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Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

articles.roland.com

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Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#92
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes the law of physics will clearly just decide to bend to Roland's whims /s

I don't believe the limitations of physics are anywhere near what current drones sound like. They are loud because zero effort goes in to making them quiet. It's not so much the moving air that makes them loud, its the whining motors and bearings that are loud. If you were able to encase those motors inside and perhaps put some effort in to making the air stream less turbulent, they could be a lot quieter. Although I…

It is certainly not "whining motors and bearings" that makes them loud - it is the fact that you are creating massive periodic pressure differences with the blades. It is the same reason helicopters go thump-thump-thump, but scaled up in frequency. Have you ever heard a quiet propeller? About the best you can do is increase the size and decrease the speed (more efficient = less power dumped into the air), add more blades (minimizes circumferential pressure variation), and add a duct (eliminates tip vortices). But eventually you hit weight limits on all of that. At drone sizes, unless the drone is impossibly feather-light, you're always going to have some sort of whine.

Even in the absolute theoretical best case scenario of an idealized disk-shaped actuator inside a duct with proper lip shaping and 0 turbulence around the actuator, the shear boundary of the high velocity output plume is unavoidably going to cause turbulence. The best you can do is "woosh".

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#93

>>> As of now, the drones’ propellers are still somewhat noisy. But as quiet drone technology becomes available, they’ll be able to add it to the existing framework. So really everything you would expect from hanging a speaker from a drone, noisy and power hungry.

Mic up the prop, phase shift 180 degrees and cancel the prop noise…kinda like noise canceling headphones?

If you cancel the noise for one listening spot, you double it for another listening spot. Conservation of energy!

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#94
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, before wifi and bluetooth we had this amazing technology designed to transmit audio through the air with zero latency. It was called "radio".

Aren't wifi and bluetooth just "radio that sends packets"?

Sure, but you can't play begin to play the sound until you have enough bits that you can decode what was sampled, and that always means you have to wait at least a couple of milliseconds. Conventional analog radio allows you to play out the modulating waveform with sub millisecond delay.

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#95
Let's be clear: this is not real. It doesn't "make use of" drone speakers because it's fictional. This is someone saying "wouldn't it be cool if we had drone speakers" and paying a digital artist to knock together some renders. The piano might exist, but those drones don't. They aren't even a viable design - broad, flat supports and a wide flat gondola right in the air stream? Single hub? What stops it from spinning, are we meant to think it has counterrotating blades (cuz they are hella noisy even by drone standards)? Where are the blades anyway?

Nonsense. Fiction. Not even plausible fiction. Might as well have them hover by magic. HN, move on.

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#96
post #95

Let's be clear: this is not real. It doesn't "make use of" drone speakers because it's fictional. This is someone saying "wouldn't it be cool if we had drone speakers" and paying a digital artist to knock together some renders. The piano might exist, but those drones don't. They aren't even a viable design - broad, flat supports and a wide flat gondola right in the air stream? Single hub? What stops it from spinning,…

Well, I wish I could see it at CES (as they state it will be) to confirm or disprove your assertions.

Can't you just have an extra noise cancelling drone that creates an equivalent cancellation sound wave?

Even if it is "fiction," it fits into the "science fiction" category and I love it as such. The rendition is such a beautiful idea that I'm happy they created the web page to showcase the idea.

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#97
post #36

Over the last several weeks I have been deep in research for a new digital piano, spending a lot of time looking at Roland, Kawai, and Yamaha models, and seeing this made me giggle. I doubt I would ever buy even one of the less traditional-looking production models (like the Kiyola), but I am glad they have fun with creating wild concepts like this.

The higher-end Kawai models have an Android-driven touch screen. It would be great if someone would manage to jailbreak those.

It would be greater if they could make one that didn't need a minute to boot up...

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#98
I get that this is a concept, but why not use lighter-than-air drones? Either hot air (I'd see about an electric heater, no idea how feasible that is), or little helium blimps. Then just little fans to keep them in place, which could be quieter.

I think I mostly want to see little blimp/airship swarms be a thing that I could buy, given a lottery win or two.

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#99
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the same search about a year ago, ended up ordering the CLP-775 after testing Kawai and Yamaha in stores. It _finally_ arrived last month, completely love it so far. On the somewhat cheaper side the 745 also felt great in store. I don’t think you can go wrong with the equivalent Kawai models either. They somehow didn’t quite do it for me when I played them in store (compared to the CLPs), but couldn’t quite pin d…

The CLP line is from Yamaha ;) Just to give a +1 to the CLP-775, I also chose that one and it's a joy to play. While the CLP display looks a bit more 'dated' than the Kawai models it starts up a lot faster and response is instantly. The Kawai models I tried have some low-end mobile chip which needed some time to boot and touch screen response was slow.

The display difference you highlight is actually one of the reasons I preferred CLP 745 over Kawai options. So I went with the Yamaha.

Re: Roland’s 50th Anniversary Concept Piano

#100

This is a fine example of why Roland isn't really relevant in the electronic music gear market any more. They have a great legacy and great marketing department, but I can't remember the last time they released a product that really excited people.

They're releasing plenty of products that excited people, it's just that the Roland products that are exciting all came out 20-40 years ago, and they just keep re-issuing them in various formats.

Personally I'd buy the crap out of a Jp8080 Boutique :)

They haven't invented anything new AND exciting for a good decade, though.

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