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This is a digital era, everthing is digital and we have to breath that technology everyday. Acoustic pianos will be obsolete one day, and digitals will occupy our house, our stage, our studio, even though some of people ( these people are also called artists ) are reluctant. Just like how digital cameras dominates the photography industry. 10 years ago, some photographers claimed that the resolution of a CCD or CMOS can never be compared with film. Now, what is Kodak doing? Piano tuner technicians will have to switch their career to make a living.

I don't think acoustic pianos will ever be obsolete. They may become too expensive for many people. Perhaps they already are.

But if you want real piano, an acoustic is the only choice.

To the extent that people can be satisfied with synthetic sounds, digitals will serve. I suppose many people don't hear the difference, or don't care. But for those who can and do, the acoustic performs better.

For how many years have violins been around now?
New instruments don't supersede old ones. They complement them. You can still get newly built harpsichords and clavichords. And people play them.

APs are gone from most homes now, but not to be replaced by DPs, but by receivers and TV sets instead. That happened already half a century ago. Most remaining home upright pianos are now heirloom, usually unmaintained and out of tune.

For studio and stage use: Well, what's easier to carry and easier to record? That should answer the question. The exception is of course classical piano music, there are no DPs in sight.

For as long as there is classical music, and people who perform it, the acoustic piano will survive.

There is the electric violin and electric guitar, but you won't find anyone playing Bach or Rodrigo on them:
http://youtu.be/uawgrbrUFxQ and http://youtu.be/NQEnvmIXbtc

In the case of the piano, the only digital that comes close to emulating the raw sound & power of a nine-foot concert grand on the concert platform is the V-Piano Grand. Bear in mind that classical music is never amplified (except discreetly for the guitar in concertos, and in open-air concerts in stadiums etc) and that what you hear is exactly what comes out of the instrument (or the singer's mouth....), and you realize that without modelling technology, multiple speakers judiciously placed within a well-designed cabinet (capable of reproducing down to 27.5 Hz) and amplification that matches all that, a digital can never hope to replace an acoustic concert grand in the concert hall.

It's the same comparison between an opera singer who can project his/her voice without amplification (even in pp) all the way to the back of a huge opera house, and a pop singer who needs a microphone (and autotune, and..... ) just to sing in a pub.
http://youtu.be/Cg1pGgoIExw

electric violin and electric guitar aren't really that fundamentally different from their acoustic counterparts. Only the sound reproduction differs.

I can easily see a future where concert halls, churches, professional players and teachers retain grand pianos. I'm not seeing where uprights seriously stay very relevant.

I see the day when digital pianos are so life-like they are programmed to go out of tune every 6 months and have a non adjustable squeak on the loud pedal.. . .these will be the totr ones and will require a technician/ tuner to effect the necessary. . .and they will sell.

I'd only buy one if the volume of the squeak was adjustable through the menu.

. Charles

PS -- one of the adjustments on Pianoteq is the "Condition" parameter. All the way from "new" to "utterly worn out and mistuned".

Somewhere in the middle (it's a very narrow middle) are some usable "slightly-out-of-tune" settings, if you want your blues to sound like they're coming out of a cheap-bar upright.

Hmmmmm ...

Two Examples

Film Cameras vs Digital
Hardly an argument, but each tool serves a purpose. Both can do something the other cannot. But, film and film cameras will be around for a long time yest.

Digital Stereos vs Analog Stereos
The true zealots still purchase and prefer vacuum tube Amps and needles on the vinyl.

Pianos will follow the same way. Fewer choices. Not quite the quality of old due to lack of mass production. And those willing to pay for them.
.

Digital technology are affluent our lives, but unreplaceble things are exist.
I think speaker systems are hard to replace traditional strings and soundboard.

This point doesn't hold ...A film camera is an artifice that captures an image on a strip of film using a lens. A digital camera is an artifice that captures an image on a chip sensor using a lens. They are substantially the same, and one artifice is replacing another. For most purposes the latter seems to be the better way. It just took 150 years of tech change before the latter could replace the former.

An acoustic piano uses hammers to excite strings, which transfer energy to a soundboard. The key action has been refined to give fine control to the artist.

The digital piano has no strings and no soundboard. Its action does not give the same fine control.

