I Didn't Expect A Self Playing Piano To Be So Complicated.

Рет қаралды 72,475

9 ай бұрын

PUTTING A PIANOLA BACK TOGETHER
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#pianola #reassembly #howitworks

Пікірлер: 607

@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER 9 ай бұрын

Remember, i didn't restore this, im not sure who did most of it, i know lucien did the pipes from what i have heard, i merely reassembled it. It is leaking. Lucien did say it needed work. Solution? Add a vacuum pump. 😅Don't mistake this video for me getting it to work! it already worked, it was just in pieces :D DONT DO IT LIKE THAT.... honestly. i have likely done something wrong. comment below what it is, but don't be a grumpy git about it thats all i ask :D a note. the midi mod will involve zero modification, it will basically be an overlay to the machine. got the concept down, but not all of the parts have arrived yet.

@enrique5167 9 ай бұрын

After the midi mod, please play the pianola using the game boy 😁

@DiverseGreen-Anon 9 ай бұрын

22:18 definitely wont be taken out of context xD .. also an alternative idea would be a device, that stamps these rolls? Could be too big of a project tho.

@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER 9 ай бұрын

@@DiverseGreen-Anonyep it has been spoken about! Hoping to find an older version to modernise as lasers don't seem to do great

@unknownadversary2003 9 ай бұрын

After the midi mod, connect it to the organ for AIR MUSIC!

@littlebacchus216 9 ай бұрын

Guessing it would not be too much of a push to make an optical reader for the roles and link it to a MIDI out.

@nickwallette6201 9 ай бұрын

Be careful with that rewind switch modification: If you play classical music backwards, it'll de-compose.

@benjones1917 9 ай бұрын

😂 this comment needs more love!

@clampchowder9569 9 ай бұрын

Great, great comment.

@bradleyphillips5254 9 ай бұрын

You sir are a genius

@beatkidd 7 ай бұрын

🔥🔥

@baptistetavernier 5 ай бұрын

Or it will just sound like Boulez... 😁

@VoidElectronics 9 ай бұрын

With today's technology, you would be tempted to say that such a project is impossible without a microcontroller. And here is the thing, just pumps and pipes and a roll of paper. Look mum no computer, indeed. 😁

@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER 9 ай бұрын

It's a shame now adays that also myself included opt for microcontrollers. It's such a boring means to do things haha

@NewtrendsMe 9 ай бұрын

Where do you think they got the idea for MIDI? 😏

@Tharmin.124 9 ай бұрын

You could have argued that MIDI was an innovation that would have happened eventually due to its sheer necessity, but the piano roll system is definitely inspired by these rolls of paper

@mangobrainify 9 ай бұрын

These "rolls of paper" *are* piano rolls. The originals. I wouldn't say MIDI piano rolls are "inspired by" them as much as they are a direct digital implementation of them, right down to the name.

@StuartWoodwardJP 9 ай бұрын

Before the computers the paper tape mechanism was the way to automate complex machinery such Jacquard looms to weave complex patterns. Punch card technology used in computers to store programs and store data until the mid 1980s was directly inspired by this technology. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquard_machine

@sparkyprojects 9 ай бұрын

I've always wondered what the red line is on the rolls, and i just looked it up "Young invented a wavy red line, printed on the roll, to be followed with a pointer attached to the tempo lever, so that the ebb and flow of musical phrasing could be measured and reproduced. The new device was called the Metrostyle,"

@morbidmanmusic 9 ай бұрын

There were some smart people with limited tech!

@jannepeltonen2036 9 ай бұрын

@@morbidmanmusic Before everything turned into computer accessories, people actually had to do some *real* engineering to solve challenges. Look up how the first satellite pictures from the Moon were taken and sent back to Earth. It's mind blowing.

@kc9scott 9 ай бұрын

Hmm…I grew up (1970’s, US) with a player piano in the house, and never saw a roll with those lines until today’s video. I expect it’d make the roll-authoring process more difficult, since my understanding is that they typically start out with a human pianist playing the song into a recording machine. That person making the roll would normally put the phrasing and rubato into the music as they played it - it was already in the rolls that I’ve experienced. To make Metrostyle, they’d need to play to a strict metronome beat while recording the roll.

@echodelta9 9 ай бұрын

Some rolls were made from notes on paper to holes punched by hand and they were very mono-metric. It was a gimmick too.

