Technabob » piano

Teotronico, the Well Dressed Robot Pianist

Conner Flynn — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:30:00 +0000

Some robots build cars in a factory, some rescue people during disasters and some just want to have fun. Teotronico just likes to get dressed up and play some piano for his human audience. This 19-fingered, and somewhat goofy looking robot not only plays the piano, but can also accompany himself on the drums and sing. At the same time.

Teotronico was created by Italian roboticist Matteo Suzzi. The bot took 4 whole years to build at a cost of £3000 (~$4735 USD). You’ll notice that as he plays, his fingers light up in a nice shade of electric blue. And having 19 fingers helps him outplay humans easily, making him fun to watch.

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The robot also uses video cameras and sensors in his frame to interact with the audience and “understand” them by analyzing facial expressions and gestures. This differs from real human pianists, who interact with their audience based on how full their tip jar is.

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[via Daily Mail via Walyou]

iPad Piano Apprentice Helps Turn You Into Schroder

Shane McGlaun — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 01:51:22 +0000

I have always though it would be cool to learn how to play the piano. I don’t want to have to play boring crap like Mary Had a Little Lamb though. I want to just skip to the part where I can play that theme song from Charlie Brown. Until they can stick a Matrix spike in my head and just teach me all at once I guess I’ll sit on the sidelines.

I guess for now as close as you can get to learning without actually having to find someone to teach you is the Piano Apprentice from Ion Audio. This thing is a little 25-key keyboard that has a slot and connector for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. The connection between the two makes the piano interact with the app.

The app on the iOS device has an instructor named Scott Houston and as he hits chords and keys on the screen, the same keys light up on the keyboard you are using. The keyboard is powered by AA batteries and is also Core MIDI compliant. Pricing and availability for the Piano Apprentice is unknown at this point.

Airpiano Like an Air Guitar, Only Fancier

Shane McGlaun — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:12:54 +0000

I wager that at one point or another we have all played a little bit of air guitar when the mood hit while jamming to a good song on the radio. I know I have seen plenty of folks get down with some air guitar, but I can’t say that I have ever seen anyone get fancy with some air piano.

This unique air piano called simply enough the airpiano that is made with some sort of sensors attached to a chunk of wood. The guy behind the concept device says that it is comparable to a Theremin.

The airpiano acts as a USB/Midi controller, and has eight infrared proximity sensors with up to 24 virtual keys and eight virtual faders. It has 40 LEDs for orientation and feedback and a lot more. It also has an expression pedal or foot switch connector. You can see the thing in action in the video below:

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[via synthopia]

Piano Dining Table: Music, Munching and Money

Lambert Varias — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:14:06 +0000

Pianos are unwieldy instruments. Tables are unwieldy too, but we have no choice but to make room for at least one table in our homes – unless you’re like me, and you usually eat either in front of the computer or TV. Georg Bohle combines the two in one simple yet elegant design…

I love how simple it looks. Bohle could have added a bit more flair to it – a sleek black piano finish perhaps? – but I think it’s better this way.

The table itself is made from oak wood. And no, I don’t know what those rectangular holes are either.

It’s unfortunate and ironic however, that something that seems to have been designed for a small space could be so darned expensive: Born Rich says that the estimated cost of the piano table is $6,000 (USD).

[via swissmiss]

Talking Piano Speaks in English: Says It’S Mad as Hell About the Environment, and is Not Going to Take It Anymore

Technabob — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 03:26:52 +0000

File this under “weirdest use for a piano. ever.”. This amazing bit of programming and mechanical engineering has created what is probably the first and only classical piano that can speak in English.

The “Speaking Piano” has been programmed to recite The Proclamation of the European Environmental Criminal Court World Venice Forum 2009, for all to hear. Artist/composer Peter Ablinger transcoded the voice of an elementary student into data that could then be interpreted by a computer and mapped to servos that play the piano keys. Why? Something to do with an artistic and political statement.

And while the humans in the video clip below are speaking in German, the piano speaks its truth in plain English. Turn up your volume, watch, and enjoy…

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Weird, wild stuff indeed. Alles klar, herr kommissar?

[via adafruit industries, hack-a-day and matrixsynth]

Concert Hands: Watch as Your Hands Learn to Play the Piano

Lambert Varias — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:57:57 +0000

Want to learn to play the piano – or at least play a song on the piano – without having to deal with creepy or boring instructors? Then you might want to try Concert Hands. It’s a sophisticated combination of software and hardware designed to make you look like a dork while you’re learning to play the piano. Seriously though the idea behind Concert Hands is the same idea that enables some people to text without looking at our keypads, or execute infinite combos in X-Men vs. Street Fighter without looking at the buttons: muscle memory.

