Electronic & Digital Pianos 4

Buying A Real Acoustic Piano Versus Buying An Electronic Piano

This will be a shorter post just to settle this question that is a nagging quandry for many people.

It’s the Big Acoustic Piano – Digital Piano Face-Off

Which should you buy??

Some people have the money and space for both a fine grand piano and a digital studio piano. For them I’d say, especially if you want to use piano in recordings, or want to practice after everyone’s asleep, get ‘em both.

The real acoustic grand will give you the richness of tone and subtlety of touch only a fine grand can deliver. But recording an acoustic piano can be tricky – expensive microphones, special mic placement and EQing – and a good digital imitation can sound just fine in a mix, plugged straight into your board with no micing.

But most people can only have one or the other. They have limited space and can only spend around $1500 to $3000 (you won’t get much of a piano for less than that…we’ll cover this in our “Buying New & Used Pianos” posts.) So they go to the piano store, and find that, for that amount, they can come home with either a real vertical (upright) piano or a digital piano, and they get all flustered wondering which is the right choice.

But the answer is pretty simple. It all depends on how the piano will be used.

If the piano will be played by someone who’s taking real classical and jazz piano lessons, and who will therefore need the sound and touch real keys throwing real felt hammers against real metal strings, buy a real, quality acoustic piano.

Even if the players and listeners in the family are just banging out pop music chords and melodies, not much classical or jazz, if their ears know and love the full-bodied resonance of a real piano, they’re going to notice the difference in a digital piano sound, and eventually be underwhelmed by it. So if your piano ears are very good or cultured, even if your piano skills are limited, buy a real piano

If the piano will be used mostly to learn music theory and popular songs, with less concern for classically-trained touch and fingering, by someone who doesn’t mind the somewhat “boxed-in” electronicky sound of even the best digitals, than a digital piano will be a fine choice

Especially if that same player wants more portability, less expense, and the chance to play and record lots of different orchestral and pop instruments beyond piano sounds, than digiatl is the way to go.

Simple enough? Happy music-making!

For more check out these related posts

• Electronic & Digital Pianos 1
• Electronic & Digital Pianos 3
• Electronic & Digital Pianos 2