@tinovanderzwanphonocave544 9 ай бұрын

Sam, quite a number of tunes were composed for the pianola in a lot of cases by little or unknown composers and quite a number of these tunes can be considered lost media so I hope you record them and archive them.

@esinohio 9 ай бұрын

I am beyond jealous. I love this kind of challenge. I'm sure Mr. Nunes would be smiling right now.

@stevemcevoy3310 9 ай бұрын

He was my friend for 40 years. It was hard to see these instruments leave his home, but he knew they were going to good homes. Thanks Sam!

@jakobcreates 9 ай бұрын

That centering mechanism is so elegant 😮

@BerndGiegerich 9 ай бұрын

right. I was following it closely and watched how it shifted left and right while the roll made its way through 🙂

@nickwallette6201 9 ай бұрын

It's actually very similar to the way the laser diode tracks the data spiral in a CD. There are four sensors in a diamond formation. The top and bottom form the feedback mechanism for lens focus: The spot will expand or contract, from a circle to an oval, when out of focus. The two sides are the servo for keeping the beam centered on the track -- exactly like the roll sensors here.

@jakobcreates 9 ай бұрын

@@nickwallette6201 fascinating, I didn’t know that

@lululombard 9 ай бұрын

Great addition to the museum! I can't wait to see it play MIDI, maybe even along with the organ to have some kind of duet!

@backacheache 9 ай бұрын

This museum is not an orchestra? 😊

@knightrider691 9 ай бұрын

@@backacheache it could be a full blown orchestra just one that you never have seen before.

@JamesTK 9 ай бұрын

Yeah, then throw some black midi at it like rush e

@Aeduo 9 ай бұрын

@@knightrider691 Might need to find some way to multiplex more MIDI channels than the 16 it allows normally haha. Although orchestra-scale MIDI was probably a thing and likely had some solution to having more than 16 channels.

@freeculture 9 ай бұрын

@@backacheache MIDI orchestra yeah! next project street organ!, like with drums, strings, trumpets and stuff... Those also use punch paper rolls (or is it cardboard stacks? whatever it has holes and it plays stuff like a piano roll but on more mechanically linked instruments and pipe organ.

@virescenticious 9 ай бұрын

These pre-electromechanical designs always stun me with their ingenuity. It wasn't even made that long ago yet it feels like some kind of lost technology, that steampunk appeal. Speed control and roll error correction implemented with completely analog feedback, I can't imagine the time taken to get that just right.

@Richardincancale 9 ай бұрын

Fascinating that they used a five cylinder engine to provide smooth motion to the roll mechanism! Just like my old Volvo V70 T5!

@kc9scott 9 ай бұрын

For the vacuum motor, it’s more like a 5-cylinder 2-stroke engine, so there’s a power pulse every 72 degrees - close enough that it doesn’t need a flywheel.

@kentjones62674able 9 ай бұрын

I have a player with over a hundred + rolls. You know you can still get modern music on piano roll from QRS. Love the video as usual

@ericwazhung 9 ай бұрын

!!!

@flekkzo 9 ай бұрын

Right in the feels. There’s something poetic about finishing somebody else’s dream like this. I hope it will stay in the museum for a long time and delight many.

@Somelucky 9 ай бұрын

I love this episode of Look Mum No Electricity.

@davedogge2280 9 ай бұрын

Mad scientist / inventor + music = creative awesomeness !

@lorenzneumann7157 9 ай бұрын

❤ I grew up in Braunschweig and my mum worked for Grotian Steinweg 😊

@edwardapier 9 ай бұрын

My uncle restored and collected player pianos. The are incredible machines. His house was full of them and he had no other furnature. Anyway thanx for this.

@FrankGevaerts 9 ай бұрын

This thing runs on lack of air, the organ runs on a surplus of air, they sound like perfect companions! Have you tried connecting them, maybe they start playing without any outside effort! 🙂

@stevep7346 9 ай бұрын

Infinite musical power!

@abcnz1 9 ай бұрын

That idea really sucks....no, it really blows!! OK, it's both 😁 (absolutely no offence intended)

@user-jo3gj1jx3e 9 ай бұрын

You've just invented perpetual commotion.

