The notes produced by an acoustic piano have a physical point of
origin in the instrument's strings, and can be heard moving from
left to right as you play a scale from the left (bass) end of
the keyboard to the right (treble) end. To preserve this spatial
relationship, the samples in a digital piano are recorded in
two-channel stereo. This feature, often called "panning," adds
to the realism by physically positioning the sounds in ways
similar to what is heard from an acoustic piano. Number of Notes
Sampled Now we must decide how many notes to sample. The obvious
answer would seem to be "all of them," and some manufacturers
take this route. But in the interest of keeping the cost of the
digital piano under control, many manufacturers seek
alternatives to sampling all 88 notes. In an acoustic piano, the
tonal behavior of the longer, bass strings is different from
that of the shorter, treble strings. In fact, this tonal
variation goes through several changes as you play up the
keyboard from the bottom. Some of