Carol,
Wow, so many
detailed posts in one week! Just catching up!
Under normal circumstances, DRM (Digital Rights
Management) prevents track one of copyrighted CDs or downloaded iTunes from
being copied as a 'completely' playable. Therefore, I would imagine these
'copied' CDs choking with PianoSmart on track 1. Playing tracks above 1
should not be a problem.
However, I maintain there need not be anything on a
CD to identify the 'name' of the track other than Track 1, Track 2, etc. A CD
contains .CDA files, which essentially are pointers to actual audio on the CD.
To extract actual track names, see http://www.freedb.org/ or http://cddb-py.sourceforge.net/. The
audio portion of the CD is essentially a WAVe file, and WAVe
files are really wrappers containing raw audio data Plus. The
Plus part of a wave file would allow for data other than raw audio, but it isn't necessary (http://tinyurl.com/yutpj for StealthMP3s as
Wav, for example).
Trying to better understand how the SysEx and MTC
control the CD with PianoSmart vs. simply creating PianoSmart floppies on my own
(actually my wife does the serious playing) is not mutually exclusive. I am
still trying to figure out what is on the PianoSmart floppy to ID the CD. I will
be sending my files to MidiMagic and any other interested parties, as time
permits, to see if they can decipher this.
Fred
I really do think each audio CD has some data identity encoded on
it. For
instance, if you try to make an audio CD using tracks from 2 or 3 different
CDs, your software knows if you put in the correct disk or not when it wants
to copy the chosen tracks to your hard drive.
Also, it says in the PianoSmart manual that it may not work if you use a
"copied" CD along with the PianoSmart floppy, although so far this has
worked for me. I know that both the Frank Sinatra and Karen Carpenter
PianoSmart floppies work only on specific CDs although these same exact
audio tracks appear on different song collections on different CDs.
from my few experiences in bootlegging audio tracks with Cool Edit, I know
that you can zoom in on any section of an audio track just by watching the
timer clock in the software window. In other words, if I want the section
of 00.41 to 00.53 of an audio track, all I have to do is type in the numbers
each time I put the CD into the computer drive and it goes to the same place
each time. That's why it's so easy to record a PianoSmart floppy. From the
time you press Record, then Play, you are starting at 0.
If you notice when you install the PianoSmart software on the DCD1 (Yamaha
CD player) not only are you updating the software on the control board, but
you are also installing software on the CD player. That is why there is an
extra MIDI connection. This sync thing can't be too hard to do as I think
the QRS Chili system now does the same thing.
Why would you want to disect the sysex code when it's so easy to make your
own PianoSmart recordings? I'm not that musically inclined, but from what
my ears hear on those PianoSmart floppies, all the piano accompaniment
consists of is basic music theory and chord structure with arpeggios! The
keyboard playing is so basic that I am surprised that it could stand alone
with a copyright. I'll bet you could use Band in A Box to generate a MIDI
piano accompaniment to just about any song ever recorded on audio CD. You
could probably do the syncing with a program like Cool Edit from
Syntrillium.
Carol Beigel
----- Original Message -----
From: "Freehold Computer Training"
To:
Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2004 5:10 PM
Subject: Re: [disklavier] Dissecting Sysex and/or MTC w/ PianoSmart
> Audio CDs do not have to contain any descriptive info to know the
difference between Frank Sinatra and Karen Carpenter. This can be and is
done via CDDB, when connected to Interenet. For albums, track names are
based on song length, track position, and overall CD playing length.
>
>
instance, if you try to make an audio CD using tracks from 2 or 3 different
CDs, your software knows if you put in the correct disk or not when it wants
to copy the chosen tracks to your hard drive.
Also, it says in the PianoSmart manual that it may not work if you use a
"copied" CD along with the PianoSmart floppy, although so far this has
worked for me. I know that both the Frank Sinatra and Karen Carpenter
PianoSmart floppies work only on specific CDs although these same exact
audio tracks appear on different song collections on different CDs.
from my few experiences in bootlegging audio tracks with Cool Edit, I know
that you can zoom in on any section of an audio track just by watching the
timer clock in the software window. In other words, if I want the section
of 00.41 to 00.53 of an audio track, all I have to do is type in the numbers
each time I put the CD into the computer drive and it goes to the same place
each time. That's why it's so easy to record a PianoSmart floppy. From the
time you press Record, then Play, you are starting at 0.
If you notice when you install the PianoSmart software on the DCD1 (Yamaha
CD player) not only are you updating the software on the control board, but
you are also installing software on the CD player. That is why there is an
extra MIDI connection. This sync thing can't be too hard to do as I think
the QRS Chili system now does the same thing.
Why would you want to disect the sysex code when it's so easy to make your
own PianoSmart recordings? I'm not that musically inclined, but from what
my ears hear on those PianoSmart floppies, all the piano accompaniment
consists of is basic music theory and chord structure with arpeggios! The
keyboard playing is so basic that I am surprised that it could stand alone
with a copyright. I'll bet you could use Band in A Box to generate a MIDI
piano accompaniment to just about any song ever recorded on audio CD. You
could probably do the syncing with a program like Cool Edit from
Syntrillium.
Carol Beigel
----- Original Message -----
From: "Freehold Computer Training"
To:
Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2004 5:10 PM
Subject: Re: [disklavier] Dissecting Sysex and/or MTC w/ PianoSmart
> Audio CDs do not have to contain any descriptive info to know the
difference between Frank Sinatra and Karen Carpenter. This can be and is
done via CDDB, when connected to Interenet. For albums, track names are
based on song length, track position, and overall CD playing length.
>
>