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Disklavier

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Re: [disklavier] Disklavier volume levels

2005-08-31 by George F. Litterst

Good morning, everyone.

Disklaviers should not drop notes on playback, regardless as to how low the velocities are and regardless as to how low you turn down the volume on the Disklavier control unit.

The Disklavier is designed to play all low-velocity notes at some pre-determined minimum velocity in order to insure that notes are not dropped. The actual minimum playback velocity varies from model to model. For example, the old MX100 IIXG upright would play back low velocity notes as though they had been recorded with a velocity of about 35.

NOTE: Disklavier Pros are a slight exception: You can record "silent notes" (i.e. key movements that do not result in the hammer hitting the strings) and play back the silent notes without hearing them (i.e. the keys move but the hammers do not hit the strings). This, of course, is not what we're talking about here.

If your Disklavier is dropping notes on playback, there is probably a regulation/calibration issue that needs to be addressed by your Disklavier technician.

Regards,
PianoBench

On Aug 31, 2005, at 5:58 AM, Peter Phillips wrote:

To all
Bob Gonzalez asks about velocity levels for piano roll music on a MKIII XG
DKV. My erolls (see www.petersmidi.com) use a velocity range of 40 to 85. I
experimented considerably with these values and found this range allows me
to turn the volume down to -3dB without note dropout. I have sample files
on my website that use this velocity range, so perhaps try them and see if
this range suits.

Peter Phillips
From Peter Phillips, Electronic Editorials NSW. Phone (02) 9773 4734,
mobile 0418 407 607, fax (02) 9773 9943. Website at

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