[CAUT] Scientific study - Stainless wire (Help!)

[Fred Sturm]

On 9/4/07 10:26 AM, "Jim Busby" <jim_busby at byu.edu> wrote:

> Very detailed observations! About thumpers, it seems to me that the real issue
> in this study would be;
> 1. Abilityto reproduce the exact stroke w/o variation
> 2. Eliminationof ³the human element²
>  
> 
> In this regard the Disklavier would be ideal because according to Yamaha it
> can reproduce what the human plays to a 100 point scale. IOW if you hit the
> velocity at 69 (out of 100 possible), the ³machine² will reproduce it at
> volume 69 time and time again, as long as the machine has been calibrated and
> not changed during the test time. Of course this precludes human error upon
> reproduction on that piano.

Hi Jim,
    I think Disklavier is probably fine for the pure sound study. Thinking
it over, the solenoid gizmo that actually activates the key, which is an
electromagnet, will do an even acceleration depending on the charge applied,
as magnetic attraction increases with closeness. So, assuming the controller
is reliable (gives the same charge each time), it should be reliable and
reasonably close to a finger keystroke. Of course, Disklavier is Yamaha, and
as far as I know, only available pre-installed, which limits you to Yamaha.
Maybe I¹m  wrong, and you can get components to use in a retrofit to another
brand instrument, but that doesn¹t sound like the Yamaha way. Otherwise,
PianoDisc or Pianomation will provide the things needed, and they are
probably fairly comparable (who knows how much salesman hype is true?)
    But if you want to do testing on things like, say, crescendo front rail
punchings, you will need something that activates the top of the front of
the key, to get a good keybed ³activation.² It¹s an important part of the
whole sound (the bottom of the key acting on the keybed through the frame
and punching), and I think that it must affect the whole feedback of the
instrument in subtle ways. So if you really want to try to replicate real
life as closely as possible, the top of the key has to be pressed down, and
with enough mass behind it to simulate a finger connected to a human body.
    Whatever experiments are done, with whatever equipment, will provide
some very interesting and useful information. But the opportunity to provide
input before (rather than carping later about ³if only they . . .²) is
pretty rare, so I¹m taking advantage of it <G>.

Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico


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