Nord User Forum

Viscount, italian musical instrumenst maker (famous mainly for organs) has introduced at Musikmesse 2012 a very interesting new Digital Piano, fully based on Physical Modeling technology.

Take a look at specs and video:

[youtube][/youtube]

Viscount Physis Piano

PHYSIS - THE PHYSICAL MODELING
The heart of Physis Piano is a technology based on the creation of complex mathematical algorithms able to simulate with absolute fidelity the dynamics of the physical and acoustic phenomena that generate the sound of a specific instrument.

RESEARCH
Physis is not only a physical model of a grand piano. Seven years of research by three world-class Italian universities and an outstanding team of engineers and musicians from all over the world have worked together to develop the first musical instrument where different physical models coexist in order to play some of the instruments that have made music history over the last few decades.


EXPRESSION
Thanks to the expressive possibilities of Physis Piano, the user not only has complete control of the physical sound, but also unlimited customizations. It’s possible to create one’s own grand piano by modifying its length, its resonance, the morphology of the hammers, the properties of the string, and much more... or to configure one’s own electric piano by defining the position of the transducers or the size of the tone bar. All this is possible thanks to the stunning computational power that is able to perform 24 billion operations per second.


INTERFACE
Physis Piano’s elegant design stems from an innovative and ergonomic tablet-style interface featuring an exclusive multi-touch, backlit black-glass panel with high-resolution graphic display. The interface can be totally customized and configured by the user according to his/her needs.




TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
• SOUND ENGINE: PHYSIS, Physical Modeling Technology
• APM: Acoustic Piano Model
• EPM: Electric Piano Model
• WPM: Wurly Piano Model
• CPM: Clavi Piano Model
• AMM: Acoustic Mallets Model
• HDSE: High Definition Sound Engine.

INTERFACE
• MTP: Multitouch Panel
• CCI: Custom Configurable Interface
• HRD: High Resolution Display (480x272 px)

KEYBOARD & PEDALS
• PGK: Physis Grand Keyboard 88 (with RW real wooden keys and IS Ivory Sense)
• GSP: Gradual Sustain Pedal

CONSTRUCTION
• PAB: Pure Aluminum Body
• BHG: Black Hard Glass
• HPC: Hyper Parallel Computing (6 DSP)

Nice to see another competitor going this way

Looks like a very innovative approach. Sounds good.

Some perccusion physical moddeling.The demo is awesome. way he actualy plays the instrument is the way a "demo should be".Though it is just another way of selling an instrument,it is how they should be.

Hi guys,

I was there at the Messe 2012 and to be honest, I was not very convinced about that Physis piano. First, it's not that revolutionary: Modart Pianoteq (software) has been there for many many years, also Roland V-piano is from 2008 (if I remember right).

But the most important, Physis did not sound like real piano, it sounded like average digital piano. If this is the reality, I don't care how many billions of calculations it's doing per second. I've been fan of Pianoteq since its first release, but I realize its difficulties and some artificial character in its sound. To my ears Physis had these same unwanted qualities. IMO V-piano has succeeded best to catch real woody attack of a real piano. Its problem is that it cannot give enough variety of different piano sounds to be really competitive to sampled pianos. (This is a best part of Pianoteq: it can really give you infinite amount of different sounds in different acoustic spaces)

But after all, what sounded best and most natural from all those digital pianos? It was Nord Piano, it was a great to hear it from audience perspective and played by great player. It was the best. Period.

I bet if you played a nord stienway grand sample with a real stienway the only difference would be that one is a dry recorded version with less dynamics,velocity layers and key weight -a little less then the real thing.Has someone tried playing them together to compare the diferences?