Disklavier

Carol Beigel wrote:

> > Both QRS and PianoDisc make a fine system
> > that will play all your MIDI files.  I am sort of
> > partial to the QRS Chili system because it supposedly
> > plays MIDI files that you have burned to a  CD
> > yourself.

Holly Hegeman wrote:

> Thanks Carol. I was not aware of that aspect of the QRS system! I have
> lots of midis recorded on CDs, so that would be great.


Holly, I'd strongly recommend choosing the QRS Serenade Pro controller
over their "Chili" controller. The Serenade Pro was developed for
Baldwin, who sells a rebranded Pianomation system as the "Baldwin
ConcertMaster" system. Baldwin was pickier about the features,
reliability and usability of the controller, and it shows.

The Serenade Pro will play MIDI files burned to the root directory of a
data CDROM and also includes a nifty wireless remote with LCD display
showing the title of the current song. The remote uses RF (radio)
technology and will work from any room in your house (no need to aim it
at the piano).

My understanding is that the QRS "Chili" controller CANNOT play MIDI
files from a data CDROM. It could be that this has been corrected in a
later firmware release, though.

Both the Chili and Serenade Pro controllers can play audio CDROMs
encoded with "analog MIDI" (an audio CD with a MIDI file converted into
a special control signal on one of the channels). Free software to
encode MIDI files into this QRS CD format is here:
http://dp70.dyndns.org/mid2pianocd/

Mark Fontana