Disklavier

Thanks for reply.  Sit tight I will.


On Sep 5, 2009, at 10:39 PM, Bill Brandom wrote:

> Hi Rich,
>
> Sit tight. I think we are going to be able to help.
>
> Can't say much more at the moment.
>
> Bill
>
> Bill Brandom
> Senior Technical Manager
> Keyboard Division
> Yamaha Corporation of America
> bbrandom@...
> 714-522-9417
> ________________________________________
> From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com [disklavier@yahoogroups.com] On  
> Behalf Of Freeman Richard [rfreeman26@...]
> Sent: Saturday, September 05, 2009 3:44 PM
> To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [disklavier] Mark4 Software
>
> Bill, would like to add my two-cents regarding my Yamaha wish-list.  
> Apologies in advance for inundating you on this thread.
>
> As an owner of a Mark II XG series purchased in 2000 - I can only  
> dream of what you Mark IV owners can do. I missed the boat and  
> didn't purchase the DCD1 add-on CD unit - which is no longer  
> produced. I no longer own a PC that can record 3.5' floppy  
> diskettes. I've tried numerous players and/or sequencers that  
> adequately play MIDI files, never found an appropriate Mac solution  
> to play native Eseq files.
>
> So, I feel Yamaha has left me stranded in the previous century. Mind  
> you, as a piano, my DCS2 5'8' Grand is a beautiful instrument, which  
> I enjoy playing daily. However, as a Disklavier, my choices of  
> material / media are seriously limit ed.
>
> Short of refinancing my house to acquire a Mark IV, will Yamaha ever  
> provide a updated control-unit (mine is the DKC500R), or a successor  
> to the DCD1, which also incorporates data storage?
>
> If you are aware of any upgrades on the horizon to give us Mark II /  
> Mark III owners hope - any information will be greatly appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> Rich Freeman
>
> On Sep 5, 2009, at 10:51 AM, Bill Brandom wrote:
>
> Tom,
>
> I also have forwarded your email to our engineers. I apologize for  
> the fact I have not been responding to the forums much during the  
> last year. I am going to work much harder to resonding. I have been  
> watching, just not responding.
>
> Our engineers told me that within a year they would have a solution  
> for a larger hard drive. I am now reminding them of that.
>
> I just returned from a several days in Japan working with the  
> engineers. To say the least, a lot is getting ready to happen with  
> the Mark IV. I will keep you and the group informed, when I am able  
> to release the information.
>
> Bill
>
> Bill Brandom
> Senior Technical Manager
> Keyboard Division
> Yama ha Corporation of America
> bbrandom@...<mailto:bbrandom%40yamaha.com>
> 714-522-9417
> ________________________________________
> From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com<mailto:disklavier 
> %40yahoogroups.com> [disklavier@yahoogroups.com<mailto:disklavier%40yahoogroups.com 
> >] On Behalf Of Tom Wheeler [tnwheeler@...<mailto:tnwheeler%40nc.rr.com 
> >]
> Sent: Saturday, September 05, 2009 9:35 AM
> To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com<mailto:disklavier%40yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: Re: [disklavier] Mark4 Software
>
> Philip,
>
> Yours is one of the best posts that I have seen in a very long time on
> this Forum. I agree with every single one of your requests and can
> add a few comments and suggestions as well, although frankly over the
> five years since purchasing my Mark IV I have only rarely felt that
> Yamaha was listening, and although I have written to Bill Brandom with
> some of these suggestions, I have received no response and only very
> rarely see his presence on this Forum in the last year or so.
>
> I have pleaded for a larger HD for the Mark IV for a long time to no
> avail. The 80 GB HD that is on the piano is totally inadequate
> especially when you realize that the Mark IV stores CD audio in
> the .wav format which takes up tons of space. Please, please provide
> the option of a larger HD for this piano. I s topped all purchases of
> Yamaha software more than 3 years ago because my HD is nearly full and
> I don't want to take the chance of crashing it by adding any more
> software to it.
