Disklavier

Bill,

It is good to see your response to Jason, and I am sure that all of us 
on this forum appreciate your participation and for your listening and 
forwarding our ideas to the engineers in Japan who do the programming 
for the Mark IV. 

I would like to suggest a few ideas, some of which I have been 
requesting for over two years now. 

(1) A search function.  The necessity for this is readily appreciated by 
anyone who has a large number of files on their disklavier and tries to 
find a particular song or artist.  Right now it is  impossible to do so. 

(2) A larger internal HD drive for the Mark IV.  Initially an 80 GB 
internal HD for the Mark IV seems like a lot of drive space, and it is 
if one is only storing midi files on the HD.  However, the Mark IV 
stores CD's (required for PianoSoft Plus Audio and Smart Piano Yamaha 
software) as .wav files.  These take up a huge amount of space, and it 
is easily possible to consume all of the capacity of the Mark IV's 80 GB 
HD when one begins storing CD's on the internal HD.  In fact, I have 
already done so, and because my internal HD on my Mark IV has very 
little free space remaining, I no longer purchase Yamaha software since 
I have no where to store it.  Please note that it is NOT possible to use 
an external USB HD to store any of the Yamaha software that requires 
CD's due to copy protection issues and thus one has no choice but to use 
the internal HD of the Mark IV.  The Mark IV is modular in construction 
and replacing the internal HD of the Mark IV with a larger Yamaha 
approved HD should be possible.  I would strongly urge Yamaha to make a 
larger HD available for the Mark IV. 

(3) Enable the Yamaha TRC-100 tablet remote to connect wirelessly to the 
Internet and download files directly to either the Mark IV's internal HD 
or (if the files are not copy protected) to an external USB HD.  It is 
illogical that we have a fine wirelessly controlled disklavier and 
absolutely no way to interact with the internet from the Mark IV to 
download files.  This feature is long overdue! 

(4) Since purchasing the Mark IV, I have found the tablet remote (the 
TRC-100) to be of little or no use.  In fact, the pocket remote 
(PRC-100) has many capabilities that the larger TRC-100 does not have.  
I would urge Yamaha to provide software that makes full use of the 
capabilities of the TRC-100.  This would not only include wireless 
access to the Internet for midi file downloading, but other features as 
well.  One perfect example would be Yamaha's own Digital Music Notebook 
software.  This software, running on the TRC-100 remote, would allow a 
vast range of teaching/student interactions not now possible on the Mark 
IV.  I am sure there are many other examples of software that could run 
on the TRC-100 that I am not aware of that others might suggest. 

I will close by pointing out several of the features I am requesting for 
the Mark IV are already available on some Yamaha clavinovas which are 
able to wirelessly download software from the Internet.  The Mark IV is 
a VERY expensive Yamaha instrument.  The Mark IV should represent the 
pinnacle of what Yamaha is able to do with their instruments.  Many of 
us purchased the Mark IV expecting features to be added at regular 
intervals.  While this has occurred to a small extent with the version 
1.20 software, I have been disappointed in how slow Yamaha Japan has 
been to enable features clearly supported by the basic hardware of the 
Mark IV. 

I hope that if others share my interest in any of the above features 
(and others that I have not mentioned) they will add their voice to my 
own pleas for these features.

Tom Wheeler

Bill Brandom wrote:

