1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:04,076 So I have this digital piano. 2 00:00:04,076 --> 00:00:05,435 Or keyboard. 3 00:00:05,435 --> 00:00:08,053 Or whatever, let’s not get hung up on the nomenclature. 4 00:00:08,053 --> 00:00:10,265 I’ve had it for about 5 years - 5 00:00:10,265 --> 00:00:15,276 I’m no professional pianist but I do enjoy tickling those synthetic ivories from time to time, 6 00:00:15,276 --> 00:00:18,705 enough to be bothered by a keyboard without  weighted keys. 7 00:00:18,705 --> 00:00:22,936 But it also didn’t make sense to spend lots of money on some ultra-lavish thing 8 00:00:22,936 --> 00:00:26,790 because my level of piano proficiency would waste such an instrument. 9 00:00:26,790 --> 00:00:28,262 So I got this. 10 00:00:28,262 --> 00:00:30,512 Hold on, I just  gotta boot it up. 11 00:00:30,512 --> 00:00:33,310 ♫ Windows XP startup sound ♫ 12 00:00:33,310 --> 00:00:35,873 That’s right, it’s still No Effort in November, 13 00:00:35,873 --> 00:00:39,728 and this piana’s gonna learn us a thing or two about user interfaces. 14 00:00:39,728 --> 00:00:41,134 And then we’ll talk about some other stuff. 15 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:45,329 Being the most basic model in Yamaha’s Arius line, 16 00:00:45,329 --> 00:00:47,198 this model is pretty basic. 17 00:00:47,198 --> 00:00:49,254 I mean, it’s even got a manual transmission 18 00:00:49,254 --> 00:00:51,613 as you can see by the presence of the clutch pedal. 19 00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:53,432 That was a joke. 20 00:00:53,432 --> 00:00:55,328 Those are just your normal piano pedals. 21 00:00:55,328 --> 00:00:58,070 Except of course they’re not real, they’re just switches. 22 00:00:58,070 --> 00:01:00,492 But they’re not binary inputs either. 23 00:01:00,492 --> 00:01:06,578 And also this piano handles the sustain pedal in a surprisingly wrong way which I’ll show you in a bit. 24 00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:11,346 But anyway, like most keyboards this thing offers  a fair degree of customizability 25 00:01:11,346 --> 00:01:15,079 with things like key sensitivity, a slew of reverb options 26 00:01:15,079 --> 00:01:17,975 (which are annoyingly always on by default) 27 00:01:17,975 --> 00:01:20,761 different voices so you can  pretend you’re an organist 28 00:01:20,761 --> 00:01:22,709 or a harpsichordist 29 00:01:22,709 --> 00:01:24,906 or annoy your friends like this. 30 00:01:24,906 --> 00:01:30,384 ♫ iPhone Marimba ringtone ♫ 31 00:01:30,384 --> 00:01:33,850 That voice is a vibraphone and  not a marimba but who’s counting? 32 00:01:33,850 --> 00:01:37,846 Oh, it also offers a built-in  metronome and some other stuff. 33 00:01:37,846 --> 00:01:41,742 It’s a pretty fully-featured if on the cheaper  side instrument. 34 00:01:41,742 --> 00:01:43,173 Look at the controls, though— 35 00:01:43,173 --> 00:01:47,952 Hi! I’ve now edited the video and while  I kinda thought this would be the case, uh 36 00:01:47,952 --> 00:01:53,781 I just wanna make sure that you know... Yes, I’m aware you can't see the keyboard at all from where the camera is 37 00:01:53,781 --> 00:01:56,047 but… remember what month it is. 38 00:01:56,047 --> 00:01:57,213 So. 39 00:01:57,213 --> 00:01:59,075 Just keep that in mind. 40 00:01:59,075 --> 00:02:03,364 — Look at the controls, though, and  you find there basically aren’t any. 41 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:06,720 That’s one of the concessions you  make when you buy the cheap one.   42 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:10,365 Over here you have a power button and a volume  control - 43 00:02:10,365 --> 00:02:12,000 an actual potentiometer, even! 44 00:02:12,640 --> 00:02:14,321 But, uh... 45 00:02:14,321 --> 00:02:15,298 that’s it. 46 00:02:15,298 --> 00:02:19,825 Over there you  have a single button labeled Grand Piano Function. 