Disklavier

Good morning, everyone.

Bill, you can get any of several sequencers for the Mac: Cubase (a  
Yamaha product from Steinberg: www.steinberg.net), Digital Performer (www.motu.com 
), Metro (www.sagantech.biz), and others.

You can use the UX16 MIDI interface. Be sure to install the latest  
Yamaha MIDI driver:

http://www.global.yamaha.com/download/usb_midi/

When you play, your Disklavier will output MIDI data which is recorded  
into your computer. When you play back MIDI files, you'll be sending  
MIDI data back into the Disklavier. The E-SEQ file format will be  
irrelevant as far as recording and playback are concerned. E-SEQ is a  
format for storing data as a file.

Using your computer, you'll be able to play just about any MIDI file.  
Note, however:

(1) many MIDI files have non-piano tracks which assume that you have a  
tone generator--usually a General MIDI tone generator. If you want to  
play those files, you'll need to add a tone generator to the equation

(2) if you have a library of Yamaha-published song files on floppy  
disk, you won't be able to read them in your computer due to the copy  
protection.

Regards,
PianoBench


www.georgelitterst.com
www.timewarptech.com


On Oct 20, 2008, at 9:17 PM, boyler1999 wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I have a Mark II Disklavier with a broken 720 KB floppy drive. First
> I thought I could simply replace the floppy drive with a new one.
> Then I learned that they cost about $300 and still require the crappy
> 720 KB floppies. Then I heard about the magical DSR1 box that allows
> us to "upgrade" our Mark II to use "normal" 1.44 MB floppy disks, but
> according to the Yamaha spokesperson I talked with today, the DSR1 was
> discontinued about a year ago. I couldn't find any used DSR1s for
> sale online. Furthermore, she said that Yamaha won't have a
> replacement for the DSR1 until a year from now.
>
> So... I am thinking a good alternative at this point would be to use
> my Mac laptop with a UX16 MIDI interface adapter to control the
> Disklavier. My needs are simple: I want the ability to "record" piano
> pieces onto my Mac and then have them play back on the piano with the
> real life key movements. Basically I just want the functionality that
> I had with my old 720 KB floppy disks, but using my computer hard
> drive instead.
>
> Is there such a program for the Mac OS X operating system that will do
> the trick? I understand the Mark II uses "ESEQ" files, but I'm not
> sure if that matters if I do the recording and playback via the MIDI
> interfaces.
>
> Any thoughts/recommendations? I am happy to pay for a nice little
> piece of software to get the job done.
>