Gizmodo: Piano

Portable Pianist Sounds Dirty, but Makes Sense with These Fingertip Keyboard Gloves

Jack Loftus — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:00:00 EDT

There's no definition for the word "worthless" in the Hammacher Schlemmer dictionary; these Fingertip Piano Gloves are "ingenious," a portable subway piano concerto waiting to happen. Each glove plays an entire octave in the key of C, and the final three notes in the scale are achieved by pressing down on the palm. The gloves connect to a wire that connects to a speaker, which allows the whole family to enjoy. They ship on October 17 for $70, but the epic symphonies your little one will make using these five-fingered feats of engineering will be priceless. Or not. Ever strangle someone in the key of C before? [Hammacher Schlemmer]

Yamaha's Disklavier Mark IV V 3.0 is the Most Gadgety Piano Yet

Jason Chen — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:00:00 EDT

This Yamaha Disklavier Piano could be the most advanced piano we've ever seen, and we've seen several (forced piano lessons FTW). Not only does it have Wi-Fi to download MIDI files onto itself so it can play back songs, you can record performances—with vocals and other instruments—as well.

Files are stored onto the piano's hard drive and can be transferred via USB to a PC, and then easily burned onto a CD for in-car listening. Plus, if you hook up the piano to a TV, you can display lyrics and graphics for a song on it. The best part? You can stream songs from the internet and have the piano play it by itself, depressing the keys and pedals at the right time, fooling your parents into thinking you've learned the song when you've actually spent the time playing your NES! Win! [Yamaha]

BodyBeat Metronome Keeps Beat Silently, Forgets Musicians Need Their Fingers

Elaine Chow — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:20:00 EDT

The Peterson BB-1 BodyBeat attaches to your finger/random appendage, sending tiny rhythmic pulses that you can feel on your skin. The non-aural stimulation will give you a silent way to count measures while playing the piano... and since you have to use your fingers to do that, you will have to clamp this to somewhere else. The question is where?

Available for $99.97. [Sweetwater via UberGizmo]

Microsoft Research's MySong Makes Musical Accompaniment For Your Singing

Jason Chen — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:00:13 EDT

Before MySong from Microsoft Research, people without musical talent had to resort to consuming music and not bothering the rest of us with their amateur stylings. No longer. All you have to be able to do is sing a short tune (provided you can sing somewhat on key) and this MySong software will dynamically generate a piano accompaniment just for you.

As you can see in the video, it actually sounds pretty good, and you can adjust the sliders to make the piano part happier, sadder, jazzier, or not quite so jazzy. The bad news is that this is just a Microsoft Research project, not an actual package you can buy. Maybe in a few years? [IStartedSomething via Geekologie via Dvice]

Schimmel Pegasus Grand Piano Could Probably Travel Through Time and Space

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:30:15 EST

Looking like it belongs in Jeff Vader's Coruscant bachelor pad, the hand-made Schimmel Pegasus has an ergonomically curved keyboard, over 200 strings under a total tension of 176,520 newtons, and a key assembly composed of 10,000 pieces. Only 14 were made ten years ago for people like Eddie Murphy, Lenny Kravitz, and granfunkmeister Prince. Now you can get into this exclusive club because there's one for sale until March 15th. More pics and technical details after the jump. Updated with price and other information

Professor Luigi Colani reimagined the traditional 88 keys and gave the classic grand piano a futuristic organic shape with some virtuoso upgrades. The Pegasus features a ergonomic curved keyboard ( i. e. the keys exhibit a slight curvature ) that encompasses 7 1/4 octaves, a electrically operated hydraulic lid that allows you to control the specific amount of projection desired, a fallboard "soft close" system, the original Schimmel Triplex Scale "CAPE" precision soundboard tri-dimensionally curved and formed with a "high performance" back assembly with tension collector, a Sostenuto pedal (middle pedal), a fully-adjustable integrated black leather upholstered stool extendible in width, height, and distance to the keyboard, and a hard-wearing professional lacquer finish resulting in a grand piano of breathtaking elegance.

The Schimmel Pegasus comes with all this and the guarantee that your skills won't get any closer to Prince's than when you played with your Casiotone.

Update: According to the Mr. Koveleski, they are asking only $110,000, and their highest bit is currently at $100,000. The piano is now located in Northern California. The original owner is not any famous person, however, but "the CEO of a famous San Francisco Bay Area music store." [Automorrow and Autoworldmobilia]

iAno iPhone App Gives Your iPhone C-Minor Key

Haroon Malik — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:30:00 EST

Between iAno - the newly released iPhone app that turns your cellphone into a piano - and the earlier released PocketGuitar, which does much of the same but with a guitar, it is only a matter of time before we see the first iPhone band. That will be awesomely groundbreaking, and what we ask is that you send us the video. We'll post it, we promise*. Back to the present, iAno installs on Jailbroken iPhones and offers a fully functioning multitouch piano, as you can see in the great video above. A four-octave keyboard is represented in iAno, and the arrow keys at the top are used to navigate around. The software was put together by a developer going by the name of Mr Aardvark, and he managed to pack in polyphonic sound that allow five key presses to be heard simultaneously. Sweet.

