---
title: "Porsche Design Shapes Alpha Piano’s mPiano"
description: "Mechatronic keys and sleek lines make an instrument worth of A Space Odyssey."
date: "2016-05-11"
modified: "2016-05-11"
authors:
  - name: "Jonathon Ramsey"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/jonathon-ramsey"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/design/3425/porsche-design-shapes-alpha-pianos-mpiano"
categories:
  - "Culture"
  - "News"
  - "News by Brand"
  - "Porsche News"
tags:
  - "Music"
  - "porsche"
---

# Porsche Design Shapes Alpha Piano’s mPiano

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/archive-images/051116-alpha-piano-hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

Calling the [mPiano](<https://www.alpha-piano.com/#!portfolio/c18el>) an electric piano is like saying a wolverine is a dog-sized ball of fur in the otter family. True, yes. But a whole different animal. When Mario Aiwasian worked at 188-year-old Austrian piano maker Bösendorfer – the oldest maker going and inventor of the 97-key Imperial Grand – he supported professional artists on tour. Aiwasian left Bösendorfer to found [Alpha Piano](<https://www.alpha-piano.com/>) when he got an idea for an electronic piano [good enough for classical musicians](<https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=362893>) yet also [easy to transport](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx8ybitfsCw>), set up, and adjust. The mPiano is his company’s latest creation, a purely digital MIDI controller penned with the help of Porsche Design Studio in Zell am See, Austria.

The “m” in mPiano stands for “mechatronic,” a term we’re more used to hearing in connection with a certain six-speed BMW transmission. Here, however, it describes [electronic actuators underneath the 88 keys](<https://www.alpha-piano.com/#!portfolio/c18el>) that permit fine tuning of the keyboard’s feel. Changing the keystroke resistance means players can make the mPiano feel like a Steinway grand, or a Casavant Opus pipe organ, or a Yamaha synth or something else that hasn’t been invented. What’s more, each pressure-sensitive key features [polyphonic aftertouch](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIkKMHwXcko>) – modulating tweaks like vibrato and volume is as easy as sliding a finger up or down an individual key.

![051116-alpha-piano-art-1.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/051116-alpha-piano-art-1.jpg>)
**Alpha Piano**

[Alpha’s custom app](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW1ExLrIrrc>) provides the controller interface and runs on an iPad set atop the mPiano, with changes to parameters like resistance and pitch wirelessly sent to the Wi-Fi-enabled piano. Four potential app profiles mean a single mPiano can be four wildly different instruments, a boon to help justify the as-yet-unknown price; certain to be more expensive than a traditional digital piano when production begins, it won’t demand near as much as a top-tier traditional piano: when [Porsche Design collaborated with Bösendorfer](<https://www.boesendorfer.com/en/special-and-designer-models/design-by-f-a-porsche>) on a grand piano, [it cost $272,699](<https://myperfectpiano.com/buy-a-piano/only-pre-owned-mint-condition-porsche-bosendorfer-grand-piano-available-world-wide/>) new. And you [won’t have to retune an mPiano](<https://www.diemacher.at/magazin/artikel/id:538>) after a wet, humid summer.

![051116-alpha-piano-art-2.jpg](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/content/archive-images/051116-alpha-piano-art-2.jpg>)
**Alpha Piano**

Alpha Piano, which works with Porsche Design [to create all of its instruments](<https://www.petermmahr.com/alpha-pianos/>), put its first piano on the market just two years ago and already has a sterling pedigree. Chick Corea helped develop the company’s namesake instrument, now supposedly [played by Lenny Kravitz](<https://www.smart-plastics.com/2015/02/alpha-pianos/>) and Supertramp’s Roger Hodgson, as well as the classically inclined Vienna State Opera and St. Florian Boys' Choir. [Prince commissioned a purple Alpha Piano](<https://noe.orf.at/news/stories/2771895/>) to play at the Vienna Konzerthaus on his European tour this year, but he died before he touched a key. The mPiano looks like it will keep similar company, though: it [won a Red Dot Design Award](<https://www.alpha-piano.com/#!red-dot-design-award/a01xp>) in March, and Alpha says [Lady Gaga has already ordered one](<https://www.advantageaustria.org/international/zentral/news/aktuell/20150219_ALPHA_Pianos.en.html>) for an upcoming tour.

### Author social links