As you can see in the picture, Concert Hands has wrist sleeves as well as finger sleeves. The first step in using the system is to feed an audio file into the included software. The software breaks down the file into notes and tells a “controller box” where to move your arms and which finger sleeves to activate. The wrist sleeves are mounted on a bar, allowing them to slide your hands into position. The finger sleeves then send a pulse to the fingers which are supposed to press the piano keys, and voila, you’re playing the song on the piano! Repeat this enough times and you’re golden. In theory anyway.

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I think people should know why they’re pressing the keys – i.e. learn about notes and scales first – but it doesn’t really matter what I think does it? Visit the Concert Hands website for more details, or e-mail them to inquire about the price. The Concert Hands software only works in Windows XP or Vista. I don’t think any Mac user would be caught dead wearing the Concert Hands anyway.

[via The Raw Feed]

Move Over, Guitar Hero: Learn Real Piano on the Nintendo Ds

Alisha K. — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:37:20 +0000

You can learn all sorts of things with the Nintendo DS, from foreign vocabulary words to yoga (and even yoga for your face). But why stop there? Starting in November, you’ll be able to use your trusty Nintendo handheld to study piano… with a mini-keyboard attachment and all!

The graphics don’t exactly look spectacular, but they almost never do in DS screenshots. Anyway, if Game Life’s Easy Piano is worth anything at all, I don’t care how it looks… only how I sound after I try it!

The game is set to feature ten lessons (only ten? maybe they’re pretty comprehensive) and more than forty songs, as well as an as-yet unseen peripheral. With the budget prices on DS games, this may be worth checking out!

[via ThatVideoGameBlog]

Robots + Classical Music + Horror = Robotic Piano Hand

Lambert Varias — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:38:08 +0000

I think Gomez and Morticia should get this robotic hand piano to keep Thing company. Like Thing, the robotic hand piano doesn’t talk. Actually it can’t talk. Anyway, although it can’t talk, it can play classical music. And by play I mean two things: audio playback of its built-in classical piano music, and air piano, meaning its fingers move in sync with the music, as if it was playing on a piano.

After seeing white bread wrist rests I’ve learned not to question the motivation behind the creation of some things, so as to prevent bits of my brain from trickling down my nose. Sanity and rationale are rarely welcome here.

As you can see it’s encased in clear plastic so you can see its innards. If I ever encounter this hand in a dark place I’m going to drop dead out of sheer shock. Even if it’s playing Happy Birthday on a toy piano. Especially if it’s playing Happy Birthday on a toy piano.

You can buy it at Stupid.com for $13 USD. I wish it could also play this.

via [Random Good Stuff]

Tonal Plexus Synthesizers Get Up to 1688 Keys

Technabob — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 03:06:17 +0000

If you thought that the 312-key Chromatone synthesizer had a few more keys than your everyday piano, just wait ’til you get a load of the Tonal Plexus and its even more plentiful keyboard design.

The Tonal Plexus series of keyboards is a micro-tonal input device featuring rows and rows of buttons which generate tones with far more precision than an 88-key piano can handle.

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Created by H-Pi Intstruments, the Tonal Plexus comes in variants from a compact 2-octave, 422 key controller, all the way up to a gigantic 8-octave keyboard with a whopping 1688 keys.

The keyboard layout is based on a traditional piano keyboard pattern of 7 white and 5 black keys, but each key gets a bunch of additional variants, including 7 naturals, 7 sharps, 7 flats, 7 double-sharps, 7 double flats, 6 triple-sharps and 6 triple-flats.

In case you’re keeping count, that’s 211 unique keys per octave. For some reason, I don’t think that you’ll ever run out of notes on this keyboard.

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Prices range from about $1300 to $3800, depending on the number of keys and whether or not you choose to include the optional synthesizer/amplifier module, or you just need a MIDI controller. You can check out the complete catalog here.

[via DeviantSynth]

IPhone + Piano = Iano

Technabob — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:16:44 +0000

I don’t know what’s in the water this week, but I seem to have a serious music theme going on here. Do you like to play piano? Got an iPhone? Well, if you happen to have jailbroken yours, you can now turn it into a musical instrument.

iPhone developer Mister Aardvark has just released iAno, a true multi-touch piano simulator for the iPhone.

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The simulator offers a complete four-octave keyboard (you jump around the keyboard using the arrows at the top of the screen), with polyphonic sound allowing up to five keys to be played simultaneously. its loaded with real piano samples, making it sound just like the real deal.

Aardvark plans on adding additional features such as a complete 88-key keyboard, switchable sample sets, recording and playback, as well as support for loading .MID tracks and playing them back.

[Installing iAno via QJ.NET]

Tiny Piano Conceals CD Player

Technabob — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 03:28:05 +0000

I’ve pretty much weened myself off of compact discs since my very first iPod, but for those of you who still enjoy your music in a flat, round format, here’s a unique CD player to listen to your oldies on.

