Disklavier

I just upgraded to the 850 and just realized I no longer have a floppy drive to play the Smart Piano Soft floppies with the CD player.  What's one to do?  Thanx!

Sent from my iPad

On Oct 29, 2014, at 8:33 AM, PianoBench@aol.com<mailto:PianoBench@aol.com> [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com<mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com>> wrote:



Good morning, everyone.

Jon, I recommend that you contact Steve Winder (swinder617@aol.com<mailto:swinder617@aol.com>), an expert piano and Disklavier technician who can serve your area. He gave me permission to post his email here.

Regards,
PianoBench


On Oct 28, 2014, at 7:36 AM, 'Jon Arnold' jonarnold@earthlink.net<mailto:jonarnold@earthlink.net> [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com<mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com>> wrote:


Thanks Carol.  The statement about “very late model Mark II but not quite XG” is pretty much a direct quote from Yahama Disklavier tech support via phone.  I have no idea whether it really exists or not, that is just what was said to me by Yamaha and I took it at face value.

This information is helpful, thank you, as my Yamaha dealer has been far less than helpful, or even seemingly interested in resolving this problem. Knowing that the 850 cannot be used as a direct replacement for the 100R definitely helps since I can eliminate that from any consideration list.

But what my Yamaha dealer DID say, and I would like to confirm here if possible, is that the 850 is far better than my 100R in terms of music playback, and especially in terms of the MIDI stuff (ie, other instruments like drums, bass, violins, etc) than my 100R with the MU50, so my best bet would be to use *BOTH* the 100R and the 850, plugging the 850 into the input port on the 100R, and disconnecting the MU50.  That would *SEEM* to make sense, especially given what you said below, but is that viable?

The other problem is that there does not seem to be Yamaha competence within 200 miles of here (near Cocoa Beach, FL) that could or would do a service call??

The final problem, where I pretty much gave up and am considering just selling the whole piano, is that when the local dealer sent a non-disklavier-savvy tech out who tried to connect it as above – it worked and sounded absolutely beautiful for about a minute or two, then the 100R display showed:

Piano Power Off!  (01:55)
(PWM OVER)  _  ESBL

And it stops.  That indicates what?  A problem in the 100R to be sure, but what and how to resolve it, especially with no disklavier tech in this part of the universe?

Thanks
Jon


From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com<mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2014 12:24 AM
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com<mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: Carol Beigel
Subject: Re: [disklavier] Is it possible to copy disklavier music from floppy disks with a generic floppy drive?



To my knowledge there is no such thing as a “very late model Mark II but not quite XG”.  The MkIIXG was the first to have updatable flash memory.  Yamaha did this on purpose, requiring a DKV850 to be an add-on box and not a replacement for the MarkII.  Even if you could make this cable it would not work because the operating systems are different. Learn to work with your MIDI in and outputs on the Disklavier you have.  This means using conversion software to convert your current Yamaha ESEQ files to standard MIDI files.  You can put many MIDI files on your computer and use playlist software to play them through your Disklavier.  Just remember that your Disklavier can only see 99 of anything, such as 99 folders with 99 files.  Have you read the Handbook of MIDI Player Tools 2003 version?  You can find both versions at www.midiplayertools.com<http://www.midiplayertools.com/>.  It was written with early Disklaviers in mind.  The guru of Disklavier technical support is Bill Brandon (on this list) and the guru of all things MIDI is George Litterst (also on this list and who wrote the fancy MIDI book when the MarkII came out!).


On Oct 10, 2014, at 4:29 PM, 'Jon Arnold' jonarnold@earthlink.net<mailto:jonarnold@earthlink.net> [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com<mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com>> wrote:



Carol,

My Yamaha dealer told me that my grand piano is a “very late model Mark II but not quite XG”, and that I SHOULD be able to *replace* the 100R with the 850.   That would be my goal, since the 100R with floppies is quite old and the disk drive has gone out twice already, and even in conjunction with the Yamaha MU50 for the MIDI stuff, he tells me that 850 is far superior to the 100R/MU50 combo.  The only problem I have is finding a cable that can convert the 9 pin from the piano to the 15 pin for the 850.  The cable that comes in the conversion kit is virtually and literally unavailable anywhere, and apparently the computer 9-15 pin converter cable does not have the right pinouts, nor can Yamaha tell me what the pinouts should be??


From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com<mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2014 6:32 PM
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com<mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [disklavier] Is it possible to copy disklavier music from floppy disks with a generic floppy drive?



I believe the 100R belongs to a MarkII Disklavier and requires the DKC850 to be an add-on thru MIDI cables to the existing control box.  You cannot replace that box or get Disklavier radio.  However, you can still buy Yamaha pianosoft discs = even on eBay if they still work.  You would need the Yamaha floppy drive connected to one of the two USB ports on the DKC850 and put the Yamaha music into memory on the DKC850.  Then put both the floppy drive and disks away somewhere.  You can put 99 folders with 99 standard MIDI files (songs) in each on a USB thumb drive land play them using the DKC850.I believe that if you have speakers to be able to hear audio files (CDs and people singing) you can also play them on the DKC850.  Also called Pianosoft plus audio. You can even get floppies that play the piano while playing the audio files on the CD called PianoSmaft.  So you get all these new features, just not the Disklavier radio.  Crappy!  You con’t even need to know anything about pin assignments because you use standard MIDI cables to connect the boxes - MIDI In to MIDI out.

Carol



On Oct 9, 2014, at 5:57 PM, 'Jon Arnold' jonarnold@earthlink.net<mailto:jonarnold@earthlink.net> [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com<mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com>> wrote:




Carol, I hear what you are saying and agree to an extent, but in my case where I want to upgrade my 100R to an 850 and Yamaha cannot even provide PINOUT information so that a cable can be made (purchasing one from Yamaha is apparently not an option, according to Yamaha customer service), so what other options are left?


From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com<mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com> [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 08, 2014 10:30 PM
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com<mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [disklavier] Is it possible to copy disklavier music from floppy disks with a generic floppy drive?


I am always amazed by the unwillingness to use accessories made specifically for a product.  In the case of the Disklavier it is also the pin assignments of the floppy drive.  We are talking about $150 to be able to put proprietary music into your Disklavier.  These are copy protected floppies that a computer cannot read without special software.  Floppies also wear out over time so it might be better to just buy the music from Yamaha directly over the Internet.  If you want non copyrighted music just download some of the thousands of free MIDI files available over the internet.

Carol Beigel


Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 8, 2014, at 9:23 PM, mqphan@gmail.com<mailto:mqphan@gmail.com> [disklavier] <disklavier@yahoogroups.com<mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com>> wrote:

Hi everyone:

I have a Disklavier E3.  It does not have a floppy drive, but there are a lot of Disklavier music for sale on Ebay on floppies.  Is it possible to purchase an inexpensive generic floppy drive (instead of the expensive one sold by Yamaha), connect it to my Mac, and copy the music files from the floppies onto my computer?  I can then transfer these files onto the Disklavier E3 directly or via an USB memory stick as an intermediate step.



I appreciate knowing if the above steps would work, and the quality of the music on those floppies that are for sale on Ebay such as the Mozart Classical Solo Piano Collection.  Thank you in advance for your comments.

Minh










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