Piano with Silent System / Plastic Food Models

"Japan's Top Inventions."

The behind-the-scenes tales of hit productions and creations from Japan.

This is "Japan's Top Inventions."

This time, we're talking about instruments.

A wind instrument with something black in its bell.

A string instrument with just a frame.

The selling point is that they're all silent.

We introduce these innovative instruments.

Meanwhile, check out these potato chips.

If you try to eat one...

why doesn't the left one break?

What's this chip for?

Stay tuned to find out.

Hello, welcome to "Japan's Top Inventions."

I'm your host, Jason Danielson.

In the first half of the show, we take you "Behind the Creation."

Today's topic is this.

Pianos with silent systems.

At first glance, one of these might look like a regular piano.

But switch over to silent mode and it becomes quiet.

You can play with the sound coming through headphones instead.

After the piano was developed,

silent models of instruments like the trumpet and drums were also made.

A new category of silent instruments was born.

The piano with silent system was created by Japan's largest instrument manufacturer.

The housing arrangements in urban Japan prompted them to start development.

A major instrument maker in Shizuoka's exhibition hall.

Founded in 1887, its name is now known worldwide.

Its wide range of key, string and wind instruments

are known and loved in and outside Japan.

Here's a product that opened up a whole new market.

This is our first model.

A silent system piano, first released in 1993.

Play, and of course, sound comes out.

But when you push in the center pedal

and press a switch,

as you can see, sound no longer comes out.

But listen from the headphones.

You can even control the volume with your touch

just like before switching modes.

Our story begins in the 1960s.

Japan was experiencing rapid economic growth.

More households began to own pianos.

It was a sign of prosperity,

and more people were enjoying playing at home.

But soon, a problem emerged, largely in major cities.

The problem was piano noise.

Much Japanese housing is wooden,

and apartments are often packed close together.

Loud noise from pianos began to cause trouble among neighbors.

A large instrument maker known for their pianos

began work to solve this issue.

In a piano, when you press the keys,

hammers strike strings to produce sound.

The maker began various tests to reduce that sound.

This "muffler felt," which attaches to the inside of a piano,

was released in 1965.

The aim was for the felt to muffle the sound

when the hammers struck the strings.

But it changed how the keys felt to play.

In 1976, they released an electric piano.

It converted string vibrations into electrical signals.

The volume could be changed, but

the piano's tone was altered.

How to solve this sound problem?

In 1992,

the maker's piano division reassembled a design team to take on the challenge.

This is Koseki Shinya, an engineer who worked on the team.

A pianist since age four,

he has a deep love for the instrument.

I've been playing since I was four,

so the piano is very familiar to me.

I kept playing even when I joined the company,

so I've got a lot of emotional attachment.

The firm had been working on the sound problem for years.

The team was determined to solve it.

The goal was to make a quiet piano

that still preserved the tone and feel of a normal one.

But pianos were made for playing in large concert halls.

Research had been done to make the sound louder,

but now the company had to do the opposite.

The piano has existed for over 100 years.

Primarily, people have worked to make them louder

so that the sound can reach the very back of concert halls.

Our goal was in the exact reverse direction.

There were some team members who were quite surprised.

How to make a quieter piano?

The team discussed day after day, with many opinions emerging.

Then, one day, one member had an idea.

Maybe it's not about making it quieter,

but getting rid of the sound altogether.

The team looked at the movement of the hammers in the piano.

When you play a key, a hammer hits a string inside to produce sound.

If you stopped this action right before the hammer hit,

you would stop the sound itself.

From this was born the idea for a piano with a silent system.

Replacing the sound from the strings

would be a microchip programmed with piano sounds.

Electronic pianos have no hammers or strings.

The sound comes from a chip containing piano sound.

The team wondered if they could use this sound chip

in their silent system piano.

They got right to work on a prototype.

However, they soon ran into a problem.

The tone.

The issue was the chip used in electronic pianos.

People versed in piano could instantly tell they were hearing electronic sounds.

In acoustic pianos, the sound reverberates from the soundboard,

the strings, the body itself.

With electronic pianos, the sound is only coming from the headphones,

straight to the ears, so it sounds quite different.

Were there any other chips out there?

The team began to research, and found help close at hand

from the electronic musical instrument division of their own company.

Speaking to the division, the team learned an electronic piano

they were developing had a new sound chip.

The team quickly borrowed that chip.

