ONE OF A KIND

UNA CORDA faithfully captures the special sound signature of a custom-made contemporary piano with one string per key – originally created by David Klavins in close collaboration with composer Nils Frahm. Whether you’re crafting melodies for film or simply introducing fresh elements into electronic, pop, or jazz, UNA CORDA offers a tone unlike anything your audience has heard before.

FULL CONTROL AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
An easy-to-use interface gives you full control of instrument parameters. Select from three distinct sound banks. Use the Workbench to sculpt the primary characteristics of the sound. Adjust the dynamic characteristics and add overtones in the Response section. Then polish your sound in the Finish section by integrating vintage effect chains, reverbs, and more. The interface allows you to easily transform a pure-sounding piano into a noisy, percussive instrument or ambient soundscape.

CREATED IN COLLABORATION WITH ULI BARONOWSKY
Uli Baronowsky and Galaxy Instruments captured the intimate sounds and minute details of the physical instrument to provide a stunning virtual version in ultimate resolution. In collaboration with Native Instruments, Uli and Galaxy Instruments have previously created THE GIANT, THE DEFINITIVE PIANO COLLECTION, and RISE & HIT.

AT A GLANCE: UNA CORDA
Product type: KOMPLETE Instrument
Number of sounds: 100 Snapshots, 3 NKIs
For use with: Free KONTAKT 5 PLAYER (included in free KOMPLETE PLAYERS), or KONTAKT 5
Sound Category: Prepared Piano
Size: 10 GB

Link: http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/keys/una-corda/?content=3237&uuh=ec1865cee910b50ad26546c72433e3df&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Una+Corda+c=Una_Corda+b=Komplete+t=Release_PD

 

Very interesting piano design. I like the sound. Hopefully it will be included in Komplete 11 Ultimate.

 

Native Instruments do love their pianos

 

I was waiting for this type of piano. I love its soft and bright character

 

Oh ... wait ... it's ... it's ... it's a piano, erm. Yes.

 

Despite the fact that there's tons of pianos, I am always curious about new ones. It's amazing.

 

Last edited: Dec 14, 2015

Haha same thought here!

 

It most certainly has a very delicate (almost ethereal) quality. I'd like to try T. Monk's "Round Midnight" on it. (Just kidding). Might even tame my ham-fisted approach to the keys.

 

Klavins and the Baron. Enough said. Good follow up to the Giant.

 

Amazing sound, now i am including it in a new album! i want to share some videos related to it and an interview:

"Now Frahm has decided to reinvent the piano itself. In collaboration with David Klavins, a master craftsman based in Balingen, southern Germany, Frahm has developed the Una Corda, an instrument that seeks to overcome the limitations of conventional design. "

http://www.electronicbeats.net/on-redesigning-the-piano-an-interview-with-nils-frahm/
ON REDESIGNING THE PIANO: AN INTERVIEW WITH NILS FRAHM

Not content with reinventing piano music, Berliner Nils Frahm is now reinventing the piano himself—with the help of craftsman David Klavins. Wyndham Wallace w ...


BY EB STAFF

Not content with reinventing piano music, composer Nils Frahm is now reinventing the piano himself—with the help of craftsman David Klavins. Wyndham Wallace went to meet him to find out more ahead of the instrument’s debut at Berlin’s Michelberger Hotel on June 10th.



Nils Frahm has spent the last five years or so reinventing piano music, refusing to be constrained by its familiar restrictions and often modifying the instrument to suit his needs. 2011’s Felt saw the thirty-three-year-old Berliner tamping his piano’s strings with the aforementioned textile, while the following year’s Screws was composed for nine fingers after he broke his thumb falling out of bed. He’s also collaborated with a cast of similarly minded musicians, making downbeat electronica with composer Olafur Arnalds, recording with cellist Anne Müller, engineering Dustin O’Halloran (also known for classical-meets-ambient project A Winged Victory For The Sullen) or producing friend Peter Broderick. Indeed, Frahm is unafraid of employing technology to enhance his art, with his live shows renowned for sheer spectacle as he spins between his different keyboards. The joy of the latter is a fact made clear on last year’s extraordinary live album, Spaces, in which the virtuoso performer combines his traditional instrument with synthesisers and electronic processing to remarkable, dramatic effect. Now Frahm has decided to reinvent the piano itself. In collaboration with David Klavins, a master craftsman based in Balingen, southern Germany, Frahm has developed the Una Corda, an instrument that seeks to overcome the limitations of conventional design. In advance of the Una Corda’s grand unveiling on June 10th at a free event at Berlin’s Michelberger Hotel, Frahm took a short break from his extensive touring schedule to speak to Wyndham Wallace about fulfilling his dream of having an instrument built according to his specifications, and why innovation in the field of pianos is so challenging.



