Disklavier

Good afternoon, everyone.

In a message dated 6/2/03 4:48:07 PM, Aaron writes:

<< Mark --

I found my MIDIMAN Tape Recorder Interface unti and manual in my
garage last week.

Care to test it out for Disklavier use?

I know a number of us woudl love to get our floppies onto a CD or
two instead of the mish-mash of floppie disks we have.>>

The MIDIMan Analog MIDI Interface (AMI) is a nifty device. QRS sells (or at 
least used to sell) a device that was nearly or completely the same. These 
devices could be used both for encoding MIDI as audio tones and for decoding MIDI 
in the form of audio tones.

For a while, Yamaha sold a similar box that had only the decoding (playback) 
feature. This box offered Disklavier customers the opportunity to play QRS 
MIDI CDs.

Currently, Yamaha's CD feature in the Mark III and the DCD1 plays three 
formats of MIDI encoded as audio: PianoSoft Plus Audio (Yamaha), QRS (or Baldwin 
Concertmaster - same format), and PianoDisc. The Yamaha CD units also play 
normal Audio CDs. They do not read MIDI files or data CD-ROMs of any kind.

The Yamaha audio encoding of MIDI data is based on a phase-shifted system. 
This technique allows for the encoding of full-resolution, full-bandwidth of 
MIDI. MIDI note on-messages, for example, can make use of all seven bits of data 
(128 increments).

QRS/MIDIMan, on the other hand, is based (I think) on frequency-shifting and 
therefore has a limitation of 16 increments of MIDI velocity (4-bit 
resolution). Furthermore, the QRS/MIDIMan system cannot support a 16-track MIDI file--at 
least that is what I have been told.

Depending upon the style of music and whether or not it is solo piano, you 
may or may not be happy with the QRS/MIDIMan results.

Regrettably, there is no publicly available tool for encoding MIDI data in 
the Yamaha format.

If you are looking for a way to archive and conveniently access a large 
library of MIDI recordings, I suggest a MIDI file player with a playlist feature on 
a computer. Van Basco (www.vanbasco.com) is a good program for Windows. i
Tunes is a good program for Mac (but will not output MIDI to an external device 
under OS X because of the current MIDI limitations of QuickTime under OS X).

You may find other useful MIDI players at the Shareware Music Machine 
(http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/).

Regards,
PianoBench