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There are lots of small voice coil speakers that you can attach to a table or window to turn it into a speaker [1]. Anyone know what the advantage of the paper

There are lots of small voice coil speakers that you can attach to a table or window to turn it into a speaker [1]. Anyone know what the advantage of the paper thinness is? [1] search for “surface transducer”

jacquesm 5y ago
I've glued four of those to the soundboard of an elderly Yamaha G2 to give it some interesting capabilities.
- tambourine_man 5y ago
  That sounds (hehe) interesting. Do you have some video or more info to share?
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    Apologies for the crappy playing (this was still very early days): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BqYQdKn0UA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BqYQdKn0UA The original piano of course still works (but can be disabled with a slide) so you can either layer multiple instruments or change instruments altogether (instant organ, for instance). The amp is really tiny, it probably doesn't put out more than 5 W but the soundboard serves as a natural amplifier and with the sustain pedal open the whole thing comes to life. The main use of this feature is to play the 'other' hand while practicing, it sounds a lot more natural when it comes through the soundboard rather than the tinny speakers in the PC. You can use any kind of midi based synth for that, I'm using various synths and Pianoteq on Linux.
    - tambourine_man 5y ago
      That’s very cool, thanks for sharing!
falcolas 5y ago
As I understand it, this can be attached directly to any surface, including completely dead surfaces (for example, a piece of fiberglass/mineral wool insulation), without impacting the sound.
- dr_dshiv 5y ago
  I doubt that! I thought it was using the wall as a resonator.
  - falcolas 5y ago
    That's not how they're describing it. The "paper" emits sound whether or not it's applied to a wall. "The hand-sized loudspeaker the team demonstrated ... can generate high-quality sound no matter what surface the film is bonded to." It is, as I understand it from the article, a bunch of 3-4nm sized piezoelectric elements in an array, all powered concurrently. "... their design relies on tiny domes on a thin layer of piezoelectric material which each vibrate individually. These domes, each only a few hair-widths across, are surrounded by spacer layers on the top and bottom of the film that protect them from the mounting surface while still enabling them to vibrate freely." If the vibrating elements are decoupled from the surface, the surface won't act as a resonator for it (at least, not as the primary resonator, as it would with a transducer). The vibrating elements are moving the air directly.
    - dr_dshiv 5y ago
      Thanks for clarifying! Really cool and weird!

jacquesm 5y ago

I've glued four of those to the soundboard of an elderly Yamaha G2 to give it some interesting capabilities.

tambourine_man 5y ago
That sounds (hehe) interesting. Do you have some video or more info to share?
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Apologies for the crappy playing (this was still very early days): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BqYQdKn0UA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BqYQdKn0UA The original piano of course still works (but can be disabled with a slide) so you can either layer multiple instruments or change instruments altogether (instant organ, for instance). The amp is really tiny, it probably doesn't put out more than 5 W but the soundboard serves as a natural amplifier and with the sustain pedal open the whole thing comes to life. The main use of this feature is to play the 'other' hand while practicing, it sounds a lot more natural when it comes through the soundboard rather than the tinny speakers in the PC. You can use any kind of midi based synth for that, I'm using various synths and Pianoteq on Linux.
  - tambourine_man 5y ago
    That’s very cool, thanks for sharing!

falcolas 5y ago

As I understand it, this can be attached directly to any surface, including completely dead surfaces (for example, a piece of fiberglass/mineral wool insulation), without impacting the sound.

dr_dshiv 5y ago
I doubt that! I thought it was using the wall as a resonator.
- falcolas 5y ago
  That's not how they're describing it. The "paper" emits sound whether or not it's applied to a wall. "The hand-sized loudspeaker the team demonstrated ... can generate high-quality sound no matter what surface the film is bonded to." It is, as I understand it from the article, a bunch of 3-4nm sized piezoelectric elements in an array, all powered concurrently. "... their design relies on tiny domes on a thin layer of piezoelectric material which each vibrate individually. These domes, each only a few hair-widths across, are surrounded by spacer layers on the top and bottom of the film that protect them from the mounting surface while still enabling them to vibrate freely." If the vibrating elements are decoupled from the surface, the surface won't act as a resonator for it (at least, not as the primary resonator, as it would with a transducer). The vibrating elements are moving the air directly.
  - dr_dshiv 5y ago
    Thanks for clarifying! Really cool and weird!