47 00:02:19,825 --> 00:02:22,065 I’m glad it can at least do that. 48 00:02:22,065 --> 00:02:24,842 And, uh, well now we’re out of buttons. 49 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:26,936 That doesn’t seem like enough. 50 00:02:27,429 --> 00:02:31,962 Apparently this thing has a bluetooth radio in it because of course it does 51 00:02:31,962 --> 00:02:36,999 and there’s an app you can download  for your phone to control things because of course there is 52 00:02:36,999 --> 00:02:38,679 but all I can say to that is 53 00:02:38,679 --> 00:02:39,979 “gross.” 54 00:02:39,979 --> 00:02:43,222 Oh but it does have an integrated key cover! 55 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:44,596 Fancy! 56 00:02:46,380 --> 00:02:51,355 I was perplexed by how the heck  I was supposed to control this thing to change is settings, 57 00:02:51,355 --> 00:02:55,476 but after staring at  it for just a little while I thought 58 00:02:55,688 --> 00:02:56,868 "oh" [said by a woman's voice coming from the piano] 59 00:02:56,868 --> 00:03:01,247 That’s right, there’s a whole 88 other buttons  sitting right here! 60 00:03:01,247 --> 00:03:03,334 They’re just piano-ey. 61 00:03:03,334 --> 00:03:07,792 Yamaha rather smartly designed this thing an  awful lot like a computer keyboard 62 00:03:07,792 --> 00:03:10,503 and this button here is your modifier key. 63 00:03:10,503 --> 00:03:11,281 Like Alt. 64 00:03:11,281 --> 00:03:11,963 Or  Control. 65 00:03:11,963 --> 00:03:12,507 Or Command. 66 00:03:12,507 --> 00:03:13,130 Or Windows. 67 00:03:13,130 --> 00:03:14,138 Or… 68 00:03:14,138 --> 00:03:14,638 Function. 69 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:17,904 Press it once and it will revert back - 70 00:03:17,904 --> 00:03:21,829 someone got mad at me for saying revert back so I said it again! 71 00:03:21,829 --> 00:03:23,818 Be careful what you wish for - 72 00:03:23,818 --> 00:03:28,241 it will revert back to being a standard piano from whatever function it was in. 73 00:03:28,241 --> 00:03:31,245 Or  at least a facsimile of a standard piano. 74 00:03:31,245 --> 00:03:35,077 But if you hold the button down and  then press one of the keys - 75 00:03:35,077 --> 00:03:37,156 well, now you’ve done who knows what. 76 00:03:37,156 --> 00:03:39,284 Like started a sample song. 77 00:03:39,284 --> 00:03:41,627 ♫ The Entertainer begins to play ♫ Oh good. 78 00:03:41,627 --> 00:03:44,510 Can’t have a piano  that can’t play the Entertainer. 79 00:03:46,334 --> 00:03:47,554 Side-note. [ding] 80 00:03:47,554 --> 00:03:54,160 I think Scott Joplin gets a bad or  perhaps incomplete rap for being “the ragtime guy.” 81 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:58,109 Yeah, ragtime as a genre has a very particular sound, 82 00:03:58,109 --> 00:04:02,447 but it doesn’t help that just about the only three pieces anyone ever hears are The Entertainer, 83 00:04:02,447 --> 00:04:05,904 Maple Leaf Rag, and sometimes The Easy Winners. 84 00:04:05,904 --> 00:04:07,503 Maybe Pine Apple Rag, too. 85 00:04:07,503 --> 00:04:09,632 Basically everything that was in The Sting. 86 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:15,021 It also doesn’t help that people like to  play these pieces ridiculously fast because, well, 87 00:04:15,021 --> 00:04:21,407 ♫ Maple Leaf Rag played ridiculsouly fast ♫ 88 00:04:21,407 --> 00:04:22,801 I mean it’s very fun. 89 00:04:22,801 --> 00:04:25,853 But have you ever heard the second section of Solace? 