They gave it a try, and...

the tone was much improved.

Right at that time,

electronic pianos were changing from mono to stereo sound.

The audio was very nice.

We had the feeling we could use this new chip.

The team decided to use the chip in the heart of their new piano.

They proceeded with the creation of their prototype.

A piano which can be played quietly.

The new sound chip had solved the issue of audio quality,

but the team would soon be faced with a challenge unique to pianos.

There was another issue facing the team's silent system piano.

The feeling when playing the keys.

In pianos, hammers hit strings.

The sound's intensity varies depending on how hard you play the key.

In their system, this movement was stopped before the hammer hit.

So, how to vary the intensity of the sound?

This challenge was tackled by Ura Tomoyuki,

who volunteered to join the team.

I heard that even famous pianists were struggling with the piano noise problem,

so I wanted to help create a piano that would be useful for such people.

That's why I joined the team.

Ura began looking into the issue.

Delving deep into how pianos function, he began looking at a specific part.

The hammer was stopped right before hitting the string.

Could they determine the intensity of the sound

by using the speed it was traveling before being stopped?

It's just an instant.

By measuring the speed of the key,

you can guess at the movement of the hammer.

So, by measuring the key's speed,

you can sense performance information.

With that, the team considered...

placing sensors in the piano's keyboard.

First, they attached thin metal plates to the undersides of the keys.

When the metal plates were pushed down,

the length of time the light was blocked was detected.

That length of time was converted into levels of intensity,

and the sound chip played a tone that matched the signal.

Key here was a microcomputer program installed in the piano

that would interpret the signal intensity.

Ura worked hard on this program day after day.

Trying it out...

even if he played hard, only a weak sound emerged.

Plus...

there was a delay in the sound's timing.

In terms of intensity and timing, key movement is complex.

The timing had to be spot on,

and there are many levels of intensity,

so getting them to come out smoothly was quite tough.

The team continued to refine and try out the program day after day.

It gradually improved,

and the silent system came closer and closer to completion.

But one day, the team ran into an unexpected problem,

people high up in the company who were against the system.

As a maker of pianos used in concerts worldwide,

the company was the face of Japan in the piano world.

Was it okay for such an established maker

to create a silent system piano?

Some in the company had misgivings.

Some felt it was absurd to put electronic sound in an acoustic piano.

They thought it was against the value

and direction of an acoustic instrument.

There was a negative feeling toward electronics

among some segments of the company.

The only thing to do was to have those higher-ups listen to the piano.

They called them in for a presentation.

The higher-ups assembled in front of the prototype piano.

We brought the piano to a large meeting room

for an in-company presentation and invited a skilled pianist.

There were various feelings about the piano,

so I was quite nervous.

First, the piano was played in normal mode.

Its beautiful tone reverberated throughout the room.

But the issue was the response to the silent system.

The pedal was switched to silent mode as the team watched nervously.

The higher-ups looked on quizzically as the piano was played silently.

They were soon handed headphones.

If the piano didn't meet with their approval,

the hard work would be rendered meaningless.

The team waited for the response while hoping for the best.

The piano could be heard from the headphones.

One higher-up said, "Nice sound."

The others passed the headphones around, listening in succession.

Their responses were all of surprise.

They said it was unexpectedly good.

They had an image of electronic pianos in their mind,

and we surpassed that image.

I was so glad I was part of the development team,

and what I believed to be a good product was accepted.

With that, the piano was released to the general market.

Sales were double what the maker had anticipated.

It was the biggest hit in their history.

Later, pianos with silent systems spread to Europe and across the world.

How do experts view this invention?

We're joined by Tanaka Tomoaki to learn more.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me.

What was groundbreaking about pianos with silent systems?

Well, up until then, in order to practice piano to your heart's desire,

you had to live in a large home, or far away from other people,

or even create an expensive soundproof room.

The silent system solved the problem of piano noise on a core level.

The market for silent instruments is expected to grow even further.

How well are Japanese companies competing in the global instrument market?

In terms of electronic instruments,

Japanese makers are at the forefront of the worldwide market.

Things like digital pianos and synthesizers are considered a Japanese specialty.

I believe Japanese makers made it possible

for ordinary musicians or people who just love music

to easily purchase digital instruments.

What role can Japanese instrument companies play in the world of music?

Silent systems are currently solving the problem of noise from instruments

that are hard to practice at home, like wind instruments.

