Disklavier

> From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com] On
> Behalf Of senderoaa
> Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2008 8:53 AM
> To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [disklavier] re: newbie question...please help!
> 
>  
> 
> I am really thinking about to buy a disklavier or similar piano and I
> would like to ask what at the cons and pros to buy a disklavier vs QRS
> vs pianodisc or similar ones?
> 
> The other question that I have if there is a soft that can extract
> the midis so I can open them without the need for the pdfs
> 
> thanks!
>
Senderoaa,

First off, I'd like to suggest you post your query to the PianoDisc
group <http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/PianoDiscUser/> as well as
the Disklavier group. People tend to 'root' for their own 'team.' I
would also suggest letting owners know the price range and type/size
of piano you have in mind.

For me, the key deciding factor in buying a Pianodisc system for my
living room was that I could choose my own piano. 

The following may be impolite to say here. However, in the home (as
opposed to miked, in a recording studio) I've never liked the sound of
Yamaha pianos when compared to that of American and European pianos,
especially older, well maintained grands. Still, the advantage of
being able to buy a new Yamaha piano, complete with recording/playback
system, ready to be moved into your home may make more sense than to
go to the extra work and possibly greater expense of having a solenoid
system installed in an existing instrument. 

Neal's statement regarding feedback made me curious. I would expect
feedback somewhere in a playback system of this nature. A Google
search tells me that the very expensive Disklavier PRO grands do
extend feedback as far as the keystroke but it doesn't look like the
more common Disklavier pianos have this feature or the greater
resolution of the Pro. What I would like to see is for the feedback
loop to sense the string's reaction to the piano mechanism and
solenoid action. From an engineering standpoint, this would be more
complete and wouldn't be that hard to do but I'm not aware of any
company actually doing it.

None of these companies is very transparent regarding technical
information. The attitude appears to be something like: "We build
beautiful things for busy, rich people. If you want to know what's
inside, you're probably an engineering student and can't afford our
product."

Before I bought, I talked with QRS. I did not get the impression that
they were big enough to make me comfortable regarding long term
product support. There is another small company, owned by one of
Disclavier's developers. The name escapes me but someone here can
probably supply it. His mechanism sounds like it might be more
advanced than the longer established makes but again I worried about
long term support.

While I have a background in engineering and in music I am absolutely
not an expert regarding pianos or these mechanisms. There are a few
experts who participate in these forums. Maybe one of these people
will comment on your choosing the best instrument for your needs.

Regarding software for extracting midis; what are you trying to
extract them from? Do you mean downloading from web sites? I don't
understand how PDFs come into this. Do you want to create midis from
sheet music stored as PDFs?