90 00:04:26,628 --> 00:04:30,786 ♫ 91 00:04:33,461 --> 00:04:35,646 Bet you weren't expecting a piano recital now, were you? 92 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:49,193 Or the Magnetic Rag (a personal favorite of  mine?) 93 00:04:49,193 --> 00:04:59,714 ♫ 94 00:04:59,714 --> 00:05:05,605 Appreciation for ragtime and indeed for Joplin seems to come in waves and, well, 95 00:05:05,605 --> 00:05:07,866 maybe we’re overdue for another one. 96 00:05:08,007 --> 00:05:08,856 Anyway, 97 00:05:09,435 --> 00:05:12,809 Yamaha gives you a cheat sheet so you don’t have  to memorize all of these. 98 00:05:12,809 --> 00:05:15,748 They are grouped to help make this a little more obvious, though, 99 00:05:15,748 --> 00:05:20,922 and they’ve put the most-likely-to-be-used functions at the very bottom (selecting voices) 100 00:05:20,922 --> 00:05:24,169 and near middle C (the metronome). 101 00:05:24,169 --> 00:05:30,744 Although, using the metronome is probably the most clunky experience of this scheme, 102 00:05:30,744 --> 00:05:34,755 as you enter your desired beats per minute using these keys. 103 00:05:34,755 --> 00:05:39,000 [a pre-recorded voice reads Six. Five. One. Two. Three.] 104 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:41,644 You can then have it read back to you the set speed. 105 00:05:41,644 --> 00:05:43,141 [sixty-nine] 106 00:05:43,141 --> 00:05:43,860 Nice. 107 00:05:43,860 --> 00:05:48,716 Then you can turn it on or off and also adjust  beats per measure and volume. 108 00:05:48,716 --> 00:05:49,795 [One. 109 00:05:49,795 --> 00:05:50,911 Two. 110 00:05:50,911 --> 00:05:52,370 Oh. 111 00:05:52,370 --> 00:05:54,251 One hundred twenty. 112 00:05:55,307 --> 00:06:00,005 On.  [metronome begins ticking]] 113 00:06:00,005 --> 00:06:05,068 It does work, but honestly you’re better  off just using an external metronome. 114 00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:09,840 This probably isn’t the only keyboard  in existence to use its keys in this way   115 00:06:09,840 --> 00:06:12,314 but it nonetheless delights me. 116 00:06:12,314 --> 00:06:16,496 Because it’s a very meta take on a user interface. 117 00:06:16,496 --> 00:06:20,167 Every piano, going back to the days when we called it the pianoforte 118 00:06:20,167 --> 00:06:22,947 (or fortepiano if you like that order better) 119 00:06:22,947 --> 00:06:26,215 has some version of this keyboard. 120 00:06:26,215 --> 00:06:29,665 And what are the keys themselves but a user interface? 121 00:06:29,920 --> 00:06:36,080 Even an acoustic instrument of strings, mallets,  and dampers has a UI and the keyboard (and pedals)   122 00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:37,249 is that. 123 00:06:37,249 --> 00:06:41,113 Using a simple modifier button to turn that centuries-old design 124 00:06:41,113 --> 00:06:46,524 into a parameter-setting tool for the digital copy of the thing the design comes from is just… 125 00:06:46,524 --> 00:06:48,291 I don’t know exactly but wow! 126 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:53,384 Outside of the UI thing, the evolution of digital pianos like this 127 00:06:53,384 --> 00:07:01,534 is just a fascinatingly w e i r d blend of new technologies built into and  around a very old interface 128 00:07:01,534 --> 00:07:08,351 but the goal of each new development is to make it seem  to behave exactly like the acoustic version   it emulates. 129 00:07:08,656 --> 00:07:12,435 It’s like engineering specifically for nostalgia - 130 00:07:12,435 --> 00:07:16,266 each step forward is at the same time a step back and I love it. 131 00:07:16,266 --> 00:07:19,585 I - Just think of what this thing is actually doing. 132 00:07:19,840 --> 00:07:24,063 When you get right down to it, this is  a really weird machine 133 00:07:24,063 --> 00:07:28,861 that calls up a pre-recorded sound sample of a real piano producing a single note 134 00:07:28,861 --> 00:07:31,526 the moment you push any one of these buttons. 