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The Alexander Piano

alexanderpiano.nz

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Re: The Alexander Piano

#61

Post by NalNezumi »

bko wrote: post #46
NalNezumi wrote: post #39

Oh man this fills me with nostalgia. In (public) Suburb middle school I had a friend who played folk music as a hobby, and also made his own instruments. Mostly violin and hurdy-gurdy [1], probably because his parents were farmers in the suburb and owned a smith/wood workshop. His unique hobbies made him a bit of an outcast and people made fun of him in school, but I was in to classic music so we got along well. A ye…

That's an incredible story. Do you know where he is now? It would be great if he found some profession that played towards his unique set of interests.

I think he's a independent musician! Sometimes make woodwork, and instruments still, maybe more for hobby.

He still plays folk music, and regularly play at a Viking (Scandinavian) restaurant named Aifur in Stockholm. It's a cool restaurant worth visiting if you're going there one day =)

Re: The Alexander Piano

#62

Post by calf »

rectang wrote: post #29
throwaway1777 wrote: post #3

The timbre of piano strings is an interesting subject, but to my ear honestly the sound isn’t that much different in this example.

For what it’s worth I’ve got a trained ear (trained musician, brief career as a mastering engineer) and the bass notes on these recordings sound freakishly distinct in pitch (identifiable, “tight”, “not boomy”). It’s similar to the difference between an electric bass guitar and an acoustic bass. Or more to the point, it’s one notch further in bass note clarity on a scale from small upright piano to baby grand piano t…

Subjectively to me the low notes sound almost fake, like a default GarageBand piano sound. Or like the thin, metallic notes of a harpsichord.

Re: The Alexander Piano

#63

Post by rectang »

calf wrote: post #62
rectang wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it’s worth I’ve got a trained ear (trained musician, brief career as a mastering engineer) and the bass notes on these recordings sound freakishly distinct in pitch (identifiable, “tight”, “not boomy”). It’s similar to the difference between an electric bass guitar and an acoustic bass. Or more to the point, it’s one notch further in bass note clarity on a scale from small upright piano to baby grand piano t…

Subjectively to me the low notes sound almost fake, like a default GarageBand piano sound. Or like the thin, metallic notes of a harpsichord.

Yes, you've got it! That's a great take!

That quality, though it may seem a bit unreal, has benefits in terms of revealing musical gestures that would otherwise be obscured. (See my link to the Mussorgsky passage elsethread.)

Speaking as an audio engineer, we are always fighting to achieve this kind of transparency.

Re: The Alexander Piano

#64

Post by daggersandscars »

NalNezumi wrote: post #61
bko wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an incredible story. Do you know where he is now? It would be great if he found some profession that played towards his unique set of interests.

I think he's a independent musician! Sometimes make woodwork, and instruments still, maybe more for hobby. He still plays folk music, and regularly play at a Viking (Scandinavian) restaurant named Aifur in Stockholm. It's a cool restaurant worth visiting if you're going there one day =)

Aifur can be fun. Go with a small group if you can. If you're picked to do the "drink from a horn" contest, there's a trick to it. If you know the trick (and can shoot a beer), you'll win almost instantly. If I remember right, Glassbar ice cream a few steps away is pretty good.

If you're in Stockholm and interested in Viking things, take a trip to Birka. There's a ferry from Stockholm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birka

Re: The Alexander Piano

#65

Post by franky47 »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #28
franky47 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built my tube amplifier (along with some effects pedals) for my electric guitar at 17. Now that I have kids, I wonder how my folks let me work with 400V of electricity and not freak out. Makes me wonder what kind of weird things my kids are going to get into.

400v? what that what your mains was packing?

No, mains runs at 230V in Europe, but as said by sibling comments, after the power transformer and rectification, HT1 (the primary high tension power bus, usually feeding the tubes in the power section) can get in the 300-500V range in some amp designs.

I knew from schematics and calculations it'd be about this high, but seeing the actual 400V value on my cheap multimeter sent shivers down my spine. Also I remember accidentally shorting the wrong wires while taking a measurement and blowing a fuse. Fun times!

Re: The Alexander Piano

#67

Post by Synaesthesia »

pantulis wrote: post #33
junon wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The giant isn't actually my favorite, I find it to be too crisp and clear. Thanks for the Una Corda link, I haven't seen that one before.

I know this isn't the topic of this thread, but regarding virtual pianos I find my favorite is Universal Audio's Ravel.

Nice, I like an electric piano sound from my computer, luckily there are a lot of good options in that regard. But I’ll try that out.

Re: The Alexander Piano

#68

Post by i_am_jl »

jacquesm wrote: post #44
NalNezumi wrote: post #39

Oh man this fills me with nostalgia. In (public) Suburb middle school I had a friend who played folk music as a hobby, and also made his own instruments. Mostly violin and hurdy-gurdy [1], probably because his parents were farmers in the suburb and owned a smith/wood workshop. His unique hobbies made him a bit of an outcast and people made fun of him in school, but I was in to classic music so we got along well. A ye…

That's a touching story, and one thing that it highlights for me is that there will always be people that seem to relish pushing others down to their own level. That's such a frustrating thing.

That's too bad. My takeaway is that there will always be people, like NalNezumi, that are looking to lift you up.

Re: The Alexander Piano

#69

Post by pclmulqdq »

mrob wrote: post #34
leoedin wrote: post #18

There'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 re…

The difference is reduced inharmonicity in the bass notes. A sound we hear as a single pitch is made from multiple different sine waves playing simultaneously, called "partials" in general, or "harmonics" when those sine waves are integer[0] multiples of the lowest frequency, which is called the "fundamental". In an string instrument, the ends of the strings are fixed in place. This means any standing wave in the str…

As I understand it from my own tuning career, octave stretching is more about correcting dissonances that result from equal temperament than correcting anything about the dynamics of a physical piano. When you tune with octave stretching, you will also widen the high octaves, which are the correct size to hold a standing wave on almost every piano with standard "piano wire" strings. This helps to bring the 2nd overtone of a string more in line with the note a 12th above at a cost of making the 1st and 3rd overtone (one and two octaves up) slightly imperfect.

On the lower, wound strings, the thickness of the string causes the string to also hold a standing wave at the fundamental frequency in the short length that the string has, but it amplifies the higher-order harmonics and adds some secondary effects that cause the note to be less "clean" sounding. It doesn't cause the frequency to change.

By the way, I am not a fan of octave stretching on my own piano, so I usually ask piano tuners not to do it. It's completely optional.

Re: The Alexander Piano

#70

Post by fifilura »

i_am_jl wrote: post #68
jacquesm wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a touching story, and one thing that it highlights for me is that there will always be people that seem to relish pushing others down to their own level. That's such a frustrating thing.

That's too bad. My takeaway is that there will always be people, like NalNezumi, that are looking to lift you up.

Indeed. The same with the original story and the lady who said Go For Gold! Lending him her garage.
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