Mr Aardvark also plans on updating iAno with a complete 88-key keyboard, switchable sample sets, recording and playback, as well as support for loading .MID tracks. Well, what are you waiting for? Get composing.

*If it isn't a steaming turdfest, and it involves a great tune selection, e.g. Bohemian Rhapsody. This isn't legal advice—I'm not even an attorney. [Technabob]

Seiler Piano Supports Hands, Keys and Cars

Mark Wilson — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 08:45:17 EST

This "suspension" piano by Seiler brings everyone's favorite style of bridge indoors and gives it a soundtrack beyond the typical roar of automobiles drowning out the subtle splashing of suicide jumpers. A meticulously crafted mahogany piano suspended on a cast iron frame, we'd be afraid to even touch a key lest we induce the sound of metal shredding expensive wood. But our guess is that the piano's quite literal delicate balance between fluid fragility and rigid stability is its entire appeal. [seiler via dvice]

Unique Mini Piano With Hidden CD Player

Sean Fallon — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:20:36 EDT

CDs may be headed towards obsolecence, but that doesn't seem to stop manufacturers from coming up with unique new devices to play them. One of these devices, the Japanese made Cathay PK-24, may look like a miniature grand piano, but the only thing it can play is tunes from your CD or FM radio. The keys even act as the playback controls to add to the fun. Available in Asia for about $165 a pop —which is way too freakin' much if you ask me. [Product Page via Technabob via Geekalerts]

Chinese Build Piano, Violin Shaped Buildings to Stereotypical Chinese Kids' Horror

Jason Chen — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:30:33 EDT

There's not much detail on why this Huainan building was built in the shape of a violin and a piano, but our guess is it's to shame every little Chinese kid into taking up the two stereotypical instruments they play: the piano and the violin. Of course, their instruments aren't made of glass and aren't 100 feet tall, but these weigh just as much as the real ones do on those little kids' souls. We can still taste the tears. [Ce via Spluch]

Cellphone Keyboard Turns Tones Into Tunes

Christopher Mascari — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 17:08:35 EDT

The cellphone piano is for those who love making music with a cellphone, if there are any. Each key on the keyboard is wired to a key on the cellphone, no longer restricting a cellphone musician to single keypad.[we make money not art via textually]

Gardner Baby Grand Piano Master: Classical DJing

Mark Wilson — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 05:15:12 EDT

Some DJs bust out the old school and some DJs bust out the really old school. The Baby Grand Master is for the really, really old school.

Packing some serious hardware—Dual Pioneer DVJ-X1 DVD Players, Edirol V-4 Video Mixer, 3 Marshal LCD Monitors, 5 subwoofers, 3 tweeters, 1100 Watt Power Amplifier and an Allen and Heath Xone 92 Audio Mixer—the company still claims "there's not an ounce of excess."

The Baby Grand Masters are for sale, but the amount is disclosed by inquiry only. In other words, it might just make you baroque.

– Mark Wilson

Product Page [via therawfeed]

Windows XP Sounds On the Piano

Jason Chen — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 20:10:08 EST

If you thought that half hour you spent digging stuff out of various parts of your body was a waste of time, check out what this guy figured out how to play on his synth piano. Yeah, it's Windows noises. His professors at Juilliard are so proud. Money well spent, Mom! – Jason Chen

How to play Windows XP alerts on the piano [MusicThing]

Roll-up USB Powered Piano Keyboard

Travis Hudson — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 12:35:58 EST

If you have ever really wanted to prove to your cubicle neighbors that you truly are the reincarnate of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, this $30 roll-up, rubber piano keyboard may be the best option. The keyboard also has more than 128 different instruments available (in case you also want to prove that you are also the reincarnate of Kenny G) and it allows for recording via the PC. – Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via Gearlog]

Moog PianoBar: Make Your Grand Digital

johnb — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 10:12:43 EDT

The Moog PianoBar turns your acoustic piano into a MIDI-capable digital instrument. Fit the Scanner Bar over the top of the keys of your baby B sendorfer, and the $1500 device optically reads which notes you're playing and how hard. It's good enough for Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder, but lowly mortals have been slower to snap them up, so the folks at Moog seem to think we need extra incentive. Their new "first on your block" promotion earns you up to $500 off by being one of the first to buy one in your US metro area. And that's to say nothing of the awe of your friends. PianoBar — it's the new HDTV. P. Kirn

Moog PianoBar + Other Digital Acoustic Pianos [Create Digital Music]