Types of Piano vs Keyboard vs Synth vs MIDI Ultimate Guide

With each type of piano-style instrument, comes great confusion. Here, we will help you differentiate between types of piano vs keyboard vs synth vs MIDI controller once and for all.

Having dabbled with different piano products, I’ve spent countless hours trying to find the right keys for me. Different piano-style instruments are riddled with jargon.

Workstation keyboards. Digital pianos. Arranger keyboards. Digital hardware synthesizer keyboards. These big words can stump the musician at times.

These types of piano-style instruments are defined by their features. As a result, there’s a need to demystify who they’re for and when to use them.

In this article, I’ll be giving you a simple and general overview and a breakdown of each of their subcategories. Then, we dive into the specific aspects of each of them. By the end of this article, you’ll be able to distinguish identify their key features, and also which types of piano-style instruments suit you best.

Types Of Piano-Style Keys

Technically speaking, each of these are considered “keyboards” in the sense that all of them have similar designs to a traditional stage piano. What makes them different is their design, features, and practical applications.

Pianos are made for pure performance, giving you an unmatched, tactile feel; a living, breathing instrument all other keyboards are based on.

Keyboards are ready-made tools with tons of access to different pre-loaded sounds.

Synths are a sound designer’s kitchen; Full control over the basic waveforms allows you to create unique soundscapes.

MIDI-Controllers are a music production companion for making the best sounds via music software.

What Is A Piano?

Pianos are musical instruments that produce sound by striking the strings using small, felted hammers that engage when the keys are depressed. Pianos have been around for centuries, and they are the instrument that most people are familiar with.

What makes a real piano so appealing is the unmatched feeling of the hammer striking the strings and its action. It brings about rich resonance that’s not just heard but also felt.

Nowadays, musical instrument manufacturers have also created digital pianos that faithfully replicate the feeling and sound of traditional pianos. I’ll elaborate upon this further by analyzing 3 of the most common ones.

Grand pianos occupy the biggest space in all of the piano styles. They’re rich and resonant in tone due to the horizontally aligned strings that give them more area to vibrate. They are known for their wide dynamic range from softest to loudest (also dubbed as pianoforte). That’s why they’re used a lot in concerts, recordings, and formal venues. It’s widely used by serious classical or jazz pianists and composers.

Upright pianos aren’t portable by any means, but they’ve become a mainstay for schools, jazz pubs, rehearsal rooms, and for home use. Using hammer action, they generally deliver a brighter tone due to their small size and much shorter strings. Its dynamic range isn’t as wide compared to the grand piano, but it’s a viable, space-saving option. Don’t think of upright pianos as a downgrade but as a shade of tone!

Digital Pianos attempt to faithfully recreate the experience you get from a real piano, from the weighted action of the keys to the sound, timbre, and response.

The sound generation of these digital musical instruments comes from built-in oscillators, which have many advantages. Its multiple pianos rolled into one unit, giving you the option to switch from one sound to another. When it comes to digital piano vs keyboard, the digital piano doesn’t have a lot of sound options. However, it’s streamlined to contain only piano sounds. It makes it an easy choice for home use, gigs, and rehearsals. If portability is the priority, choose digital pianos. They are very close to the real thing.

What Is a Keyboard?

Keyboards are the little brothers of the piano. They are relatively portable and lighter in key action if we compare keyboard vs piano design-wise. They are built for live performances and are staple in gigs.

Generally, keyboards have synth-action keys that are light to the touch. It makes it a great alternative for people who are starting out or are casual players.

It’s known to have the ability to load up a library of sounds, enabling the keyboardist to use it beyond the confines of the traditional piano.

With different keyboard types, you can have an accompaniment on the spot and even produce music with it.

Types Of Keyboards

Home Keyboards is a cheap and portable solution for those who are first starting. It allows you to switch between different sounds and patches. Some give you the ability to layer up the sound as well. It’s the simplest type of keyboard that is meant for “playing right away.”

Arranger Keyboards also come with an array of loadable sounds but with one notable ability: the sounds can follow you along. It has an auto-accompaniment feature that follows the chords you play. Great for one-man band settings because you can select rhythms from different genres. All you had to do was play the chords on the left half and play the lead or melody on the right half of the keyboard.

Some keyboards can serve as production studios in a box, these are called workstation keyboards. The Best Workstation Keyboards come packed with features, including sequencers that allow a keyboardist to record their performances, produce arrangements, and recall for later use. This self-contained setup made them a popular choice way back until digital audio workstations or DAWs took over. Nowadays, they’re still in use by composers, and arrangers who prefer a more streamlined approach to music making.

Digital Piano vs Keyboard

Side-by-side, keyboard vs piano is easy to differentiate. Digital piano vs keyboard, on the other hand, can be tricky to distinguish at times. Both are capable of switching between different sounds and both can have an extensive sound library.

As a rule, digital piano vs keyboard differ in key action and sound.

Keyboards specialize in packing as many sounds or patches in 1 unit, while digital pianos specialize in only a few. Digital pianos, while generally having fewer sounds, are focused on recreating the weighted action of a real acoustic piano. You could say in a way that keyboards are less “in touch” with the nuances of the real piano. Conversely, digital pianos are built from the ground up to mimic everything acoustic-piano-related that you can bring anywhere.

From a value proposition perspective, you’re paying for sounds and features in a keyboard, and you’re paying for the feel of a digital piano.

What Is a Synth?

Synthesizer keyboards are electronic instruments that generate sound through the use of oscillators. Traditionally, the knobs, faders, and slots in a keyboard synthesizer are meant to alter the sound to behave in specific ways. I’ll break it down piece by piece:

Oscillators: This component produces the 4 basic sound waves: sine, sawtooth, triangle, and square.