@fissionchips8840 9 ай бұрын

Ahhhh the "fumfa numfa" He knows all the technical blurb 👍 Seriously Sam, great that you can make use of it and hopefully he will be smiling down on your museum.. Wonderful video 🥲

@Musikkabinett 9 ай бұрын

Can confirm 🤣

@nnov_tech_chan7891 9 ай бұрын

Pianoroll puncher would be handy to make new custom pianorolls. You know, paper is a durable medium for information storage. Also, player piano can control other things, make it have not only MIDI IN, but also MIDI OUT :)

@aengusmacnaughton1375 9 ай бұрын

Amazing!!!! Somewhere I heard that there are 'test' rolls that test each key and function -- handy to have. And I think that there are a few companies still producing the rolls -- maybe even with modern songs! But yes -- MIDI would be awesome, as well as a vacuum pump and no more pedaling!!!!

@mrrandomperson3106 9 ай бұрын

Very nice! I did notice a couple of notes during that Beethoven roll that weren't working, so it might be worth a quick check once you've got everything together in case there's a blockage or something. Still I'm very impressed and I really liked that demo of the player action before you fitted it into the case. Not seen a demo of a real action working like that before.

@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER 9 ай бұрын

5 in the lower register are not connected due to a leak.

@usvalve 9 ай бұрын

It's incredible how you just throw yourself into these things - a player piano, a pipe organ, a telephone exchange... - and apparently in no time, it not only works for you but connects up to other kit too! Re your comment about being criticised for 'not doing it the right way', I don't see any damage being done, and you get results while I'm still scratching my head and working out the theory 🙂

@htmlland 9 ай бұрын

Now , part 2, diy plotter that will "print" (i.e carve out the holes) a new roll based on a midi feed 😅

@blister4walken 9 ай бұрын

Brilliant. All it needs is a Furby in Leiderhosen. Great sound too.

@DanielGBenesScienceShows 9 ай бұрын

I absolutely love getting to see the insides of musical mechanical foofernoofers like this. ❤

@chrischris1722 9 ай бұрын

Awesome job as always. Cute to see you use this old Tony's screwdriver too

@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER 9 ай бұрын

I didn't actually use Tony's screwdriver in this vid funnily enough! Screws were either too big or small!

@309electronics5 9 ай бұрын

What a neat mechanism! No chips or transistors needed, just mechanics and air wow!

@Ranger_Kevin 9 ай бұрын

That is so fascinating, I always wanted to know how one of these things work. And it perfectly fits into the spirit of the museum!

@lancecluster 9 ай бұрын

Grew up in a house with one, not the same brand of piano but the mechanism looks the same. Really nice to see what was happening behind the scenes. I appreciate the work of the man who restored it for us even more now. Thanks,

@michaeltreadwell777 9 ай бұрын

I have a 'Dale Forty' Pianola, had it 28 years and LOVE it ! You certainly need some practice on yours - no need to pump those pedals so furiously unless you have a massive leak somewhere. It always amazes me to think someone worked out all that mechanism to make a Piano play itself, over 100 years ago ! My machine was built in 1927 and started its life on Jersey, in a Rectory, but was brought over to the mainland at the beginning of the war, so it would be safer. I bought it from the original family that owned it, in Canterbury. They really are incredible machines !

@MicraHakkinen 9 ай бұрын

When I grew up we used to have a piano almost exactly like this, though before we got it the pianola mechanism had been removed. But it still had all the recognizable bits like the "window" where you load the scroll as well as a removable panel around the piano pedals where the pump pedals would've gone. It's awesome to finally see what our piano would've looked like on the inside when it was still a pianola.

@stevenmayhew3944 9 ай бұрын

Good idea to know the names of the parts of a piano. For instance, the damper assembly system is called the damper "action", and the hammer assembly system is called the hammer "action", and the keyboard assembly system is called the keyboard "action". I watched other KZfaq videos where professionals who actually work on pianos and pianolas and orchestrions know the names. And you are right to call the harp a harp. 😀

@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER 9 ай бұрын

Thanks! Yeah I did it on purpose that. It's more a demonstration to show that words are not needed when you can put things together! I'm not a words person, definitions come second to physical demonstration. a demonstration that not knowing definitions should not stop anyone tackling projects respectfully.