>
> The backup option provided by the Mark IV is simply inadequate. There
> is no way to do an incremental backup. Each time you backup, you have
> to backup everything. Even with only an 80 GB HD that takes more
> than 12 hours with the software that I have on my Mark IV. Please,
> please, Yamaha provide a means of doing incremental backups that will
> not work the HD (both internal and external) to death.
>
> A second contribu tor to the inadequate backup capabilities of the  
> Mark
> IV is the fact that it supports only USB 1.0. Even when the piano was
> introduced in 2004 the USB 2.0 standard had completely replaced USB
> 1.0 and my Mark IV is the only device in my home that still uses the
> far slower US 1.0. While Yamaha has been quick to raise the prices on
> the MarK IV, it has been just as slow to implement current (much less
> advanced technologies) as Philip has so well pointed out in his post.
> It will be interesting to see how outdated the technology on the Mark
> V will be when and if it ever appears.
>
> The processor in the Mark IV is a 333 MHz -- incredibly slow even for
> 2004 when it was introduced. Why was this done? I was told that it
> was to keep down heat produced and obviate the need for a fan. My Mac
> Pro 8-core computer with four 2.8 GHz processors has a fan so quiet
> that I can barely hear it even in a quiet room. Surely Yamaha can
> mount a processor in the Mark V that will be reflective of the 21st
> century instead of the 20th century and find a quiet fan if heat
> production is a problem. Until they do, we can forget parallel
> processes and running things in the background because the Mark IV's
> 333 MHz processor is apparently simply not able to support it.
>
> I suspect that Yamaha is hard at w ork on a Mark V and that it will
> incorporate a few of the suggestions Phil and I have made. However,
> if past disklaviers are any indication, the Mark V will be totally
> outdated even before it arrives, but the price will be far far greater
> than the Mark IV.
>
> Tom
>
> On Sep 5, 2009, at 5:15 AM, Phil Blah wrote:
>
> > Hey Guys,
> >
> > No much happening with the Disklavier forums lately, perhaps
> > everyone is content with their piano!
> >
> > Does anyone know if Yamaha are going to releas e new software for
> > their pianos? (psst Bill Brandon you still here?)
> >
> > I must say that the DKVBrowser software that Kevin has made is so
> > great! It makes moving files around so easy.. the clunky old PDA is
> > pretty crappy for this!
> >
> > On a side note, has anyone tried running the java app on an iphone?
> > it would be much better than the clunky old PDA's... the battery
> > does not last long (even a new one only lasts 2 hours max). Also the
> > wireless is pretty weak signal. Perhaps the DKVBrowser can be made
> > for iphones? lol.
> >
> > Dear Yamaha, here is my wish-list/advice for version 4 of the
> > software :)
> >
> > 1) Disk image needs to support 'fresh' install. This has various
> > advantages..as the old 80gb drives clag out people can just put in a
> > new HD easily or they want a bigger HD so they can install from
> > scratch. A fresh install will be clean and have performance
> > advantages too. Plus it will solve 99% of peoples problems if their
> > software gets screwy.
> >
> > 2) Finish off the half done Graphics support.. ie allow songs to
> > have .jpgs attached to them as a slide show or just as a cover to
> > the song (this is the TV out part, not all Disklaviers have the
> > tablet thing like in Australia for example!).
> >
> > 3) Allow access to the XG voices in performance mode.
> >
> > 4) Make a new 'live sounding' special drum and base kit.. the
> > current base and drums are alright but they all sound too synthetic.
> > Surely Yamaha can try harder with these most critical synths...
> > There are free drum/base sound fonts on the net that people have
> > just recorded a real drum and base that sound better! Lets face it
> > guys, no one listens to crappy midi with the ir beautiful piano...
> > the only exception is Jazz that has a base/drums only. Most Sue
> > Downs songs are excellent like this.... anyway having a 'live' drum
> > sound font would be perfect!
> >
> > 5) Better strings and wood instruments overall... some songs are
> > just embarrassing with these cheezy synths, sounds like a big mobile
> > phone with most midi's.
