It would be cool, and it may be ok for certain kinds of playing, but a subtle mordent, a tasteful triplet or a good arpeggio all depend on feedback from the keys. I think this is more than muscle memory and that "simulating" the sound will never do, a mordent in particular depends on a very mechanical relationship between adjacent keys rising and falling.

There's a reason most band pianists haul around electric pianos with heavy weighted keys rather than cheaper keyboards that contain the same sound synthesis engine.

They were trained on this type of gear, so they are most expressive with it. A lifetime of muscle memory can't be undone. What about children who are just beginning today? I'm looking forward to a new generation of musicians whose native instrument is the touch panel. It seems odd to interface with modern technology using an 18th century physical interface. Its neat to watch Deadmau5 "play" his setup. I can only image what children born today will be doing when they are in their 20's.

The old physical interfaces aren’t surpassed yet. Physical interfaces have the advantage of sending feedback through touch. Piano keys that push up harder when you press harder help you notice how hard you’re playing, and keys that depress discretely help you aim your fingers away from the lines between keys so you are less likely to miss.

Of course, the ideal situation is a mix of electronic devices’ flexibility and physical keyboards’ feedback. That could be something like a touch screen that can raise and lower physical bumps on it to feel like keys, or vibrate with different strengths in different places to provide feedback to each finger. But we don’t have that technology yet.

The other idea is to put more sensors on the physical keys. Turns out, there is a kickstarter for that (just stumbled on it, don't know how legit it is): http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/instrumentslab/touchkeys...

Wow, I’ve met the creator of that Kickstarter before. I went to a free concert at Temple University where he demoed his “magnetic resonator piano” instrument (http://music.ece.drexel.edu/research/mrp), which is kind of a more-limited acoustic version of the device in that Kickstarter. From talking to him after the concert and seeing what he’s produced, I don’t doubt that that Kickstarter is legit.

Anecdotal: I understand that children who have learned to play on electronic (physical) keyboards (e.g. Yamaha stage piano) have problems when they encounter the mechanical actions on uprights and grands.

What will happen is a slow change in playing style, so things will sound different. Sort of like the change from arch to Torte bow for violins, only more radical.

I grew up playing the piano, then went on hiatus for two or three years, then took a year of harpsichord lessons (harpsichords have significantly lighter action. And narrower keys.) Now playing a piano is downright painful--I'm no longer used to the finger and wrist strength required to get a key down, nor am I used to the stretching required to hit larger intervals.

The plural of anecdote is not "data", but I, for one, will no longer understate the difficulty in transitioning to a new type of action.

I agree. It cannot and probably should not be considered as a replacement of the standard equipment; rather could lead to invention of a new sound/pattern itself given that it doesn't have the same mechanical nuances (limitations) of the standard equipment. Sort of like how the electric guitar doesn't replace an acoustic or the electric drum doesn't quite replace the - well the purple monster.

And then with these web-capable devices we can end up building a web of sounds! Have applications talk on notes, coherence, resonance -- hyper speech/sound transfer protocol (hstp://)? #weekendimaginations :D