Encountering a self-playing piano for the primary time is sufficient to blow a six-year-old’s thoughts. But as Mark Rober demonstrates, Chopstix, a self-playing piano that includes extra fashionable upgrades, can do issues like really converse phrases identical to a human can, which is sufficient to blow an grownup’s thoughts too.

The first self-playing pianos debuted within the early 1900s and have been powered by bellows that pumped air by way of advanced mechanisms and triggered piano keys to press themselves by manipulating air strain. Long paper scrolls punched with small holes allowed numerous songs to be loaded and performed, however the automated performances lacked nuance, and within the mid-Nineteen Twenties the recognition of self-playing pianos died off as the standard of radio and even phonographs improved, giving music followers higher methods of having fun with their favourite performances at house.

But self-playing pianos are removed from extinct. The most revered names in piano-making as we speak, reminiscent of Steinway and Edelweiss, nonetheless manufacture pianos that may play themselves however they use fashionable elements that may recreate probably the most nuanced performances and might even be synced to an actual pianist performing wherever all over the world. Chopstix is a self-playing upright piano from Edelweiss that has been additional upgraded in order that the electromagnetic solenoid actuators that activate each key can all be triggered on the identical time. Normally it’s restricted to round 30 keys at anybody time, which is already nicely past the capabilities of a human participant.

That easy improve provides Chopstix some particularly spectacular capabilities. Rush E is taken into account to be one of many most complex songs for piano ever composed, and it’s solely not possible for a ten-fingered human pianist to play with out being able to slow-down time, however Chopstix handles it with ease. (The plumes of smoke seen within the video weren’t the piano overheating, however a smoke bomb added for dramatic impact.)

Where Chopstix will get much more spectacular is that its skill to play all of its keys on the identical time—or giant teams of keys with 127 totally different ranges of power and depth due to the solenoids—additionally permits it to carry out extra than simply the notes and chords of an extremely advanced tune. Using Fourier transforms (some enjoyable Monday morning arithmetic) the soundwaves of a human voice recording could be damaged down and reproduced by taking part in a number of piano keys directly. The outcomes aren’t as crystal clear as an actual recorded human voice and Rober admits to dishonest within the video and utilizing subtitles to make Chopstix’s voice extra understandable, however it’s no much less spectacular a feat.