# Talking Piano **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 10, 2009, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talking-piano/513299 "2009-10-10T09:03:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2009, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talking-piano/513299/1 "2009-10-10T09:03:49Z")
Saw this on TV a few days ago and just remembered about it: the [talking piano](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muCPjK4nGY4), a mechanical piano modified to play voice recordings. Granted, it’s not especially high fidelity, but I wouldn’t have thought it possible at all. Not sure if this is the right place to put it, one could certainly see a degree of mundane pointlessness in this, but it’s played on a piano after all… ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talking-piano/513299/2 "2009-10-11T10:39:47Z")
It’s neat, but it’s also quite monotone, and would be quite creepy in the right setting. And I’m reading it just before bed! ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9adbd/32.png) [@Mike\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Fun)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talking-piano/513299/3 "2009-10-12T19:04:31Z")
It’s a piano run through a vocoder. Really any sound source could be used. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talking-piano/513299/4 "2009-10-13T09:35:01Z")
> [@Mike\_Fun](#): > > It’s a piano run through a vocoder. Really any sound source could be used. It took me a bit, but I think I understand what you are saying. What they did was run the kid’s reading through a vocoder, rounding the formants to the closest piano note frequencies, and used that data to play notes on a device similar to a nickelodeon or player piano. I already knew that was what the experiment did. What I didn’t know was that was how a vocoder worked. I thought they just sped up or slowed down the pitches of the voice to match the note played. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talking-piano/513299/5 "2009-10-13T09:47:02Z")
Doesn’t a vocoder usually work the other way round, though – taking an instrument’s sound as carrier, modulating it with a voice input? This decomposes the voice recording, and mechanically plays it on an otherwise unaltered piano – perhaps nothing terribly challenging, engineering wise, but an original idea nevertheless. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talking-piano/513299/6 "2009-10-13T09:53:16Z")
Clearly, the piano has been drinking. ---
**Author:** ![Pitter\_Patter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/90db22/32.png) [@Pitter\_Patter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitter_Patter)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/talking-piano/513299/7 "2009-10-13T19:21:56Z")
Can you imagine being awakened by that at 3am. I’m out the window!