Disklavier

The Disklavier does not need a fast connection to work with a notebook 
computer. There are two reasons why an older notebook may be more useful and 
trouble free than a new one.

MIDI data can be transmitted between a DKV and computer two ways. Both have 
the exact same quality in the results. The control box on your new 
Disklavier will have a To Host port which uses a serial connection through a 
CBX cable and driver available from Yamaha.  New laptops do not necessarily 
have the old style serial port the other end of this CBX cable needs.  The 
other connection scenario is through a MIDI interface and one or two MIDI 
patch cables.  MIDI interfaces connect to any port on a computer; serial, 
parallel or USB ports and to the MIDI IN and MIDI OUT ports on the control 
box of the DKV.  You would need a software program running on your computer, 
like Cakewalk or Yamaha XG Works, to edit or play this MIDI data.

The two utilities I use the most to copy DKV disks or adjust the volume of 
the data both use DOS.  The dkvutil and Giebler software both need real time 
DOS, not DOS windows, to work.  New laptops come with Windows XP or Windows 
2000; neither of which have DOS. (Hopefully some Windows XP users will 
correct me if these utilities work on XP systems!)

For Disklavier use, I haven't found anything better than the older, slower 
machines that use Windows 98 and have a real serial port.  However, the new 
MarkIII DKVs extended memory disks (16 of them) eliminate the need for play 
lists.  Copy the songs from your PianoSoft disks into memory and put away 
the original disks for safe keeping.  You can still edit recordings made on 
a DKV by putting the data on a floppy disk.  Remember, MIDI data is very 
compact, so you can put an enormous amount of music in a very small space.

Carol Beigel
crbrpt@...

>From: "yamahamale <kwfla@...>" <kwfla@...>
>Reply-To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
>To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [disklavier] computer geeks here? firewire, USB-2?
>Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2002 05:51:42 -0000
>
>I know there has got to be at least a couple of comuter geeks here who
>might be able to answer this. While I'm waiting for my Disklavier to
>arrive I'm wondering what kind of notebook I should be looking to
>purchase. Mainly I'm wondering if there will be a need for firewire or
>USB with the Disklavier. From my understanding USB-2 is extremely fast
>for transferring data. Thanks, Jeff
>


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