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Olafur Arnold is a Neo-Classical Musican from Ice Land. He took this idea (Minus the garage band) and made two pianos connected with a midi controller which he

Olafur Arnold is a Neo-Classical Musican from Ice Land. He took this idea (Minus the garage band) and made two pianos connected with a midi controller which he hired a programmer to make the software for him. I seriously think that more and more musicians will employee programmers for musical reasons. Here is his Tiny Desk Concert. Pretty amazing stuff. https://youtu.be/TpO_8tk6yNQ?t=235 https://youtu.be/TpO_8tk6yNQ?t=235

organsnyder 8y ago
I'm not grasping the significance of this. To my ear, it sounds like the pianos are both playing basically an echo of the chord that he's sending from the controller keyboard. Doesn't seem that much different (though I will concede, much more aesthetically pleasing) from the auto-accompany features that have been available on keyboards since at least the 1990s. The MIDI interfaces on the pianos aren't at all novel, either: any piano can be retrofitted with a PianoDisc system. Just about every pipe organ nowadays also has MIDI capabilities.
- baldfat 8y ago
  Well if you watch him play he isn't playing a simple chord that is controlling two pianos. He actually has them randomly produce different sequences periodically. He plays a chord and the two pianos have two different arpeggiations going. If you look a little closer you will see the sequences coming and going. > The Icelandic multi-instrumentalist and composer's fourth solo LP finds him working with Stratus, a piece of computer software he programmed over two years in collaboration with Halldór Eldjárn. It uses MIDI values triggered by what Arnalds plays on his primary piano (equipped with a Moog Piano Bar) to generate different sequences on two player pianos. The process can create randomized feedback and lead to progressions that might be unplayable by conventional methods. Arnalds has described it as a way to change up his creative thinking: "You get ideas that you would never get otherwise, just because this inspired those ideas." https://www.residentadvisor.net/news/41922 https://www.residentadvisor.net/news/41922 > The MIDI interfaces on the pianos aren't at all novel, either: any piano can be retrofitted with a PianoDisc system. Just about every pipe organ nowadays also has MIDI capabilities. Well if you listen the pianos they have a totally different sound and it is due to the mechanical way they were designed. He has stated that he had spent tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours to get the two pianos to sound this particular way. This isn't some simple little trick that anyone could pull off.

organsnyder 8y ago

I'm not grasping the significance of this. To my ear, it sounds like the pianos are both playing basically an echo of the chord that he's sending from the controller keyboard. Doesn't seem that much different (though I will concede, much more aesthetically pleasing) from the auto-accompany features that have been available on keyboards since at least the 1990s. The MIDI interfaces on the pianos aren't at all novel, either: any piano can be retrofitted with a PianoDisc system. Just about every pipe organ nowadays also has MIDI capabilities.

baldfat 8y ago
Well if you watch him play he isn't playing a simple chord that is controlling two pianos. He actually has them randomly produce different sequences periodically. He plays a chord and the two pianos have two different arpeggiations going. If you look a little closer you will see the sequences coming and going. > The Icelandic multi-instrumentalist and composer's fourth solo LP finds him working with Stratus, a piece of computer software he programmed over two years in collaboration with Halldór Eldjárn. It uses MIDI values triggered by what Arnalds plays on his primary piano (equipped with a Moog Piano Bar) to generate different sequences on two player pianos. The process can create randomized feedback and lead to progressions that might be unplayable by conventional methods. Arnalds has described it as a way to change up his creative thinking: "You get ideas that you would never get otherwise, just because this inspired those ideas." https://www.residentadvisor.net/news/41922 https://www.residentadvisor.net/news/41922 > The MIDI interfaces on the pianos aren't at all novel, either: any piano can be retrofitted with a PianoDisc system. Just about every pipe organ nowadays also has MIDI capabilities. Well if you listen the pianos they have a totally different sound and it is due to the mechanical way they were designed. He has stated that he had spent tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours to get the two pianos to sound this particular way. This isn't some simple little trick that anyone could pull off.