Can digital pianos play themselves?
Sometimes, it is nice to just listen to music and not have to play it yourself on your digital piano.
Luckily many digital pianos have the capability to play pre-set tunes.
There are also more impressive (and more expensive) digital piano models that have the ability to act as a player piano. Whether you are a beginner or even an expert pianist, player pianos are always fun and impressive devices.
While self-playing digital pianos are impressive and incredible devices to have in any home, they are typically quite expensive. Make sure that you do your research before you buy!
Player pianos add a sense of importance and elegance to any space. But, how exactly to they work?
Modern player pianos use very small solenoids that are controlled by computers and plungers to move the keys of the pianos. All of these components make the hammers strike the piano strings like they would if a person was playing the piano.
Most modern player piano systems are designed and installed independently of the piano. They can be fitted to digital and acoustic pianos alike, whether they are upright or grand models.
Recent technological advances allow for player piano systems to play at very low volumes, which can make them perfect for any sort of situation. Earlier models would exhibit notes dropping out when played at a low volume, but more recent models avoid this.
Songs and arrangements are stored on disks and utilise the MIDI interface to enable the computers to play the piano. The solenoids use an electric current to drive small pistons that are mounted on the keys inside the piano.
More advanced digital player pianos do not need tuning, which is a nice alternative to traditional acoustic models. This is because most digital pianos do not have strings.
In addition to simply playing back music, digital pianos also can have additional features to support your musical creativity.
Many digital pianos offer other instrument sounds of voices that allow the user to play in a wide variety of styles.
Another helpful feature is a key split. This allows the user to assign one type of sound to the lower half of the keyboard, and a different sound to the upper half. This allows the user to play with the sounds of two different instruments at the same time.
A dual mode feature is a bit like the key split feature, however it layers the sounds on top of one another. Most digital keyboards that have this feature also allow the user to adjust the levels of the sounds as well.
Some digital pianos include a sequencer that is simply a recorder that allows you to play back your own unique performances.
Sequencers are also great for those who want to layer performances on top of each other for musical recording purposes. Multi track sequencers allow for layering of sounds, which is great for recording artists.
