Disklavier

Good morning, everyone.

In a message dated 9/14/02 5:43:23 PM, Mark Miller writes:

<< As a teacher of jazz piano I have " distance jazz piano students from
around the country and overseas. Some of them own disklaviers and I've
heard that it is possible to convert disklavier floppies into a format
that might be transmittable to computer owners/students around the
world. If someone can enlighten me on this subject I would be deeply
appreciative. >>

I don't recall if this question was answered.

Mark, it sounds as though you may have an older model Disklavier. Starting 
with the Mark IIXG, all Disklaviers record in the universally-recognized 
format called Standard MIDI File Type 0 by default. If you or your students 
have a Mark IIXG or later instrument, all that is necessary is that you take 
a DOS-formatted disk (which, if necessary, you can format in the Disklavier 
as "SMF") and record onto it. Then, you can pop the disk into your computer 
and email the recorded ".mid" file to anyone. The .mid file will be co
mpatible with all modern, MIDI instruments and music software programs.

The older Disklaviers recorded in a Yamaha format known as E-SEQ. The modern 
Disklaviers will read E-SEQ files in addition to SMF. If you or your students 
have an older Disklavier, record onto a floppy disk in the normal fashion. 
Then, pop the disk into your computer and email the recorded ".fil" file as 
an attachment. As long as the person at the other end copies just a single 
.fil to a floppy disk, their instrument should be able to read it okay. If 
more than one .fil file is copied to the disk, you may have to force the 
Disklavier to create a directory file for the disk.

Keep in mind that Disklaviers that only record in E-SEQ also require 
double-density disks. Later Disklaviers can use DD or high-density disks. 
Also, you should not mix .fil and .mid files on the same disk.

If you or your students have a Mark IIXG or later, your Disklavier has a 
built-in function that can convert from one type to another.

In general, my usual recommendation is that owners of older Disklaviers add a 
DSR1 to their instrument. This gives them a new control unit (connect by MIDI 
cables to the old unit) and all of the modern MIDI features, including 
support for SMF, high density disks, and a built-in tone generator. As an 
alternative to the DSR1, if you have a Mark II instrument, you may be able to 
get an official upgrade kit installed that updates the instrument to a Mark 
IIXG. These kits are hard to find now.

The DSR1 costs around $1,295 at suggested retail price. This is not cheap and 
many people in this group prefer to use other strategies for converting files 
from one type to another. If you can afford the upgrade, the convenience is 
significant.

Regards,
PianoBench