[sdiy] piano reverb

[rkmoore at memphis.edu]

Hi everyone,

I've made a preliminary version of what might be considered a piano 
reverb.  I pulled the action out of an old upright and have mounted 
some beefy homemade electromagnets perpendicular to the strings.  Since 
the strings are steel, they resonate nicely when a strong magnetic 
field is applied at a resonant frequency of the string.  I made sure 
the load of the magnets would be comparable to a speaker load and I 
drive them with an audio power amp.  The signal source I've been using 
so far is a CZ-101 (the piano is at school and I have to carry a synth 
with me).  If anyone is interested in the sound, some samples can be 
found here:

https://umdrive.memphis.edu/rkmoore/public/Piano_Noise/

These samples were done is a hurry with a cheap mic and the amp still 
clips pretty badly.  The signal source used for these samples is a CZ-
101 with some patches I wrote.  The piano adds a bit of a reverb 
effect, but it also adds some very interesting comb filter effects that 
become apparent when the fundamental of the signal is bent by less than 
a half step.

Richard Moore

----- Original Message -----
From: jhno <ear at heldscala.com>
Date: Saturday, December 11, 2004 9:43 pm
Subject: [sdiy] piano reverb

> >On a sort-of similar theme, I've removed the harp from a piano 
> and have it
> >standing in a stairwell outside the main studio door.  Now all I 
> need (five
> >years later) is to find the best way of using it as a (very coloured)
> >reverb.  Does anyone have experience of this, and any advice to give?
> 
> i have done this with a harp from a yamaha cp-70. this series from 
> yamahacan often be found dirt cheap because they are heavy and big 
> and despite
> the fact that they used to be the cadillac of electric pianos, when
> digitals came along they were quickly swept aside and now their 
> sound is
> not really considered hip at all. there is only some nostalgia for 
> petergabriel and howard jones - the former in particular who used 
> it to great
> effect.
> 
> so the thing about these harps is that they have an 
> electromagnetic pickup
> on _every string_. this means you can blast sounds into them and 
> get only
> the strings at the outputs. you can do as you like with the 
> dampers, its
> all a real piano action and real piano harp and you can tune it 
> with a
> regular piano hammer.
> 
> so much for my secret weapon... :)
> 
> have fun,
> jhno
> 
> 
>