Read the comments of the owner in the video below. I think he has more comments in other videos also.
There was a US firm that sold a customized VPC1, but that website seems to have closed.
Unless you use PianoTeq, I don't know if there are any other VIs that utilize more than 128 MIDI velocities.
RIP One other thing to ask yourself is why are you buying a digital piano instead of an acoustic. Ask yourself this question with an open mind.
Okay. I love acoustic pianos. In Germany I could buy a young (80s, 90s) german upright with the size of 116 - 124 cm of a brand as Schimmel, Grotrian-Steinweg, Ibach or a slightly older (60s, 70s) Bechstein upright for 6000 € - even at good piano stores. Here in Berlin someone at ebay kleinanzeigen sells privately a Steingraeber & Söhne 124 (!) for 6999 € from the 80s in perfectly fine condition. There are plenty of nice pianos here. Availability and price are not the problem. I would be perfectly content with the sound and the action of such an upright. I also have the space (even for grand up to 2m).
But I live in an apartment. A total of 9 residential units live in my house entrance, including a friendly policewoman who often works night shifts and understandably wants to sleep in the mornings. A nice young couple lives above me with a baby who is only a few months old. Below me is a very nice single mother with a behavioral problematic, sometimes aggressive son. Everyone is considerate of each other, that basically works well. And now I'm supposed to (and I've already tried it with a rented Hailun upright...) rob the policewoman of sleep after a night shift in the morning? Or wake the baby in the afternoon? Or upset the boy with repetitive practice of individual passages (he's sick and can't help it) that it is even more difficult for the mother? All of this is much more important than my piano playing. And even if you agree upon on a golden time window from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., you don't have exactly that time every day, and an hour is not particularly long if you buy an instrument for thousands of Euros. I would have to move away if in doubt. But that really is not an option. Acoustic pianos are just too loud. I could not play them.
RIP Then, look at this instrument: https://keybird-instruments.com/ -- would it solve the problems that made you think you could not get an acoustic? It's lightweight, it's inexpensive, it has a good action and good sound (well, at least it is said to be so, I haven't tried it). Could it be what you seek?
Thanks for the suggestion. I heard of them and really like the concept. It would solve some problems - I think it wouldn't be as loud as a regular one. Maybe tolerable for the neighbors. It's also inexpensive and modular. Very good. But unfortunately there are only 69 keys for now - it really has to be 88 for me (or at least 85…). And I am not 100% sure about the tonal qualities. It sounds good for itself. But I am not sure if classic literature will sound well. But it could. There is a very sophisticated (but not that leightweight) alternative for a piano like this with Clavins Una Corda with 88 keys - for 25000 €. Oh boy…
n-player Read the comments of the owner in the video below. I think he has more comments in other videos also.
Thanks, thats interesting. I will quote him and highlight the interesting parts:
I could write a book... this synthogy american grand is good enough for me, also the pianoteq plug-in is ok. After a lot of research I found out, that it is very important, to have a controller keyboard with fast electronic, the USB/MIDI connetion. We have to factors: At first, if you play a chord, some DP/controllers have big difficulties to transport those notes in time (close together) to the software plugin. Recording them in a DAW you see the notes spread, dispersed. This makes it very unnatural. I feel a big difference to the real piano! Second thing is, even if you play one single note, when will the MIDI- information appear in the DAW? Some are really bad, some not so bad. The MK-22 is definately one of the best concerning this aspects, but it is in my opinion too expensive and the keys are too light, the fingers have not enough counterweight, or better say oscillation weight. It's a FATAR- Problem. I have the VPC-1... there's no Fatar inside, but it is too slow in both aspects, sorry.
My hot favoriteactually: Roland a-88. See how much fun some of the best players in the world have on demo videos for the new spectrasonics keyscape plugin. I'm absolutley sure, they do not only enjoy the plugin, they feel good because the a-88 has very little delays... compared to most other kb. It is quite fast in both aspects. I measured many keyboards by recording them in logic. The a-88 keys are not as nice as the VPC-1 ones, but it is not expensive, not too heavy and it's timing closer to the natural pianos than most other controllers.
Our big problem is, that a real piano needs only 0,5ms, the dispers- aspect does simply not exist! And the big companies seem to have no idea about the problem. If they build a to some degree good controller keyboard, they seem like doing it inadvertently. The more players are aware of this inaccuracy and demand for better keyboards, the better!