@unsoundmethodology 9 ай бұрын

These are beautiful, beautiful machines, aren't they? My grandparents had one when i was a kid (1970s-early '90s). I remember how tricky it was to find and maintain the rhythm for songs at the start, especially if you didn't know the song on the roll! I keep meaning to look up when QRS stopped manufacturing new rolls. It must have been during or after at least the 1970s, since one of the rolls my grandparents had was "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" from '73.

@mbainrot 9 ай бұрын

8:24 - I know i am getting ahead of you but hot damn that paper tape reader is sooo cooool, what geniuses. the whole blimmin thing is pneumatically powered

@xliquidflames 9 ай бұрын

I had no idea I had any interest in self playing pianos but I was sucked into this video from beginning to end. What a fascinating machine. I have seen these things in person. I am aware they exist. I never stopped to wonder, "Hey. How does that thing work?" It's so elegantly simple. Two things. First, 10:43, why does the tracking mechanism move both cylinders, all the gears and chains and all that mess around when you could just design it so it just moves the one bar with all the pinholes instead? Thing two: You have to see if you can get ahold of a piano roll with the with that song from the HBO show Westworld. I think its called the Sweetwater Theme on the Westworld sound track. I had that song on loop in my head the whole time I was watching this. Awesome video.

@eDoc2020 9 ай бұрын

There's a vacuum line hooked up behind each pinhole in that bar and originally these lines would have been made of lead. Even with modern soft tubing moving that many connections would be asking for trouble.

@synthshoot1026 8 ай бұрын

I have no idea how you manage to do these things. To me it's nothing short of amazing.

@pauljs75 9 ай бұрын

If Tocatta and Fugue in D-minor is typically an organ's theme, then the player piano is The Entertainer. I'm surprised that one wasn't on a roll somewhere. But it still had a neat playlist none the less.

@danielleohallisey4218 9 ай бұрын

We had a Gulbransen player piano when I was a little kid. I always overdid it on the old pumpy pumpy do, which would break the bellows. Still, a magical initiation into the world of making music, and a lifetime of joy…

@RedHair651 9 ай бұрын

The most amazing thing about this video is that the pianola was still somewhat in tune.

@ChrisB... 9 ай бұрын

My college roommate bought one of these that was on a riverboat its entire life. When we took it apart we found loads of old coins and trinkets from the early 1900's. All of the tubing and bellows were hard as a rock so we never got it working as a player piano, still fun to work on though.

@dav1dbone 9 ай бұрын

Used to see these in various places over the years, guaranteed never in working condition, in all honesty just looking at them, the paper rolls with punched squares etc and consideration to the manufacturing era - I had my doubts any of them ever worked? A different generation of skill, workmanship and ingenuity!

@KuroDensetsu 9 ай бұрын

I bet there is enough vacuum generated off the intake of the organs blower, where you could split a portion of it off to power the piano. Organ powered player piano!

@JohnSmith-jl3fm 9 ай бұрын

Glad too see someone with capable hands got hold of it and it's seeing the light of day again.👌👍

@julzsadventuresinmusic7492 9 ай бұрын

You're doing such a service to humanity by preserving this piece of history so i salute you ✌️😎

@SullenSecret 9 ай бұрын

This is the best video ever. Amazing. Even after knowing that the keys auto press from gravity, it was still creepy to watch. Wonderful invention.

@mattbba8451 9 ай бұрын

I'm in the US, I can't ever be a grumpy git. But I can say thanks for the journey. Great video.

@Ripskin16 9 ай бұрын

Wonderful engineering and technology for its time (and now) taking care of so much to keep the music going easily. No need to skip leg day now lol.

@Sperminski 9 ай бұрын

What an incredible guy that Lucien. The best kind of collector.

@lordflatworm 9 ай бұрын

It would be cool to figure out how to print your own rolls. You could make complicated bass lines and play the higher keys by hand.

@josh4740 9 ай бұрын

19:57 Moonlight Sonata MVT3 My Absolutely Favorite piece of Piano Music 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 Good Choice Sam

@nonyobiz-records 9 ай бұрын

thank you I was going nuts trying to find the name of the composition. It's been in my head on repeat since I saw the trailer for this episode on facebook 🥲

@foofighterp 9 ай бұрын

Can't wait to see him put a static bike for people to power it up by themselves. :)

@Culky 9 ай бұрын

I'd never considered the power source for those before, but the fact that it's powered by a foot-pumped vacuum motor is fascinating.