Summary: Film vs. digital cameras are two ways of doing the same thing. Acoustic vs. digital pianos are two ways of doing very different things. The intent may be to produce the same sonic result. But the differences in technique are what's keeping the latter from producing a convincing imitation of the former.

It may well be that acoustic pianos become rare. But I'm not optimistic that the digital will ever approach its performance.

Ha!! I use that setting all the time. With the DP native sound and the lid open, it`s the nearest thing to an acoustic I`ve heard. And my pedal has developed a little squeak . . .

Well. There are things that are not comparable. For instance there's no obvious (maybe none...) advantage of using analog telephony over digital telephony so it can be said that in a very near future (if that's not happening already today...) digital telephony will make the analog one disappear.

But talking about piano, in order to the acoustic ones to disappear one day, the digital ones must give ALL the advantages in touch, tone, resonance and others that only acoustics can have, plus giving a few advantages of their own (they already do, such as silent practice, better portability in some cases...). In my opinion the acoustics will never disappear. My guess is that both acoustic and digitals will coexist and complement each other, just as they do today. Digital pianos will be every day more and more enjoyable but in my opinion their improvement way will be an infinite one aiming an impossible final aim: that is, to perfectly emulate the behavior and feeling of an acoustic piano.

BTW, which are the best digital instruments these days regarding touch? The hybrid ones. They needed to put an (almost) real acoustic piano machinery in order to try to emulate some of the real thing. So...

It is true that the resolution of digital cameras especially medium format and scanning back digital cameras meet and have exceeded the resolution of film cameras. However that is only one aspect of quality. Another is smoothness or gradation of the image especially colour.

I have met with a leading landscape photographer who in taking his dramatic worldwide panoramic photographs (three feet wide) uses medium format colour negative film. This was after a three month hands-on appraisal of a Hassleblad H4d 25,000USD medium format digital camera.

There never will be a digital piano that has the acoustic energy equal to an acoustic grand in a domestic situation. Twenty tons of string tension and infinite variety of sympathetic resonance ensures that the acoustic grand will the instrument of choice for discerning pianists.

What would you rather play or hear. A 20,000USD digital or a 75,000USD Steinway Model B?

Ian

where can you find such a beast as a 20kusd digital? They don't exist. For value it seems a ca95 is arguably the best you can go for a pure digital (4kusd?). It uses a sound board with exciters (I believe) instead of strings. The GF action may be "too good" compared to many grand pianos.

As I mentioned above what's missing is sufficient sophistication in its modelling.

the problem with a hybrid is that it has the maintenance disadvantages that a hammer based piano has.

A huge advantage of a speaker based digital is that its light enough to toss in a vehicle and haul it off to a technician center if something breaks. That's absolutely not true for an acoustic.

The Roland V-grand is pretty close.

@Scott Hamlin: The woman in that first video is not even playing the violin. She is just posing with it. The second video might be a bit more real but the music is drowned in a pop backing - where does it come from? They could have used cheapo electric violins, it wouldn't have made any difference.

You'll have to do better next time

To see more serious stringed instruments in an electric context, you might have a look at these artists. Both prefer acoustic instruments with pick-ups, I guess with a reason.

Jorane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q29ZJeuej8

Adam Baldych: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skjdbxQdTvE

David Geringas considers the Yamaha SVC-110 cello to be a serious musical instrument. He can use it simply as a normal cello, but he can also take advantage of the the extra possibilities that a digital instrument offers.

[video:youtube]JhIw16-hLi8[/video]

I don't see your "as mentioned above" reference to insufficient modelling. Are you referring to a comment in a different thread?

My acoustic is only 29 years old and nothing has broken. Many high quality pianos of 100 years age are still being played and have had only routine regulation and tuning. If some problem arises I can call on my piano technician to fix it at my home. Why would I want to transport it elsewhere?

Consider the significant reduction in audio quality from the proliferation of MP3 sound at the typical bit rate of 128kB/s. Do you support the proposed discontinuing of analogue FM radio in favour of the inferior Digital radio?

I say the above because of my conviction that my acoustic is as real as it can be, whilst still playing an enjoying my Tyros 5/76 and Pianoteq 5.

Ian