Disklavier

I would like to respond to the concept that older Disklaviers should be upgradable to the latest models – in this case the Enspire. I am a technician, and own a MarkIIXG with a DCD1 player. I have had the opportunity this week play with the Enspire and check out its backward compatibility. Please note that the following comments are my own personal opinions and observations.

I have serviced Disklaviers since they first appeared on the market in the early 1980s. They are fascinating pianos and have brought much joy and music innovation to their owners. For all of us who have purchased one, the WOW factor has been incredible and they have they been the show ponies in our living rooms. The Disklavier was also (primarily) designed as a teaching tool. No other system has such a precision Record and Playback capability. This is where I am most concerned about the lack of backward capability as a teaching tool for music teachers who already own Disklaviers. as well as the Enspire’s inability to play the music libraries we have purchased from Yamaha on both floppy disks and CDs without extensive, third party work-arounds.

First of all, there is no control box on this Disklavier. Once you have spent the approximate $18,000 to purchase this unit, you still need to go out and buy an iPad, or iPod, or iPhone to control it. A wireless Wifi interface is included so it will work with your home wireless router. It does not work with Android devices and I am not certain that it will even work without Wifi. Then you must go to the App Store and download the EN controller software on your Apple mobile device. The Enspire also has a port to connect to a computer and the From/To PC folder should it find the computer. The Enspire also comes with an impressive built-in library of songs.

The Enspire is designed to work with a thumb drive plugged into the USB port. It has some internal memory but I have found no specs on just how much. Songs are both recorded to and played from this USB drive. I connected an external Yamaha Floppy disk drive to the USB port on the Enspire to see if it would play PIanoSoft floppies. It would not see the older 720 disks, but it managed to work with a 1.44 floppy and automatically copied those Yamaha files to its internal memory.

I also tried to plug in a portable CD drive to the USB port and had no luck. Perhaps there was not enough power as portable CD drive cables usually have one end plugging into the CD drive, and 2 USB connectors plugging into the laptop. Since there is only one USB port on the Enspire, I would like to try plugging the other USB wire into a portable power source to see if there is enough power. However, with just one connector, I did notice a green light on the CD drive and heard the disk spinning inside.

So, out of the box, it does not look like the Enspire is compatible with my PianoSoft and PianoSoftPlus Audio library. I would need to use third party software to convert the files on the Yamaha floppies to standard MIDI files and put them on a thumb drive. I am not sure that can even be done for the music on the CDs.

As for using the Enspire as a teaching tool, it can be used for piano lessons over the internet providing the teacher’s Disklavier has that capability. This means that the teacher’s Disklavier would be an E3 or a Mark IV, or an older model with DKC850 control box. Those are the only models capable of using a USB port or an internet connection.

For (teachers) Disklaviers without USB ports or an IP address, the recording on the Enspire’s thumb drive (which is a standard MIDI file format) would need to be put on a floppy disk , OR….. the teacher could purchase the Yamaha MD-BT01 Wirelss Bluetooth MIDI adapter for about $50 and use an iPhone along with a $15 Sweet MIDI Player app. I have explained the details of this connection at: www.midiplayertools.com/Connecting.htm

Conclusion. Why would anyone want to “upgrade” their Diskavier to Enspire specs? If you want an IP address for your Disklavier and a USB port, and a CD drive, then buy the DKC850 control box for about $1800. This would give you Internet Radio and piano lessons over the internet as well as capability to play Piano Soft Plus Audio CDs. You can even buy for about $50 the Netgear WNCE2001 to give your Ethernet port equipped Disklavier wireless connectivity. AND … you can even use the library of music you have worked so hard to acquire!

I do not want to discourage anyone from buying an Enspire. It is a very nice instrument. In my opinion, it lacks some very basic capabilities the older models have, like the ability to play the Yamaha PianoSoft library unless you buy the music online. You have to buy the controller separately (iPad) and the speakers. You absolutely need a wireless connection to the iPad or it does not function. Yes, it is high tech, but that does not make it better in my opinion. In fact, had I not come across a nice digital piano with a head phone jack to practice silently, I might have traded in my beloved MarkIIXG with the DCD1 CD player, for that Trans Acoustic model!!!

Carol Beigel, RPT