Digital Piano Buying Guide

Digital Piano Buying Guide: Digital pianos are available in several variants and can range from the very basic (with limited features) to full featured digital pianos. Here’s how to choose the best digital piano for home use (learning or for practice) or stage/studio performance that matches your skill level and of course budget.

Understanding the Various Features

Digital pianos have made commendable progress in recent years, and the good thing for consumers is that digital pianos sound lot better and the costs have actually gone down, making it a great alternative to acoustic pianos for many players.

Also Read: Advantages of Digital Piano over an Acoustic piano

Now that you’re sold on purchasing a digital piano, here’s more about the features.

Its good to have a basic understanding of the various features so that you can shop for the right digital piano with confidence, something that you will really use and enjoy.

• Digital pianos can come with minimal features – few selection of piano sounds – and can come loaded with features, hundreds of sounds, styles and more.
• Recording capability – Some digital pianos allow you to record your performance, which is of great help when learning to play as you can review how you’re progressing. Recording and sequencing capabilities are commonly used for creating your own songs.
• Connectivity – MIDI connectivity allows you to connect your digital piano to computers and recording equipment. Most pianos nowadays have a USB port which makes connections with all kinds of audio gear quite simple. Certain models also accept flash memory cards so that you can transfer music to other devices and computers.
• Teaching/learning tools – Some pianos include built-in lessons, exercises, note/chord displays, and metronomes as well as access to online resources to help you learn better. Some have dual headphone jacks which allows a teacher and a student to work together silently, without disturbing others. Certain pianos also feature the split-keyboard function, which splits the keyboard into two halves, allow teacher and student to play the same notes in the same octaves.

  Many digital pianos come with helpful learning tools including lessons. Displays that show the chords being played as well as various lighting schemes that help beginners pick out melodies and chords can be helpful. A built-in metronome is useful to improve your rhythmic ability. Some models allow the keyboard to be split into sections so that a student and teacher can share one keyboard while playing in the same octaves.

• Keyboard action and touch response
  If you’re transitioning from a traditional acoustic piano, the degree to which a digital piano mimics an acoustic piano’s action makes a big difference in its playability.

  Digital pianos can have semi-weighted or fully weighted action that simulates the response of an acoustic piano’s keybed.

  Also Read: Various piano actions: Synth, Weighted, Graded Hammer Actions for Digital Piano Keyboards

• Digital piano sound quality
  The sound of a digital piano depends on the samples used to create their sounds. Generally, higher end digital pianos use better samples, they have more digital memory allowing them to reproduce high-resolution sounds with greater realism that closely emulates the sound of acoustic instruments.

  Another factor that affects the overall sound is the quality of the amplifiers and speakers used in digital pianos.

• Polyphony: Polyphone refers to the number of individual notes or tones the piano can produce at once. At a bare minimum, you should have 32-note polyphony while 64-note polyphony is more adequate for creating complex sounds. The highest quality electronic pianos deliver 128-note or 264-note polyphony.
• Number of sounds/tones
  This is more of a personal preference. You get digital pianos that include hundreds of sound samples from instruments like accordions, organs, synthesizers, flutes and so on. But you need to decide if you really need those many, or you are happy with a basic set of sounds.
• Amplification and speakers
  Generally speaking, if you are looking for a piano for home use, you will want to make sure your instrument has a built-in amp and speakers that produce a pleasing sound with adequate volume. If you are looking for a digital piano for live performance or recording in studio settings, be sure it has the output options for connecting to PA systems, external amplifiers or recording consoles.
• Other features to look for depending on how you plan to use the piano are a headphone jack and USB port for connection to your computer.

Selecting a Digital Piano

Here’s how to zero-in on the right digital piano model.

Here are the key considerations:

• Your experience/skill level – If you’re an absolute beginner, a low-cost model with some built-in learning tools may well suffice until you’re ready to step up to a more advanced digital piano. On the other hand, if you’re an intermediate or advanced pianist, you’ll likely want to be more selective about touch response and velocity sensitivity discussed under Digital Piano Features below.
• Check the dimensions – Make sure the piano will fit in the space(s) you have in mind. If you’re purchasing the piano for a child, check if the keyboard height is appropriate. (Adjustable stands, or in a pinch a phone book under the pedal(s), can help solve any mismatches.)
• Portability/storability – If you expect to store the digital piano or travel with it, check the weight and the ease with which it can be broken down.
• Design/type of digital piano: You get stage pianos (some come without speakers), you get portable pianos (with speakers), you get console digital pianos for home use. Console pianos are housed in a more traditional cabinet designed to blend in with household furnishings. You also get digital player pianos nowadays, the one that plays on its own.

  Also Read: Read more on Different designs & types of digital pianos.

• Color: There’s not a lot of option when it comes to color, although when it comes to home pianos, you can choose from black (ebony, walnut (brownish) and white finish. Brands like Nord are known for their red colored keyboards and stage pianos.

KeytarHQ Editorial Team

KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.