135 00:07:31,526 --> 00:07:34,500 They just happen to be  shaped like piano keys. 136 00:07:34,500 --> 00:07:38,585 Then it plays that sample through a pair of loudspeakers. 137 00:07:39,453 --> 00:07:43,571 That’s just really goofy when you think about it, isn’t it? 138 00:07:43,571 --> 00:07:45,852 But, if you press the buttons in the right order… 139 00:07:45,852 --> 00:07:50,107 [Third part from Solace] 140 00:07:50,107 --> 00:07:51,396 you get music. 141 00:07:56,720 --> 00:08:01,404 But then again I suppose that’s exactly what  happens with a real piano. 142 00:08:02,038 --> 00:08:05,413 Anyway if you can’t tell thinking about this too hard makes my brain hurt. 143 00:08:05,413 --> 00:08:08,305 I mean, it’s just a skeuomorphic nightmare. 144 00:08:08,880 --> 00:08:13,600 So let’s talk about some of the things we’ve  done to make fake pianos fake it better.   145 00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:18,258 The earliest digital keyboards were  basically sound-sample-caller-upper machines   146 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:20,427 and not much else at all. 147 00:08:20,427 --> 00:08:25,916 In fact it might not have even been a sound sample or even digital, it could have been synthesized. 148 00:08:25,916 --> 00:08:30,092 But that’s a horrible substitute for a real piano, 149 00:08:30,092 --> 00:08:33,534 especially if the keyboard doesn’t  have some kind of force detection. 150 00:08:33,534 --> 00:08:39,893 Which early ones didn’t, and so each note  sounded at the same loudness with every press. 151 00:08:39,893 --> 00:08:44,359 Now this isn’t to say that early piano  replacements weren’t cool in their own ways. 152 00:08:44,359 --> 00:08:50,396 Electronic pianos certainly have their place and  brought new and interesting sounds to the world of music. 153 00:08:50,396 --> 00:08:55,200 And let’s not forget the earlier electric piano though that’s an entirely different beast. 154 00:08:55,760 --> 00:09:00,742 And there are so many other weird concepts  out there like the mellotron 155 00:09:00,742 --> 00:09:04,522 which is an analog sample-caller-upper but again, different beast. 156 00:09:04,522 --> 00:09:10,592 I’m solely talking about the continuing work to faithfully mimic a real piano in both sound and function. 157 00:09:11,101 --> 00:09:15,920 To that end, we pretty quickly developed keys  that could determine how hard they were pressed   158 00:09:15,920 --> 00:09:17,741 by way of velocity detection 159 00:09:17,741 --> 00:09:24,800 (basically each key has two switches at two different depths and it just determines how quickly the key moved between those two positions   160 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:27,165 to work out how hard you pressed it). 161 00:09:27,165 --> 00:09:32,920 That was combined with new software which would alter the volume of the played sample based on that. 162 00:09:33,389 --> 00:09:36,914 This allowed the player a similar degree of expressiveness as before 163 00:09:36,914 --> 00:09:38,964 and brought the forte back into the piano. 164 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:41,491 But that’s not great, either. 165 00:09:41,491 --> 00:09:46,400 Just playing the same sample at different volumes isn’t actually a good approximation 166 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:49,319 of what an actual piano actually sounds like actually. 167 00:09:49,319 --> 00:09:53,164 In a real piano the key pushes a mallet into the strings 168 00:09:53,164 --> 00:09:57,962 and the force of that strike changes not just the volume but also the timbre. 