From the recordings section below, there's a pianist called "Hyperion Knight". That's the coolest name I've ever heard.
The Alexander Piano
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Re: The Alexander Piano
#12>Fifteen year old me said “Mum I’m going to build a piano!” This part is just amazing to me. I can't remember what I was doing when I was 15, but it sure as heck was nothing as close to wanting to build a freaking piano.
Same here. We were too smart to try such an impossible thing. He naïvely thought he could “just build a piano” and… well dammit he did!
In middle school, ~13 years old or so, one of my classmates set himself a goal of using shop class to make himself a guitar, wasn't half bad either. I regret that I didn't pick up the woodworking bug until later, I have made tables and bedframes and shelves now but still never got around to trying to make my own guitar. Occasionally I get jealous when I see folks with microtonal fretboards.
Re: The Alexander Piano
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same here. We were too smart to try such an impossible thing. He naïvely thought he could “just build a piano” and… well dammit he did!
In middle school, ~13 years old or so, one of my classmates set himself a goal of using shop class to make himself a guitar, wasn't half bad either. I regret that I didn't pick up the woodworking bug until later, I have made tables and bedframes and shelves now but still never got around to trying to make my own guitar. Occasionally I get jealous when I see folks with microtonal fretboards.
When I was 16 I made an electric guitar, sort of. Mostly I was interested in making a pickup from scratch. The entire guitar was literal garbage, picture wire, fridge magnet some steel dowel I cut up for the cores. The tensionera were threaded hose clamps cut open. It only had four strings so I tuned it like a ukelele. No frets though, so it sounded bad. Amd the pencil sharpener motor didn't have that much wire so I had to turn the volume way up.
I have been wondering lately what a pickup wound with wire made of lk-99 would sound like. SQUIDs for pickups...
Re: The Alexander Piano
#14The timbre of piano strings is an interesting subject, but to my ear honestly the sound isn’t that much different in this example.
I'm not an expert, but it might be that your speakers do not really respond to the low A (~27Hz). Check the speaker's response curve.
Reminds me of a saying in jazz circles
"Listening to brass through a recording is like photocopying a steak and eating the copy"
Some accoustic properties just can't be properly captured through microphones that aren't perfectly selected and reproduced through speakers engineered for the specific recording
This is true especially for the low end (without prohibitively expensive 18"+ drivers and a near flawless accoustic environment to minimise standing waves and any other issues etc)
Re: The Alexander Piano
#15Someone also applied the idea to an upright piano: https://www.worldpianonews.com/new-product/acoustic/worlds-l...
Re: The Alexander Piano
#16The timbre of piano strings is an interesting subject, but to my ear honestly the sound isn’t that much different in this example.
I have found that there are many aspects and dimensions to listening.
For instance, I am now comfortable hearing very subtle nuance in musical performance, in particular piano performance. Meanwhile, my dad is an audiophile and not musically trained but can hear a whole world of detail when assessing sound scrapes and equalisation. I brought him along to help me choose a digital piano and was humbled by how many things he could hear that were inaudible to me.
A friend of a friend was studying audio engineering and he recorded me playing the piano for a some coursework and the things he was focused on like acoustics, colour, fidelity and things like the very subtle hiss again were very different things I am used to listening out for.
Podcasters will talk about the BBC sound as being the gold standard and while I can tell good from bad I can't internalise what makes a broadcast have a good or bad sound....
Meanwhile back to topic, I've gone piano shopping with professional pianists and they can hear so much more than I can. I love watching videos by this channel on the subject: https://youtube.com/@RobertsPianos
Re: The Alexander Piano
#17I love this
Reminds me of Stuart & Sons, a company from across the Tasman, with their impressive 108 key Piano
On a side note: can any piano experts chime in on why it seems impossible to DIY electric pianos in the same way?
I'd love to see some experimental Rhodes, Wurlitzers or Hohner Pianet derivatives. The only successful ones seem to be the even more conservative Vintage Vibes and Rhodes MK8.
I'd love to see the same DIY community grow around electric pianos as it has electric guitars and synths for the last 60+ years
Re: The Alexander Piano
#18There's quite a lot of discussion about how it was made (which is pretty interesting, and impressive for a 15 year old!) but not very much discussion about the results.
My understanding is that it has a normal range of notes, but with a different type of string - is that true? Or can it go lower than a normal piano? How is the experience of playing it? Is it the same? Or does it respond differently (eg a different relationship between key force and sound). I guess as a complete piano novice my question is why would you want this over a normal piano?
Re: The Alexander Piano
#19Someone also applied the idea to an upright piano: https://www.worldpianonews.com/new-product/acoustic/worlds-l...
That was the first one I thought of when I saw the size of the Alexander Piano. I was looking to see if Nils had shown up to have a go on it!
Re: The Alexander Piano
#20I love this Reminds me of Stuart & Sons, a company from across the Tasman, with their impressive 108 key Piano On a side note: can any piano experts chime in on why it seems impossible to DIY electric pianos in the same way? I'd love to see some experimental Rhodes, Wurlitzers or Hohner Pianet derivatives. The only successful ones seem to be the even more conservative Vintage Vibes and Rhodes MK8. I'd love to see the…
There's one of these at Tempo Rubato, a concert venue in Melbourne Australia