What Bruce Wayne gets up to in his spare time remains a closely guarded secret - a gagging clause in Alfred The Butler’s contract means he’s not permitted to tell anyone - but if Alpange is to be believed, his instrument of choice in the Batcave is a stunning, futuristic piano that he likes to tinkle on during those dark and lonely nights.
The piano is being unveiled as part of the Wayne Enterprises Experience, which takes place from 3 to 10 June. Hosted by - deep breath -
Warner Brothers Discovery Global Consumer Products and Relevance International, this is described as a “shoppable theater experience” that’s stuffed with luxury brand collaborations.
In case you were wondering: yes, that does mean that you can buy the limited-edition piano, but only if you’re willing to part with $100,000. You’re going to have to do a lot of crime-fighting (actually, does Batman even get paid for that?) to raise that kind of money.
For that, you get a French-made instrument that uses modelling technology to generate its piano tones every time you press a key, rather than relying on multisamples (that rules out any round-Robin jokes, unfortunately). The sound can be modified in real-time via a dedicated app.
A lot of attention has also been paid to the built-in 5.1 speaker system, which features 14 high-fidelity acoustic diffusers.
Other features include self-play - because why should you bother doing it yourself if you’re the world’s most eligible bachelor billionaire? - and a wireless microphone so that you can record yourself singing. As you’d expect, the 88-note keyboard has a graded hammer-action.
While you might think that a ‘Bruce Wayne piano' is a pretty random piece of superhero merch, the instrument did actually play a role in the original Batman TV series. In an episode called The Devil’s Fingers from season 2, an evil piano player called Chandell - played by none other than Liberace - sets out to end Batman and Robin by feeding them through a machine that punches out pianola cards for self-playing pianos.
You can find out more about the new piano on the Wayne Enterprises website - assuming The Joker hasn’t taken it down with a cyber-attack, that is.
