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I depends on the digital, and also on the settings you have for the sustain with the pedal. Some digitals can adjust this.

Time to call the piano tech!

Yup, I hope no digitals try to reproduce that. Though that is my biggest "complaint" with digitals these days - they often sound too good!

I agree, the way VSTs are working now you can make some great sounds with digital pianos. However, I think they have a long way to go to emulate the feel and the sound for the pianist. Something about the acoustic vibrations coming from the instrument you are playing that makes it come alive.

I've been trying to slowly add the pedal to the new stuff that I am learning. Sometimes the pedal works great; especially if I sustain a few notes. But when I use the pedal in the middle of a song with left hand chords, it does not sound good at all. First, it is mushy, and second the overall sound seems out of place. I hope you know what I mean by this. I am using a digital piano and do not have an acoustic available for comparison. Clearly the lack of experience has alot to it; but I keep wondering if I have a setting wrong somewhere. I keep working at it.

Pedalling the harmony but keeping the melody clear is one of the big challenges. Whether your digital can reproduce enough might be an issue. What we usually do is employ half-pedal (which, despite it's name, is a fancy way of saying more or less pedal.) In practice pressing the pedal less than full value tends to allow the lower notes to continue sustaining without blurring the melody so much.

It could also be that you are pedalling at the wrong points in the left hand. Generally on the change of any significant harmony, when not explicitly marked in the score. As you get more advanced you can employ ideas such as fluttering where your pedal coincides with the new chord in such a way that you have the momentary overlap needed for legato but release the "old chord" quick enough it doesn't blur.