@andrejwalilko634 9 ай бұрын

sounds so cool to assemble it without the dampers installed

@alexvdvelde 9 ай бұрын

Unbelievable a young guy like you with so many knowledge about this kind of instruments. Keep going my man.

@robthesamplist 9 ай бұрын

Omg we had one of these in my garage as a kid forever and we had about 300 rolls all different sizes… some of the tunes were epic… such fond memories. My dad rubbed the whole thing down and pai ted it black laquer it looked lovely. Ended up giving it away as noone would buy it! It looks the exact model we had.

@tunderbird123 9 ай бұрын

I really admire your patience and technical ability...

@djjudas21 9 ай бұрын

It never ceases to amaze me the lengths that engineers went to when designing complex mechanisms. That vacuum engine is a work of art - I was so disappointed when I found out car engines don’t fire sequentially like that!

@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER 9 ай бұрын

i think its more a balance issue when it comes to heavy things like pistons and con rods! 4 pistons the outside 2 are matched and inside 2, 5 piston is a little less even but 6 gets back to being balances laterally and so on. mainly balance and crankshaft load and what not. not such an issue with wood :D

@kc9scott 9 ай бұрын

Also, most car engines are 4-cycle and only fire on every other down-stroke, so a 5-cylinder engine would fire every 144 degrees of rotation. This 5-pneumatic motor can fire on every down-stroke, so it’s once every 72 degrees. So no flywheel is needed.

@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER 9 ай бұрын

yes im not talking about the firing degree. more the literal mass of the weights laterally on the crankshaft, flywheel weight logitudinal. a 5 cylinder engine doesnt fire sequentally either, if it did it would shake itself to bits. its an over simplification im aware. @@kc9scott

@AndyGadget 9 ай бұрын

You can always spot a pianola owner . . . They're the ones with the enormous thigh muscles. Fantastic video, as always.

@knobula_synths 9 ай бұрын

we had one of these in our house when I grew up, amazing rebuild. well done.

@fonkbadonk5370 9 ай бұрын

Seeing the Dropkey Murphys' first live performace was a real treat!

@DouglasFish 9 ай бұрын

this device definitely fits the "look mum no computer" vibe

@transition6559 9 ай бұрын

Let's make an hardcopy of an Ableton arrangement, put it on the roll and let's start the pianola. Whatever you touch - it turns to gold! 😀👍

@tango_doggy 9 ай бұрын

I love the first waltz "Destiny"!! Apparently it was the last song they played on the Titanic

@a4d9 9 ай бұрын

Ahh! So that's WHY the motor look like it does. I have seen it in other videos and has always wondered why. Very interesting! Thank you!

@yyams 9 ай бұрын

Ya know, you and a couple others on youtube have really inspired me. I appreciate that so ya know, thanks dude. Because of that I've been playign around with circuits, learning bits and bobs, and finally this week i've finished, all zipped up in a case etc, my first couple projects. A PCB project guitar distortion pedal, and more excitingly, my first proper from-a-vero-board-layout layout image stereo resonant low pass, with bonus in and out trim to let it overdrive itself. It's in an old drill bit box and looks awesome. And it's all because of dumb-ass vids of people making cool shit. You very much included!

@samphillips4925 9 ай бұрын

Oh man, I love watching that thing work.

@ez1913 9 ай бұрын

One should be able to 3D print a MIDI interface. Tuned up and in concert with the pipe organ will be a show indeed.

@synthsonido 9 ай бұрын

I Love it ! Can't wait for it to have midi.

@Thats_Mr_Random_Person_to_you 9 ай бұрын

You amaze me with your knowledge..... only very few people know that it is indeed called the 'boardy-woo-di-woo-woo'.... such a depth of esoteric knowledge!!

@EastMidlandsOrganMuseum 9 ай бұрын

A pleasure to see you at the weekend Sam, you have done very well with getting it back together ! Interesting thing about the moving keys, we in the UK were not big on that as an idea, to the extent that most instruments actually had a physical lock to stop them even wiggling ! Yours has this feature, a moving paddle under the keys, so if you get any issues with repetition now you have lightened them (I really do not think you will notice a difference) you can just activate that, so best of both worlds ! They were much more keen on moving keys on american instruments, so anything you look at from over there will normally move. We will pop down and visit when we get five minutes ! C

@yobgodababua1862 9 ай бұрын

Oh Dear Lord Sam, You DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING AGAIN. I absolutely LOVE IT. Make that old electromechanical malarky do what it was intended to! By hook or by crook! Fetch the unsalted beef tallow!

