both then identify which way you will want to go in the future and buy what suits you.

Answer 13

I know this has been answered by so many, but allow me to add in my opinion here.

First of all, there are concert pianists that play digital pianos and many are labeled as Casio or Yamaha Musicians for marketing purposes.

Now as far as the quality...

With digital you get a freshly tuned piano that was tuned for concert quality and then each key is sampled multiple times for speed, strength, string resonance, key off, key on, and damper resonance. Where the quality is affected is when you have to compress the tones to match the keyboards memory limitations.

Consider this, there are 50 Gig samples you can use with a midi controller that would be near Impossible to distinguish from a concert grand if you have good speakers. Most of the better digital pianos can use these samples if you want but they add several hundred to the cost of the instrument.

With an acoustic there's a range that the strings are considered in tune and that slight fluctuation adds body to the music in unpredictable ways. Some higher end digital have attempted to emulate this with varying success (Roland HP605 is one), but that's the biggest difference in the depth of sound.

With acoustics they're often a pain to deal with when something goes wrong and maintenance can be pricey. Also, the cost is often 10x the price of say a PX-870 and yet the sound isn't always 10x better as these tend to be upright pianos.

Overall, Acoustics are nice but I believe the quality is nearing the point where most places will opt for digital as opposed to acousting pianos. If you go to most schools now, they're using digital in most cases.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

Answer 14

Hybrid pianos feel exactly like acoustics. You have the advantage of having a grand piano action in an upright cabinet. The Avant Grand series of Yamaha is a very convincing facsimile of the acoustic piano.