Digital pianos & E-pianos

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A digital piano offers the pianist an affordable alternative to an acoustic piano, is easier to transport and requires no maintenance. In addition, an electronic piano offers many practical functions, such as different sounds with split and layer, metronome, rhythms, recorder and built-in lessons that help in piano tuition and practice or simply increase the fun of playing.

From the Piano Électrique to the Wurlitzer Electric Piano

As early as the late 19th century there were attempts to create a piano substitute using electricity. After the Piano Électrique (1928) and the Neo-Bechstein grand (1928–30), where the struck strings were already picked up with pickups, the Wurlitzer Electric Piano became a popular instrument from 1954. Here small steel reeds produce the sound as they are struck by hammer action and are picked up capacitively. The Hohner Clavinet (1964), which with its steel strings sonically resembles a clavichord, and the Fender Rhodes (1965), where tines are set into vibration by hammer action in front of an inductive pickup, also became genre-defining instruments in rock and pop, jazz, funk and soul. These electric pianos range in tone from bell-like to percussive and are often altered sonically through the use of amplifiers and effects such as Leslie, chorus, tremolo, phaser or wah-wah. Vintage Vibes is a maker of modern recreations of Rhodes and Clavinet models. But these classic electric pianos are also heavy and maintenance-intensive, since they are essentially electro-acoustic instruments with hammer action. It is therefore unsurprising that the extremely popular electric piano sounds are also part of the repertoire of digital pianos. These, as the name suggests, produce sound via digital technology. Fundamental to this is sampling technology, which has shaped music technology since the 1990s and has been continually refined to make sound and playing feel even more authentic. Modern digital pianos also use physical modelling, where sound generation is digitally recreated by calculating physical parameters. This allows sounds to be generated quickly without having to load large samples.

Digital pianos and electric pianos today

Today's digital pianos therefore differ in their sound generation, their form, their feature set and above all in the quality of keyboard, amplifier and speakers. For example, we distinguish between stage pianos, which are designed for robustness, portability and easy operation on stage, and the so-called home pianos, which are usually meant when people talk about digital pianos or e-pianos. Among them are also ensemble or entertainment pianos that are equipped with numerous auto-accompaniment rhythms, synthesizer and sequencer functions. Portable pianos are a hybrid, as they have the portability of a stage piano but, with integrated speakers and a matching pedalboard, resemble a home piano. Another speciality is the digital grand. Some of these models actually feature the keyboard of a concert grand. Sophisticated amplifier and speaker systems, in combination with the sound generation and the lid, produce an authentic concert grand sound.