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Messe: Viscount Physis Piano


Tobias Åslund

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Saw this mentioned in the other forum. Check out the banner at viscount.it

 

I'm guessing a fully model stage piano - could be interesting! I was quite impressed by Viscount in the late 90's when I first heard the Viscount/Oberheim MiniGrand module. I still have mine, although I never play it these days.

Too much stuff, too little time, too few gigs, should spend more time practicing...!  🙄

main instruments: Nord Stage 3 compact, Yamaha CP88, Kurzweil PC4, Viscount KeyB Legend Live

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They're making big claims for it:

 

Physis Piano is an idea.

The idea is to provide experienced musicians and professionals with a digital piano which will be THE new reference for the sector: powerful, versatile, beautiful, with a sound fidelity that redefines state-of-the art.

Its such an advanced and complete piano that it cant be compared to any other digital piano. It can only be compared to nature and the creative dynamics of sound itself.

This instrument didnt exist before because it required technology that had not yet been invented, as well as design and engineering work so complex that nobody had even thought about it.

We decided to set out on this long journey towards the unexplored land of sound.

Thus the piano which did not exist, has now been created.

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If the price is right, I'll be very interested. This seems similar to Roland V-piano as well as Yamaha CP1/CP5. The interface and screen seems very nice. Also, it seems it has a rompler inside for other sounds.

Another plus for us in Sweden - we have a very enthusiastic distributor in Stockholm who's promoting Viscount, so I'll guess it won't be to hard to find one to try out. :)

Too much stuff, too little time, too few gigs, should spend more time practicing...!  🙄

main instruments: Nord Stage 3 compact, Yamaha CP88, Kurzweil PC4, Viscount KeyB Legend Live

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Looks very pretty. I wonder if it can be gigged.

+1. Seems portable, FWIW:

 

http://physispiano.com/images/physis_piano_main.jpg

 

http://physispiano.com/images/up.jpg

This is really what MIDI was originally about encouraging cooperation between companies that make the world a more creative place." - Dave Smith
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Nice little video and website, but not one sound sample of the unit?? That makes the promo kind of worthless at this point.

 

I like the "idea" of what I'm seeing, but the telling tale will be in how it sounds.

Yamaha C7 Grand, My Hammonds: '57 B3, '54 C2, '42 BC, '40 D, '05 XK3 Pro System, Kawai MP9000, Fender Rhodes Mk I 73, Yamaha CP33, Motif ES6, Nord Electro 2, Minimoog Voyager & Model D, Korg MS10
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Looks like it has a bit of horsepower - 6 DSPs.

 

Built w wood action and aluminum - wonder what it weighs?

 

SOUND ENGINE: PHYSIS, Physical Modeling Technology

APM: Acoustic Piano Model

EPM: Electric Piano Model

WPM: Wurly Piano Model

CPM: Clavi Piano Model

AMM: Acoustic Mallets Model

HDSE: High Definition Sound Engine.

 

INTERFACE

MTP: Multitouch Panel

CCI: Custom Configurable Interface

HRD: High Resolution Display (480x272 px)

 

KEYBOARD & PEDALS

PGK: Physis Grand Keyboard 88 (with RW real wooden keys and IS Ivory Sense)

GSP: Gradual Sustain Pedal

 

CONSTRUCTION

PAB: Pure Aluminum Body

BHG: Black Hard Glass

HPC: Hyper Parallel Computing (6 DSP)

 

Moe

---

 

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Nice little video and website, but not one sound sample of the unit?? That makes the promo kind of worthless at this point.

Not encouraging, is it, if the video doesn't include ANY sounds.

Worthless? Not encouraging? :rolleyes: It's a teaser. Marketing 101: leave 'em wanting more. :idea: You're intrigued, right? So the teaser is effective.

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Mate Stubb, just copied the missing info. I always hope that modelling will be the future of such instruments. Will this represent a step onwards from the likes of V-Piano? Like the aluminium and glass construction.

 

And so.....

 

 

PHYSIS - THE PHYSICAL MODELING The heart of Physis Piano is a technology based on the creation of complex mathematical algorithms able to simulate with absolute fidelity the dynamics of the physical and acoustic phenomena that generate the sound of a specific instrument.

 

RESEARCHPhysis is not only a physical model of a grand piano. Seven years of research by three world-class Italian universities and an outstanding team of engineers and musicians from all over the world have worked together to develop the first musical instrument where different physical models coexist in order to play some of the instruments that have made music history over the last few decades.

 

 

EXPRESSIONThanks to the expressive possibilities of Physis Piano, the user not only has complete control of the physical sound, but also unlimited customizations. Its possible to create ones own grand piano by modifying its length, its resonance, the morphology of the hammers, the properties of the string, and much more... or to configure ones own electric piano by defining the position of the transducers or the size of the tone bar. All this is possible thanks to the stunning computational power that is able to perform 24 billion operations per second.

