Pha-4 standard in a wooden cabinet... experience

Wow, your new case is fantastic... you are truly a wood artist....
I also agree with the very well deserved compliments for your Piano.
Carmelo

Well done Yves Th!

Warmest regards,

Chris

Nice work !

Hello. Very nice piano-shell. Thanks for sharing.

I just bought a fp-10 too and Im doing something similar to your project. Im not building a shell. Im actually going to install the fp10 into a real upright. My old grandma's piano to be exact. Im in the process of removing everything inside the piano so that I can get more space and lower weight.

Then Im going to turn the soundboard into a huge panel speaker, and install an audio interface so that I can hook up my iPad to it and run pianoteq.

Im using the iPad air M1. That one has a usb-c connector instead of lightning which is nice. But It doesn't matter to much as you can use a usb-c to lightning adapter to achieve the same results with basically any iPad. You can even use an iPhone.

I only use like 10% of the CPU with the M1 ipad Air so I doubt you will have no issues with performance even on an old iPad.

You can connect the ipad to a usb hub and then to an audio interface no problem. My yamaha CSP-170 which Im using at home does come with a built in audio interface so I only need one cable for connecting the ipad. The audio is sent back to the instrument and out throught the piano speakers, it even charges the ipad. I will attempt to achieve the same effect with this project.

Thats the one I use yes. And thats a pretty good price. You dont need all that power for pianoteq. But this one will last longer and you can also run other things such as Garageband and Logic pro and pretty powerful synthezisers such as Audio Kit Synth One. Also, if there ever is a really good sampled piano coming to iPad at a later time, you might need the power, who knows.

So well done, Yves Th. Impressive.

Happy playing,

Warmest regards,

Chris

Your pedal and cross bracing assembly is really nice.

Lanny

Yes, great, job Yves!
I also think the iPad is an ideal platform for Pianoteq. I regularly play live gigs with the iPad and an audio interface, hooked up to the midi output of my 25 year old Roland RD-700 keyboard (which still has better action IMO than the newer Roland keyboards). I actually use two iPads live, as I have forScore with all my sheet music on the other iPad.

Sheet music?  What's that?  Doesn't everyone use tabs and chord sheets nowadays?  Teasing you.  Don't take it personal... : )

I'd had the idea of naming it Pianoteq (with logo), but a glued paper print wasn't very aesthetic. In the end, I opted for EPISTROPHY in homage to Thelonious Monk.
This weekend I used my piano for a wedding and it did the job perfectly, a professional pianist played on it and he really appreciated it. So I'm very satisfied.

Pianists who play rel grand pianos, specially concert pianos, are used to the real thing, the real deal, and real concert pianos are loud. They can't reduce volume to calm any angry fellow in the home or neighbour in the next apartment.

Digital pianos's flexibility to volume tend to create wrong playing, as we reduce volume to avoid annoy, and we end with a unrealistic thing, even worse if we tend to strike keys too hard in a moment we feel the sounds is not powerful enough, but we had just forgot that the volume was low.

Personally, when I played a baby grand, I found the sound not really loud, but more powerfull, able to reach distant places. But it was a piano made with south america wood, pine, and was no match to european spruce.

About the paint finish, it's really like that. Nobody get a "mirror" look with a simple paint and polishing. It's need many layers of varnish and polishing to get the mirror look.

Thanks for the update.

An update from my side.

I have removed the harp. Finally. It was harder than I thought. My limited knowledge of how pianos are put together made even harder.

I have purchased almost all of the components needed for the project. And I have a temporary solution for the pedal. Going to add real censors later most likely.

In the image you can see one of the two exciters speakers (small round thing) that Im going to attach to the soundboard to generate sound. The exciters will make the whole soundboard vibrate in the same way strings on a real piano would, and initial testing results are really promising.

I have also installed a small mixer so that I can get the sound from the digital piano, as well as the sound coming from the iPad and pianoteq/other software. I feel that its kind of nice to be able to play the instrument even without an external device connected to it, and this way I can, even though the FP10 sound engine is not nearly as good. Maybe in the future I will install some kind of rasberry pi with pianoteq installed on it inside the piano, lets see. Cheers!

Thanks. I had to use a hand mill and a chisel to lower it about 1cm, but the result is good Indeed. Keys are slightly narrower and shorter than the original but nothing you will notice. Can't wait to hear what it will sound like with both exciters attached to the soundboard. Cheers.

Congratulations Snurrfint , very good work ! Do you think that the sound of transducers/exciters mounted on the soundboard is better and realistic than good monitors?

Very interesting! I'm going to take an interest in transducers.
I use high-quality Focal monitors, but I'm not totally satisfied of the realism, paradoxically playing with headphones is more realistic. The standard placement in front of the player and at ear height, which is good for listening, is not at all realistic when playing, I don't feel like I'm sitting at a piano. So currently, my monitors are placed under the piano, resting on the piano structure. I lose a little in response curve linearity, but I gain a lot in realism. The sound really seems to come from the piano, and the piano is vibrating...

For my information what type of amplifier do you use to power the transducers?

Yes, the sound from the fp10 is going from the headphone jack, to the mixer, and then into the amplifier and to the dayton exciters. Im not sure if you can attach them directly to the fp10 like the built in speakers, if that was your question. I think, since the fp-10 speakers are only somthing like 8 watts and my dayton exciters are 40w each, I doubt its a good idea. The sound from the fp10 is pretty ok going through the exciters, but pianoteq and other software is simply better.

My amplifier is "Fosi Audio BT20A PRO".

My mixer is "the t.mix MiniMix 22" and I use "Behringer U-Phoria UMC202HD" as audio interface for the ipad.

You can spend more and probably get slightly better gear, but I think this is a very afforable kit. I also use a usb hub with power supply for connecting the midi signal from the fp10 to the ipad and also provide power to the audio interface and charging of iPad.

Thats pretty much it. I think I spent less than 1000 usd for the whole project.

I think monitors under the cabinet makes sense for realism, but I guess you lose some clarity in the sound, which is probably worth it in the end. Most high end digitals use bass speakers / subwoofer below the cabinet and then smaller tweeters for direct sound targeting your ears above. Thats the setup I have on my CSP-170 which is aslo quite realistic. Not just quite as realistic as using the soundboard as a panel speaker.

There are some digital models with soundboard and transducers. I think the Kawai NV5 has this. And they also have transducers for their high end silent grand pianos too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xLO2hsU0Oo&t=708s

This looks beautiful snurrfint, congratulations! Please please please tape a demo for us, I'm so curious how the transducers do in this setup.