This Raspberry Pi Piano Allows For Instant Collaborative Song Writing As You Play

Two Internet creatives and tinkerers, Mike and Sean, from a small company called MajorMega have transformed an old piano into a song-writing machine using magnetic pickups and a Raspberry Pi.

Now, this isn’t like the homemade Raspberry Pi piano made out of real fruits that we told you about last week. The Quaver: Multiplayer Piano is a real piano that allows for multiplayer collaboration and recording for instant saving and Internet uploading.

Mike and Sean equipped their piano with current player indicator lights, a record button, a “save and upload” feature, and buttons to play previously recorded tunes.

The duo used a Raspberry Pi 2 and needed to pay careful attention to the speakers on the piano. “Speakers blasting right next to the microphones would surely cause a feedback loop after multiple layers, not to mention the street noise would still get picked up,” they wrote on their project blog. What they resorted to was a Helpinstill Piano Sensor similar to a pickup found in an electric guitar, but built for the strings in a piano.

The initial idea for the piano sprung from Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s Keys for the City program that provides a fun way to get musical with strangers as you walk around the city. Mike and Sean have created the piano for Music for Everyone, the non-profit behind Keys for the City in order to increase donations and exposure for the organization. The Quaver will be

For a complete breakdown of the electronic components incorporated, visit the Quaver project blog.

Watch the piano’s first test-run below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoeQoblw6Sg