So you've decided to go with a digital piano instead of an acoustic. Congratulations, you've made the first decision. But this is just the first step. Choosing a digital piano can be overwhelming. There are so many digital pianos on the market today you have to make sure you get the one that is right for you. You don't want to pay for features that you will never use, and you don't want to leave out features that are important to you. This article will help you make the best decision.
What's important to you?
What do you want to do with the digital piano that you couldn't do with an acoustic? Portability may be one important feature. If so, go with a "stage digital piano." These are portable unlike the digital pianos in cabinets, or digital grand pianos which are stationary.
If you are just beginning to play go with a digital piano that feels like an acoustic. This is important so you'll be use to the feel of a "real" piano when playing at your instructor's house or in a public place such as a church. I'd also recommend not spending too much. You may decide that piano playing is not your thing after a while, and you don't want to spend too much money until you're sure you will stick with it. There are affordable (less than 0 or 0) digital pianos that feel like acoustic pianos and sound decent enough for the beginner.
How does it feel?
Most digital piano owners want the feel of an acoustic piano. Many have weighted keys that mimic the hammer striking action of acoustic pianos. But they can feel different from one digital piano to another. So try a few out. There's no sense in going into the details of each way the manufacturers simulate an acoustic feel. The quick and dirty explanation will suffice.
Acoustic pianos use a hammer striking mechanism. You hit the key, it causes a hammer to strike the strings. Some digital keyboards use hammer simulating mechanisms to emulate this feel. These are weighted-hammer action keys. These digital pianos feel the most like acoustic pianos. The next closest is simply weighted-action keys. The keys have a weight in them to simulate the resistance an acoustic piano key would have, but it doesn't include the hammer-striking system. Finally, there are non-weighted keys. These are like your typical synthesizer or church organ. They feel nothing like an acoustic piano.
Play an acoustic to get the feel of it, then you'll have something to compare when finding the right feel for a digital piano.In addition to the feeling of the keys, don't forget the feeling of the pedal. Many digital pianos will come with a cheap pedal that doesn't look or feel like an acoustic piano pedal. The cheap pedals can pose some difficulty and frustration to the player because they will sometimes move as your foot presses them. This can be very annoying. It's worth investing in a pedal that is heavy and will be stationary. Make sure that if your digital piano does not come with one, that the manufacturer sells one that is adaptable with your piano.
Also, some digital pianos will support multiple levels of pedaling to simulate an acoustic piano. On an acoustic, you can get different levels of sustain by pressing the sustain pedal more or by pressing it less. Some digital pianos will mimic this. The cheaper ones may only have on/off sustain pedal, which means you press and it's on. There's no half-way point.
How does it sound?
Digital piano manufacturers use different techniques to sample sounds. The digital piano plays the recording of the sampled sound. Since the manufacturers use different techniques, the pianos all sound slightly different. If you want one that sounds like an acoustic, play an acoustic in the store and immediately compare it to the digital piano you are considering in the same store.
Some questions to keep in mind:
1) How many speakers does it use and what size are they? Typically, the more the better.
2) How strong is the amplifier? Stronger is usually better. Even if you don't need it to play very loud, the quality of sound will be better if the amplifier does not have to strain itself.
3) Listen to the note decay. Hit a note hard and hold it down. Listen to how long it takes for the note to "disappear." Did it disappear similar to how an acoustic piano note would?
4) How does it sound through headphones? If you're going to be playing through headphones to not disturb the neighbors or family members, make sure it sounds good in your headphones.
5) Does it sound like an acoustic piano? You have to hear both an acoustic and digital piano to see how close they sound to each other. If you can't tell much of a difference that's a good thing.
Polyphony
Polyphony is the number of notes that can be played at once on the digital piano. Mine has 32 note polyphony, but some digital pianos go up to 128 and beyond. We only have 10 fingers, but using the sustain pedal, you can hold out numerous notes. Thus, you need more than 10-note polyphony. You don't want to lose notes when holding the sustain pedal because your polyphony is too low.
If you get 32 note polyphony you'll probably be ok. Plus, newer digital piano models use advanced algorithms to determine which notes to drop off if the max polyphony is reached. This means that in the rare event you exceed your polyphony max, the keyboard will determine which notes could be dropped without anyone noticing.
If you are sequencing or doing different voices over recordings on your keyboard you may need more than 32 note polyphony since each new voice will contribute to the maximum amount of notes your keyboard will play at once. Of course, if you are doing more advanced techniques such as this, you are probably already aware of this and would choose a keyboard with higher polyphony.
Design and Display
Design is important if it will function as a furniture piece as well as an instrument. Very important for rooms that get a lot of traffic. If your piano will be in a room that gets little traffic, this probably won't be an issue.
Also, make sure the buttons are set up in a logical fashion. You want it to be easy to use. Make sure none of the buttons could be accidentally hit while playing the keyboard. This could change your settings in the middle of a performance. How embarrassing! Get a good look at the digital piano and the layout. See some videos of digital pianos [http://www.digitalpianoguide.com] Notice which ones have designs and button formats that are appealing to you.
You also want to make sure you have a good LCD display screen. It helps you know which features are being used. My digital piano does not have an LCD read out. This was frustrating at first when setting the metronome to a specific beat. However, a quick look through the instruction manual solved this. Plus, since it is a feature that is used often, I soon memorized it and no longer needed to consult the manual.
The point is, if you want to make sure you get to use all the features you paid for, it's easier to do that with a well organized LCD display. If you want to save money and get one without an LCD (like I did), then read your manual closely to learn how to manipulate the keyboard buttons to achieve the desired result.
Bells and Whistles
What other features are you looking for in a digital piano? Many come with extra bells and whistles, some you may need, some you won't, and some that you'll think are "cool" at first but never use.
Most will have multiple instrument sounds, or voices. You should get over at least 10 different voices with a typical digital piano. You can also get:
Recording capabilities
Keyboard splitting ability (half of the keyboard plays one instrument while the other half plays another)
Voice layering (plays two instruments at the same time)
Metronome
Pre-recorded songs
Teaching techniques (such as silencing the left-hand part of a pre-recorded song so you can learn it while the recording continues playing the right hand part)
And other features...I hope this has helped in your search for the right digital piano.
