Hello Paul, I have your exact set up on a C5 piano. You can set up the 850 two ways: 1. "replacement" (disconnect your old head-unit and store if for future use/testing/calibration). 2. "add-on", with the supplied midi cables you can set up the 850 to be the front end while keeping all of the nice benefits of the Pro recording/playback features. In addition the digital instrument tones are far superior to those supplied as samples on the 850. The concert grand is much more realistic as are many other sampled instruments. Plus if you like you can still use the instrumentation supplied on the 850 as just another set of instruments that can play all at once with the acoustic piano and instruments on both head units (example, set the 500 to violins, the 850 to brass, while playing the acoustic piano or any of the hundreds of combinations. The 500 has many other features for recording options besides the higher fidelity and accuracy of the Pro set up.
Now if you want the features of the 850 like DK radio and TV, it's a simple setting on the 850 to Replacement and now you have internet features (the 500 tones won't be used in this setting nor will high resolution playing or recording functions).
Hope this helps and feel free to ask any additional questions.
Keith
---In disklavier@yahoogroups.com, <paul.getty@...> wrote :
Sorry if this is an old question . . .
I have just purchased a DKC850 control unit and plan to upgrade my Mark II XG Pro with the DKC500RW control unit to add new features.
In doing research on the installation of the new unit, I came across the following:
“When used with a Disklavier PRO, the DKC-850 does not record or playback high resolution XP data that is normally recorded by a PRO. But it does play the normal MIDI data contained in an XP file, and it plays this data with exceptional refinement.”
What is the practical downside of this? Will I lose any recording or playback capability that is noticeable or compromise the value of the piano?
Thanks!
Paul G.