Author Archives: Richard Taylor

About Richard Taylor

Assistant Professor, Mathematics & Statistics, Thompson Rivers University. PhD (Applied Mathematics, U.Waterloo, 2004) MSc (Geophysics, UBC, 1999) BSc (Physics, UBC, 1998) Audio Engineering Society member

Digital Piano: Mono-Compatibility and Phase Correlation Metering

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Digital pianos can sound disappointing (thin, tinny, nasal, dull) in live settings, even if they sound great in headphones. This is often due to stereo piano samples that have mono-compatibility issues: interference between left and right channels causes distorted timbre due to phase cancellation.

I have an earlier (and even earlier) post with measurements that show this happening on my Yamaha CP50. Those measurements can be hard to interpret. For making comparisons between pianos, I’d prefer one simple measure of how bad these phase issues are. One possibility is a phase correlation meter of the kind sometimes found in DAWs and mixers. This is a quick post to share the results of running my Yamaha DP through such a meter.

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Toward High-Quality Live Sound for Digital Piano

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Keyboardists often complain that their digital/electronic piano sounds harsh, honky, thin, muffled, resonant, tinny, strident, boxy, like a toy/budget instrument, and other kinds of terrible and awful, such as the “ice-pick-in-the-ear effect”. I’ve been frustrated by these issues myself; no one feels inspired playing an instrument that sounds bad!

After a few years of working on understanding the causes of these problems, I’m convinced they can be solved by careful loudspeaker design, especially with attention to directivity control. It is possible to achieve a much more inspiring sound with existing keyboards. However, most off-the-shelf sound systems (e.g. “keyboard” amps, monitors and compact PAs) aren’t up to the task, for reasons described below.

Update: based on my investigations here and elsewhere, I’ve designed a new loudspeaker system to deal with the challenges of turning piano samples into naturalistic live piano sound. Visit taylorsoundlabs.com to purchase or get more info. Continue reading →

Digital Piano Reproduction: Polyphonic Interference

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This is another in a series of posts about why digital pianos often sound bad in live performance, and what can be done about it.

Sometimes when I play a chord on my digital piano (DP) the tone sounds suddenly and unexpectedly thin. Striking the same chord again might sound better, or sometimes worse… or just different. This effect is most audible on sustained chords. I find that it’s much worse with live sound, especially in mono. Stereo usually sounds better, especially in headphones where I hardly ever notice it.

This inconsistency of tone is very distracting. It feels like all the body drains out of my tone at random, making me cringe and back off of certain chords. Such haphazard tonal quality can make my playing timid and uninspired, and has made a lot of gigs not fun at all.

Update: based on my investigations here and elsewhere, I’ve designed a new loudspeaker system to deal with the challenges of turning piano samples into naturalistic live piano sound. Visit taylorsoundlabs.com to purchase or get more info.
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Digital Piano Reproduction: Output Level

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Continuing with my aim to design a sound system for accurate reproduction of digital piano, I made some measurements to determine the required amplifier power and driver excursion capabilities.  For output levels on par with a 6′ grand piano, an adequate system will need to reproduce transient peaks of at least 109dB SPL @ 1m and be capable of displacing at least 50 cm3.  See below for details.

Update: based on my investigations here and elsewhere, I’ve designed a new loudspeaker system to deal with the challenges of turning piano samples into naturalistic live piano sound. Visit taylorsoundlabs.com to purchase or get more info.

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Digital Piano Reproduction: Frequency Response

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In my quest for high-quality live reproduction of digital piano, I have often heard it said that a piano needs full-range speakers. The argument is that the lowest fundamental is at a very low 28Hz, while the percussive nature of a piano generates lots of high frequencies. This claim sounds reasonable, but some measurements and spectral analysis show it doesn’t hold up.

Update: based on my investigations here and elsewhere, I’ve designed a new loudspeaker system to deal with the challenges of turning piano samples into naturalistic live piano sound. Visit taylorsoundlabs.com to purchase or get more info.

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Atlona HD570 distortion / subsonic transients

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In my linux pc-based dsp system for crossover and EQ of active loudspeakers, I use a pc to send 6 channels of processed audio over hdmi, with an Atlona AT-HD570 to convert all channels to analog before amplification.  Recently I discovered that this setup can distort badly at moderately high signal levels, in a way that produces large transient subsonic signals which, when amplified, could permanently damage loudspeaker drivers.  My measurements point to a flaw in the HD570.
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Digital Piano Reproduction: Phase Issues 2

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Following up on an earlier post, I’ve been investigating why digital pianos sound so bad in stereo.  I did a spectral analysis on the outputs of my Yamaha CP50 stage piano.  The results confirm what I and others have been hearing: because of how they are sampled, stereo pianos don’t reproduce well except in headphones.

Update: based on my investigations here and elsewhere, I’ve designed a new loudspeaker system to deal with the challenges of turning piano samples into naturalistic live piano sound. Visit taylorsoundlabs.com to purchase or get more info.

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Digital Piano Reproduction: Phase Issues 1

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Musicians often complain that their digital piano sounds good through headphones but terrible through an amp/PA, describing their live piano sound as “thin”, “nasal” or “boxy”.  This can be frustrating and musically uninspiring.  Because the piano sounds good through ‘phones, people naturally blame their amp/speakers and seek a solution there.

Update: based on my investigations here and elsewhere, I’ve designed a new loudspeaker system to deal with the challenges of turning piano samples into naturalistic live piano sound. Visit taylorsoundlabs.com to purchase or get more info.

Continue reading →