Design and Application of the BiVib Audio-Tactile Piano Sample Library

Abstract

A library of piano samples composed of binaural recordings and keyboard vibrations has been built, with the aim of sharing accurate data that in recent years have successfully advanced the knowledge on several aspects about the musical keyboard and its multimodal feedback to the performer. All samples were recorded using calibrated measurement equipment on two Yamaha Disklavier pianos, one grand and one upright model. This paper documents the sample acquisition procedure, with related calibration data. Then, for sound and vibration analysis, it is shown how physical quantities such as sound intensity and vibration acceleration can be inferred from the recorded samples. Finally, the paper describes how the samples can be used to correctly reproduce binaural sound and keyboard vibrations. The library has potential to support experimental research about the psycho-physical, cognitive and experiential effects caused by the keyboard’s multimodal feedback in musicians and other users, or, outside the laboratory, to enable an immersive personal piano performance.

Keywords

• musical haptics
• piano
• auditory feedback
• tactile feedback
• binaural audio
• keyboard vibrations
• measurement
• recording