Andrew McPherson – Resonator piano

Ok we confess – this is not an actuall robot but an innovative way of triggering a piano. Andrew McPherson from Drexel university created this new instrument. It uses coils to move the strings of an existing piano and thus creating alien-like sounds.

The magnetic resonator piano is a hybrid acoustic-electronic instrument which uses electromagnets to augment a grand piano. This instrument expands the piano’s vocabulary to include infinite sustain, crescendos from silence, harmonics, and new timbres.