Leonardo da Vinci's violin-piano sounds like a string ensemble

[faulty_damper]

https://www.popsci.com/article/technology/listen-crazy-piano-invented-leonardo-da-vinci?src=SOC&dom=fb

It's pretty cool!  At first, I was waiting for the piano to come in (I wasn't looking at the video) and thought I was listening to a concerto exposition.  When I finally looked at the video, I was kind of blown away in a daintily, quaint kind of way that only the citizens of Baroque times would have had the manners for.  It's quite an expressive instrument.  Just listen to Mozart's Eine kleine nachtmusik that got laughs.  Pretty neat that Da Vinci invented this thing, if only in sketches.

[awesom_o]

This is actually the most incredible instrument, perhaps in the entire world. I would love to have one!

[j_menz]

Sounds like a less wheezy harmonium.  Interesting idea at the time, no doubt, but surely surplanted by electronic wizardry now.

[awesom_o]

Interesting idea at the time, no doubt, but surely surplanted by electronic wizardry now.

Surely not! 
This thing has way more tone than anything electronic.

[gvans]

Not sure if there's much control over dynamics, except by adding voices. One has to wonder: how would Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Brahms sound?

[j_menz]

Surely not! 
This thing has way more tone than anything electronic.

Since you are listening to it via the means of something electronic, how can you tell? 

[faulty_damper]

Since you are listening to it via the means of something electronic, how can you tell? 

The complex overtones goddamit!  That's why recordings of acoustic instruments sound different than electronic recordings.

[awesom_o]

Since you are listening to it via the means of something electronic, how can you tell? 

My ears are not electronic, even if my laptop is