> >
> > 6) More control with the network setup ie wep keys/ip everything
> > overall etc. Also as they use Samba it would take 2 seconds to put a
> > basic password for windows networking (not everyone has their piano
> > in their home!).
> >
> > 7) MP3 Support. Wave files are so inefficient. MP3's have been
> > around since 1995 or eairler and as it runs linux I am sure it can
> > handle it (yes ofcorse pun was intended). For quality freaks, the
> > MP3 can be 256bit rate so its losless. Then each song will be about
> > 8 - 12 meg rather than 40+
> >
> > 8) Faster seek for playing/stopping songs!
> >
> > 9) Faster and better methods of recording... I am not sure if it's
> > just me, but when you 'know' that it's recording you usually make a
> > mistake while playing a song and then want to quicky start the
> > recording again. But the current way is all bumbly and clumsy and
> > slow... worst case is I have to just keep it recording and I copy
> > the midi to my computer and use cakewalk to edit... but that's a big
> > pain.
> >
> > 10) Backup! - Like most people, we just trust everything will just
> > keep working and we get complacent... but imagine if your HD failed
> > tomorrow, all the songs you bought all the CD's that took you hours
> > to save on the HD... all the midis and files arranged... all gorn!
> > So a backup option would simply copy everything to a network share
> > as a big archive file (to preserve the secret database etc etc). And
> > you can simply restore it all back if needed.
> >
> > 11) Better playlist managment and random play
> >
> > 12) Guys this is not a mark3 nor is it 1990. It's a linux box that
> > is already multitasking, surley we can play a song while searching
> > or copying things! So yes, a song needs to contiune to play while we
> > do other things.
> >
> > 13) Back to recording, It's a bit hard to figure out how to simply
> > record while a .wav/CD (god bless) is playing... So we need to
> > simply be able to play a CD/.wav and you can record your piano
> > playing. Also recording other voices and in performance mode is not
> > easy to do. My 1992 Yamaha Clavinova makes it easy.
> >
> > 14) Just on my 1992 Yamaha Clavinova, it has several built in drum
> > beats and groovy synth riffs even with a 'varation' button! but
> > there are no built in drum kits with the mark4.... bit sad
> > really..... nothing more fun then just having a good beat and
> > playing the piano with it!
> >
> > 15) Better use of the internet, while it might sound all cool 'wow
> > the pianos on the internet' bu t it's really a closed system,
> > Yamaha's mini web thing only.... the whole internet piano thing is
> > NOT available to normal people only 'special' Yamaha people... can
> > we get over this and allow our pianos to connect to friends.
> >
> > 15b) As a Yamaha Radio subscriber and regular song buyer... I think
> > Yamaha needs to allow people to 'trial' a song... the little 20
> > second preview is not really enough somtimes.. even if it costs 20c
> > or something to play only but not save would be good, I think $4.50
> > USD for a song is so over priced... some songs are just awful and
> > lifeless.. Also the fact that they even tell peop le that 'the midi
> > file might be unacceptable'... those songs should be heaps cheaper.
> >
> > 15c) Just with the whole internet thing, just like you can stream
> > internet radio like 'smoothjazz.com' surley they can stream songs
> > with audio and midi data. They could quite easily setup a large
> > buffer to handle 192k streams... and lets face it we all have
> > broadband these days, not like people are on modem or somethin!. So
> > Even if it costs a bit more or they charge per hour or something...
> > there is a time when I just crave a voice with piano and get so sick
> > of my usual collection!
> >
> > 15d) Yamaha need to allow for Piano Soft with Audio downloadable...
> > I don't always want to buy an entire CD just for 1 song, plus the
> > whole slow clumsy CD thing is not very modern for a company trying
> > to make out how modern they were (the piano on the internet thing).
> > I am quite happy to pay $6 per song if it had audio!
> >
> > Well that's all I can think of for now.
> >
> > Let's hope these features will be in Version 4 :)
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Philip
> >
> >
> >
> > __________________________________________________________
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> >
> & gt; ------------------------------------
> >
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