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My dream is a piano keyboard with entirely software controlled mechanical key response. Every key individually mounted on a servostepper. As a bonus it could be

My dream is a piano keyboard with entirely software controlled mechanical key response. Every key individually mounted on a servostepper. As a bonus it could be used as a fake player piano. Or for practice you could make the wrong keys hard to press. Endless possibilities.

Q6T46nT668w6i3m 2y ago
Great idea and I’m shocked this doesn’t exist.
- robotresearcher 2y ago
  It would likely be very, very expensive. A compromise that is affordable and does exist is programmable response curves to key velocity and aftertouch pressure. It can make sense to have different curves for eg. piano vs harpsichord even if you can’t change the mechanical key impedance. I haven’t seen it in the wild, but using this you could make the wrong notes quieter/louder or even play a different sound. But I think we all know when we play a wrong note, so the utility might be small.
  - mrandish 2y ago
    > key velocity and aftertouch pressure. Just a tangential note to say whenever I see these terms in discussion of MIDI keyboards it reminds me how disappointed I am the vast majority of MIDI controller (and multi-thousand dollar flagship synth) keyboards still don't fully support per note velocity or polyphonic aftertouch. It's only been 40 years kids... (sigh).
    - otabdeveloper4 2y ago
      Not really needed. A synthesizer is not a piano, it's essentially a wind instrument.
      - lsaferite 2y ago
        I personally disagree. That velocity and aftertouch is all fun modulation input to my eurorack synth. Sure, I have a limited number of polyphonic notes (4) I can support, but it's still more modulation possibilities.
adamgordonbell 2y ago
> Or for practice you could make the wrong keys hard to press. This seems like a pretty cool idea
- tarentel 2y ago
  I'm not convinced it would work very well on making you a better player but who knows. Either way, it sounds like a good way to injure yourself. Piano is a very percussive instrument and if you're hitting the keys with any force and they don't give the way you expect them to I imagine that won't be very great for your joints.
vhcr 2y ago
The Yamaha Disklavier has solenoids on every key, so you could disable every key but the one you want by moving them downwards. It already has a similar feature called SmartKey: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_Qj33POZCyA https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_Qj33POZCyA

Q6T46nT668w6i3m 2y ago

Great idea and I’m shocked this doesn’t exist.

robotresearcher 2y ago
It would likely be very, very expensive. A compromise that is affordable and does exist is programmable response curves to key velocity and aftertouch pressure. It can make sense to have different curves for eg. piano vs harpsichord even if you can’t change the mechanical key impedance. I haven’t seen it in the wild, but using this you could make the wrong notes quieter/louder or even play a different sound. But I think we all know when we play a wrong note, so the utility might be small.
- mrandish 2y ago
  > key velocity and aftertouch pressure. Just a tangential note to say whenever I see these terms in discussion of MIDI keyboards it reminds me how disappointed I am the vast majority of MIDI controller (and multi-thousand dollar flagship synth) keyboards still don't fully support per note velocity or polyphonic aftertouch. It's only been 40 years kids... (sigh).
  - otabdeveloper4 2y ago
    Not really needed. A synthesizer is not a piano, it's essentially a wind instrument.
    - lsaferite 2y ago
      I personally disagree. That velocity and aftertouch is all fun modulation input to my eurorack synth. Sure, I have a limited number of polyphonic notes (4) I can support, but it's still more modulation possibilities.

adamgordonbell 2y ago

> Or for practice you could make the wrong keys hard to press. This seems like a pretty cool idea

tarentel 2y ago
I'm not convinced it would work very well on making you a better player but who knows. Either way, it sounds like a good way to injure yourself. Piano is a very percussive instrument and if you're hitting the keys with any force and they don't give the way you expect them to I imagine that won't be very great for your joints.

vhcr 2y ago

The Yamaha Disklavier has solenoids on every key, so you could disable every key but the one you want by moving them downwards. It already has a similar feature called SmartKey: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_Qj33POZCyA https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_Qj33POZCyA