169 00:09:57,962 --> 00:10:03,142 Softly-played notes are mellower  and not as bright as keys gettin’ smashed. 170 00:10:03,142 --> 00:10:10,434 So to add realism, digital pianos and keyboards started including multiple sound samples of every note, 171 00:10:10,434 --> 00:10:13,446 recorded at different volumes on a real piano, 172 00:10:13,446 --> 00:10:16,403 thus allowing for approximating that timbre difference. 173 00:10:16,403 --> 00:10:21,047 How hard you press the key now  determines not only how loud to play a sample 174 00:10:21,047 --> 00:10:21,903 ♫ 175 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:25,026 but also which specific sample among a set 176 00:10:25,026 --> 00:10:25,899 ♫ !! 177 00:10:25,899 --> 00:10:27,755 should be played for that note. 178 00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:31,018 And what about how to stop playing the note? 179 00:10:31,018 --> 00:10:35,342 Most keys on a piano lift a damper from the strings when you press them 180 00:10:35,342 --> 00:10:38,022 and replace the damper when it is released. 181 00:10:38,022 --> 00:10:44,258 That’s why a note continues as you hold the key but stops when you release it. 182 00:10:44,258 --> 00:10:48,904 This piano does a simple quick fade-out of the sample when the key is lifted, 183 00:10:48,904 --> 00:10:50,414 which honestly is close enough. 184 00:10:50,414 --> 00:10:53,163 However, the sustain pedal (the one on the right) 185 00:10:53,163 --> 00:10:56,154 allows the player a very important technique. 186 00:10:56,154 --> 00:11:04,042 In a real piano, this pedal lifts all the dampers from the strings meaning every note will continue so long as the pedal is pressed. 187 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:10,455 This digital piano’s sustain pedal isn’t just an  on-off switch and mimics partial-pedaling, 188 00:11:10,455 --> 00:11:16,126 where the dampers are rested slightly on the strings  which quiets them somewhat but not completely. 189 00:11:16,243 --> 00:11:19,346 [loud chord is played, then suddenly gets quieter but doesn't stop] 190 00:11:19,600 --> 00:11:22,775 This may not sound very important but trust me, it is. 191 00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:28,640 Oh, and speaking of the pedals, I said earlier  that this piano gets the sustain pedal wrong.   192 00:11:28,640 --> 00:11:30,211 Here’s how. 193 00:11:30,211 --> 00:11:33,652 If I were to play a loud chord with the pedal depressed, 194 00:11:33,652 --> 00:11:39,545 then play the same chord again quietly but keep the keys held down with my finger thingies, 195 00:11:39,545 --> 00:11:45,990 releasing the pedal shouldn’t do anything because I’m holding those virtual  dampers off the strings with my fingers. 196 00:11:45,990 --> 00:11:47,022 And yet… 197 00:11:47,022 --> 00:11:49,712 [loud chord, soft strike on top, then it suddenly gets quieter] 198 00:11:49,970 --> 00:11:50,879 Can you hear that? 199 00:11:50,879 --> 00:11:53,085 [same sequence] 200 00:11:53,840 --> 00:11:59,274 That is very wrong, and I cannot believe Yamaha  screwed that up here. 201 00:11:59,274 --> 00:12:03,792 Though in fairness they’ve only been making pianos since 1900. 202 00:12:03,792 --> 00:12:09,580 It seems the logic in the piano reset the keys’ sustainedness status on the second press 203 00:12:09,580 --> 00:12:15,567 and dampered the first loud sample that was started on the first keypress when I released the pedal but again, 204 00:12:15,567 --> 00:12:18,908 that is very wrong and not how it should work at all. 205 00:12:19,360 --> 00:12:23,840 Though, in fairness, I actually only recently  discovered this so it’s not that bad. 206 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:28,620 Interestingly, though, this was handled correctly with the middle pedal. 