Disklavier

Good afternoon, everyone.

In a message dated 9/27/02 1:17:25 PM, Bin writes:

<< Referring to the two choices in your last paragraph, could you kindly 
elaborate on the differences. I went with the second set to play 
downloaded MIDI files and have always wondered about the first set.>>

Here is the  problem:

The Disklavier has a split personality. That is to say, it is really two 
instruments in one. It is a piano, and it is a tone generator.

When you ask the Disklavier to play a MIDI file, it needs help figuring out 
which channel data (from a total of 16 MIDI channels) should be played by the 
piano and which channel data should be played by the tone generator.

When you record a multitrack sequence on the Disklavier, it automatically 
inserts a sequencer-specific meta event into the SMF that tells it which 
tracks are intended for the piano. Over the last several years, I have spent 
time instructing many publishers of pedagogical MIDI files how to insert this 
event so that they can make sure that Disklaviers (and Clavinovas) can assign 
the piano tracks to the left and right part cancel buttons.

In the absence of this meta event, the older Disklaviers wanted to assume 
that the piano parts were on channels 1 and 2, which is the Yamaha standard. 
Most of the other publishers of pedagogical MIDI files put the piano parts on 
channels 3 and 4, which is the Roland standard. Authors of other files that 
you find on the Internet may use any of the other channels for the piano 
parts (except channel 10, which is reserved for the drum kit in a General 
MIDI compatible file).

In the absence of this meta event, the Disklavier lets you:

(1) change its current part setting manually (but does not remember the 
change when you turn off the instrument)
(2) designate one or two channels as the default channels to be assigned to 
the piano for all third-party files
(3) designate one of two methods of having the Disklavier intelligently guess 
the channels of the piano part for all third-party files

When you do the procedure that I mentioned in my last email and set 
L=PRG(ALL), the Disklavier will look at all tracks in the SMF and determine 
which ones contain a piano group voice. (A piano group voice is any of the 
first 8 voices in the General MIDI voice set). The Disklavier then assigns 
those tracks to itself and plays the rest of the tracks using the tone 
generator. It also lets you cancel the playback of these piano tracks if you 
push the L Part Cancel button.

If you set L=PRG and R=PRG, the Disklavier will similarly look at all of the 
tracks and determine which ones contain a piano group voice. It will then 
choose to assign the track on the lowest MIDI channel to the L Part Cancel 
button and the track on the second lowest MIDI channel to the R Part Cancel 
button. It will play these tracks on the piano and all others on the tone 
generator.

Setting L=PRG(ALL) is great except when:
(1) a file has separate right and left hand piano parts and you want them 
assigned separately to the L and R Part Cancel buttons
(2) a file has piano group voices (such as harpsichord) that you would rather 
have played by the tone generator

Setting L=PRG and R=PRG is great except when
(1) there are more than two channels of piano data
(2) One or both of the lowest numbered tracks with a piano group voice are 
tracks that you would rather hear on the tone generator

As you can see, either setting is a matter of intelligent guessing. I keep my 
Disklavier set to L=PRG and R=PRG. When I encounter a file that I like that 
doesn't work with these settings (which is about 5% of the time), I fix the 
file on the computer

<<Some of the MIDI files are very very loud. I had the same worry that 
my piano might get ruined by these files. I know Veloset can be good 
for piano solo files but remain unsure about what is the "tested and 
true" thing to do with non-solo files. Thanks for sharing your 
knowledge. >>

Unfortunately, there is no industry-standard velocity scale that all 
manufacturers use. Therefore, what is loud on one MIDI instrument is not 
necessarily loud on another.

Many people who make MIDI files that end up on the Internet:
(1) record them on light action keyboards, which results in high note-on 
velocities
(2) listen to their files using the weak General MIDI piano sound in their 
tone generator or computer sound card and therefore go to create lengths to 
boost the volume of the piano part
(3) listen to their files on weak speakers

If I get a MIDI file off the Internet, I make sure set the MIDI volume 
setting (controller 7) in piano tracks to 100 (100 being the Disklavier's 
default setting), and I reduce the note-on velocities of all of the piano 
notes if the piano part is still too loud.

Hope that helps.

Regards,
PianoBench