Michael Fogleman

Woohoo! I finally got myself a brand new piano up here! As you probably already know, I decided to go with a digital piano. I had many reasons for this decision, and they include: a) didn't want to deal with moving a 500-lb hunk of wood, metal, and strings, b) didn't want to deal with tuning, c) didn't want to bother my neighbors too much with a piano that lacks volume control, d) was interested in having several instrument sounds instead of just one. And I got the one I'd been looking at for quite a while, the Yamaha Clavinova CLP-170. This is one of the better ones, for sure. It cost quite a bit, but I got 6 months with 0% aka same-as-cash, so no big deal! :-) I continue to be amazed by the features on this thing that make it so realistic, and that's what I'm going to talk about in this blog post. But first we need some pictures!

Okay, just two pictures. Isn't it awesome looking? Definitely a great addition to my apartment. Alright, so on to the features! First, one of the most important things about a piano is the feel of the keys. They sorta bounce when you hit them and plain old keyboards just have springs which definitely do not capture this effect. Also, the lower (to the left) keys are heavier than the higher ones, so as you go down the keyboard the keys gradually get heavier and heavier. Well, my piano covers both of these key features (punny!). In fact, it does so in a way that I almost feel like I can actually play better on it than on a real piano. So this is one thing Yamaha definitely did properly.

The other important thing about a piano is the way it sounds (duh!). There are so many aspects to a piano that alter how it sounds, and I don't think Yamaha forgot to consider a single one of them on this model. So here's my little piano tutorial for those of you who aren't too keen on how they work. When you press a key, a damper is removed from that particular string and a hammer hits the string very rapidly to create the sound. If you let go of the key, the damper returns to the string and causes it to stop vibrating. A side effect of this is that if you have a key pressed and then press another, the vibrations of the second string cause the first one to vibrate. This is called sympathetic resonance. Actually it only occurs when the note wave patterns are similar... so C-chord notes will affect other C-chord notes, for example. Well, I put my piano to the test. I very, very slowly pressed down a few keys until they were all the way down. Since I did it so slowly no noise was made. Then, while keeping those keys down, I played another note. And voila, I could hear my other keys resonating! How freaking cool is that? This piano has an entire set of audio samples just for this purpose. Very, very cool.

Now, I'd like you to imagine knocking on the wooden case of a piano. If you've ever done this, you know you'll hear an echo in the piano case. Believe it or not, I can do the same thing to my digital piano by knocking on it. This is because it has a built-in microphone to pick up any sounds, not limited to the sounds it makes itself. It processes the input and sends sounds out the back speakers to emulate the echoing inside of a real grand piano. Again, how crazy is this!? Very impressive. Of course, the real benefit is not having an echo sound when I hit my piano. :-) It's having it do that audio processing on the music I play to make the performance sound much more realistic.

There are lots of little things like that in this piano. Some other things I've noticed are that it has a graded pedal, meaning the sound is different if I have the damper pedal up, mid-way, or all the way down. This is very cool. Another thing is that the piano has "key-off" samples that create the subtle sounds that are made as you release a key. (this is very, very noticeable for the harpsichord which apparently makes a plucking noise when you let go of the key) Needless to say, I'm very happy with my purchase. It's about the best you can get without buying the real thing, but honestly I think this is in many ways a better option, especially for me.

Alright, that's what I wanted to blog about. I'll write another post sometime soon (maybe) about what's been going on in my life, aside from my piano playing! ;-)

posted by Michael  # 9/29/2005 11:06:00 PM 0 Comments

A good friend from ol' NC has informed me that I am a few days overdue for my monthly blog post. That's all the motivation I need to write a new post. Well, not really... 'cause that was a few days ago. :)

I guess I never blogged about the trip to DC. It was right around a month ago, so that makes sense. Anyway, the trip was great! Traffic sucked on the way down (and coming back home) but otherwise I had an excellent time. I arrived in Maryland around midnight and went to bed shortly after. The next morning we woke up bright and early and drove to the metro station. We took the metro to the "mall" and our day in DC had begun! We went to the zoo first and saw all sorts of animals including pandas, sloths, lions, tigers, giraffes, and elephants. And a bunch of others that I can't name. After that, we went to the Holocaust museum which was quite an experience. Then we went to the air & space museum and finally the natural history museum. It was SO hot that day. I came home with a red face, but I don't think my skin ever peeled or anything. We wanted to get dinner in the DC area but were simply exhausted and headed back to Maryland instead and had dinner at a nice restaurant there. The next day we had a great meal prepared by Christina's grandma and then we headed back home. I'd have to say the hardest thing about moving is not having anyone around who really knows you, so it was great to spent time with a friend from back home! Be sure to check out the DC pics if you haven't already. Just click the Photos link up top.

This past weekend was Labor Day weekend, so I figured I oughta use that extra day off wisely. I thought about flying down to NC to visit everyone but I ended up driving to Watertown, NY to visit my sister instead. Didn't really feel like paying for the plane ticket, and wouldn't you know it... that's the week all the gas prices shot up. (still cheaper of course) In case you didn't know, my sister is 8 months pregnant and due on October 1st! She's having a boy. I can't believe I'm going to be an uncle! I saw and felt the baby moving in her tummy! :) We didn't do too much while I was there, but I had a good time. We played cards and saw a movie and went out for dinner and stuff like that. The trip was about 330 miles and took 4.5 hrs, which seems like nothing after driving up here from NC when I moved.

I've made lots of big purchases this past month too. Well, mostly just the brown leather sofa and the TV stand I bought from Ikea. I'm still waiting on the darn things to be delivered and I bought them 3 weeks ago. Not too happy about that, but I'll live. They're scheduled to be delivered this coming Friday... finally. The other purchase hasn't happened yet but I'm so set on buying it that it's safe to say it's definitely going to happen. I've been dying to have a piano since I got up here. So I checked out some local piano stores and found some great digital pianos that are just about as good as the real thing. Better in some ways, actually... lighter and easier to move, never need tuning, and they have a volume control so I won't annoy my neighbors too much! The keys are made to feel and respond like real piano keys and the technology for playing the sound is simply incredible. I'm probably going to buy a Yamaha CLP-170. Tell me that piano ain't sexy. The store had to order that one since they didn't have it in stock. So once they get it in (probably this week) I'll try it out and see how awesome it really is. It's pretty pricy, but it'll be well worth it. I even got a spot for it here in my den. It'll look great there. :)

I'm still meeting new people up here in CT and have made a couple of friends, so things are going well! Alright, that's all for now... let me know what y'all are up to.

posted by Michael  # 9/11/2005 01:23:00 AM 3 Comments