James,
You will NOT need my CD. Burn ANY audio
CD, even from MP3s. Use PianoSmart to record to floppy OR memory disk. Play
back and observe what happens if you change the CD. The system 'knows' there is
a DIFFERENT CD. No UPC/EAN since these not original CDs.
I believe that even blank CDRs prior to burning have some identifier
on the media (pre DRM debacle)! I doubt that Yamaha uses any algorithm
similar to CDDB or Free DB. Bottom line: something is written to the floppy and
that something is an identifier coming from the CD. The question in my mind
is deciphering the identifier on the floppy as it relates to the CD. I am using
FXEdit to read the MIDI data on the floppy.
Fred
From: James FryOn Sat, 10 Jan 2004, Freehold Computer Training wrote:
> 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
Indeed - by creating a hash of the track start/end points it's possible to
(almost) uniquely identify any CD with a relatively small code, and this
is how CDDB/FreeDB works (see the link I posted last week) and is almost
certainly how the DKV does it. The only other way I can think of is to get
the UPC/EAN code from the metadata on the disc itself.
The CDA files don't really exist however - they are something that are
created by Windows to make manipulation of audio cd's easier for software.
> 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.
I'd be interested in seeing this, but it will probably depend on the exact
version of the CD being used (different markets have different pressings
etc) - eg we may need your CD in order to identify what exactly is going
on.
I can understand why Yamaha might not want to release this information -
they are probably worried about a whole load of substandard material being
released for the instrument, or that they are going to lose on sales. It
is a shame that we haven't been able to find the information yet - it
would add so many creative possibilities to the instrument - imagine being
able to make a pianosmart recording of a soloist and pianist, or of an
orchestra and concert pianist!
Unfortunately I've had to flash my MPX1Z back to the older firmware; when
I update to the PianoSmart software I am unable to play back a couple of
my favourite disks (older Clavinova DOC disks). They playback ok, but all
the sounds are wrong, so bass comes out on a guitar sound, and drums on
something else etc. Not sure really what's going on there - anyone got any
ideas? I have a late MarkIIXG MPX1Z with a DKC500RW control unit.
Regards,
James