Digital Piano
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Acoustic Piano
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Cheaper
A digital piano is relatively cheaper. You can buy a budget $1k Digital
Piano brand new with decent sounds and touch.
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More Expensive
Generally more expensive. Abt $3k to get a decent sounding one.
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Volume Control
You can control the volume with just a knob. You can even play with
your headphones plugged in. Which means, you can practise late at night
without disturbing your family members.
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Mute Pedal
There's a mute pedal, but nevertheless, it is still going to be loud if you
are playing in the middle of the night. And with the mute pedal
depressed, the tone of the piano will be affected > no treble.
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Different Sounds
All Digital Pianos come with a variety of sounds, like strings, electric
pianos, organ, etc. You can even select different types of Grand Piano
sounds, e.g bright, mellow, etc.
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Only one sound - Piano
If you buy an acoustic piano, you are stuck with that sound. It may be
bright or mellow sounding. Also, where you put the piano will very much
determines how it will sound.
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Literally NO maintenance
No tuning required. No heater required. No repairs needed, unless you
heavily abuse and bang the keys everything. Your Digital Piano will last
you for many years to come.
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Requires maintenance
You need to tune your piano every 3-6 months. You need a heater which
needs to be on 24hrs. And just like an old car, as a piano gets older, the
mechanism starts to fail.
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Sound Quality and Keyboard Touch
With today's technology, unlike 10 years ago, you can really expect a
Digital Piano to sound like a real piano. Manufacturers take the best
recorded piano samples and put it into Digital Pianos. The good pianos
today even come with wooden keys, similar to real acoustic Pianos.
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Sound Quality and Keyboard Touch
A real Piano will still sound the more authentic touch & sound. But having
said so, you need the right acoustics in your room. Putting an acoustic
piano in a small room will result in a 'boomy', loud and uncontrollable
sound. And to get a good acoustic piano that sounds good, be prepared to
pay more than $4-5k.
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Portable
A digital piano, no matter how heavy, is still considered portable. You can
carry and move around without any professional help. So you suddenly
need to shift your piano from one point to another point, even within the
same room, you can do so by yourself or with the help of your family
members.
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Heavy
An acoustic piano, no matter how light it is, is still going to be very heavy.
And you need professional piano movers to get your piano moving. In the
event when you need to sell away your piano, this will be one of a major
factor, especially if there will be stairs involved.
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Lots of Useful Features
You can do lots of stuff with it. Built-in drum rhythms, metronome, split
keyboard, audio recording for CD burning, or even linking it to your
computer via MIDI and even Internet! In a real recording studio, 50% of
all jobs are done using Digital Pianos and synthesizers.
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No features
An acoustic piano is pretty much as it is. Some of the very high-end
models comes with built-in MIDI interface, or a headphone jack - Silent
Piano.
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Summary
A digital piano replicates the actual touch & sound of an acoustic piano
with the full 88-key keyboard range. It may not be a real Piano, but it
serves the purpose. Or rather multi purposes.
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Summary
It is a real piano, with real hammers and strings. If you are strictly into
Classical playing, then get an acoustic Piano. If you may venture into pop
and jazz, a Digital Piano will inspire you.
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