>Hello Jason,
>
>I am responsible for product development for Disklavier in the United States. I am reading everything that goes through this Disklavier group. I welcome any ideas from our customers. I sort through them and then forward them to the appropriate engineers in Japan for their consideration. 
>
>Please keep your ideas coming!
> 
>
>Bill Brandom
>Senior Technical Manager, Piano Division 
>YAMAHA Corporation of America 
>TEL (800) 854-1569  FAX (714) 522-9301
>E-mail: bbrandom@... 
>Web: http://www.yamaha.com 
>
>
>  
>
>>>>"jfoodman" <jasonht@...> 11/07/2006 3:54:13 PM >>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>
>Here's an idea ... we all presumably love our Disklaviers so I mean 
>this in the spirit of community 'helping guide' (not complaining).  
>But what if we all drafted something that outlined say our Top 
>10 'wish list' items for the future (and present) and we each sent 
>that list independently to Yamaha - so they hear the same thing from 
>a lot of Disklavier owners?  Another way, of course, would be to send 
>a single e-mail but with anyone who wanted to participates name on 
>it.  Hopefully if they heard from their loyal owners they might be 
>moved to adapt some of the feedback into the roadmap ... 
>
>Or, better yet, does anyone know who the Product Manager for 
>Disklavier is at Yamaha, would be great to go right to the source. 
>
>Regards,
>Jason
>
>--- In disklavier@yahoogroups.com, Carl Youngblood <carl@...> wrote:
>  
>
>>Hear! Hear!  If anyone from Yamaha is listening, please do 
>>    
>>
>everything  
>  
>
>>you can to convince them to open-source the software portion of 
>>    
>>
>their  
>  
>
>>systems and expose public APIs whereever it makes sense to do so.   
>>It's very common for hardware companies to open-source the drivers  
>>for their systems, since they make money off the hardware and not 
>>    
>>
>the  
>  
>
>>software, and it promotes goodwill among consumers and increases 
>>    
>>
>the  
>  
>
>>value of their product, since they are in essence getting free 
>>    
>>
>labor  
>  
>
>>from hordes of hobbyists who have more time and resources to 
>>    
>>
>develop  
>  
>
>>the product than they do.
>>
>>Carl Youngblood
>>
>>On Nov 7, 2006, at 12:11 PM, Mark Fontana wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>Making the Mark IV more of an open system would benefit the user  
>>>community
>>>greatly, especially a decade or two from now when Yamaha may have 
>>>      
>>>
>no
>  
>
>>>desire to continue supporting the product themselves. At that  
>>>point, the
>>>Linux-based control computer will be obsolete, parts for it will 
>>>      
>>>
>be  
>  
>
>>>hard
>>>to find, the PDA remote will have long since failed, etc. Yet, the
>>>solenoid control system and sensor "guts" of the Disklavier may  
>>>still be
>>>perfectly functional, and the piano itself will be fine.
>>>
>>>I can easily see a third party interfacing a new front-end to 
>>>      
>>>
>those
>  
>
>>>components to keep the system going, but given the complexity of 
>>>      
>>>
>the
>  
>
>>>system, it may be difficult without help from Yamaha. And, with 
>>>      
>>>
>the
>  
>
>>>current flurry of anti-interoperability lawsuits, by the time it  
>>>becomes
>>>necessary to do this work, it may be *illegal* without Yamaha's  
>>>blessing.
>>>
>>>Mark Fontana
>>>      
>>>
>
>
>
>
>
>To Post a message to the group, send it to:   disklavier@... 
>
>To Post a private message to Todd Muncy, the group's founder and moderator, send it to:
>disklavier-owner@... 
>
>To reach our group's web site go to:
>http://Yahoogroups.com/group/disklavier 
>
>Todd's family web site was completely updated 012/22/03.  It contains some fun disklavier content and links to midi sites among many other things, The url is:
>http://MuncyFamily.com 
>
>THINKING OF LEAVING THE GROUP?
>If you are thinking of unsubcribing because you are getting too much mail, go the the web site and change your email delivery option instead.  That will fix the problem, while maintaining your access to the group.  If you insist on leaving us completely send a blank email to:
>disklavier-unsubscribe@... 
>
>Know someone who wants to join?  Have them send a blank email to:
>disklavier-subscribe@... or give them this link:
>http://Yahoogroups.com/group/disklavier/join 
> 
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>To Post a message to the group, send it to:   disklavier@...
>
>To Post a private message to Todd Muncy, the group's founder and moderator, send it to:
>disklavier-owner@...
>
>To reach our group's web site go to:
>http://Yahoogroups.com/group/disklavier
>
>Todd's family web site was completely updated 012/22/03.  It contains some fun disklavier content and links to midi sites among many other things, The url is:
>http://MuncyFamily.com 
>
>THINKING OF LEAVING THE GROUP?
>If you are thinking of unsubcribing because you are getting too much mail, go the the web site and change your email delivery option instead.  That will fix the problem, while maintaining your access to the group.  If you insist on leaving us completely send a blank email to:
>disklavier-unsubscribe@... 
>
>Know someone who wants to join?  Have them send a blank email to:
>disklavier-subscribe@... or give them this link:
>http://Yahoogroups.com/group/disklavier/join 
> 
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>  
>