Grand piano top view generator#
In that case, to recreate the dynamics, the tone generator of the digital piano will just increase/decrease the volume of the same sample rather than using separate layers for different velocities, which is never ideal.įor an acoustic piano, depending on how hard or soft you press the keys, the sound changes not only in volume but also in character. If there’s only one or two layers recorded for each note on a digital piano, it becomes very difficult to reproduce the wide dynamic range of an acoustic piano. While this helps to create a perception of a longer decay, it’s not the same decay that you hear on an acoustic piano, which is much more complex and dynamic than a simple volume decrease. Many lower-end digital pianos will only play back the first 3-5 seconds of the real recording, then loop the sample so that the same part is played over and over, but with gradually decreasing volume. Moreover, to avoid using gigabytes of sampling data, many manufacturers cut off a part of the sample to reduce its size. Rather than recording each individual key of an acoustic piano, they record every second or every third note and then stretch the samples using modeling technologies to fill the gaps. Generally, more memory means that longer/higher-quality samples with more velocity layers can be stored on a digital piano.Ĭheaper models have less memory, so manufacturers have to take a slightly different approach. The more velocity layers, the more natural volume transitions and better expressiveness you get.
Grand piano top view professional#
In a professional recording studio with a perfectly tuned acoustic piano (a grand piano in many cases), manufacturers record each note played at different volumes using multiple high-fidelity microphones.
When it comes to major brands, the recording process usually looks like this… In recent years, technology has become so sophisticated that high-end digital pianos provide sound that’s almost indistinguishable from a real piano. The higher the quality of the samples and technologies used to create (or record) them, the more realistic and accurate the sound will be. Usually, samples are recorded at different velocity levels (multi-samples) to naturally respond to the way you play the keys (from the softest pianissimo to the loudest fortissimo). This article will focus on acoustic piano samples. It is widely used for guitars, strings, organs, electric pianos, drums, flutes, strings, and many other musical instruments. Sampling is not limited to acoustic pianos. In this article, we’ll focus on samples used to reproduce the sound of musical instruments. For example, a five-second bass guitar riff from a funk song can be a sample. Samples can also be excerpts from recorded songs. What are Samples?Ī sample is a small audio recording of a musical instrument’s sound, or of any other sound (ocean waves, sirens, wind, etc.). To reproduce the sound of an acoustic piano and other musical instruments, digital pianos use samples. When you press a key, the attached hammer strikes the corresponding string(s), which vibrates and makes a sound.ĭigital pianos don’t have strings and hammers are used only to add weight to the keys and to recreate the mechanical movement found in the traditional instrument. Strings, hammers, and keys are the elements that produce the sound in an acoustic piano. When it comes to digital pianos, the main challenge engineers face is to reproduce two things accurately: the sound and the feel of an acoustic piano.īoth tasks are very difficult because there’s too much going on inside this amazing musical instrument. You may wonder: “How do digital pianos work?”