Good inputs, thanks. But contrary to your assumptions, I *AM* a piano player, and I enjoy occasionally shutting off the left channel (the piano) and playing along/jamming with the stuff on the right channel like drums, orchestra, etc.
Assuming that I want to maintain that capability, does that change your answer?
From: diskl avier@yahoogroups.com [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2014 6:05 PM
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [disklavier] Disklavier problem - upgrade or fix?
Jon,
The DKC-850 upgrade control unit will definitely work with everything else. However, I hasten to point out that the MU50 will no longer be needed as the same voices are resident within the DKC-850. Unlike your current control unit, the DKC-850 has audio outputs on it. Take the audio cables that connect to your MU50 and connect them to the corresponding terminals on the DKC-850 and you’ll be all set as far as cabling is concerned.
NOTE: I am assuming that you are not a piano player who takes advantage of the so-called “performance modes” in the MU50 which can be used for live performance. For general listening purposes, you will no long need the MU50 and can probably get a nice price for it on eBay since tone generators like it are scarce these days and are sought after by musicians for reasons that have nothing to do with the Disklavier.
Regards,
PianoBench
On Jun 28, 2014, at 5:59 PM, 'Jon Arnold' jonarnold@... [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Hmmm, confusion reigns supreme…
Ok, I don’t know if it makes a difference or not, but this piano was very well equipped from a disklavier standpoint when I bought it. In addition to the [slightly old] disklavier unit itself, the original owner also had installed a Yamaha MU50 MIDI unit, a stereo amplifier, and a couple of nice Pioneer speakers to the underside of the piano. (Yes, he used to play in piano coffee shop and bars with it).
So whatever I do to fix/enhance/replace/circumvent the existing disklavier unit must absolutely be able to interface with that other stuff.
If this is not clear, would pictures help, which I can attach here for the group to see (I think)?
From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2014 4:30 PM
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [disklavier] Disklavier problem - upgrade or fix?
Good afternoon, everyone.< /p>
The PNOmation system is a player piano retrofit system. With all due respect to QRS, I would not recommend replacing a built-in Disklavier record/playback system with a 3rd party playback system no matter how brilliantly the 3rd party system is designed.
If one wants to tinker with the piano without doing a clean DKC-850 upgrade that provides all of the modern amenities that Yamaha offers, one could experiment with a floppy replacement that stores data on USB flash drives. I believe that there has been some earlier discussion about this matter within this group. Personally, I would not go that route unless I had a Wagon Grand, MX100A or B, or MX80-series instrument whose control unit cannot be completely replaced by a DCK-850.
For those you enjoy access to the piano via computer, external MIDI players can be used with any model Disklavier and vanBasco is a popular free one for Windows.
Regards,
PianoBench
On Jun 28, 2014, at 11:33 AM, 'uecker.juneau@...' uecker.juneau@... [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Jon,
I'm no expert, but for the cost of the DKC 850, you might want to check out what the QRS PNOmation system can do for you. Inexpensive options are replacing the floppy drive with an emulator that stores many "floppy" files on an SD card or just using a tablet or notebook to store MIDI files and play them through the midi interface. Look at a midi player such as vanBasco's.
---------- Original Message ----------
From: "'Jon Arnold' jonarnold@... [disklavier]" <disklavier@yahoogroups.com>
To: <disklavier@yahoogroups.com>;
Subject: RE: [disklavier] Disklavier problem - upgrade or fix?
Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 10:33:00 -0400
&n bsp;
Th anks for the great response. Do you have any idea where to purchase one of those and/or how much it costs? Any recommendations for service in the Melbourne Florida (Satellite Beach) area?
From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2014 9:28 AM
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [disklavier] Disklavier problem - upgrade or fix?
Good morning, everyone.
Jon, your m odel Disklavier is a Mark II and was made between 1992 and 1997. It supports double-density floppy disks but not high density floppy disks. It records in E-SEQ format and does not recording in the industry-standard SMF format although it will play back SMF files if they are Type 0.