Filters: In simple terms, they control the tone of the sound. Here, you can manipulate how open or closed the sound is.

Envelope: Shapes the behavior of sound over time. Envelope parameters can be connected to the oscillator to change the pitch or to the filter to close or open the sound.

Two of the most common envelopes are ADSRs and LFOs.

ADSR stands for attack, decay, sustain, and release and are responsible for how sudden, how long, and how the sound tapers off.

LFOs or low-frequency oscillators are typically used to add or apply vibrato or tremolo effects for a given sound. Here you can determine how fast or slow and how the vibrato behaves.

Amplifier: Controls the volume of the sound and is responsible for the output.

As previously mentioned, this electronic instrument is a sound designer’s tool for exploring soundscapes. Unlike keyboards and digital pianos, synthesizers are focused on fine-tuned parameters. Many electronic musicians like Deadmau5, Youtuber Andrew Huang, and rock icon Pink Floyd have used synthesizers to create their own sound. Synths are also a treat to use in live settings, with knobs and faders that evolve the sound.

Types of Synths

Analog synthesizers produce and manipulate sound from its electronic circuitry. Sound generation and manipulation are done by fluctuating the voltage in unique ways. Synth enthusiasts dub the sound of analog synths as warm and well-rounded. Some analog synths can only play one note at a time (monophonic), and some can play two or more notes (polyphonic).

The catch for analog synthesizers is the expensive price tag due to their components. They’re very limited, and it is hard to bring in a performance. However, sound designers and music producers still go back to analogs because of their classic sound.

Digital synthesizers are generally the cheaper alternative to analog synths. It seeks to at least get really close to the sound of analog synths through 1s and 0s. They closely resemble the form factor of an analog synth, but they are much lighter and have more features and control over the sound. With many digital synths, you can save and recall your patches. Digital synths have much more flexibility as you can instantly change their settings beyond what an analog synth can do.

What Is a MIDI Controller Keyboard?

So, what is MIDI in the first place? MIDI stands for musical instrument digital interface, and this protocol is all about sending data from one MIDI device to another. A MIDI Controller doesn’t produce sound by itself.

When you press the keys, it sends out MIDI messages in and out of the computer. It’s received by the digital audio workstation (DAW), software instruments, an app, or an external sound module and then outputs the sound to the speakers.

To recap, a MIDI keyboard does not make its own sounds directly. Instead, it sends performance data like when, how hard, and how long the keys are struck (no pun intended).

MIDI keyboards have become a mainstay for music producers and one you’ll most likely purchase if you’re a beatmaker or a music arranger. Its advantage relies on the fact that its bells and whistles are versatile for many applications.

Features like pads for triggering samples, transport controls for stopping and playing the DAW, and functions for pulling up certain plugins are what make MIDI controllers so appealing. Plus, they’re cheap if you already have a computer. It’s the “gutless version” of keyboards, in a way.

Notable Similarities and Differences

Below are the usual comparisons that I think people get confused with. Here we tackle some of their notable features that might help differentiate between each.

Synthesizer vs Keyboard vs MIDI Controller

Similarities: These three can function as MIDI Controllers in the sense that most, if not all of them, come with a 5-pin DIN or a USB connector.

Differences: Synthesizers have more knobs and faders designed for sonic control, keyboards are built for selecting sound patches, and MIDI controllers need to be connected to a computer with virtual instruments loaded.

MIDI Controller vs Keyboard

Similarities: Both can control virtual instruments through a MIDI or a USB cable. The keybed has synth-action or semi-weighted keys. In rare cases, some have hammer action.

Differences: Generally, MIDI controllers can’t produce sound on their own, whereas keyboards have a sound bank built-in.

Synthesizer vs Keyboard

Similarities: Both can have an extensive library of sounds and presets, and features can overlap. Notably, you can find synth sounds on a home keyboard and find preloaded instrument patches from a synth.

Differences: It mainly relies on how much control you have over the sound. Synthesizers can alter, layer, and manipulate sound over time. On the other hand, keyboards have limited sound-altering capabilities. Keyboards excel in predesigned patches and are easy to use.

For a more in-depth analysis of their specific features, we’ve dedicated an entire article comparing the two in our article, Synthesizer vs Keyboard

Types of Piano vs Keyboard vs Synth vs MIDI Controller Comparison Chart

To give you an overview of what we’ve discussed so far, this comparison table serves as a reference. I’ve simplified their key features here:

Feature	Pianos	Keyboards	Synthesizers	MIDI Controllers
Sound Generation	Acoustic strings	Digital sounds	Oscillator, electronic waves	No sound; MIDI signals
Playability	Weighted keys	Synth-action/varied	Weighted or synth-action	Synth-action
Tactile Feel	Rich, dynamic response	Generally lighter	Hands-on control	Minimal touch feel
Portability	Less portable	Highly portable	Varies, often portable	Extremely portable
Creative Control	Limited	Some	Extensive	Depends on the controller and software
Who it’s for	Traditional musicians	Beginners, performers	Sound designers	Music producers

Final Thoughts

Since we’ve compared the types of Piano vs Keyboard vs MIDI vs Synth in this article, it’s easier to just focus on what type feels right for you. At the end of the day, all of these devices differ slightly from their intended purposes. This is where you’ll come in. Whether you’re a composer, producer, or live performer, trust your instincts to lead you to the right piano-type instrument.

Instruments come in many shapes and sizes. We’ve also dedicated an entire article on Types of Musical Instruments so you can polish up your knowledge.