You’re heading home to Berlin soon, but you’ve been on the road quite a while now.

I haven’t seen my place in a very long time! I just played a show in Dublin yesterday, and we’re on the way to Paris. I was also in Denmark working on a theater piece for a couple of weeks, and in Australia. I played the Sydney Opera House, and the response was quite overwhelming.

Not bad for a man who started out playing the piano on his own.

Yeah, I know what you mean. But sometimes I think it’s not only about playing the piano. It’s also about telling stories, and having a narrative in some sort of way, without having lyrics. I love having projects you can talk about, like the whole piano building idea. I also have two old gentlemen building me an organ that I can take on tour. It sounds small, but it’s quite a big thing. It will be a midi-controlled organ made out of two organs which are reassembled.

Like an organ transplant?

Yeah, an organ recycling project where they maybe take down a church, then we rescue the pipes and build them onto a new body. I really like having the opportunity and budget to fulfil my instrument-builder dreams. I always see a possibility to extend the expressions and possibilities of an instrument, and when you start building an instrument, then you can implement so many things which might be new, or odd, or special. So combining composing and playing my music with building the instrument is something quite fun. It made me think ofHarry Partch: he built all his instruments himself, and he even had completely new scales. He built, for example, an instrument with forty-two notes within one octave, which is many notes for one octave. People like him inspire me.

Having your own piano and organ built are not cheap projects. Are these things you’re funding yourself?

I’m playing many shows at the moment, and I could probably buy myself a new car with that money, or go shopping, but I don’t need much. I’ve always spent all the money I had on instruments anyway. So rather than buying a nice Steinway, I thought I’d much rather have something built from scratch, because I love buying instruments but buying pianos is my leastfun thing. It never feels like a piano is done for me. There’s something wrong about a piano, I think. The piano industry has one big problem: you have to do a cast iron frame, and for that you have to build the form, and that’s very expensive. So once you’ve designed the frame, you want to make at least fifty to five hundred pieces of that very frame. So only Yamaha, Steinway—bigger companies—can afford to design their own piano. The next problem is that Steinway rules the world. There’s nothing bad about Steinway, but they follow a very traditional path. When you see a piano built with wood all around it, it’s very stupid, because all that wood blocks off the sound. Every time I come to a concert venue, I have to disassemble the whole piano to make the sound flow. So I thought, “Why would I want to pay for all that extra wood if I never use it?” I think that a piano was more like furniture one hundred or two hundred years ago, so what it looked like was the biggest concern. My biggest concern is how the piano sounds! Steinway said a hundred years ago, “OK, this is the ideal piano. It can’t be better than this.” That’s their whole problem. Or that’s my problem at least. Yamaha basically builds a Steinway cover, and other big companies, they basically build cheaper Steinways. So there’s only one type of piano out there, and that challenges me because I don’t like uniformity. I like diversity, and I like something unique, to play with something that kind of fits your personality. Then I found David Klavins. He’s an ingenious engineer, and he’s also radical enough to try new things. He doesn’t agree with Steinway’s dogma that the piano can’t be improved. He says it should be like an ongoing evolution.



David Klavins at work

How did you meet?

He got in touch because he wanted me to try The Giant, which he built and is the world’s largest piano. So I drove to Tubingen in south Germany and did a couple of days of recording on that instrument. We talked about my love of very small instruments and he said that he’d always wanted to build a piano that only has one string per note. I’m not sure if you noticed, but a piano normally has three strings per hammer, and that puts almost three times as much tension on the frame. Therefore the frame needs to be heavy, and the whole instrument gets heavy. With one string per note it’s easier to tune, it’s much lighter, it’s much cheaper, and it’s much quieter. I said “That’s my dream instrument!” So he started immediately.

What other qualities does it have that are unique? Using material from old pianos?