 

INTERFACEPhysis Pianos elegant design stems from an innovative and ergonomic tablet-style interface featuring an exclusive multi-touch, backlit black-glass panel with high-resolution graphic display. The interface can be totally customized and configured by the user according to his/her needs.

 

 

 

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The interface can be totally customized and configured by the user according to his/her needs.

This is new, I guess. Wonder if it meens that the whole strip above the keys is an OLED of some sort, so you actually can move the "buttons" to where you want them.

Too much stuff, too little time, too few gigs, should spend more time practicing...!  🙄

main instruments: Nord Stage 3 compact, Yamaha CP88, Kurzweil PC4, Viscount KeyB Legend Live

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Yes, I wondered that as well. Kinda like the display surfaces on the old Star Trek TNG Enterprise?
:)

Too much stuff, too little time, too few gigs, should spend more time practicing...!  🙄

main instruments: Nord Stage 3 compact, Yamaha CP88, Kurzweil PC4, Viscount KeyB Legend Live

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Nice little video and website, but not one sound sample of the unit?? That makes the promo kind of worthless at this point.

Not encouraging, is it, if the video doesn't include ANY sounds.

Worthless? Not encouraging? :rolleyes: It's a teaser. Marketing 101: leave 'em wanting more. :idea: You're intrigued, right? So the teaser is effective.

 

Black.

 

Your turn D. :rolleyes:

Yamaha C7 Grand, My Hammonds: '57 B3, '54 C2, '42 BC, '40 D, '05 XK3 Pro System, Kawai MP9000, Fender Rhodes Mk I 73, Yamaha CP33, Motif ES6, Nord Electro 2, Minimoog Voyager & Model D, Korg MS10
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This appears to be something new (PHYSIS). But I remember a year or two ago, a vendor announced a keyboard that could load Pianoteq and/or VB3 (IIRC). Was that Viscount or someone else? In other words, was that an early announcement of this keyboard while it was still vaporware? This seems to happen a lot; a company releasing a very different instrument than what early press releases suggest, after they've had time to think things over more and evaluate their long-term strategy.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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This appears to be something new (PHYSIS). But I remember a year or two ago, a vendor announced a keyboard that could load Pianoteq and/or VB3 (IIRC). Was that Viscount or someone else?

I don't think it was Viscount. They have been doing sample based pianos with a dash of physical modeling since the late 90's when they did the joint venture Oberheim MiniGrand (which had sympathetic resonance - very cool at the time).

 

I wonder - could it be the Crumar Baby Grand you're thinking of?

 

Physis seems to be a modeling technology they created for their line of church organs - see this article:

 

http://www.physisorgans.com/physis.asp

 

edit: it probably is, since this post seems to be written by none other than you. :)

Too much stuff, too little time, too few gigs, should spend more time practicing...!  🙄

main instruments: Nord Stage 3 compact, Yamaha CP88, Kurzweil PC4, Viscount KeyB Legend Live

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Thanks -- lots of interesting stuff on multiple fronts, then. And my memory doesn't last that long, when something doesn't get follow-up. I'm only just now getting re-interested in hardware solutions to physical modeling of piano, as I thought for a long time that the best results could only be had with software.

 

This new Viscount piano will be worth a look; and yes, the earlier Oberheim model was quite good for its time and remained competitive for about a decade or so. I was always hoping they would update it, and in a sense, now they have.

 

I think the Crumar product fizzled, but I'm not going to look that up right now. Just a vague recollection of some recent discussions of the company.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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pffft. No piano recordings.

 

Call me back when there's something worth hearing.

Yeah, I watched the video and the thing that kept going through my mind was one of our forum stand-by jokes, "Yeah, but how's the piano sound?" :rolleyes:
A ROMpler is just a polyphonic turntable.
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Remember when the Infinity automobile first came out? The advertisements intentionally did not show what the car looked like for quite some time. Maybe Viscount will never let us hear how it sounds in their ads! :D;):facepalm:

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

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There is a piano sample at the end of the video. Hopefully it's from the actual instrument!

 

If it weighs under 35 lbs, I will give it a serious look (more so if it's notably less).... and then it will probably ultimately depend on the feel of the action.

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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Looks impressive (and expensive)

 

[video:youtube]4GCzvwFbWxk

 

Two models, plastic keys (4l lbs) or wood keys (60 lbs)

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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Heh, apparently they've never heard of Roland....

+1

 

It doesn't sound any better than the V-Piano, either, though it does sound better than Pianoteq. At least it offers more than the V-Piano with EPs, Clav and mallets. And it'll likely be cheaper.

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