By continuing to develop such products,

I believe Japanese instrument companies

can help raise the value of musical instruments.

Thank you for your time. Great speaking with you.

Thanks for having me.

Top Niche Creations.

Our next segment is Top Niche Creations.

Today, we're looking at this.

Plastic food models,

commonly seen in display cases at Japanese restaurants.

These realistic models give customers a better sense of what the food will be like.

A lot of effort is put into making the food look real

so that you can tell right away what's in the dish or how big it is.

Just how are these food models made?

We sent our reporter to find out.

Hey everyone, this is Cyrus Nozomu Sethna.

Today I am here in sunny Sakai City.

The company in question that manufactures the food models is right here.

This is a major manufacturer of food models.

- Thanks for having me.
- Welcome.

Welcoming me is production manager Kitade Shinji.

This is their food model production headquarters.

About eight craftspeople work to develop new materials and parts

to be assembled at their manufacturing factories.

What kind of models does the company make?

Let's take a look.

Wow!

Impressive!

What? These are all models?

Right. Made by our company.

I'm getting hungry just looking at them!

They all look great.

Can't eat them though, right?

Right.

Steak.

Sushi.

Even beer.

It looks real, down to the small bubbles in the glass.

- Touch it, and...
- Please.

Oh, I see. Ah, it's a bit squishy.

- Yes.
- What are they made of?

Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC.

It's a soft vinyl chloride.

Just how are these models made?

This is a real hamburg steak.

We had them make a model of it just for us.

First, cover a real hamburg steak with silicone.

Once it's hardened, remove the steak.

This is the mold.

Fill the mold with a special resin that hardens when heated.

Then heat in an oven for about 15 minutes.

Here it is.

Formed very nicely.

- Let's take it out.
- Okay.

- Here you go.
- Wow, it looks just like the real thing.

Nice.

Next, the model is colored using an airbrush.

Paints are blended to get a hamburg steak color, which is then sprayed on.

It's taking on a light brown.

I see.

Then a brush is used to add minute burn marks.

Next, a varnish is added to give it shine.

What attention to detail!

Here's the final touch.

Brown paint is mixed with a translucent resin.

Then...

Oh, that looks tasty!

The hamburg steak model is complete.

Can you tell which is the real thing?

The answer is...

this one!

The model has a bit more visual punch.

Right. With models, we put the food on a little angle

so it looks even more visually appealing.

How many food models do you produce a year?

Well, about 200,000.

200,000 a year?

Chain restaurants and corporations purchase large numbers at a time, you see.

This company currently holds 70 percent

of the domestic market share for food models.

It was founded in 1932.

This is their first model, an omelet,

a Western food that had only recently come to Japan.

As cuisine offerings expanded in Japan, so did the range of food models.

Now, in addition to Japanese and Western,

there's curry,

paella,

tom yum soup, and more.

They now make models of cuisines from all over the world.

And...

This is even more impressive.

They now make models in unique shapes to further show the appeal of food.

Noodles held up by chopsticks and spatulas.

Hot, fresh cheese dripping off a slice of pizza.

Even the moment of adding broth to a dish.

These models are made to really catch the eye.

What challenges would they like to take on next?

We have things like this.

What the...?

- Spilled miso soup?
- Right.

Made using the company's modeling technology,

the product actually has a useful function.

- You use it like this.
- Oh, this is great.

- I get it. A phone stand.
- Right.

What an idea.

We want to use our ability to create shapes and reproduce things

to come up with all kinds of ideas in the future.

The company has also been putting their food modelling expertise to use in other fields.

This creation uses the same material as the plastic food

to make a model of human blood vessels.

Doctors use this to practice surgeries

which involve inserting catheters into blood vessels.

They say it feels incredibly similar to a real operation.

Who would have thought that making realistic plastic food

would lead to a tool for doctors?

Amazing!

That's all for this episode of "Japan's Top Inventions."

We'll leave you with more from one of the developers of the piano

from the first half of the show.

See you next time! And Stay Inventive.

(Koseki Shinya worked on the silent system piano.)

(Now over 30 years later, he oversees the company's piano business as a manager.)

(In his free time, he appears as a jazz pianist at various venues.)

(He's been playing for over 30 years, practicing on the silent system piano at home.)

Without a doubt, working on the silent system piano

is one of my most important memories at this company.

Aside from that, as a pianist myself,

it makes me so glad that this piano exists.