House or car excepted.....what is the largest thing you own?

Beautiful.

Thank you for posting, Tony.

One thing I noticed, and this coming from a non-piano player, but both pianos seemed to lack depth, as in full and deep sounding resonance.

Just listening to both videos, I don't think a digital piano would be for me.
 
Aunt Marg said:
Beautiful.

Thank you for posting, Tony.

One thing I noticed, and this coming from a non-piano player, but both pianos seemed to lack depth, as in full and deep sounding resonance.

Just listening to both videos, I don't think a digital piano would be for me.
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In person, it does have depth. The piano is different from most digital pianos in that it is completely modeled. In other words, a digital piano based on samples is merely playing back a sample like playing a recording of any music, as long as you hold down the key. Each key in a sampled piano contains samples at different volume levels, but the limitation is the amount of storage and the speed with which it can be read into memory and played.

The modeled piano, generates the notes from tables of data as the keys are played in real time. The interaction between strings that is missing from a sample playing digital piano is all there in a fully modeled piano. Also, as with any decent console type digital piano, the sound system is designed for the piano, so the whole thing functions as a unit. The Roland V-Grand has a 4 channel 240W sound system. It chooses which channel plays what in real time to simulate what one hears in a real piano. The Roland V-Grand is good enough that artists such as David Benoit and Lady Gaga travel with, and use them in their concerts, and the Lincoln Center in NYC as well as several other concert halls have one or two as backup.

I don't believe that anything other than a real acoustic piano can truly replace an acoustic piano, but I also believe, especially knowing something about technology, that the Roland V-Grand is as close as it gets. The Roland V-Grand minimizes the compromise in situations where an acoustic piano is just not practical. You also don't have the ongoing expense of tuning and maintenance. On a real acoustic piano, these things have to be attended to at regular intervals or, just as with a car, when you do get it done, it will be much more expensive, and if you don't get it done, the piano deteriorates until it becomes unplayable. In other words, you can't avoid properly maintaining an acoustic piano if you intend to actually play it.

I have one because I live in a condo. When you live in a condo, you MUST always consider how your actions and choices will impact your neighbors. I can use headphones, turn down the volume, etc. to avoid disturbing my neighbors. Not everybody thinks about that. I know from having lived in our condo since 1988 and having spent much of that time on the board and as board president.

Tony
 

tbeltrans said:
In person, it does have depth. The piano is different from most digital pianos in that it is completely modeled. In other words, a digital piano based on samples is merely playing back a sample like playing a recording of any music, as long as you hold down the key. Each key in a sampled piano contains samples at different volume levels, but the limitation is the amount of storage and the speed with which it can be read into memory and played.

The modeled piano, generates the notes from tables of data as the keys are played in real time. The interaction between strings that is missing from a sample playing digital piano is all there in a fully modeled piano. Also, as with any decent console type digital piano, the sound system is designed for the piano, so the whole thing functions as a unit. The Roland V-Grand has a 4 channel 240W sound system. It chooses which channel plays what in real time to simulate what one hears in a real piano. The Roland V-Grand is good enough that artists such as David Benoit and Lady Gaga travel with, and use them in their concerts, and the Lincoln Center in NYC as well as several other concert halls have one or two as backup.

I don't believe that anything other than a real acoustic piano can truly replace an acoustic piano, but I also believe, especially knowing something about technology, that the Roland V-Grand is as close as it gets. The Roland V-Grand minimizes the compromise in situations where an acoustic piano is just not practical. You also don't have the ongoing expense of tuning and maintenance. On a real acoustic piano, these things have to be attended to at regular intervals or, just as with a car, when you do get it done, it will be much more expensive, and if you don't get it done, the piano deteriorates until it becomes unplayable. In other words, you can't avoid properly maintaining an acoustic piano if you intend to actually play it.

I have one because I live in a condo. When you live in a condo, you MUST always consider how your actions and choices will impact your neighbors. I can use headphones, turn down the volume, etc. to avoid disturbing my neighbors. Not everybody thinks about that. I know from having lived in our condo since 1988 and having spent much of that time on the board and as board president.

Tony
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Very insightful and informative post, Tony, thank you for explaining.

I can see the pluses of having such a piano at your disposal (in your situation). Being able to control the volume being the biggest plus of all.
 
I have a 75" tv
"Grand Piano in Upright Form" by Heinzman & Co March 1896 (from my deceased MIL). Upright Freezer is pretty big.
I don't have to measure this stuff do I to see which is bigger?
 
Aunt Marg said:
Very insightful and informative post, Tony, thank you for explaining.

