Random Rant against Digital Pianos

[SynthWizard]

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Random Rant against Digital Pianos

Hello everybody

I just want to get it out of my chest, digital pianos are the most frustrating part of the synth industry in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of having a digital instrument that looks nice in the living room (for those who aren't married yet, your wife won't let you take your 3-tier keyboard outside of your man cave). They usually have nice keybeds, okay sounds which can't be tweaked (which is fine to a certain degree, I'll go back to that later), but from that point on it just goes downhill.

It seems that digital piano manufacturers go out of their way to distance themselves from anything that makes synths great. The connectivity is absolutely appalling on most machines, which not only do not have midi in and out but also have very poor midi over USB implementation (I'll keep my rant against midi over USB in another post).

You just paid 1500 USD for a nice keybed that can make 150 sounds (no, dear guitar center seller, I'm not impressed, my volca keys can do more than that), and you can't even connect it via midi to your other synths.

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To add insult to injury, they will usually give you an awesome "piano shaper", where you'll be able to make great piano sounds by tweaking everything from the tightness of the felt to the size of the room while giving you the choice between FM piano 1 and FM piano 2.

DX7's and D-50's are turning over in their graves!

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Now I understand that most people wouldn't use a midi out port, but it gets really frustrating when there is literally no option currently for a nice-looking 88 keyboard with midi out / and or a decent midi via USB implementation.

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It seems to me that there is a place in the market for a 88 keyboard with a furniture stand and some sound tweakability. It's not like Roland and Yamaha can't make something that would fit the bill, but it seems there is this dumb segregation between synths and pianos which somehow forbids them to integrate basic FM synthesis, or god forbid a physical midi out in their digital piano.

I know there are some "nice" midi controllers out there, but the keybed on a 1000 USD Komplete Kontrol S88 or Arturia's keylab 88 just feels worse than a 500 USD Casio keyboard which doesn't look like it could be in teenager Ross Geller's bedroom. Don't get me wrong, I love that aesthetic, but as I mentioned, I feel like there should be an option out there for folks who don't want neon lights in their living rooms.

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Break the wall Yamaha, get it done Roland, give us a digital piano that looks good in the living room, feels like a piano to the touch, and will offer us some of the basic functionalities a 50 USD Yamaha DSR-500 had back in the '80s.

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My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined

submitted by /u/Astahx
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