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Player-Piano Broadcasts

 With a computer-operated player piano and a real-time hookup, people can experience virtual concerts.
  (+6, -2)
(+6, -2) 		  [vote for,
against]

This could actually work, though I don't know how practical it is.

Maybe you've seen those computer-operated player pianos, where the tunes are saved on floppy disks. They reproduce the original performances so accurately, they sound like a human is playing them.

Imagine a live piano concert. The pianist performs on a sensor-equipped piano which converts each subtle movement of the keys to MIDI code. This code, along with a video image, is beamed in real-time to concert subscribers who have a large-screen TV and a MIDI-equipped player piano. They can see the remote pianist, and actually hear his performance on their own, real piano. Almost like being there!

—Ander, Jul 15 2000

Piano E-Competition http://www.piano-e-...n.com/aboutcomp.htm
This was subsequently baked, here is a web page for an over-the-net piano competition [krelnik, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

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       Yeah, except I can download a Glenn Gould MP3 for free. And play it on a free player. Also: who's THAT into piano music?
—naveline, Jul 15 2000
   

       Oh, you'd be surprised.
—egnor, Jul 15 2000
   

       I wonder how hard it would be to use a Foorier-analysis program on a piano-music .WAV file and ascertain from that what keys were struck when [thinking]. Maybe I'll have to give that a try...
—supercat, Jul 19 2000
   

       Older player pianos would not have MIDI interfaces. What is needed is a device to translate MIDI files into piano rolls, which could then be played on the piano (or fairground organ).   

       Whatever happened to all those old automatic IBM card punches? There must still be a few around in museums. I bet these could be adapted to produce servicable piano rolls.
—Mickey the Fish, Sep 07 2000
   

       American composer George Antiel once wrote a work where he synchronized four player pianos. This experience came in handy later, during WWII, when he invented a radio-controlled torpedo with unjammable frequency-switching. He did this in collaboration with actress Hedy Lamarr. (Hedy's first hubby was an arms manufacturer, and she learned all about explosives from him.) This true story gets funnier. Antiel tried to interest the US Navy brass in the idea, but as soon as Ms. Lamarr and player pianos were mentioned, he was politely shown the door. Years later, their basic idea of channel switching---done with computers instead of player piano rolls---was adopted to avoid jamming.
—Ander, Oct 13 2000
   

       "Older player pianos would not have MIDI interfaces. What is needed is a device to translate MIDI files into piano rolls" - Mickey the Fish   

       Actually you'd just need a device that fitted over the row of 88 air holes the paper roll passes over. It would have 88 solenoid-operated stops, each one triggered by a MIDI note.   

       But this would only give you note- on and note-off, with none of the musical dynamics the modern MIDI pianos are capable of reproducing.   

       Meanwhile, streaming MIDI alongside concert broadcasts is not a bad idea at all. You wouldn't necessarily have to have a MIDI player piano to listen along - you could pipe the stream to any MIDI synth, in hardware or software.   

       Not that that would sound any better than the $x^n*10^3 concert grand on stage surrounded by high-end condenser mics, but still. (+)
—BunsenHoneydew, Dec 07 2004
   

       "$x^n*10^3"   

       Whoa. Must be an Modello F308.
—bristolz, Dec 07 2004
   

       excellent. It'd be interesting to have such recordings of great performances.
—theircompetitor, Dec 07 2004
   

       This gets my vote. The only possible issue that I see is timing. Since midi instructions come one behind the other and are not simultaneous, if the data stream slows down or encounters errors, then it could set the music out of sync with what you see on TV. This could probably be resolved by having some sort of inaudible signal over the TV that keeps the piano in sync.   

       And I suppose that eventually you could upgrade your system to include a robotic bass guitar and robotic drum set that could put a jazz ensamble in your living room.
—Jscotty, Oct 29 2005
   


 

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