207 00:12:28,620 --> 00:12:31,633 Which is great because nobody ever uses that one! 208 00:12:31,633 --> 00:12:38,712 Plus lots of pianos don’t even have it, and when they do there’s no set rule for what exactly it does. 209 00:12:38,712 --> 00:12:42,236 Here it’s implemented as it often is in grand pianos. 210 00:12:42,236 --> 00:12:49,036 Called the sostenuto pedal, this pedal will lock any dampers that are lifted the moment the pedal is depressed 211 00:12:49,036 --> 00:12:51,365 but leave the rest alone. 212 00:12:51,365 --> 00:12:53,586 Here’s what that sounds like in practice. 213 00:12:53,586 --> 00:12:59,217 [a chord is played, then all the keys are played rapidly. When hitting the original chord, those notes are still sustained] 214 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:02,343 Hopefully you understand what’s going on here… 215 00:13:02,343 --> 00:13:06,160 it’s not super easy to describe with words and  if you’re not familiar with pianos   216 00:13:06,800 --> 00:13:11,939 this might be baffling but in any case if I do  the same thing as before and then lift the pedal, 217 00:13:11,939 --> 00:13:14,801 [loud chord, soft chord, then no change] 218 00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:21,883 now it correctly lets the original loud sample  continue on until I actually release the keys. 219 00:13:21,883 --> 00:13:24,510 I’m thinking if they got the middle pedal right, 220 00:13:24,510 --> 00:13:28,265 somebody just forgot to put a line of code somewhere for the other one. 221 00:13:28,265 --> 00:13:33,195 Oh, and the pedal on the  left is known as the una corda or soft pedal. 222 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:37,576 In a nutshell it just makes the piano a bit  quieter while it’s depressed. 223 00:13:37,576 --> 00:13:39,301 A bit like this. [he said softly] 224 00:13:39,301 --> 00:13:44,752 OK, so that’s about as far as this particular  piano goes when it comes to the reproduction of sound, 225 00:13:44,752 --> 00:13:52,244 but of course there’s also the fact that these keys themselves are weighted to mimic the feel of a real piano’s keys. 226 00:13:52,244 --> 00:13:56,143 They’re even progressively weighted more heavily towards the left side of the keyboard 227 00:13:56,143 --> 00:13:58,110 just like a real piano’s bass notes 228 00:13:58,110 --> 00:14:00,947 because big hammer make key go slow. 229 00:14:00,947 --> 00:14:06,206 But this is actually a pretty basic key-weighting system as things go. 230 00:14:06,206 --> 00:14:08,231 They only get more complex from here, 231 00:14:08,231 --> 00:14:14,679 and some digital pianos go so far as to implement actual, real piano actions 232 00:14:14,679 --> 00:14:22,129 where a real keyboard moves real hammers that hit force sensors so basically it’s an actual piano 233 00:14:22,129 --> 00:14:25,613 except the strings have been replaced with sensors and a computer. 234 00:14:25,920 --> 00:14:30,855 Remember how I was saying digital pianos are a  fascinatingly weird blend of new and old tech?   235 00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:36,211 Yeah, those so-called hybrid pianos  are the epitome of that sentiment. 236 00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:38,510 Then of course there’s polyphony. 237 00:14:38,510 --> 00:14:42,557 That word means a lot of different things depending on context and it’s confusing 238 00:14:42,557 --> 00:14:44,262 so I’m not gonna touch it. 239 00:14:44,400 --> 00:14:48,557 To end I want to talk about some of the other  wild stuff that folks like Yamaha 240 00:14:48,557 --> 00:14:51,718 are putting into their highest-end digital pianos. 241 00:14:51,718 --> 00:14:58,819 Real pianos are much more acoustically complicated than a mix of sound samples played in the right order. 