Thats so interesting, not even a few hors ago vagflm mentioned this timing-issue and I remarked that the VPC1 felt somehow off to me. And Holger Engel even liked the Roland A-88 (with the same PHA-4 standard action as my current FP-30) best at that time. Btw. that where I felt the NU1X shined - the combination with Pianoteq was just so perfectly seamless in every sense, like an acoustic instrument…
Then I listen to such a recording of this brilliant pianist who uses his VPC1 for years and I ask myself why the VPC1 was not "good enough" for me? Or better: Not significantly less a compromise than the FP-30?
The slow transport of MIDI signals at 31.25 Kbaud serial relates to the legacy 5-pin connector. The potential problem is big chords at fast playing getting bottlenecked; I've never seen any serious research around players actually perceiving this problem. I won't claim it is not a serious problem, and I personally am irritated by increasing VI buffer size (latency).
Whilst MIDI over USB COULD run faster in theory, the MIDI Association wrote that controllers typically throttle to 31.25 probably to guarantee compatibility. (MIDI Association wrote in several posts that they never found a MIDI instrument outputting at a higher speed). So whilst there may be controllers running faster MIDI over USB, I have never seen any evidence.
https://www.midi.org/forum/4704-reduced-jitter-more-latency-with-midi-2-0
It is possible that the internal sounds on a Yamaha N1x, may not be tied to 128 velocities or 31.25 Kbaud serial data schemes. But nobody knows.
EDIT - Internal keyboard sensor scanning & processing will vary by controller, but that should be orders of magnitude faster than the MIDI transport speeds . . .
People don't like to discuss this stuff so I will stop writing. lol
The "classic" MIDI transport takes 1 msec to send a three-byte key-on (or off) message.
Latency in the virtual instrument software and in the audio chain are often (usually?) a good deal more than that.
So I don't worry about MIDI latency.
I wonder if you can simulate the "feel" of the action by removing the rubber dome strips from a typical DP action, to eliminate the resistance from that interface? If you did that with a section of the keyboard, you could potentially feel the difference between a rubber-contact sensor system and what a "non-contact optical sensor" would feel like on a given action.
I wonder if you could buy a 10 yr old K200 silent piano to use with a VST for 5000€?
TomLC I love this idea. A few years ago, I was looking for used pianos with MIDI/silent functions exactly for this purpose, on the assumption that the electronics are quickly deemed "obsolete" and you could maybe find one for cheap. I didn't see anything that stood out as an absolute steal though.
Would love to know if anyone here uses an acoustic almost exclusively in silent mode with a VST.
porco_rosso Yes, I asked myself why they didn't use a GF action as a base… would have been even better for sure.
It's been done. Ravenworks VPC1.
EssBrace It's been done. Ravenworks VPC1
Hello,
😲 Ravenworks don't replace the VPC1 RM3 Grand II with GF actions do they?!
Cheers and happy playing,
HZ
Gombessa Would love to know if anyone here uses an acoustic almost exclusively in silent mode with a VST.
Hello,
Gamma1734 (who not yet made it over here as it seems), if I understand correctly, solely uses his Kawai Kx00 upright as his MIDI controller -- and loves it that way.
Cheers and happy acoustics,
HZ
HZPiano Ravenworks don't replace the VPC1 RM3 with GF actions don't they?!
Of course they do... But if the ravenworks vpc1 was 3 times the price of a vpc1, they only need to buy a ca79, strip the action, replace the sensors, and charge you 2 times the price of a nv10... For that price, I can do it too 😊😊😊
Ravenworks Digital VPC1 details
n-player Whilst MIDI over USB COULD run faster in theory, the MIDI Association wrote that controllers typically throttle to 31.25 probably to guarantee compatibility. (MIDI Association wrote in several posts that they never found a MIDI instrument outputting at a higher speed). So whilst there may be controllers running faster MIDI over USB, I have never seen any evidence.
I would be interested by references. The only reference I have is the MIDI over USB specifications where I read :
The USB transfers MIDI data at rate hundreds of times faster than the original MIDI 1.0 hardware specification. In addition, this specification takes advantage of the USB's bandwidth and flexible data handling to enable the transfer of many "virtual" cables worth of MIDI data.
It seems weird but not impossible that a MIDI controllers throttle their USB port which are designed for communication to a PC (if not named « to PC ») which can handle high speed streams.
Let’s hope MIDI2.0 will make (soon) controllers compatible with higher speed.
vagfilm Then, how would it be to just buy a CA79 and give it a custom-designed vinyl wrap instead? 😁
And if you leave the legs, pedal bar, and rear panel off, it makes a nice back-breaking stage piano just as well 😬
Cheers and happy useless ideas,
HZ
n-player I am also very interested, but the references you provided are just "a random guy on the internet" aren't they?
