Re: Talking piano

[Prof Leslie Smith <l.s.smith@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear all:

Can I suggest, from  looking at the machine, that it will be able to make
sounds a human piano-player cannot: it appears to be able to hit all 88
notes simultaneously if required, each with a different strength

(i) this is a great many more notes than a pair of human hands can play at
once (limited to about 12 or altogether), and equally importantly) it  can
play notes over the whole range of the piano simultaneously, allowing a
much richer set of sounds

(ii) The machine can also adjust the precise strength with which it hits
notes individually

As a result, it can make sounds that a human pianist really cannot make.

Actually, I once heard a jazz pianist play some sounds that sounded
distinctly like speech: but I cannot recall her name, unfortunately.

--Leslie Smith (another piano-player)

On Fri, October 9, 2009 10:56 pm, Tony Miller wrote:
> Pierre-
>
> The demo is real.  The Wein Modern is Venice's contemporary music
> festival.  3sat is German public television.  Peter Ablinger, who
> created the MIDI controlled mechanical device that strikes the piano
> keys, is a well known Austrian contemporary music composer.
>
> -Tony
>
> On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 5:10 PM, Pierre Divenyi <pdivenyi@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Hi Ani,
>>
>> Being both a pianist and a speech guy, I must express my doubts in the
>> acoustic veracity of the demonstration. There seem to have been sounds
>> that
>> were speech-like but which I have never heard a piano utter. Sorry -- I
>> need
>> more than this video to believe.
>>
>> -Pierre
>


-- 
Prof Leslie Smith
Head, Department of Computing Science and Mathematics
University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA
Scotland
Tel (44) 1786 467435

-- 
The Sunday Times Scottish University of the Year 2009/2010
The University of Stirling is a charity registered in Scotland, 
 number SC 011159.