Disklavier

Kevin (and Sam),

I was traveling and very busy, so it took me a while to respond to your emails, but have 
now done so privately.

Here's a bit of background. I'm head of the program in Composition and Technology and 
the director of the electronic music studios and research labs at UCI. We acquired a 
DC7MkIV in spring of 2006. An undergraduate student in computer science at UCI (who 
has since graduated) named Matthew Teeter did a couple of research projects with me, 
and one was to duplicate the functionality of the PRC in software form that could run on 
any computer. To be honest, the primary reason I suggested doing that was just because 
it seemed crazy to have to pay $1,000 or so for a replacement PRC should it get lost or 
broken. (But it also opens up some wonderful possibilities for experimentation and other 
forms of mischief.) We went to Yamaha with our idea, had some cordial meetings with 
some folks in their U.S. Disklavier and R&D departments (interestingly, their Disklavier 
division is kind of a liaison between the Piano division and the Digital Instruments division, 
and those channels of communication are less than perfect, as you might imagine for such 
a hybrid hi-tech product), and they thought it was a cool idea, but we ultimately got no 
help from them at all (just because the bureaucracy prevented them from helping us, not 
because the individuals lacked good will). So Matthew just took the bull by the horns and 
figured out the whole communication system just by packet-sniffing what was being sent 
through the air!! He then wrote the software (with really negligible help from me, just 
consultations about concept and logistics). We chose to use Flash as a front end because 
that's what Yamaha (or rather, a subcontractor) had used for their tablet controller for the 
Mark IV, and we hoped that eventually we would get--if not actual source code--at least 
access to the graphics that they used for their tablet software. (We never did, BTW.) 
Matthew figured out and implemented the rest (including learning Flash in, well, a flash). 
We showed his work to Yamaha, and they all ooh-and-aahed, but the higher-ups decided 
they didn't want to license it. Maybe it was 'cause they feared having to do technical 
support for everyone who tried to use it (imagine trying to troubleshoot a million possible 
browser configurations on a million different OS setups), or maybe they're working on 
something similar in-house (one can at least hope). But at least they didn't put any 
substantial legal barriers in the way of our making it publicly accessible by posting it on 
the web.

I will probably be too busy to visit this Yahoo group very often, or provide much in the 
way of technical help, but I will certainly try to help people solve any problems they might 
be having in getting the software to work. I've also told Matthew about this group, and if 
he decides to join, he will actually be more helpful than I, since he knows the software 
more intimately than I.

BTW, for those interested in experimental uses of the Disklavier, you can find a little info 
about some of my Disklavier works, including links to a CD of Disklavier stuff and MP3s of 
a few of the pieces, at <http://music.arts.uci.edu/dobrian/compositions.htm>.

Best,

Christopher Dobrian



--- In disklavier@yahoogroups.com, Kevin Goroway <kgoroway@...> wrote:
>
> The author of the project is alive. :-)
> 
> He has some encouraging news, and I've invited him to the group/conversation.
>