High octave?

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Hi all I'm a newbie so please excuse me if this is normal.

I purchased a Yamaha YDP 163, a month ago, and I'm really getting to grips with a few tunes. Ok they're pretty easy but to a beginner the basics sometimes take a while to sink in. What I have noticed, although I haven't had the need to play them yet, is the high octave beyond the B key don't make a sound they just thud. Is this normal on an 88 key digital piano, as there may well just say 82 if they don't make a sound?
 

happyrat1

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Find a real acoustic piano in a music shop somewhere and try the same keys.

The top octave of a standard piano consists of basically percussive sounds with a bit of a "clink"

Also have your hearing checked by a professional audiologist.

Your hearing range may be lacking. Actually it's quite common that most people's hearing range drops off dramatically above 16 KHz.

As for why bother putting 88 keys on an electronic keyboard? When other voices are played on an 88 MIDI controller there are a whole range of instruments that sound quite differently in the uppermost octaves.

Gary ;)
 
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I know the sound isn't going to be as loud as the bass notes as the strings on an acoustic piano are only very short, but I would have expected a little more than a thud. Thanks for your reply by the way happy, I did try the different voices but they were the same. I'll do as you suggest, and if it is normal it won't really matter, as I don't think I'll be hitting those notes very often, if at all. My concern is, if it is a fault it's if I decide to sell it.
 

SeaGtGruff

I meant to play that note!
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Normally every key on a keyboard should trigger a sound. However, most electronic keyboards can shift the note values which are generated by their keys, either by a certain number of semitones, or by a certain number of octaves, or a combination of both. MIDI has "only" 128 different note values, which extend roughly one-and-a-half octaves below, and one-and-a-half octaves above, the 88 notes on a standard piano, as shown in the picture in this post:

https://www.keyboardforums.com/threads/help-out-a-novice-midi-korg-microstation.27312/#post-180207

Although the notes on a piano keyboard normally fall well within the range of possible MIDI note values, if you use octave-shifting, possibly combined with semitone-shifting (or transposing), you could conceivably shift the highest or lowest keys on the keyboard beyond the range of MIDI note values. However, the way this is typically handled by a keyboard is that any notes which go beyond the range of possible MIDI note values are octave-shifted up or down to keep them within the allowable range, such that the highest or lowest octave on the keyboard will trigger the same MIDI note values as the adjacent octave.

Also, every natural musical instrument (e.g., trumpet, tuba, flute, clarinet, harpsichord, xylophone, etc.) has a definite range of notes that it can play, and some tone generators might restrict the note ranges of specific instrument voices to the natural range of that instrument. However, this is more commonly seen in virtual instruments and sample libraries, whereas (as far as I know) electronic musical keyboards will usually go ahead and play notes that fall well outside the natural range of a particular instrument.

And finally, generally speaking there are two different types of voices on a MIDI-compatible keyboard-- melodic voices where each key plays a different note or sound frequency of a particular instrument sound, and kit voices where each key plays a different type of sound (e.g., different percussion instrument sounds, different types of sound effects, etc.). Kit voices usually have a more limited range than melodic voices-- i.e., they might extend a little bit beyond a 61-note keyboard, but typically will not span the full range of an 88-note keyboard.

Thus, if you're talking about the sounds played by the drum kits, it's normal that the highest keys don't play any sounds. But if you mean the melodic voices, then it could be that there's a problem with those keys on the keyboard, or that one of the situations described above is involved, or that you aren't able to hear the frequencies played by those notes. However, if it were an issue related to hearing loss then I would expect the sounds of the notes to fade out gradually, not abruptly from the B note to the C note following it.

If it's a brand new keyboard then I'd take it back to the store where you bought it so they can check it out while it's still under the manufacturer's warranty, just in case it does turn out to be a hardware problem of some kind.
 

Fred Coulter

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Most Yamaha keyboards (and by this I mean keyboards other then the fully programmable synths) default to some sort of piano sound when you first turn them on. Basic, garden variety piano.

This would be true for a Yamaha Digital Piano 163. So I wouldn't be looking at octave switches, drum kits, or anything like that. In my mind, there are only two real alternatives. Either the keyboard is broken and needs servicing. Or the ears are broken. You can fix the keyboard, but I'm not sure what they can do about restoring upper frequency range hearing.

If it's the ears, you need to watch your exposure. More loud sounds will keep whittling away at your upper hearing.

Wasn't it Pete Townshend who had to play on the opposite side of the stage from the rest of the band, with ear protection, during latter parts of The Who's stage career?
 
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Hi all I'm a newbie so please excuse me if this is normal.

I purchased a Yamaha YDP 163, a month ago, and I'm really getting to grips with a few tunes. Ok they're pretty easy but to a beginner the basics sometimes take a while to sink in. What I have noticed, although I haven't had the need to play them yet, is the high octave beyond the B key don't make a sound they just thud. Is this normal on an 88 key digital piano, as there may well just say 82 if they don't make a sound?
Sounds weird to me. Maybe your on some sort of setting which mutes it?
 
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Thanks for your help, but I'm gonna come clean here. It might have been the headphones I was using, there is a sound although not too much but think that's normal.
DOOHHHH!!!!!!!!
 

SeaGtGruff

I meant to play that note!
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Thanks for your help, but I'm gonna come clean here. It might have been the headphones I was using, there is a sound although not too much but think that's normal.
DOOHHHH!!!!!!!!

I don't have a lot of experience with multiple brands and models of headphones, but I've read that there can be a lot of variation from one set of headphones to another, so if the sound seems okay through the built-in speakers then you might want to see if you can find a set of headphones that have better sound in the upper frequencies.
 
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for me, though I'm far from pro or expert, the only time I think that I use the far upper keys is "when I just have to hit something to continue and upward or downward spaz" :)
The far lowest keys I never use and are meaningless to me but that could be my hearing. Unless, I'm using it for low synth sounds through my external synth.
 
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Well it's still not brilliant, but at least you can hear the high notes making a sound. I have some top end headphones I use with my hi fi, so if I ever need to I'll use them.
 

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