Yamaha is a noted name when it comes to music instruments (yes, they don’t just make kick as motorcycles, you know), and their latest efforts result in the new “AvantGrand” line, a piano that merges the mechanism of a grand piano with other electronics technologies. The AvantGrand N3 resembles a grand piano from the outside and will be unveiled to the world on the 15th of next month, while the N2 will arrive in Japan this July 15th, featuring a depth of 51.3cm. Departments within Yamaha that specialized in acoustic and electronic pianos jointly launched the project with the final goal of commercializing these products, and it sure as heck looks as though they’ve succeeded their goals and beyond.

Yamaha aims to simulate the touch of a grand piano to make the experience as close as possible, and they have done so by developing a special keyboard operation mechanism. Each key will be equipped with a couple of sensors that will be able to contactlessly detect a key stroke and its respective strength when producing sound. One of these sensors will be hooked to a key, whereas the other is placed on a component that will take over the hammer’s place in a standard grand piano.

Yamaha’s new hybrid pianos will feature pedals that can be used just like those found on a grand piano, where the mechanism has been tuned to perfection, making the players feel as though they were dancing their fingers across a grand piano instead of a hybrid. Sound produced on the AvantGrand range is based on the sound sampled from four locations, which are the left, right, center and rear, of a grand piano. Not only that, all of the high-, middle- and low-range speakers will come with a dedicated amplifier in order to avoid interference in each range while offering more subtle nuances in the sound.

Source: Tech On