I have a degree in music so I am qualified to say this: that bass is crispy
The Alexander Piano
81–90 of 103 posts
Re: The Alexander Piano
#82I'm kinda shocked by the pictures near the bottom of it being moved, including one where it's lifted by ... a tractor with a loader fork? Or loaded onto an open trailer?
Re: The Alexander Piano
#83I have a degree in music so I am qualified to say this: that bass is crispy
No degree here, but I spend a lot of time doing sound design and love low frequencies and I agree completely. Those bass notes just cut through the mix and are so delightfully zingy. It's so much easier to hear the pitch on them. It's an amazing sounding instrument.
Re: The Alexander Piano
#84I have a degree in music so I am qualified to say this: that bass is crispy
No degree here, but I spend a lot of time doing sound design and love low frequencies and I agree completely. Those bass notes just cut through the mix and are so delightfully zingy. It's so much easier to hear the pitch on them. It's an amazing sounding instrument.
Hi Bob, I'm honored to have you reply to my silly post. I love your work. Cheers!
Re: The Alexander Piano
#85A kiwi in a shed is nigh unstoppable. I have no idea why that's a national stereotype (maybe manufactured goods took a long time to replace for an agricultural/pastoral economy?) but it's pretty cool as national stereotypes go.
theres a stereotype about the british inventor in his shed too, right? maybe he went to new zealand where there's space for a bigger shed.
Re: The Alexander Piano
#86Someone also applied the idea to an upright piano: https://www.worldpianonews.com/new-product/acoustic/worlds-l...
Is there a reason (apart from looking cool) to put the keys/player at the top, rather than have the keys at the bottom, with the strings going up?
The only thing I can think of is player comfort. I imagine that huge soundboard is extra loud. Best to not place it directly in front of the player's face.
Re: The Alexander Piano
#87This run from high to low, from The Great Gate of Kiev , the finale of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition , illustrates the artistic problem that the Alexander piano is trying to solve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzqpNEoL1vs&t=379s At the top, the notes are easily identifiable, but near the end the pitch gets increasingly murky. The damage to the artistic intent by the limitations of the instrumental technol…
Conversely, if composers knew of the Alexander piano's existence they may have written specifically for it taking advantage of the bass' clarity.
I just heard the Liszt Funerailles played on the Alexander piano (YouTube on the embedded main page), and yes it sounds very unusually melodic in the bass.
Re: The Alexander Piano
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't call it tinny, I would call the alternative 'muddy'. It's a much more pure tone than you would get from a 'normal' bass string (which is actually quite a complex piece by itself).
Well I can hear a repetitive rattling sound on the low bass notes, but it is rattling very fast and evenly. So I call that tinny. A pure treble note like from a computer wave form does not rattle like that, to my ears. A normal piano is supposed to have impure frequencies, it's part of the timbre and what gives it warmth. Like a chocolate or winey kind of muddy. Artistically I much prefer that.
FWIW I've noticed that "rattling" (which I think I hear in the Liszt Funerailles video) in some K-pop videos featuring electronic low bass at the ~40Hz level. I think it might be natural and not an artifact or flaw.
Re: The Alexander Piano
#89This run from high to low, from The Great Gate of Kiev , the finale of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition , illustrates the artistic problem that the Alexander piano is trying to solve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzqpNEoL1vs&t=379s At the top, the notes are easily identifiable, but near the end the pitch gets increasingly murky. The damage to the artistic intent by the limitations of the instrumental technol…
Why does a bass guitar not suffer from this poor sound quality?
Re: The Alexander Piano
#90A kiwi in a shed is nigh unstoppable. I have no idea why that's a national stereotype (maybe manufactured goods took a long time to replace for an agricultural/pastoral economy?) but it's pretty cool as national stereotypes go.
theres a stereotype about the british inventor in his shed too, right? maybe he went to new zealand where there's space for a bigger shed.
ohh interesting!