@savagemessiah. 9 ай бұрын

SAAAAAM what are you doing?! It's not a foofernoofer, it's a bunglegrundle! I can't believe you would do this Sam. You don't know what you're doooooiiiiinnnnggg

@mankysalad350 8 ай бұрын

My grandparents had one of these. When i was a wee nipper I used to pump the pedals as hard as possible to make the tunes play ridiculously fast. I never knew how interesting the mechanism was inside.

@gregmark1688 9 ай бұрын

Well! It's unsalted beef tallow for ALL my squeeky bushed bearings, from now on! This was a lot of fun, thanks. I learned today that player pianos have auto-tracking, and that's amazing. Do you realize that this is the very first recording technology? It's literally an analog recording of the performance. They even used to edit them by hand, cutting and pasting bits of paper together, and even punching out the glissandos and fancy trils by hand. I find it incredibly facinating to hear 100, 150 year old interpretations of music -- it's often different from how we hear the same pieces today. In partiular, it's always amazing to listen to the playing of the world's very first recording star, Scott Joplin.

@JeffRAllenCH 9 ай бұрын

This is the first KZfaq video I've ever seen which recommends unsalted beef tallow for anything.

@fowler_steam 9 ай бұрын

I'm just waiting for the day you mess around with a full on fairground/dutch street organ :)

@richy486 9 ай бұрын

Keen to see the videos get into more non electric, mechanical stuff in the near future

@matthewridgeway9250 9 ай бұрын

Sticking keys are usually swallon lead weights in the back of the key. Usually filed or shaved off using a chisel.

@marksmith-ew7ir 9 ай бұрын

Great back together and save from the burn pile.

@Musikkabinett 9 ай бұрын

The "snake bites" holes are actually controlling part of the expression system emphasizing notes. (left ones for bass, right ones for treble) Not sustain. For sustain you can just make the hole longer in the paper. (Edit: No you can't as pointed out below correctly)

@diederikvandedijk 9 ай бұрын

That's not the same. Holding a note only keeps the damper of that note off the string. Sustain keeps all the dampers off all the strings. This sounds different because of all kinds of harmonics sounding from strings that are not played.

@Musikkabinett 9 ай бұрын

@@diederikvandedijk You are correct you'll be missing out on the harmonics. Forgot about that one.

@kc9scott 9 ай бұрын

Although I’ve never seen the “snake bites” holes before, I believe @Muiskkabinett might be correct about them. Player pianos do commonly have a pneumatic to operate the sustain pedal, but it would be controlled by a hole along one side of the roll, and the hole continues for the entire time the sustain pedal should be pressed. At least that’s the way it was on the rolls that I’ve seen. I grew up with a player piano built in 1971, and its “soft” mechanism (an upright piano, so “soft” was just moving the hammers forward to shorten their throw) was split into bass & treble halves, pneumatically operated, although in this case it only had manual buttons to control their vacuum signals. So perhaps the “snake bites” holes were an automated way to soften some notes just before they were struck.

@bastelmap 9 ай бұрын

Always amazing to see how ingenious people have been in the past to build things

@Fewkulele 9 ай бұрын

Sam is out here living all my dreams!

@seanb5666 8 ай бұрын

I am working at the Grotrian Steinweg company in Brunswick and we have the same Playerpiano standing around waiting for restauration. So nice to see yours playing so well!

@RSPYT 9 ай бұрын

Absolute quality haha, one day I’ll drag the wife and kids along as we’ll visit your museum dude it seems weeeellllll koooolllll 😁😁😁😁

@DaanGroenProductions 9 ай бұрын

Ah yes, what a marvelous piece the Moonlight sonata is (Sonata No. 14 3rd movement) - and the piano too ;).

@AltGrendel 9 ай бұрын

Can’t wait to see you make your own piano rolls.

@sgsax 9 ай бұрын

Pneumomechanical (vaccuumechanical?) may be even cooler than electromechanical. Nothing short of engineering genius in this machine. Thanks for sharing!

@Platypi007 9 ай бұрын

What a great video! I never would have guessed that the way it reads the roll is by pulling a vacuum against the paper and the holes break the vacuum on the different notes to operate the valve. Also amazed at how well it stayed in tune while being moved. Obviously not perfectly so, but it wasn't as terrible as I thought it might be.

