Hybrid Piano

choi

David Pogue, No Strings on a Piano, But the Tone is Grand; A digital instrument that sounds like the real thing. New York Times, Sept 5, 2013.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/0 ... urn-could-love.html
(NU1: "It’s about 18 inches deep and 40 inches tall, making it fantastic for small spaces")

Note:
(a) Yahama Corporation  ヤマハ 株式会社
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_Corporation
(established in 1887 as a piano and reed organ manufacturer by Torakusu YAMAHA  山葉 寅楠; Headquarters  Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 静岡県 浜松市)

* tora 虎; 寅 【とら】 (n): "third sign of Chinese zodiac (The Tiger, 3am-5am, east-northeast, January)"
* kusu クス 《樟; 楠》 【くすのき; くす】 (n): "camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora)"

(b) "digital pianos[:] plastic, flat appliances with 983 instrument sounds and realism that would fool nobody"

Digital Pianos. Yahama Corp, undated.
http://usa.yamaha.com/products/m ... ards/digitalpianos/

includes, among others, Clavinova Grands and "Contemporary Digital Pianos" in the right lower corner of the Web page. All are flatter than acoustic pianos.
(i) Yamaha Clavinova. Piano Play It, undated
http://www.piano-play-it.com/yamaha-clavinova.html
("Many students woder what the word Clavinova meant. Well, The word Clavinova come from the word 'Clavier' [noun masculine] which means keyboard in French")
(ii) Maybe, But my instinct--Yamaha does not explain--is, because I know some Latin, Clavinova consists of clavis "key," (as in key and lock) and nova "new"--both being Latin.

(c) The NYT column introduces Yamaha hybrid pianos: AvantGrand N3 (debuted in 2009; a baby grand piano size), AvantGrand N2 (2009; an upright piano version); AvantGrand N1 (2011; a cabinet version), and NU1 (June, 2012).
(i) The column is wrong to say, "That, no doubt, is why Yamaha has now introduced a fourth AvantGrand model, the NU1 upright hybrid — with a street price of about $4,500. Finally, there’s a hybrid that costs less than its analog counterpart."
(A) According to Yamaha itself:
Yamaha Celebrates Its Award-Winning Hybrid Piano Line at 2013 NAMM Show. Yahama Corp, Jan 23, 2013
http://usa.yamaha.com/news_event ... _its_award_winning/
("In June, Yamaha began shipping its NU1 upright hybrid piano, the world's first digital/acoustic hybrid piano to combine an authentic upright action with a remarkable Yamaha concert grand piano sound sample. The model leverages the industry's most innovative digital technology to deliver the sound of a concert grand, and the feel of an exceptional upright, at a fraction of the size and cost. 'Our NU1, as well as our market-leading AvantGrand line of hybrid pianos, have played a key role in the establishment of the category, offering superior sound reproduction without the tuning, cost or footprint of a comparable stringed instrument,' said Jim Levesque, hybrid piano marketing manager" of Yamaha)

NU1 is separate from AvantGrand line.
(B) Yamaha is first in hybrid piano, all right. But its Japanese brother is right on its heel.

Press release: Kawai Introduces New Hybrid; CS10 blends technology and tradition. Kawai US, May 2013
http://www.kawaius.com/main_link ... PR/cs10_hybrid.html
("Kawai America announces the upcoming arrival of its newest hybrid piano, the CS10. With luxurious appearance, stunning sound and impeccable touch, the CS10 blurs the line between acoustic pianos and their digital counterparts, creating an instrument where outstanding digital performance merges with acoustic piano characteristics")

Kawai Musical Instruments  株式会社河合楽器製作所
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawai_Musical_Instruments
(Founded 1927; Founder  Koichi KAWAI 河合 小市; Headquarters  Hamamatsu, Shizuoka)

(ii) piano
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano
(section 2.2 Types: grand, upright; There are many sizes of grand piano. A rough generalization distinguishes the concert grand (between 2.2 and 3 metres long, about 7–10 feet) from the parlor grand or boudoir grand (1.7 to 2.2 metres long, about 6–7 feet) and the smaller baby grand (around 1.5 metres (5 feet)))
(ii) cabinet piano (n): "a small upright piano"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cabinet%20piano
("This word doesn't usually appear in our free dictionary, but the definition from our premium Unabridged Dictionary is offered here on a limited basis. Note that some information is displayed differently in the Unabridged")  
(iii) Hybrid Pianos. Yahama Corp, undated
http://usa.yamaha.com/products/m ... oards/hybridpianos/
("Combining the traditions of an acoustic instrument with the innovation of digital technology")

How? the company does not discuss further, and I can not find anything in the Web.

(d) The column has a few definitions:
(i) "A few years ago, Yamaha tried a crazy experiment. What if it produced a grand piano that was traditional in almost every respect — except that it replaced strings with sensors? What if the sound came from painstakingly recorded audio snippets, or samples, of each string from a $120,000 top-of-the-line grand piano, reproduced through a set of high-end speakers?"
(A) sample (n):
"1  a small part or quantity intended to show what the whole is like:
* * *
2 a sound or piece of music created by sampling: piano samples"
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/sample
(B) sample (n): "an excerpt from a musical recording that is used in another artist's recording"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sample
(ii) “It still has the real wooden keys and hammer mechanism — or ‘action,; as pianists call it — that makes all of these hybrids feel exactly the same as a real piano, giving you all of the same expressive capability.”

piano action: “action consisting of a system of levers that move a felt hammer to strike the strings when a key is depressed”
WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/piano+action