Crazy Entertainment Idea...

[Pianoman]

I was just sitting and thinking," how could I set myself apart from other pianists, how could I capture the attention of the public." Well I came up with an idea and I wanted to see what you guys think. Sooo, this is it:

I have a piano rigged with a specific laser wavelength for every key (there are 88keys on a piano). Every time I press a key and the cooresponding string begins to vibrate, the laser for that key lights up. If the colors were coordinated based on pitch. You could coordinate warmer color blends for music that sounds warm (these sounds are called major sounds for any musicians), and the darker sounds (minor sounds) could have darker or less aesthetically pleasing color blends. Each laser would be mounted directly above it's string(s) in the piano (there are 3 strings for each key, this allows the pianist to control how loud the sound is, he can press a pedal that moves the hammer so it only strikes 2 strings, making the sound softer.) It would laze at a 90 degree angle and there would be a bounce mirror for each laser that would direct the beam at a semi-horizontal angle over the audience. With some special lenses for blending the beams or keeping them seperate depending on the style of music, and some haze, I feel a performance like this could be simply amazing. It would bring a whole new dimension to the piano. Some of you might be thinking, how can you mix the boring classical music on the piano with lasers? Well, first of all, if you think it's boring, you haven't heard any of the good stuff (PM me and I'll tell you some of the Good stuff). Second I was planning on mixing contemporary (having a band) and some more famous classical works.

So, that is my idea. I think it would be absolutely amazing but enough from me. I would like to get some input from you guys.

-Jonathan-

[Laserman532]

Ohhhh, La de de, de de, daaaaa, laa daaaa daaaa deee deee deee, sing us a song you are the pianoman....sing us a song tonight....

88 keys 88 wavelengths...one billion dollars

[Doc]

I totally get the music to colour concept, when running my light show I find myself choosing mixed magentas and whites or mixed turquoise and whites for the uplifting major chord sounds, and deep solo reds and solo greens for the darker tracks.

The only problem I see here is that (as I'm sure as a musician you know); it's not just the note, or even the chord thats being played; it's the sequence, timing and accent that that produces the emotion, something that machines are not very good at.

Ian

[Mr.Coffee]

Ohhhh, La de de, de de, daaaaa, laa daaaa daaaa deee deee deee, sing us a song you are the pianoman....sing us a song tonight....

88 keys 88 wavelengths...one billion dollars

I dunno, an rgb projector with 88 colored, targeted beams is doable, though I'm not sure how you'd work out the triggering.

[drlava]

Laser version of a color organ. Not new, but definitely could add interest.

I would suggest a scanning RGB system in the piano that mixes the colors to produce the hues and directions you want (simulating multiple lasers), instead of a laser for each key - that could get expensive. A mic could easily pick up overall volume to modulate brightness, and small contacts for each key could be fed to a little processor to emit the right color mix and beam position for each key. Also, a contact for the sustain pedal and appropriate programming would be important to get the timings right. It's definitely doable in this way.

[Laserman532]

"I have a piano rigged with a specific laser wavelength for every key"

Technically mixing is not what I read into the original post

but yes, your method would work

[mccarrot]

Simple.

You could make a Livepro workspace with all the needed frames and colorblends.

Take a electronc piano with midi out and map each key to a que.

[allthatwhichis]

I have thought about something like this in the past; not with a piano, but with music in g\eneral. I would like to see something project an osilliscope wave for each "key, note, tone", and change color as the "tones" change".

[Pianoman]

Thanks for the input guys, it's great info. I believe it's totally do-able. I agree, an RGB system could do it, 3-6W would be great. Since at any given time, the most keys I would likely be playing + sustaining with the pedal would be 25 MAX. I've never played a piece that asks you to sustain more than that many notes. So a 5W system: 5W divided by 25 different beams=200mW per beam, which is more than enough power. A 3W system could easily pull this off. The question is how would you program the system to tell the PCAOM to give _____ color when this pitch is being played? maybe a device that analyzes sound waves and can identify frequencies in Hz? It could feed the data into a computer that could send a digital or optical signal to the PCAOM. I'm not completely sure since I just entered the laser scene recently.

To ALLthatwhichis, I think the oscilliscope idea is great. I thought it would be cool to have a laser projection of the sound waves being played, plus a color to go with each sound range.

[Mr.Coffee]

Simple.

You could make a Livepro workspace with all the needed frames and colorblends.

Take a electronc piano with midi out and map each key to a que.

Yeah, but Midi only transmits one "note" at a time. so you wouldn't get blending on chords.
[EDIT] which, now that I think of it, might actually work better [/EDIT]

Still, one hell of a lot of wiring to do on a piano, maybe you could add on a contact strip from a midi keyboard.
not sure how you're going to get the key velocity squared away.