@mechanoid5739 9 ай бұрын

I love this channel! :) I completely lost it at, "trellises!" 🤣

@AKjohndoe 9 ай бұрын

Till I saw it in time lapse, I had no idea how long of a job those keys would be! Great video! More plz 😊

@mrb692 9 ай бұрын

Working on a piano is nuts. It’s easy enough to do things once or twice, but doing it 88 times for keys (or 230 for strings!) is a whole other kettle of fish

@fonkbadonk5370 9 ай бұрын

When you see someone just casually tuning a whole flippin piano on the side of their actual complicated enough task, you know you've been looking at a special kind of crazy genius.

@bewilderbeestie 9 ай бұрын

The vacuum chamber is genius --- if you pump air in, then the air pressure can rise indefinitely. But you can't pump more air out than all of it, which means the difference in pressure between the inside and outside can never be more than one atmosphere! Which means it's self governing: provided you're working the pump faster than the mechanism is bleeding air into the reservoir, the pressure differential will remain constant, which means the motor runs at a constant speed and the piano stays in tempo. Plus, sucking air through the sensor bar will tend to automatically stick the piano roll to the sensor, which makes life a lot easier. Another interesting project would be to make new piano rolls. If you were to get rolls of continuous paper, mount them on an arduino-powered scroll-like affair inside a laser cutter, then you could cut one row of holes, advance the paper, cut the next row, etc. It'd need a fair bit of low-level laser cutter integration and I don't know whether that's possible, but it's probably easier than trying to build a punch.

@henrycatt5844 9 ай бұрын

That was great! I've always wondered exactly how a pianola worked. Thank you.

@BerlietGBC 9 ай бұрын

You should visit the mechanical music museum at Kew

@andrewmeadows2596 9 ай бұрын

I watched your channel for the past few years ,it was the telephone exchange that i first saw. 90% of the time i have no idea what your talking about when it comes to electronics but i find it all fascinating. Its great that people like yourself keep all these instruments and machine's alive.

@thewolfin 9 ай бұрын

It would be really cool to see some custom rolls made for it! I imagine the paper has to be pretty thick... maybe it could be laser-cut with some kind of automated unrolling/rolling machine inside the laser cutter (since I imagine no laser cutter in the world would be big enough to fit a whole unrolled roll in it).

@EarMaster55 9 ай бұрын

I think the reason for the weights in the keys is so that you can decide if you want the keys to move on their own or if you want to be able to play along the original tune. Maybe there were even tunes playing the second voice so that one could practice playing.

@fathomisticfantasy2681 8 ай бұрын

I am actually in a mentorship with a piano repair and organ repair couple. Studying tubes and well pianos. My current frustrations is getting the actual keybed and keyaction back onto the cabinet. Which is what you were re-assembling first. My first attempt failed because I did not line up the entire thing to the strings. The three main parts here are key bed, key action, and the assembly of wippens/hammers. You know? Pianos get hammered with wippens. That means they have disciplinary actions. Well... This dad humor is the only way I am able to memorize the sections currently in my mentorship. . Also a side note You were on my list of reasons for paying the YT premium subscription. I really hope YT treats you well. Much friendly love...

@fokkebaarda 9 ай бұрын

Hey. Great episode. I love all your work, as crazy as it sometimes get, but so much joy in electronics and mechanics. As a board member of the Amsterdam Pianola Museum I love it that you now showed a pneumatic/mechanical machine, with all the amazing technique created ca. 110 years ago. This is an 88-note system, with the in 1908 standardised roll type for common player piano's. You played every roll way to fast haha. Was fun to see. Every roll begins with a tempo suggestion, and that red line suggest where to slow down or accelerate. And the real fun is to carefully play with some tempo freedom and lots of dynamics (pumping more or less air). Then suddenly the mechanical sound disappears and it becomes music. Because that is the reason it is an air-sucking mechanism. It was the only way to accurately play PIANO and FORTE instantly by changing the pumping energy. Success with the museum, the crazy marvellous organ and now this ancient relic of old pneumatic fun.

@impy1980 9 ай бұрын

That's so cool, love human ingenuity sometimes. And the putting it back together process just shows any plonker can do anything if they just give it a go, well done though Sam for figuring out where parts went.