At its booth at Frankfurt's Musikmesse show, Yamaha demonstrated a few more of its new WXAD-10 MusicCast adapter's talents.
Once the WXAD-10 is connected to a piano or keyboard, MusicCast technology can stream audio through compatible speakers - so you hear a live interpretation by the instrument. Yamaha has a select range of songs, in WAV format, available to send wirelessly via MusicCast to the instrument.
Yamaha's focus is primarily educational - it hopes kids will become more invested if they can practice with songs they know.
There are a couple of caveats. Firstly, it only works with select pianos or keyboards: Disklavier (priced at around €18,000 to €28,000) and Clavinova (priced at around €4150). Secondly, the software is not yet sophisticated enough to separate out components of songs so, while the piano can record and play the piano melody once a person has played it, it cannot automatically discern between the harmony, melody, or piano section of a track.
While it's unlikely you'll be using your piano as a hi-fi system any time soon, the extra functionality of the WXAD-10 might pique the interest of those looking to learn piano. As long as they can handle the price.
MORE: Yamaha MusicCast to get Alexa voice-control function this autumn
