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Portable Pianist Sounds Dirty, But Makes Sense With These Fingertip Keyboard Gloves
Posted by Jack Loftus at 9:00 AM on September 22, 2008
There's no definition for the word worthless in the Hammacher Schlemmer dictionary, so these Fingertip Piano Gloves are "ingenious"; a portable subway piano concerto waiting to happen. Each glove plays an entire octave in the key of C, and the final three notes in the scale are achieved by pressing down on the palm. The gloves connect to a wire that connects to a speaker, which allows the whole family to enjoy. They ship on October 17 for $US70, but the epic symphonies your little one will make using these five-fingered feats of engineering will be priceless. Or not. Ever strangle someone in the key of C before? [Hammacher Schlemmer]
This Yamaha Disklavier Piano could be the most advanced piano we've ever seen, and we've seen several (forced piano lessons FTW). Not only does it have Wi-Fi to download MIDI files onto itself so it can play back songs, you can record performances—with vocals and other instruments—as well.
Looking like it belongs in Jeff Vader's Coruscant bachelor pad, the hand-made Schimmel Pegasus has an ergonomically curved keyboard, over 200 strings under a total tension of 176,520 newtons, and a key assembly composed of 10,000 pieces. Only 14 were made ten years ago for people like Eddie Murphy, Lenny Kravitz, and granfunkmeister Prince. Now you can get into this exclusive club because there's one for sale until March 15th. More pics and technical details after the jump. Updated with price and other information
This "suspension" piano by Seiler brings everyone's favourite style of bridge indoors and gives it a soundtrack beyond the typical roar of automobiles drowning out the subtle splashing of suicide jumpers. A meticulously crafted mahogany piano suspended on a cast iron frame, we'd be afraid to even touch a key lest we induce the sound of metal shredding expensive wood. But our guess is that the piano's quite literal delicate balance between fluid fragility and rigid stability is its entire appeal. [
According to its eBay listing, this $US20,000 piano "is not a piano at all" but a fully functioning computer with a hidden 26" Philips LCD TV/monitor and a 6.8 GHz processor. Modded from a 1904 Chickering upright piano, the maker argues that it is not just "the world's most beautiful computer", but "the world's oldest computer" and the "world's highest security computer" as well. The description indicates that Compiano smells of rich mahogany, but we think we smell something else.
CDs may be headed towards obsolecence, but that doesn't seem to stop manufacturers from coming up with unique new devices to play them. One of these devices, the Japanese made Cathay PK-24, may look like a miniature grand piano, but the only thing it can play is tunes from your CD or FM radio. The keys even act as the playback controls to add to the fun. Available in Asia for about $165 a pop —which is way too freakin' much if you ask me. [
Today at Yamaha's line show in NYC, pianos took centre stage. Yamaha, one of the world's biggest piano makers, has been innovating on the design for years. The current crop of radical, digital shifts forward:
