Any pianist will know the difficulties that arise when balancing the amount of hours of commitment required to become a competent player, with placating family members or neighbours who have to listen to your many hours of practice.
Whilst the piano is a beautiful instrument to hear, for family members trying to watch the television, or neighbours trying to sleep in the early hours, it can be an inappropriate distraction. Enter the silent piano – a ground-breaking development in the world of piano models.
Currently, there are only a handful of pianos offering this unique function on the market, so we’re here to review our current favourite models.
But first, you ask: how does a silent piano work?
All silent pianos naturally function as a normal grand piano would, acoustically. However, a piano compatible with a silencing component allows – at the mere press of a button – for the cessation of hammers reaching the strings. Instead, a sampled keyboard will come to life through the introduction of headphones.
Yamaha SH & SG2
Pioneers of the piano industry, Japanese manufacturers Yamaha, developed two versions of their silent technology: the SH and SG2. Both share the majority of their functions, with a completely modifiable digital tone module – allowing for a myriad of music styles and genres to be explored through one grand or upright piano.
The unit offers a range of exciting features, such as its selection of pre-installed samples – defaulting with the Yamaha CFX full-size grand piano and CFIIIS full-size concert grand piano respectively.
The SH allows for USB audio recording, perfect for songwriters and those wishing to share their practices with friends or family. Through the creation of .WAV files, pianists can import clips into Cubase or other music production applications, allowing for optimised creations.
Additionally, the SH also boasts the ability to fully manipulate its audio playback settings, such as reverb or transpose, allowing the player to create a different sonic environment with each musical piece.
The modules can be implemented on the following piano models:
- CX7 SH
- C6X SH
- C5X SH
- C3X SH
- C2X SH
- C1X SH
- GC2 SH
- GC1 SH
- YUS5 SH
- YUS3 SH
- YUS1 SH
- U3 SH
- U1 SH
- GBK1K SG2
- B3 SG2
- B2 SG2
- B1 SG2
Kawai Anytime Silent Upright Pianos
Similar to the Yamaha invention, the Kawai counterpart offers a digital mode and recording capabilities (with the addition of MP3 recordings). Both the Yamaha and Kawai modules allow for audio output, allowing not only for headphones, but the use of external speakers to play the samples through in digital mode.
One differentiation between Yamaha and Kawai is that the latter allows for layering of acoustic and digital samples, allowing for beautiful compositions e.g. acoustic grand piano and electronically sampled strings.
These are the Anytime models of Kawai:
- K300-ATX2
- K200-ATX2
- K15-ATX2
At Richard Lawson Pianos Ltd, we supply a vast range of fully reconditioned pianos of all shapes, sizes and models. Holding over four decades in the preowned piano industry, we have something to suit every level of player and every environment.
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