If you can get the necessary circuit boards from Yamaha, you can cleanly replace your control unit with a DKC-850. The DKC-850 will provide you with innumerable benefits. You can check it out here:
If the replace ment circuit boards are not available, you can upgrade to the DKC-850 in a piggyback manner in which the new control unit connects to the old control unit with MIDI cables. Functionally, the main difference between using the DKC-850 as a replacement control unit vs. an add-on control unit is that the add-on scenario does not support DisklavierRadio and DisklavierTV.
Regards,
PianoBench
On Jun 28, 2014, at 8:25 AM, 'Jon Arnold'&n bsp;jonarnold@... [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
I bought a beautiful Yamaha 5’2” grand, love it. It came with a Yahaha Disklavier DKC100R unit (the one that uses the floppy disks), and the original owner had it wired up underneath with an amplifier, speakers, really ni ce. The original owner also gave me a few dozen floppies of various genres which I have enjoyed immensely.
About 6 months ago the unit was generating an error every time I would put a different disk in. I took a handful of the disks that it failed with, down to the local dealer, where each of them played just fine. So the tech came out and made s ome adjustments to the unit, then they worked fine.
Now 6 months later, the sa me thing is happening, and its not from overuse because the number of times I’ve used the unit since the te ch was here 6 months ago can be counted on one hand.
Perhaps it needs an upgrade? What would you suggest? A new disk drive? Upgrade to CD? (Yikes, $1700!) Or am I further ahead to get something where I could put a thumb drive into a USB port and have it play music from there? If the latter, does the thumb drive need to be formatted in a special way so that the unit can read it?
Thanks!
Message
Re: [disklavier] Disklavier problem - upgrade or fix?
2014-06-28 by George Frederick Litterst
The DKC-850 is mostly navigated with an IR remote. The remote has a Voice button. When you engage the voice button, the DKC-850 will let you can scroll through the various voice groups—including percussion and sound effects—and choose a single voice to layer on top of your playing.
What the DKC-850 lacks but which the MU50 uniquely has is a Performance Mode. The Performance Mode on the MU50 enables you to create custom “patches” which are groups of up to 4 voices which can be layered onto your playing at one time. Those voices can be independently zoned to various regions of your keyboard, and they can be set to respond within restricted note-on velocity ranges. You can set up lots of these patches and save them to nonvolatile memory.
The MU50 is quite sophisticated. If you wish to continue using it while upgrading the Disklavier control unit to a DKC-850, you can remove from the current control unit the MIDI cable that connects the MU50 to the piano and connect it to the corresponding MIDI Out port on the DKC-850.
There are two challenges to using the MU50 with a DKC-850 control unit:
(1) The DKC-850 normally must be set up as a replacement control unit on the piano. If it is set up as a piggyback unit, connecting to the old control unit with MIDI cables, you won’t have an available MIDI Out port on either control unit to connect to the MIDI In port of the MU50. (However, you could attempt a fancy setup whereby you put the MU50 inline between the two control units, connecting MIDI Out from DKC-850 to MIDI In on MU50, and MIDI Thru on MU50 to MIDI In on DKC100R.)
(2) Both the MU50 and the DKC-850 would need to be connect to your amp and speakers. You may need additional wiring or a mini mixer.
You sound like a serious user of the instrument and enjoy the piano. If I were in your shoes, I would contact Yamaha Piano Service and see if the parts are available to do a clean, replacement upgrade to the DKC-850. Doing so would modernize your piano, provide you with access to DisklavierTV and DisklavierRadio, let you continue to use your MU50, and even let you connect to a laptop or an iPad with a simple USB device cable. You’ll be able to record to internal memory or to USB flash storage devices, and you can even connect a USB floppy if you wish.
The number for Yamaha Piano Service is: (800) 854-1569
If you want to go this route and have trouble explaining what you are trying to do, email me privately and I’ll help you out. I am a professional pianist and teacher who has been using Disklaviers since the early 1990s, and I am responsible for heading up the Disklavier Education Network (www.YamahaDEN.com) project.
Regards,
PianoBench
On Jun 28, 2014, at 6:11 PM, 'Jon Arnold' jonarnold@... [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com> wrote: