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The audiophile category includes the Steinway Spirio and the Disklavier Pro models.
#Nordiska piano reviews professional#
When outfitted with recording capabilities and/or with a “silent” feature that mutes the acoustic piano’s sound, they become more useful for students, and for lighter professional use for music notation or as a MIDI controller. When used as playback-only systems, these are suitable for home entertainment, and for commercial use in restaurants, hotels, assisted-living facilities, etc. The first category includes systems by PianoDisc, Pianoforce, QRS, and most Yamaha Disklaviers. The player systems currently on the market can be described as falling into two categories: those that are used mostly in situations requiring only low- to medium-quality playback reproduction, and those whose playback and/or recording functions are of audiophile quality and are intended for the most discriminating or high-level professional users.
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Installation is somewhat messy and must be done in a shop, not in your home but when done correctly, it won’t harm the piano or void its warranty. A factory-certified local installer of a retrofit can usually match the quality of a factory installation. When installed in a new piano, some systems must be installed by the piano’s manufacturer, while others can be installed by the dealer or at an intermediate distribution point. Some player systems can be added(retrofitted) to any new or used piano others are available only on a specific make of piano.
#Nordiska piano reviews upgrade#
However, as technologies advance, it may become increasingly difficult to upgrade your older system. Most systems can be upgraded to add recording and other, more advanced features, should you later want to add those. If that’s the case, one of the more basic systems, without recording capabilities, will likely be satisfactory. In many typical family situations, the piano, just like Grandma’s, is primarily used for children’s lessons and for entertainment. Since many of the features of the more sophisticated systems are related to recording one’s performance and composing, you should first decide whether or not you want the ability to record what you or others play on your piano, or to use the piano for music notation. You can even watch a video of Billy Joel in concert on a screen built into your piano’s music rack, or on your tablet or notebook, while, simultaneously, his performance, with orchestra, is faithfully reproduced on your own piano, “live” in your living room! The features and technological capabilities are already vast and are still evolving.īefore you begin to wade through the possibilities, you should carefully consider your long-term needs. The capabilities of these systems range from those that simply play the piano (often all that’s desired for home use) all the way to those that allow composers to create, play, and print entire orchestral scores without ever leaving the piano bench.
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Today, nearly one out of every four new grand pianos is sold with an electronic player-piano system installed. Some of you may have fond memories of gathering around Grandma’s old upright player piano and pumping those huge pedals to make it play - until you could hardly walk! As with so many other devices, technology has revolutionized the player piano, replacing the pneumatic pressure and rolls of punched paper with electronics, smartphones, iPads, and MP3 files.
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