The Seaboard is a piano keyboard created by a British inventor named Roland Lamb. He said he has loved the piano since he was a kid but he wanted to take it beyond its limits. (CNN: Hans Zimmer plays the piano of the future)
The fundamental aspect of a piano is that it's a percussion instrument but Lamb wanted to take it beyond percussion to give the piano more expressiveness. He wanted to be able bend notes as one can do with stringed instruments but the percussive aspect of a piano made that impossible. There's no way to change an actual piano but one can do just about anything with a synthesiser ... and so he did.
With current synthesisers, one can bend notes with the portamento wheel that's usually on the left side of better keyboards. While this method is effective in performing the bend, it's awkward, particular so in that one must take one hand off the keys to do it. The difference with Lamb's instrument is that he has made the keys touch-sensitive so a note will bend up or down depending on how you move your finger on the key.
The article goes beyond discussion of the Seaboard and includes other new instruments and software as well. It also includes video examples of the instruments being played.
I haven't talked with Cat about this yet but I look forward to it as I have no doubt she will have an opinion on it and that will be a most interesting discussion.
The fundamental aspect of a piano is that it's a percussion instrument but Lamb wanted to take it beyond percussion to give the piano more expressiveness. He wanted to be able bend notes as one can do with stringed instruments but the percussive aspect of a piano made that impossible. There's no way to change an actual piano but one can do just about anything with a synthesiser ... and so he did.
With current synthesisers, one can bend notes with the portamento wheel that's usually on the left side of better keyboards. While this method is effective in performing the bend, it's awkward, particular so in that one must take one hand off the keys to do it. The difference with Lamb's instrument is that he has made the keys touch-sensitive so a note will bend up or down depending on how you move your finger on the key.
The article goes beyond discussion of the Seaboard and includes other new instruments and software as well. It also includes video examples of the instruments being played.
I haven't talked with Cat about this yet but I look forward to it as I have no doubt she will have an opinion on it and that will be a most interesting discussion.
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