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High selectivity on music sound vibration without taking other noisesMany pianists are facing the problem that their performances become difficult since they can hardly listen to their own piano sound in loud sound ensemble such as with electric instruments. It is very hard for them to solve this problem by themselves because an ordinary microphone would likely cause another problem like howling. The existing pick-up systems for piano in the market are very useful with its less howling margin and capabilities of amplifying without over-dominating sound around the piano. But still many products might have the following unsolved problems:
By introducing the new concept of Force Mode Pick-up System (FMPS), we have succeeded to develop the new pick-up system without the above troubles even in the frequent uses by the professional pianists. It would promise that they could obtain ideal self-monitoring environment when they use our compact pick-up system. It can be easily set in the piano by the players themselves in short time without damaging the instrument if carefully set as explained in the next clauses.
Technical explanation
Adoption of FMPS
Many of existing piano pick-up systems collects the vibration of the piano from the parts in full sound vibration which will be then output as the electric signal. On the contrary, our pick-up takes the vibration of the piano from the soundboard and least-vibrating parts e.g. brace and backpost. It changes the force arose between soundboard and brace/backpost into electric signals, which reproduce very natural and stable sound. Some sound modification by equalizer and reverberator would probably make even higher quality of sound than that via microphone.Sound variations and stereo effects
Simultaneous setup of more than 2 pick-ups is possible since they can be positioned anywhere between soundboard and brace/backpost, by which you can obtain stereo-like sound or several sound variations depending on the setup positions. Even 2-3 pick-ups enable you to obtain the well-balanced stereo sound through the wide range of piano notes.
Before we go into the detailed explanation of our piano contact pick-up system (hereafter call it“the pick-up”), some knowledge on the piano construction would be indispensable, though the names (how to call them) of each part might be more or less different among piano manufacturers.
The following figure shows you the side view of a grand piano.
The pick-up is to be placed between soundboard and brace, which please bear in mind referring the figure-1 below:
Next, here we show the side view of an upright piano. The pick-up is to be placed between soundboard and backpost.(see figure-2)
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