Comparison Roland FP-30X vs Nux NPK-10

Type of action used in digital piano keys.

— Hammer. A mechanic that mimics the feel of playing a real piano as closely as possible. Hammer action keyboards not only provide velocity and force-dependent sound dynamics, they also provide a distinctive response with each press. These mechanics are complex and expensive, but they are considered the most advanced and suitable for digital pianos, and therefore are used in most models.

— Active. In the case of digital pianos, the active keyboard can be described as a simplified version of the hammer action described above. The sound produced when pressing such keys also depends on the force and speed of pressing, however, the keys themselves have less rigidity and do not give the full feel of a piano keyboard. On the other hand, such mechanics are cheaper. As a result, it is found mainly in low-cost models, as well as some professional instruments, positioned more like electric organs.

The third type of mechanics — passive — assumes that each time you press a key, the volume will be the same, regardless of the strength and speed of pressing. Such keyboards are not used in digital pianos — they are too primitive and not very functional for this class of instruments; however, models with adjustable sensitivity may provide switching the keyboard to a "passive" format (see below for more details).

Rigidity characterizes the force with which it is necessary to press the keys of a digital piano.

— Weighted. Weighted keyboards have high rigidity; if you are not used to them, they may not seem very comfortable. At the same time, such rigidity is an integral feature of the traditional piano keys. Therefore, all hammer action keyboards (see "Mechanics"), by definition, are made only weighted (and this is the type of mechanics that is typical for most digital pianos). Moreover, most models with simpler active mechanics have this rigidity — to ensure the greatest possible resemblance to traditional pianos.

— Semi-weighted. Keyboards of relatively low rigidity, which do not require such an effort when pressed, as weighted ones, however, are less reliable in response. They are found only in instruments with active mechanics, and even then rarely, mainly among low-cost-level models.

Technically, there is another type of keyboard — unweighted, in which each key, figuratively speaking, "falls through" under the finger, and the effort when pressed is almost imperceptible. However, such keyboards do not allow adequate pressure control, which is critical for more or less professional music performance. This is why digital pianos don't have unweighted keys.

The number of voices supported by the digital piano — more precisely, the maximum number of voices that the instrument can play at the same time.

This parameter should not be confused with the number of notes that can be played simultaneously on the keyboard. The fact is that in many timbres, several voices (tone generators) are used for each note at once — this is the only way to achieve a more or less reliable sound. Thus, the required number of voices can be many times higher than the number of notes — for example, the simplest chord of 3 notes may require 9 or even 12 voices. In addition, tone generators are used to play auto accompaniment parts and built-in songs (see below), and here the number of voices can already be measured in tens.

In light of all this, polyphony of less than 90 voices is typical mainly for relatively simple and inexpensive instruments that are not designed for complex tasks. The smallest number found in modern digital pianos is 32 voices. It is desirable for a more or less solid instrument to have at least 96 voices, and in top models this figure can reach 256.

The number of built-in sounds provided by the Digital Piano.

Despite the name, digital pianos are extremely rarely designed to imitate the sound of only a piano — the electronic hardware allows them to provide other timbres of sound. In addition, even the piano has its own varieties — for example, among the grand pianos there are 6 main classes, from large concert to miniature. So the built-in sounds can cover different kinds of pianos, as well as other instruments and sound effects.

The abundance and variety of timbres in digital pianos as a whole is not as great as in synthesizers, however, in this category there are very “charged” models, with a hundred timbres or more (in the most multifunctional, this number can exceed 900). However, it is worth specifically looking for a “multi-instrumental” model if you do not intend to be limited to the sound of the piano and would like to have more freedom of choice. It is worth remembering that a specific set of timbres can be different.

If the instrument is bought exclusively as a piano, then here, on the contrary, it is worth paying attention primarily to solutions with a small number of timbres. Such models are not only cheaper than "universals" — they can also sound better (due to the fact that there are few timbres and the manufacturer can carefully approach the sound quality of each built-in "instrument").

The range over which the tempo of the sound played by the instrument can change. It can be either a built-in melody or a part recorded on a sequencer, or an auto accompaniment, a tutorial or a metronome. For more information on all of these features, see the corresponding glossary entries. Here we note that a change in tempo is often required in fact — for example, to speed up an initially "sluggish" accompaniment or slow down a training programme that is difficult to master at the original tempo.

Tempo is traditionally indicated in beats per minute. The classical, "academic" range covers options from 40 bpm ("grave", "very slow") to 208 bpm ("prestissimo", "very fast"), however, in modern digital pianos, the working range of tempos is often significantly wider.

The presence of a sequencer in the design of a digital piano.

This function allows you not only to play music on the instrument, but also to record it with the possibility of later playback. However, this is at least; in addition to recording the parts of the instrument itself, the sequencer can provide recording an audio or MIDI signal from the corresponding input, mixing several parts (including recording the music being played over the music being played “on the go”), working with the parameters of individual tracks (volume, tone, timbre), as well as specific functions such as quantization (smoothing uneven tempo). The specific functionality of the sequencer may be different, it's ok to check it before buying. However, anyway, this function can be a good help for the musician; it is especially useful for those who are not limited to the performance of ready-made music and want to compose their own compositions.

The ability to overlay individual timbres provided in the instrument (or loaded into its memory by the user). Simply put, layering allows you to play a part on two timbres at once — for example, to complement the sound of a grand piano with the sound of a violin. This allows you to achieve a richer and more original sound.

Specific combinations of sounds can be stored in memory, however, in many models, the user himself can choose a combination of his own. However, it's ok to clarify these details separately.

The ability to add a reverb effect to the sound of the instrument.

Reverb is the repeated reflection and decay of sound. Most of all, this effect is noticeable in vast spaces with a pronounced echo — for example, large caves; however, in any environment, the coloring of the sound characteristic of such an environment is mainly due to reverberation. Thus, this function allows you to simulate music that sounds in different rooms — for example, to give the impression that the instrument is in the hall of a Gothic cathedral, or, conversely, in a small room with soft walls. However, it is also possible to use reverberation as a classic sound effect, which is not aimed at simulating the situation and only gives the sound a specific colour.

The presence of the chorus effect in the digital piano.

Initially, this effect was developed as an attempt to simulate the choral sound of several instruments of the same type. Even a perfect choir never plays 100% in sync, which is what the creators of the chorus tried to reproduce. This effect works as follows: several copies are taken from the main signal, which are played along with it — but not strictly simultaneously, but with a small (up to 30 ms) delay, selected randomly for each individual signal. This really allows to imitate the effect of polyphony to a certain extent, however, such sound is still far from a full-fledged choir. However, the chorus itself is quite interesting as an additional effect.