Transforming a piano into a kinetic sound and video installation
For her Piano Migrations Installation, Kathy Hinde took the inside of an old upright piano and transformed it into a kinetic sound and video installation. The projected birds seem to excite the strings as they fly by and sit on them.
The twitching and fluttering of small machines, fastened to the piano, touch the strings and cause them to resonate. The image is analyzed by the controlling software to make sure only the string closest to the moving bird is heard.
Teach yourself on Synthesia
Synthesia, formerly called Piano Hero, is a free program plus game that teaches you to play the piano using visual cues like falling notes. Don’t worry if you can’t read sheet music, because you require none. Synthesia lets you learn to play the keyboard and also keep track of your progress.
To use Synthesia you will require a real piano or synthesizer, a Windows or Mac computer to run the game and MIDI files of the music you want to practice. There are plenty of free MIDI resources on the web. If your synthesizer is capable of connecting to your computer (via USB, MIDI cables, or an adapter) then Synthesia can read as you play and score your playing. If not, Synthesia lets you follow along on your own but without scoring.
For more info >> Synthesia
The real robots
Behold a programmable robot made of K’nex interchangeable toys. Recently featured on the how-to site Instructables, this robot can play simple musical sequences. Toys, as always, make for great rapid prototyping: this project makes use of an intelligent base unit and a system of interchangeable building blocks that make the design both easy to build and easy for others to replicate.
This is a mechanical view my brainchild, Zeeanobot. It’s a programmable piano playing robot that I built using knex. You can find instructions on how to build your own Zeeanobot at http://www.instructables.com/id/Progr…
MrRay SeventyThree – free VST piano synth
Although it may sound like a sampled instrument, MrRay SeventyThree is still synthesized, as the sound it produces is 100% calculated in real time. What characterizes this version of MrRay is a series of “imperfections” introduced in order to capture, with the highest possible fidelity, the sound of a Mark I. There are mallet noises, wooden noises, metallic artifacts and changes of volume for each single note.
Also, the lower notes have a particular “growl” when you hit them hard, and when you hit more keys really hard, you’ll hear them “vibrating”, originally due to the instability of the harp assembly inside the real instrument. You won’t hear twice the exact same sound when you play it. When keys are released you’ll hear the noises produced by the “dampers” which stop the vibration of the tines.
NYC Piano sessions
NYC Piano Sessions delivers over 600Mb of skillfully played grand & upright piano loops, each and every one truly inspired by the bustling streets of the city that never sleeps.
This uplifting sample pack boasts over 200 expertly processed instrumental loops between 60 and 190Bpm, covering virtually every musical style imaginable.
Whether you are into R&B, hip hop, pop, dance, rock, blues, jazz or classical music, “NYC Piano Sessions” has got you covered. Your personal session pianist – ready for download now!
Price: GBP 19.95
Visit: primeloops.com
Fascinating virtual piano – you must try it
If you like to play the Piano but can´t afford to pay tons of money on an actual instrument, here is something I know you will enjoy. VirtualPiano lets you play the actual piano online with computer keyboard. Each letter on your keyboard corresponds to a key on the piano.
You can use VirtualPiano to record your own composition and play it afterward. Moreover you can change the music and the style of the piano. This virtual piano mimics a 5 octave electronic keyboard with 61 notes, 36 white and 26 black. If you are not sure what to play, you can try the sample keys provided by the application or view different compositions created by other users on the VirtualPiano Facebook group.
Features:
- Play piano online with your keyboard or mouse.
- Record and play your own composition.
- Option to enable the sustain mode.
- View complete mapping of keyboard keys to the piano keys.
- No registration required.
Visit: cmagics.com/beta/pian0
Cool speaking piano
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muCPjK4nGY4&feature=player_embedded]
A “speaking piano” reciting the Proclamation of the European Environmental Criminal Court at World Venice Forum 2009. Unfortunately it’s all in German, but what the piano says is all English, and it’s really neat to watch.
UPDATE: Astera on hackaday wrote a rough translation:
Pretty amazing, how all of a sudden the words of the Declaration become understandable to a European Environmental Criminal Court. Wien Modern was one out of ten cultural institutions asked for an artistic contribution to the event in Palazzo Ducale in Venice.
The ambitious goal was to make this message audible with musical means, without falling back to a simple setting.
New gear from KORG announced in Tokyo
Several new KORG products were introduced at the G-Roks studios. First one is a new Korg keyboard called the microSAMPLERX, intended for live performance, but a pc editor software is included as well. The SV-1 is a 60’s retro-design stage piano and finally the Wavedrum WD-X is a re-issue of the original Wavedrum from 1994. The new Wavedrum will have 24bit/48kHz high-quality DSP technology.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He9oJ_REjvc&feature=player_embedded]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJcw4-eFT9c&feature=player_embedded]
Cheers
Plastic Piano is a killer
Knobster.org has released Plastic Piano, a simple electric piano emulator synthesizer VST instrument for Windows PC. download (zip, 1.4 Mb)
Make sure to check this little beauty out 
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIjBAjI0qbE&feature=player_embedded]
It has the characteristic of a plastic sound. Especially good for the lo-fi and cheap-tone music. For the production of the synthesizer was spent more than 150 grams of plasticine.
Plastic Piano features
- 2x oscillators with three wavetypes.
- LP-filter for each oscillator.
- Velocity sensitivity.
- ADSR-envelope.
- Magic button.
DATAMASKIN