I can see the pluses of having such a piano at your disposal (in your situation). Being able to control the volume being the biggest plus of all.
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When my wife and I retired, we decided we would each buy something we wanted for our respective hobbies in retirement. I chose the Roland V-Grand, and my wife got a top of the line BabyLock embroidery sewing machine for her quilting.

In choosing my digital piano, I played many different models, looking for one that could accurately reproduce the various harmonics and interaction between strings. Since I like to play cocktail style piano, I wanted to really hear the effect of the various extensions to dominant chords such as the 9/#9, b5/#5, 13, etc. The Roland V-Grand, at the time, was the ONLY digital piano that handled these really well. As for the interaction of the strings, I could hold down keys at the high end of the keyboard without them sounding, and then play keys at the lower end of the keyboard and hear the held keys at the higher sounding just as they do on a real acoustic piano. These are subtleties that somebody who doesn't play piano, or at least that style, might not hear. It is these things that will contribute to the richness of sound, and if you are in the same room as the V-Grand being played, blindfolded I can guarantee that you would be hard pressed to know it is digital. That technology took Roland 10 years to develop and the price of this piano reflected it. Only some of that technology is finding its way into the less expensive Roland digital console pianos in the $7k price range.

One way to look at it is as being similar to those concept cars that you see at auto shows, that are built primarily to show that the auto maker CAN build such cars, but these are not intended for the general buying public because of the expense to build them. The Roland V-Grand was built for serious professional pianists and was not intended for the home market. It is not a piano that you can buy at Guitar Center or Walmart. Instead, you would find it next to a Steinway in a shop that deals in acoustic grand pianos.

The shop I bought it at, told me that only two people in Minnesota own these. The other person is a doctor who lives in northern Minnesota where there isn't a piano technician to maintain and tune an acoustic piano. You can bet that I did my due diligence quite thoroughly before purchasing this digital piano. As I said in my earlier email, this piano will never fully replace a fine acoustic piano. However, I will also say that it would take a rather expensive acoustic piano to equal this Roland V-Grand. When most people comment that a digital piano isn't as good as an acoustic, they are usually thinking of an expensive acoustic and not the common upright pianos most people have.

I hope that further explains my position on this. Unfortunately, the V-Grand and the stage V-Piano are no longer made. They were very expensive to build and the market for them was rather small. I have never seen a V-Grand show up on the used market. People who buy this level of piano, whether digital or acoustic, tend to hang on to them for many years, rather than trading them off like baseball cards as often happens in the lower cost models.

Tony
 
Aunt Marg said:
Wish I could hear you play.
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Well, you can. A couple of years ago, my niece & her husband came by & wanted to hear me play. She posted a video on Facebook. If you go to Facebook, type in "Tony Nathanson" on the search line, click the "Search" icon, that takes you to my Facebook page, scroll down past all the "Funnies" you'll get to 4 videos. 2 that my niece taped & 2 that my ex girlfriend taped later.
 
win231 said:
Well, you can. A couple of years ago, my niece & her husband came by & wanted to hear me play. She posted a video on Facebook. If you go to Facebook, type in "Tony Nathanson" on the search line, click the "Search" icon, that takes you to my Facebook page, scroll down past all the "Funnies" you'll get to 4 videos. 2 that my niece taped & 2 that my ex girlfriend taped later.
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Sigh, Win... unfortunately I'm not on Facebook.
 
King-sized sleep number bed; worst thing we ever bought. The sleep number function of it is not worth the $$ it cost--and no, not gonna tell you exactly what it cost; I'm too embarrassed--and we've got the darn thing shoved into a bedroom that really shouldn't have any bed larger than a double-sized.
 
win231 said:
Well, you can. A couple of years ago, my niece & her husband came by & wanted to hear me play. She posted a video on Facebook. If you go to Facebook, type in "Tony Nathanson" on the search line, click the "Search" icon, that takes you to my Facebook page, scroll down past all the "Funnies" you'll get to 4 videos. 2 that my niece taped & 2 that my ex girlfriend taped later.
Click to expand...
@win231 .. I can't find your videos on Facebook, Tony .. ?
 
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Aunt Marg said:
Beautiful.

Thank you for posting, Tony.

One thing I noticed, and this coming from a non-piano player, but both pianos seemed to lack depth, as in full and deep sounding resonance.

Just listening to both videos, I don't think a digital piano would be for me.
Click to expand...
I read up on the Yamaha electric pianos & their reviews are incredible; they have the best sound & closest to a huge acoustic piano.
I have played a "Roland" brand in a store & I didn't like it; it had a tinny sound.
 
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