Disklavier

Bill,

 

I echo wholeheartedly Tom's comments both in terms of appreciating your
participation in this message board and the requests for enhancements that
Tom made. Unfortunately though, your comments highlight a further issue, in
that, I have been following two Disklavier message boards in which you
participate and it is now clear that Yamaha has been receiving this features
feedback for approaching two years and are either failing to act at all or
quickly enough.

 

I purchased a Mark IV in the summer last year anticipating that the wireless
and wired network features and integration to the internet and my home
network would make available the highest level of features within the Yamaha
range of piano and keyboards. It is farcical that these features are being
offered in less expensive and less well equipped Clavinova range keyboards
and not in the flagship Disklavier range. Also, given then complexity of
computing power strapped to the underside of the Disklavier and the relative
ease with which enhancements can be made to the function of the software on
this device, I awaited with great anticipation the arrival of the version
1.2 update software and, in the main, was disappointed with the both the
lack of progress and specifically the lack of rate of progress in making
more of the advanced functionality available that was "promised" in the
presales marketing materials and demonstrations. 

 

Yamaha may consider these points minor, but I am at least one disappointed
customer of Yamaha who currently feels unable to recommend Disklavier to
friends and colleagues not because of the potential or quality of the
instrument but because of Yamaha's apparent lack of development of the
potential that was originally sold. 

 

I feel let down and frustrated by Yamaha's development of the Disklavier and
given the consistent feedback by others on this group and the lack of
progress by Yamaha in the past eighteen months, I am not convinced that our
dissatisfaction is important to anyone at Yamaha.

 

Ian Woof

 

    

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Tom Wheeler
Sent: 08 November 2006 23:24
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [SPAM][disklavier] Re: feedback to yamaha

 

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@yamaha. <mailto:bbrandom@...> com 
Web: http://www.yamaha. <http://www.yamaha.com> com 
 
 
  

"jfoodman"  <mailto:jasonht@...> <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