242 00:14:58,819 --> 00:15:04,126 One of the most basic things this keyboard is missing is sympathetic vibrations. 243 00:15:04,126 --> 00:15:08,075 With the sustain pedal depressed and all strings free to vibrate, 244 00:15:08,075 --> 00:15:12,253 hitting any note will induce some vibrations in those other strings, 245 00:15:12,253 --> 00:15:16,749 particularly those with harmonic frequencies shared with the original note. 246 00:15:16,749 --> 00:15:22,638 This adds a richness to the notes played with the sustain pedal that this piano is not reproducing, 247 00:15:22,638 --> 00:15:26,055 at least I’m not noticing it, but others do. 248 00:15:26,055 --> 00:15:28,859 As you go up in price with digital pianos these days, 249 00:15:28,859 --> 00:15:34,397 you not only get the niceties like real wooden keys and actual piano actions if you  want, 250 00:15:34,397 --> 00:15:39,947 oh but hold on if you’re buying one of these digital "grand pianos"… 251 00:15:39,947 --> 00:15:41,610 just don’t. 252 00:15:41,610 --> 00:15:45,568 I don’t understand how people find this impressive and not objectively goofy. 253 00:15:45,568 --> 00:15:48,400 But anyway, over-the-top cases aside, 254 00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:54,852 new software modeling allows these instruments to not only account for sympathetic  vibrations of other strings 255 00:15:54,852 --> 00:16:00,481 but also the acoustic profile of the piano’s soundboard and wooden case. 256 00:16:00,481 --> 00:16:03,946 Combined with better and more powerful audio systems, 257 00:16:03,946 --> 00:16:09,904 we’re at a point where digital pianos are  realllllly close to their acoustic counterparts. 258 00:16:09,904 --> 00:16:13,236 There are still reasons to have an acoustic  piano, to be clear, 259 00:16:13,236 --> 00:16:16,037 but there are also a lot of great benefits to these. 260 00:16:16,037 --> 00:16:19,312 Perhaps chief among them is that they don’t weigh hundreds of pounds. 261 00:16:19,523 --> 00:16:20,676 That’s nice. 262 00:16:20,676 --> 00:16:23,618 Also very important to me is that they don’t lose their tuning. 263 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:25,589 Oh but on that note, 264 00:16:25,589 --> 00:16:30,539 I only recently discovered that this piano allows you to play two voices at once. 265 00:16:30,539 --> 00:16:36,149 One of my gripes with it is that it’s not a very bright sounding piano with its main voice, 266 00:16:36,149 --> 00:16:40,742 and the brighter piano voice it does offer doesn’t sound that real to me. 267 00:16:40,742 --> 00:16:44,960 Well, in a happy accident, if you select both piano voices 268 00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:49,984 it puts the bright piano an octave up and  makes a surprisingly nice change to the sound. 269 00:16:49,984 --> 00:16:52,054 [arpeggiations] 270 00:16:52,054 --> 00:16:57,168 What’s more, if you adjust that second voice back down to the original octave, 271 00:16:57,168 --> 00:16:59,672 you end up with a detuned sound. 272 00:16:59,672 --> 00:17:04,504 [a detuned sound as notes are played] 273 00:17:04,504 --> 00:17:07,749 It's not quite honky-tonk, but more like a parlor sound, 274 00:17:07,749 --> 00:17:10,137 which I personally find great for ragtime. 275 00:17:10,958 --> 00:17:16,075 I hope you enjoyed this meandering off-the-cuff look at the world of digital pianos. 276 00:17:16,075 --> 00:17:20,605 It’s by no means complete, and there are many rabbit holes you can fall into if you want, 277 00:17:20,605 --> 00:17:23,311 so sorry if I sent you down one of those. 278 00:17:23,311 --> 00:17:25,964 But for now, as Mozart would say, 279 00:17:25,964 --> 00:17:26,880 toodles.