The Cathay PK-24 desktop stereo looks like a miniature grand piano, but when you pop its lid, there’s a CD player hiding in there. Playback controls have been cleverly disguised as piano keys, and the speakers are hidden in the sides of the piano case. It’s also got an FM radio built in for those days when you’re tired of your Beethoven and Bach and want to listen to some commercials instead.

And if the basic black baby grand doesn’t excite you, it’s also available in white and hot pink versions. The piano CD player is currently only available in Asia, where it costs a whopping ¥19,000 (about $173 USD, yeesh).

Yamaha Player Pianos Add Internet Music Streaming

Technabob — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 03:51:07 +0000

Yamaha has always been on the cutting edge of piano technology, and has just announced a cool new feature for their Disklavier player pianos. Their already amazing self-playing pianos can now stream content live over the Internet.

The new Disklavier Radio system allows the pianos to play live music broadcasts, including accompaniments to streamed, pre-recorded performances. The new digital radio stations will include music across a variety of genres including Broadway, Classical, Country, Great Piano Solos, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Classic Rock, Soundtracks and Standards. In addition to playing live streams, many additional tracks can purchased through Yamaha’s new DisklavierMusic Store, and saved directly to the piano for later playback.

The streaming service works with Yamaha’s Disklavier Mark IV pianos, running software version 2.0 or later. It’s available on a subscription basis for $19.95 monthly or $199.50 per year.

[via SlipperyBrick]

Thummer: This Synthesizer is All About Expression

Technabob — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:11:24 +0000

If that 312-key keyboard I told you about recently was a little too complex for you to wrap your head around, here’s another electronic musical instrument that I came across, and this one only has 114 buttons. It’s called the Thummer, and its a portable synthesizer that’s capable of creating some really dynamic sounds, thanks to its unique input scheme.

In addition to a set of keys set up on what looks like a modified variant of the Janko Keyboard, the Thummer offers thumb-controlled joysticks and buttons which are placed on the back of the device. The instrument can be played by placing it on a stand or tabletop, or can also be used as a handheld keyboard.

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It’s designed to provide greater range of expression than other musical instruments by providing 7 degrees of freedom while playing. The thumb-operated joysticks let you adjust a variety of sonic attributes such as pitch, brightness and modulation. At the same time, each key on the keyboard is fully pressure sensitive, and can track the velocity and after-touch of each button pressed. From what I can tell, at least one of the prototype designs also includes motion sensor which can be programmed to influence your sounds too.

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Thumtronics, the creator of the Thummer haven’t started selling a production model yet, and are looking for investors to make their dream a reality.

[via The Red Ferret Journal]

Dig Dug Theme on the Piano

Technabob — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:22:13 +0000

Remember all those quarters you dumped into classic 80s arcade game Dig Dug? Apparently, you’re not the only one. A talented piano player going by the name arix001 has recorded a pretty darned accurate rendition of the frenetic music from the game. It’s almost like the video game equivalent of The Flight of the Bumblebee.

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Just crank up your speakers, click play on the clip and stare at the screen capture above. Pretty soon, you’ll drift back to those kinder, gentler days when violence in video games consisted of blowing up Fygars (the green, fire-breathing dragons) with an air pump and crushing Pookas (those red goggle-wearing critters) to death under the weight of a boulder. Ah, memories.

Chromatone 312 Key Synth Laughs in the Face of 88 Keys

Technabob — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 02:46:34 +0000

Here’s an interesting tidbit of recent history for any electronic musicians out there. A couple of years back, a strange little company called Chromatone thought it was time for an overhaul of the traditional 88 keys on pianos (or less on many synthesizers.)

The Chromatone CT-312 keyboard has literally hundreds of individual, unlabeled keys. The “312″ in the name is actually is because there are 312 keys, but I lost count. To me, the synthesizer looks more like a massive, nearly endless typewriter than a musical instrument.

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The keyboard uses a obscure paradigm known as a Uniform keyboard. It’s based on a concept from the late 19th Century, known as the Jankó keyboard. Apparently, the idea behind the massive number of keys is to group multiple instances of the same notes across the keyboard, making it more likely that you can play a much wider range of notes without stretching across the keyboard.

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I’m sure there’s a massive learning curve for this thing, especially if you’ve played a regular keyboard. This baffling chart attempts to explain how it all works, but all it does is leave me scratching my head. Still, that guy in the video clip above did manage to crank out the theme from Super Mario Brothers, which impressed me to no end. There are plenty more Chromatone clips out there on YouTube if you’d like to hear more.

From what I can tell, the company may still manufacture these, but I can’t figure out any place to purchase one. Let me know if you guys have any luck. [UPDATE: due to the demand this article stirred up, Chroma is offering a limited number of these keyboards for sale here. Prices start at $1575 USD + shipping]