That’s something I insisted on, because so many pianos get thrown away after a certain time. Mechanical instruments can’t be repaired, so after a hundred years basically a piano’s dead. I think the wood gets better with time but mechanics don’t. So I said, “Please take the wood from an old instrument so it has some soul already, because if you take brand new wood it might take ten to fifteen years until the wood really eases in.” It’s very inspiring to listen to him talk, because he says, “Let’s not make a piano like they did a hundred years ago. We can do much better with modern technologies today.”

So this is much more than a novelty piano?

It basically shows that pianos can be improved. They don’t need to have eighty-eight keys, they don’t need to be black and shiny, and they don’t need to look like a coffin. I haven’t really played it yet, but from what I know, and from what I’ve seen and heard with sound tests, it’ll be great! I also thought how nice it must be to build an instrument yourself and then play it for the first time and discover what you’ve created. You work for months and months and months, and then the first time sitting down in front of it and playing a couple of notes and going, “That’s it” That must be very thrilling.

So what can we expect from your performance at the Michelberger Hotel? Is it just going to be you and the piano?

I might play one or two tunes. But I want people to touch it. I want people to see it. I want people to ask questions. I want people just to think about the idea of instruments and see how important instruments are to musicians, and how much they change their music. I think instrument builders play one of the biggest roles in the music industry. I’m really aware that people who create instruments for musicians are as important as the musicians. Why should I be the star? The person who builds the instrument should be a star as well.

Finally, are you planning to record a new album any time soon?

I’ve just got to sit down and mix and mix and mix and see what feels good. I have material for five or six albums. It’s not just recording music which makes an album for me. Every album so far has a nice story you can talk about. So I wonder what will be the story of the next one. The music will follow the story. ~



http://createdigitalmusic.com/2014/...st-century-piano-built-nils-frahm/#more-33757
(interview with the Una Corda builder David Klavins)
Acoustic Revelation: Inside the Una Corda, the 100kg, 21st Century Piano Built for Nils Frahm
— June 16, 2014
22


It’s all acoustic technology. But, at last, it’s 21st century acoustic technology. Photo: CDM.

Now this is a revolutionary etude.

There’s no question the acoustic grand is an engineering wonder, a musical instrument with literal tons of string tension producing unparalleled sound. But it’s a 19th Century technological marvel. Innovations, apart from subtle variations, have been largely frozen since the likes of the Steinway & Sons Model D-274. The Model D is a beauty; the question is, what have builders been doing with the 155 years since it was introduced?

Builder David Klavins is a master instrument maker re-imagining the piano for our century. And he isn’t afraid to go to extremes to do it. His 1987 Model 370 was so named because it’s 370 cm – over 12 feet – tall. It’s an upright piano so huge, there’s a flight of stairs attached to it to give the pianist access. (Native Instruments sampled the 370i as The Giant, in case you don’t have a two-story-high living room.)

The Klavins UC – Una Corda – is more down to earth. With one string per key, rather than the usual two or three, it’s far lighter and easier to build. Those strings are paired with a thinner soundboard, shedding still more weight. It omits the bulky bridges necessary on a conventional grand, exposing more sound. The result is an instrument that is phenomenally more mobile; the entire instrument weighs under 100 kg (just over 200 lbs), even with its complete action installed.

The first UC is a special commission for pianist Nils Frahm, the Hamburg-born composer and musician. Nils invited guests into the courtyard of the Michelberger Hotel in his home base of Berlin in order to give the UC its first public debut. David Klavins came along for the event, quick to give anyone an earful of philosophy about how piano innovation can again move forward.

We got hands-on (literally) with this new instrument, and got a chance to talk to its maker about how it’s different, and why it sounds the way it does.


Crowds gather in the sweltering summer to cool off with exquisite music from Nils Frahm – and their fellow guests. Photo: CDM.


To really appreciate the UC, you have to play it in person. First, the una corda name is a bit of a misnomer, if you’re accustomed to the meaning as it applies to the pedal of the same name. That pedal shifts the hammers, but still strikes as many as two strings, and the resulting sound can be a bit muted or dull, because you’re still using the same thicker soundboard.

