The Electromagnetically Sustained Rhodes Piano

Greg Shear, and Matthew Wright

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract:

The Electromagnetically Sustained Rhodes Piano is an augmentation of the original instrument with additional control over the amplitude envelope of individual notes. Thisincludes slow attacks and infinite sustain while preservingthe familiar spectral qualities of this classic electromechanical piano. These additional parameters are controlled withaftertouch on the existing keyboard, extending standardpiano technique. Two sustain methods were investigated,driving the actuator first with a pure sine wave, and secondwith the output signal of the sensor. A special isolationmethod effectively decouples the sensors from the actuatorsand tames unruly feedback in the high-gain signal path.

Citation:

Greg Shear, and Matthew Wright. 2011. The Electromagnetically Sustained Rhodes Piano. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1178161

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{Shear2011,
 abstract = {The Electromagnetically Sustained Rhodes Piano is an augmentation of the original instrument with additional control over the amplitude envelope of individual notes. Thisincludes slow attacks and infinite sustain while preservingthe familiar spectral qualities of this classic electromechanical piano. These additional parameters are controlled withaftertouch on the existing keyboard, extending standardpiano technique. Two sustain methods were investigated,driving the actuator first with a pure sine wave, and secondwith the output signal of the sensor. A special isolationmethod effectively decouples the sensors from the actuatorsand tames unruly feedback in the high-gain signal path.},
 address = {Oslo, Norway},
 author = {Shear, Greg and Wright, Matthew},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1178161},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 keywords = {Rhodes, keyboard, electromagnetic, sustain, augmented instrument, feedback, aftertouch },
 pages = {14--17},
 presentation-video = {https://vimeo.com/26802504/},
 title = {The Electromagnetically Sustained Rhodes Piano},
 url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2011/nime2011_014.pdf},
 year = {2011}
}