Author Topic: L.W Pianola 1 (Player Piano) -- Plays Maple Leaf Rag! [UPDATE 1.1]  (Read 4684 times)

The sound boards are large plate bricks that emit the piano sound. The more there are, the louder the volume becomes. This one has 4, so each note has the sound of 4.
Hm... In the version of the build you posted, all the keys have the notes playing through the keys themselves, not the "soundboards". Might wanna check the version you uploaded.
Yeah, really that is just so I can easily put the sounds onto the piano by just starting from 1 to 60 left to right. My convenience really, its not intended to be used for another build but you could since its not too hard to order the sounds from scratch. What I really should have done is named the keys more appropriately as bricks, so it is easier to make rolls. I need to post the diagram that shows how to easily make rolls. :U

Actually, the more intuitive route for musicians (the most likely group to make rolls) would have been to just use the note names. That way, they can associate a C with a C, not have to convert the numbers to the right notes (white1, 8, 15 are C; 2, 9, 16 are D; etc.)

Also, if I was the one making this soundpack (I hate using phrases like that...) I would have made it as easy as possible to pick out the right notes if somebody wanted to make custom songs. I would have picked a nice prefix like LateralPiano_ or LPiano_ and then added the note name+octave, so for example you'd have LPiano_C2.wav, LPiano_C3.wav, etc. etc. Your choice though. You're the soundpack maker here, not I.

Lastly, I apologize if I sound negative in these posts. I am just trying to give you criticism which you might be able to use to improve your already-quite-awesome build.

I just wish I could have got the timing better, but even if I fasten up the relays they fall out of sync by milliseconds and it slowly snowballs. :c
Uhm.. I had no problem with that on my piano. I haven't looked into how your piano roll works, but it shouldn't be a problem...

Hm... In the version of the build you posted, all the keys have the notes playing through the keys themselves, not the "soundboards". Might wanna check the version you uploaded.Actually, the more intuitive route for musicians (the most likely group to make rolls) would have been to just use the note names. That way, they can associate a C with a C, not have to convert the numbers to the right notes (white1, 8, 15 are C; 2, 9, 16 are D; etc.)

That is what I meant, since it already has the number system which is awkward.

Also, if I was the one making this soundpack (I hate using phrases like that...) I would have made it as easy as possible to pick out the right notes if somebody wanted to make custom songs. I would have picked a nice prefix like LateralPiano_ or LPiano_ and then added the note name+octave, so for example you'd have LPiano_C2.wav, LPiano_C3.wav, etc. etc. Your choice though. You're the soundpack maker here, not I.

Yeah, perhaps I'll make an 88 key sound pack for public use since the current onces are very specific to the number of keys the build has.

I'll investigate that sound board problem, that is very strange... perhaps a design flaw.

Uhm.. I had no problem with that on my piano. I haven't looked into how your piano roll works, but it shouldn't be a problem...

Strange, how is the sound activated on yours? Because my piano roll activates the key, which runs 3 or 5 events (forgive me I can't remember the exact number) which might be causing lag or inconsistency. I'm not sure how complex the song your piano was playing is on paper, but the timing for Maple Leaf is a bit of a bitch which might be contributing to a more obvious timing problem, as opposed to  Prelude no.15 which sounds naturally chaotic.

Strange, how is the sound activated on yours? Because my piano roll activates the key, which runs 3 or 5 events (forgive me I can't remember the exact number) which might be causing lag or inconsistency. I'm not sure how complex the song your piano was playing is on paper, but the timing for Maple Leaf is a bit of a bitch which might be contributing to a more obvious timing problem, as opposed to  Prelude no.15 which sounds naturally chaotic.

I looked at the events on yours, and they are very similar to the ones I used. The only difference is that I use colored keys where you use the waterFX. That could be the solution.

I don't think the song itself is the problem. I looked at Maple Leaf myself and wanted my piano to play it, but it failed cause I didn't have enough keys. The only problem with songs with a complex structure is that the time interval between the relays is different, and you have to calculate the new delay each time. Cause I'm lazy, I did songs with steady 8/8th beat, where the interval between each note is 200 ms or so.

Maybe you could have a look at refining the roll. Or making a new one would be nice, I'd quite like to play a song on it from someone else using rolls. :o

Maybe you could have a look at refining the roll. Or making a new one would be nice, I'd quite like to play a song on it from someone else using rolls. :o
My rolls would work with your piano if you renamed the keys :P

Okay there is a sound board disconnection, a glitch in the eventing. It appears that before the sound boards were installed, as Slezak pointed out, the keys were just creating sounds from themselves for testing.

Instead of updating the keys to respond to the sound board, the test events were instead used. I'm going to provide a fix.

EDIT: Its been updated. New download available.
« Last Edit: July 15, 2011, 10:50:26 PM by Sheath »

My rolls would work with your piano if you renamed the keys :P

Rather than tweak a piano it makes more sense to convert the roll.


Rather than tweak a piano it makes more sense to convert the roll.
No it doesn't. My longest roll has about 1200 notes. It is easier to convert the piano :P

No it doesn't. My longest roll has about 1200 notes. It is easier to convert the piano :P

Ignoring I have other half made rolls that would then become in-compatible, its very arrogant to think I'd tweak my piano just to play a song you wrote into events. Either contribute to the wider world of evented instruments, or stay lazy and keep to yourself.

Its impractical for me and my player system. Its not better to change the piano, its just easy for you, which is not my concern.

Ignoring I have other half made rolls that would then become in-compatible, its very arrogant to think I'd tweak my piano just to play a song you wrote into events. Either contribute to the wider world of evented instruments, or stay lazy and keep to yourself.

Its impractical for me and my player system. Its not better to change the piano, its just easy for you, which is not my concern.
I'm just saying that my rolls would work perfectly with your piano if you renamed the keys. That's only 60 keys + about 300~ notes from the current roll. I'm not saying you have to. Your approach to the events are different from mine, and I respect that. I'm not saying any way is better than the other.
It would just be a way to bring the two projects closer together and benefit from each other :)

My two longest rolls have 1259 and 1040 notes respectively, and I also have two rolls at 500-600 notes and a couple more at 300. That makes a total of 11 rolls. So the amount of notes I've come up with over the time is quite large :P

Perhaps it would be good to develop a mutual format. As discussed above, to have keys set to a more logical format that everyone can use. I'm not sure how you did yours though, you might do that already.

Save file
Keys are labeled with note followed by octave number. First note is therefore C2, followed by CS2, D2 etc. untill you come to C6, which is the last note.