The klavins UC is anything but muted. That thinner soundboard, unobstructed by the bulky metal and wood structures in a normal piano, feels almost like it was borrowed from a guitar. The resulting sound is delicate and intimate. It sounds like a piano, but in a way that seems almost impossible; it’s bright and resonant the way the sweet spot of a concert grand might be, but across every register, and emanating out of tiny instrument. The sound is whisper-soft: even with amplification, you could hear the soft rustling of the metal-foil flags suspended above the courtyard as they blew in the breeze. But it’s also clear and rich with color.

Then there’s the action, which is what got me hooked. It’s feather-light, confident but unbelievably quick. It feels like a small spinet piano, if that were tuned like a high-performance race car. It’s so easy to play, in fact, that it could fool almost anyone into believing you suddenly had virtuoso powers. I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical of the whole instrument. Then I sat down at it – and desperately wanted to roll it back home with me. (And, in fact, had no one notice, I could have. This is a piano one person can move.)

Nils Frahm’s pensive, gentle music was perfectly suited to the character of the instrument built for him. He also made use of a clever feature: because access to the strings is uninhibited, it’s possible to add preparations simply by attaching strips of fabric via velcro stands on either end of the soundboard.


Attaching a cloth preparation, via velcro – smart. Photo: CDM (erm, actually, someone I lent my camera to).


Guests give the instrument a try.

But this isn’t just a piano for Mr. Frahm. Klavins intends to put the instrument into production for the general public, with customizations possible. The pricing should be under 10,000€ – a bargain for a piano of this quality, let alone one custom built, and all thanks to the elegant design inside. And it’s not hard to see a market. The instrument is equally well suited to historical and new contemporary compositions, and it’s vastly easier to tune, move, and afford than more conventional acoustic pianos.

For a sense of the instrument, listen to David demonstrate its sound, followed by an impromptu recording of one of Nils’ performances. (The sound quality of the latter is poor, but you get the idea. The former I thought initially was some sort of experimental tuning, but I see from the description that it’s a sound test and the tuning system here is “not quite yet tuned.”)

Guests of the event were able to come play the instrument. In a moment that took the audience’s breath away, a skateboarding English tourist proved to have an angelic, otherworldly voice. (That tourist turned out to be musician Tom Adams.) Nils first acted as a human microphone stand, then joined in. In the oppressive summer heat, it was a magical moment: not a spine without chills, not a dry eye.

I grew up a piano player before all other things, from the time I was literally old enough to reach the keys. So I was thrilled to get to talk to David about his instrument for CDM. It’s a chance to meet the man who might be the first great new piano innovator in generations.

CDM: Let me just clarify: you’ve paired the single strings with a soundboard that is – half as thick as a conventional concert grand? Anything else that you should share about the construction?

David: The soundboard of the UC is on average half the thickness of a concert grand piano. An additional major difference is the cross-laminating of two layers of solid spruce at the UC, versus a single layer solid spruce soundboard at any conventional piano, including the Steinways. Plus, there’s no ribs on my soundboard, which makes it way more flexible, enables the soundboard to vibrate freely at all the various regions where the respective string vibrations are transferred via the bridge.

The strings themselves, do they differ from what you’d find on a similarly-sized upright or spinet?

Yes, the strings differ. I’ve chosen 3 different types of Stephen Paulello steel wire, versus one general type of wire that is applied to all industrial production pianos world wide. Stephen Paulello has developed steel wires of differing strength, which allows for choosing optimal types of steel to adjust the percentage of load of the strings, which again is one of the most important factors to achieve a balanced tonal character at the piano. You can find a general description of Stephen’s wires here:
http://www.stephenpaulello.com/en/cordes

Can you describe the way in which the string and soundboard interact? I was really surprised that this piano has some of the brightness of a grand piano, but with the sort of intimacy of a guitar and guitar resonance.

At the UC, the acoustic concept of design is a tension-less soundboard of high vibration ability that offers a maximum sensitivity to the strings, at the given frequencies that range from 55 to approximately 2100 [Hz]. For an optimal interaction of strings and soundboard, it is vital that the soundboard shows no excessive stiffening, which inevitably occurs at the traditional design of a piano soundboard, because of the ribs and crown, essentially, plus the 3-chord wiring. Once you will have a chance to analyze the UC sound character, you will notice much more similarities to a grand, than an upright piano, except the absolute loudness, for the reasons mentioned above.

The action itself was to me as impressive as the sound. You mentioned that you had introduced some innovation in the construction of this action, as well – how is it constructed?