Most importantly, bandwidth is not speed. Speed is (the inverse of) latency. You can have (and in fact often do have for internet) extremely large band connections, which are horribly "slow" from a latency point of view, to the point of not being usable for anything "real time" (such as video conferencing).
Speaking of bandwidth: suppose one plays semiquavers (sixteenth note) at a speed of quarter-note=180, i.e. 3 quarter notes per second and hence 12 sixteenth note per second. And suppose that one does that with 8 fingers at the same time, or 96 note-on per second. At 3-byte per note-on message, that's 288 bytes per second, counting also the note off it's 576. Put in pedal, double the tempo (if you can play that way) or whatever you want, but that's a far cry from the 31.25Kbaud limit! So as far as I can tell there is absolutely no problem in bandwidth -- however there can be in latency. Even though as @MacMacMac and others have said it's not the MIDI transport the main source of latency.
porco_rosso But I live in an apartment.
Got it (you did not need to provide all of those details 🤣)
I suppose you tried the felt strip and other sound insulation techniques (e.g. sound absorbing materials under the piano casters and between the wall and the soundboard right?) and that was not enough, right?
If so, then digital must be…. perhaps keep what you have for now and save a year or two more to get a NV-5 or N1x?
RIP "Random guy on the internet" linked above has reasonable credentials:
Chairman of MIDI 2.0 Working Group.
Co-Author of USB MIDI.
Member of Technical Standards Board of the MIDI Association.
Consultant for MIDI and Audio Products, Formerly Roland R&D.
porco_rosso Okay. I love acoustic pianos. In Germany I could buy a young (80s, 90s) german upright with the size of 116 - 124 cm of a brand as Schimmel, Grotrian-Steinweg, Ibach or a slightly older (60s, 70s) Bechstein upright for 6000 € - even at good piano stores. Here in Berlin someone at ebay kleinanzeigen sells privately a Steingraeber & Söhne 124 (!) for 6999 € from the 80s in perfectly fine condition. There are plenty of nice pianos here. Availability and price are not the problem. I would be perfectly content with the sound and the action of such an upright. I also have the space (even for grand up to 2m).
But I live in an apartment. A total of 9 residential units live in my house entrance, including a friendly policewoman who often works night shifts and understandably wants to sleep in the mornings. A nice young couple lives above me with a baby who is only a few months old. Below me is a very nice single mother with a behavioral problematic, sometimes aggressive son. Everyone is considerate of each other, that basically works well. And now I'm supposed to (and I've already tried it with a rented Hailun upright...) rob the policewoman of sleep after a night shift in the morning? Or wake the baby in the afternoon? Or upset the boy with repetitive practice of individual passages (he's sick and can't help it) that it is even more difficult for the mother? All of this is much more important than my piano playing. And even if you agree upon on a golden time window from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., you don't have exactly that time every day, and an hour is not particularly long if you buy an instrument for thousands of Euros. I would have to move away if in doubt. But that really is not an option. Acoustic pianos are just too loud. I could not play them.
Your description shows a certain unhealthy character trait: You make the problems of strangers your own problems. Sharing a house with people doesn't mean you have to share your life with them. You don't choose your neighbors, but you choose who you share your life with. You shouldn't know all this stuff you mentioned above. You need to set boundaries or you will run into mental health issues at some point.
For example some of us have neighbors too, with some of them having an extensive (noisy) sex life, but if you start thinking about if your neighbors are satisfied with it, that's none of your business. And it's the same with your piano practice.
Overall you are in pretty great spot actually. Where you live an apartment is not considered being a "sleep cell" only like in Japan, the home of the digital piano. Singing and making music is considered being part of living at home, because unlike Asian ant countries, you're not considered to exist only for commuting between work and sleep.
The human voice and acoustic instruments are privileged, as they are allowed to make as much noise as they are physically able to. Only if you introduce electronic amplification, you're limited to the volume of the human voice (and you're supposed to run all your electronic gadgets at that level: your TV, your guitar amplifier and of course your digital piano). But there is no landlord preventing you from putting a concert grand in your flat or simply singing fortissimo after work. Of course, we are considerate people, so we don't go nine-footer, but with a reasonable 42" upright.
Deleted
I'm in a similar situation as @porco_rosso and understand him pretty well. While I basically agree with you that technically other people's problems are their problems, this can lead to everybody just doing what they want and when they want because it will be me sleeping late in the morning (which is what I do since I'm a night owl) and being mad at people making noises without any consideration. I mean, as simplified as it may seem, I try to follow the good old Confucius' advice of "Don't do unto others what you don't want done unto you."
But I'm also working towards moving into a house (outside the capital) where I can have an acoustic piano.