The piano tuner said to me that those are great instruments. I got so many midi files from various websites (some you have to pay, but $25 a year does seem very reasonable !), and some CDs off ebay that I will probably never be able to hear them all !
I particularly like the website with the e-competition, where you can download the competitor's work. It is like having a concert pianist in your living room, at your beck and call.
I love it, so much so that I am now getting worried that I may wear out my dsk quickly !
Carol, could you explain to me how the painosmart feature works, especially with commercial CDs ?
Pascal
Carol Beigel wrote:
Carol Beigel wrote:
I agree that purchasing a laptop PC and connecting it via a MIDI interface will give you many features of the MarkIV, i.e. a hard drive and playlists. It may also be able, in the future as in the past, to connect to online Disklavier music.I remember the very old days when Yamaha had a Global Jukebox and the old Disklaviers could play over an internet connection. Perhaps they may bring something like that back.I also remember life before the DCD1 CD player. I have a MarkIIXG system, and I purchased from QRS for $300 an analog to MIDI converter box that connected to my DKV. I used a Sony Walkman CD player to play the CDs. However, I do not think this would give you the PianoSmart capabilities.Perhaps reminding folks that the one thing the DKV has always done an outstanding job, better than their competition ever dreamed of, was the Record feature. AND you get to hear piano music playing back on a well designed system on a nice Yamaha piano. I have a lot of experience with other systems, QRS and PianoDisc installed on other brand pianos, and I can without a doubt say that any Yamaha Disklavier, no matter how old, works and sound the best. Just try getting service or upgrades on the other systems!To me, I think the MarkIII with the built-in CD player, floppy disk, Silent system, transposable audio and the 16 memory disks is the ultimate Disklavier system. The whole scenario of fancy attachments to pianos reminds me of the old circus wagons - some are player pianos with mandolin attachments, and violins, trumpets and tubas all playing in the bottom of the pianos. The fascination with mechanical players goes way back, and it was amazing what could be done with just air power.I do look forward to the future to see how far we can go electronically. It's just amazing what software will do!Carol Beigel----- Original Message -----From: p gSent: Friday, April 11, 2008 5:28 AMSubject: Re: [disklavier] Re: upgrade pathI agree.I got myself a laptop off ebay, with the GNmidi software (I also got cubase but I do not use it as it is too sophisticated for my purpose), a USB/midi adaptor, as well as a Roland JV2080 sound module connected to the midi out port from the piano.It is quite cool to have the orchestra coming out of my speakers, with the piano playing its part, although some of the sounds are a bit "electronic" sounding (especially violins). I'm looking for an orchestral expansion card to hopefully remedy that.The next step is to understand how to get normal CDs to work with the piano like they do with the Mk3, and which software to use.The total cost is nowhere near as much as the DSR1 and DCD1 (which you can't find anyway!).Pascal
athomik co.uk> wrote:The only upgrades ever released for Disklaviers themselves, which added extra functionality, were a memory upgrade kit for theMark 3 (?), and a Smart key update. All other software updates were only intended to remove software bugs. In addition to this, Yamaha released the DSR1 and the DCD1 to give owners the option of using newer software with extra features. Due to the nature of any hybrid piano preceding the Mark IV, they were limited by the fact that they were hardware based, i.e. the mechanics and electronics were designed specifically for their purpose. This means that there is very limited scope for implementing additional functions. The Mark IV is software based, which means that it is easy to implement new features and functions. Try to think of them as computers. A ZX81 was fun when it came out but you'd never get it to do photo editing. A basic PC (or MAC) (which is what the Mark IV is) can be adapted to your requirements for any purpose by adding a new software package - which is how the Mark IV works. For any pre-Mark IV Disklavier owners who want added features, my advice would be to get a UX16 MIDI-USB adapter and a laptop (esp. since the DSR1 and DCD1 are discontinued products). This might present a bit of a learning curve, but it will give you (almost) everything a Mark IV can do, plus a few extra features. The only thing you can't recreate is the accuracy of the recording/playback of a Mark IV, but then again, many people wouldn't really appreciate the difference anyway.
athomik
On Apr 11 2008, sjhart110110 wrote:
>I think they were saying it based upon previous experience with older
>models. Yamaha seem to always come out with some type of upgrade
>device to add features. They seem to stop this practice with the
>Mark IV. SJ
>
>
>--- In disklavier@yahoogroups.com, wandamusic@... wrote:
>>
>> I was told the same thing - in fact I had been looking at used, but
>> they convinced me it was worth it to buy a mark III so I could get
>all
>> the upgrades that they would be doing.
>>
>> I am near Philadelphia, PA.
>>
>> Are they saying this everywhere, or do we just have a few dishonest
>> salesmen.....or is there really plans to allow us to upgrade at
>some
>> point? OR is Yamaha telling them to tell us that, but with no plans
>for
>> an update?
>>
>> I will be payng off this piano for years - no way can I a fford to
>> upgrade.
>>
>>
>> Blessings,
>> Wanda
>>
>
>
>
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