The action design takes advantage of the fact that I use much lighter hammers, compared to any traditional piano. The mass of the piano hammer is a crucial factor directly relating to the potential speed of the hammer movement, in particular because its location at the farthest and of the moving lever – the hammer shank.

Because of the mass reduction at the hammer, which I achieve by thinner hammers and the materials in use (bamboo cores in particular), I have added weights to the back check, which fosters a precise control of touch, and significantly supports a fast let-off of the jacks. Altogether this concept achieves a more ‘grand-like’ feel of the action, including a repetition speed that is unmatched by regular upright action mechanisms.

What was the working relationship like with Nils Frahm? Was there specific feedback or input he provided?

Nils’ input throughout all stages of the designing process was as significant technically as it was inspiring by its very nature – his subtle, thorough attitude and approach to our project, paired with a deep understanding of how piano sound can be created and influenced was a major factor for me to finally carve out the details of the design. At all stages of the designing and building process we stayed in close contact, exchanging our thoughts, discussing the various options, finally finding agreement on all aspects of the design that were implemented. In my view, Nils’ input was vital for achieving the final results with the UC.

The tuning in the video sounds interesting. Are there other tunings you’ve found work well with the instrument? And tuning appears to be quite simple and quick, closer to what you’d do on a harpsichord than a piano, yes?

The UC should turn out to be the most appropriate modern piano to suit the acoustic visions of pianists who specialize in historical music compositions, in my view, because its sound potential (and design) accomplishes several aspects of significant importance on this field:

a) the una-corda-principle creates a pure tonal character, that (depending on the playing technique) resembles the early hammer pianos, harpsichord sounds, and something of a clavichord, at the same time offering the versatility of touch of a highly sophisticated modern action.

b) though the string scale is that of a modern piano, it is most easy to apply different historical tunings to the piano, as you suggest – it takes roughly 20 minutes for a fine-tuning of the UC.

Would adding pickups or other amplification be possible? Would it be desirable? I imagine it could open some possibilities, since the instrument is so quiet, but might also expand sonic possibilities.

Adding pickups and other means of sound amplification (or modulation) seems to me a logical option, adding to the versatility of the sound potential of the UC. It is possible very easily, and I believe Nils will definitely demonstrate a lot of such variations, in the course of time. Straight stringing in combination with the steel-frame without inner support bars offers a lot of space for all kind of additional ‘attachments’.

You’ve of course worked on a variety of instruments. Can you tell us how the UC fits in with other creations? Obviously, the Klavins Klavier Modell 370 (and 470i) is an opposite extreme.

The UC fits perfectly in my philosophy of piano sound design, which can be defined as: exploring and expanding acoustic piano sound to a maximum, be it the maximum range of dynamics, or the tonal colors, or other factors, like sustain, balance of registers, and last not least, the range of the keyboard. In my view, piano sound generally must be as versatile, as pleasant, inspiring to pianists, composers and listeners, as possible. To achieve all of the mentioned, we need to step outside the boundaries that have been imposed by the traditional piano industry.

What’s next for you – will you focus on the UC?

My intentions is to focus on the UC as much as possible, trying not to delay my next concert piano model, the 450i. For sure I find it most fascinating to explore the sound potential of a small size piano as well, especially thinking of how relevant it is for a multitude of creative artists who can’t afford a private concert hall, but are eager to find new means of musical expression. It is my very personal opinion that music can ‘save the world’, at least in a way, and if I can contribute to this perspective by building inspiring pianos, I feel like the luckiest man on Earth.

Your work now is really in acoustic technology. Would you ever consider incorporating electronics such as pickups, or is it simply a matter of acoustic technology offering enough to explore without it?

While my personal expertise is piano acoustics, I’m absolutely open to, and would welcome any way of a meaningful collaboration with experts on the field of electronics, if thy have ideas to offer how to increase the potential of the acoustic piano by combining it with the means of modern technology – definitely positive.

Photo Essay: Nils Takes to the Keys

Photos: Claudia Gödke.













More on the piano:
http://www.klavins-pianos.com/
A World First in Piano Building – The ‘klavins UC’ – Una Corda Piano

More on the pianist:
http://www.nilsfrahm.com/

 

Last edited: Jan 12, 2016