Ah fuck, dupe.
My colleague wrote this addendum, in the interest of fairness.
*I do know that some people have made piano plates out of steel by welding it up. It is plenty strong enough, but costs much more to make. That monster 12’ long Rubinstein piano has a steel plate. I wonder if that guy ever sold that monstrosity!
Sounds horrible, by the way. But very loud!
*
Barry White 'chording it up.
BTW...what's the difference between a harpsichord and a spinet?I don’t know about NOW but about thirty years ago my mother’s cousin built one. It is owned by our lcity/county library.
Wait, so if you have pure Fe, that’s iron, and if if you add a little bit of C, that’s steel, but then if you add too much C, it’s iron again? That doesn’t make any sense.
When I hear stuff like this, I think to myself, if people with a good ear would explain why the synthetic harpsichord sounds nothing like a harpsichord, then a method of synthesis might be devised that does convincingly sound like a harpsichord. As well as create nonetheless interesting sounds while getting there.
It’s just naming of alloys. At low enough enough percentages of carbon you have nearly pure iron. Above 2% you have what is called ‘cast iron’, a carbon-iron alloy with many different properties depending on the amount of carbon, other components, and the processing method. The carbon lowers the melting point of the iron making it easier to cast. Modern iron alloys include malleable and ductile varieties that can be easily cast and have close to the same properties of steel alloys. ‘Cast iron’ is as imprecise a name as ‘steel’ is for a host of different alloys.
Are you saying we might someday move beyond 1978 technology?
(nm - duplicate)
That hardly requires my pontification, but according to the comment
even 2020 technology is not up to snuff, and that obviously includes hi-res recordings of actual harpsichord strings, along with dozens of other techniques. So I am curious to know in what ways the state of the art still falls short, which I do not doubt it does.
I suspect that the state of the art is, in fact, up to snuff, but that most makers of synthesizer keyboards just don’t particularly care about getting their harpsichord emulation perfect. Which might not even be due to laziness: It might be that they have something that, according to their test focus groups (which do not include Gyrate), sounds even better than a real harpsichord.
They still make them. But Steinways still sound better. 
I guess “Society’s Child” doesn’t qualify as “Rock and Pop” or being “really cool”? It was banned in many places - maybe on these lists too?
Piano strings are struck with a hammer and Harpsichord strings are plucked with a plectrum.
Pianos, even spinets, have greater dynamic range than harpsichords and of course the timbre is much different.
Also the strings of a spinet are vertical and the strings of a harpsichord are horizontal (maybe someone makes spinet harpsichords, not sure)
Behold the Clavicytherium!
Aside: “Plectrum” is a really fun word.
I thought “plectrum” was the thing you moved around a Ouija board. Turns out that’s a “planchette.”
Don’t get your planchette mixed up with your plectrum. That way madness lies.
Also, you usually hear “spinet” these days as synonymous with a smallish upright PIANO; less expensive than a full-size, and easier to fit into a small house or apartment.
I was surprised to learn that a) they date back only to the 1930s Depression, and that b) they completely stopped making them by the 1990s.
If you’re comparing a Steinway and a Yamaha of equivalent size, condition, and workmanship, which one “sounds better” will always be a matter of opinion and preference. But yeah- I’ll take the tone of an exceptionally good Steinway over that of an equally good Yamaha.
Yes! Although I’ve always found “plectra” to be even funnier. Especially when imagining it in a clipped sort of W.C. Fields voice.
Fun Fact I forgot to mention- take any Yamaha product, including motorcycles, and look at the logo. It’s three tuning forks. Their very first products were organs and pianos.