Disklavier

When I purchased my piano back in September of 2004 I thought that I was
doing the right thing. This previous email confirms it. How many other
companies - electronic or otherwise - have a system of support like this?
The idea that after 5 years of ownership, I or anyone of us can write a
quick email to someone and know that it is going halfway around the world
directly to the engineers that created that product and then .they actually
are going to do something about it for us! Wow!  Version 4.0 - sign me up! 

 

Thanks Bill and Thanks Yamaha.  

 

  _____  

From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Bill Brandom
Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:29 AM
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [disklavier] Request for better network functionality

 

  

Hello everyone,

 

Over a month ago I went to Japan to discuss the next version update for the
Disklavier Mark IV. Before I went, I had assumed I would be able to report
to the group of the new functions that are planned in Version 4. This update
is scheduled for release in the spring.

 

After much discussion with our Japanese Sales and Engineering staff, they
have requested that I do not make any announcements at this time. We plan to
be showing a beta version of the update at the upcoming NAMM show in
January. As we have done in the past, we will establish a beta group to test
new functions. 

 

I apologize for not being able to give you any information at this time.

 

Bill

 

Bill Brandom

Senior Technical Manager

Keyboard Division

Yamaha Corporation of America

Phone: 714-522-9417 FAX: 714-522-9301

 

 

 

From: disklavier@yahoogroups.com [mailto:disklavier@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Kevin Goroway
Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 3:59 PM
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [disklavier] Request for better network functionality

 







Hah!  I think you give me too much credit.  I don't believe for a second
that I have any power what-so-ever to "nudge" Yamaha.  I think that they do
what they do because they really do want the DKV to stay the world's
greatest piano.  (Afterall, I've only had my piano for 2 years now...they
did plenty before I was around!)

I do admit that I listen very carefully to suggestions for how Yamaha can
improve the piano, and immediately try to figure out how I might be able to
provide the same thing.  DKVBrowser exists for one reason, and one reason
only.  When I bought my piano, there was no "Search" functionality built in.
I found that unacceptable, and set out to fix it.  If I had bought my piano
one year later, when "search" had already been added, I'm not sure what
might have pushed me toward trying to figure this all out.

Anyway, thanks...This made me smile.  But, yeah!  What happened to the
information about a forthcoming version?

 

  _____  

From: Glenn R. Smutny <G.SMUTNY@...>
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tue, October 20, 2009 6:05:25 PM
Subject: RE: [disklavier] Request for better network functionality

  

With all due respect to Yamaha and particularly the "face" that we all know
and are thankful to have in our corner- Bill Brandom, I love the way Kevin
unintentionally but effectively keeps nudging Yamaha to continue with their
commitment to making sure the DKV stays the world's greatest piano. By the
way, weren't we supposed to be hearing something about a new release about a
month ago? 

 

Thank you both for all that you do for us.     

 

  _____  

From: disklavier@yahoogro ups.com [mailto: disklavier@yahoogro ups.com ] On
Behalf Of Kevin Goroway
Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 4:39 PM
To: disklavier@yahoogro ups.com
Subject: Re: [disklavier] Request for better network functionality

 

  

Hmm, your 4th (and most important) request could be an interesting
DKVBrowser feature...

Of course, it would mean that a PC would have to be on and running
DKVBrowser while you were using that feature, but maybe that would be
acceptable?

I suppose it makes sense to wait and see what Yamaha delivers in this next
promised release, but I don't think it would be difficult for me to
implement this... Basically, you point DKVBrowser at a directory, and tell
it to play the MIDI files in there...it would seamlessly place them on the
piano, and start playing...in the background, it could move the next file
there, and when the first file is done, it can automatically remove it and
place the third file there.  I already have the code to detect when a song
is "finishing" since I needed that for the "source random" feature.  Hmm...

-Kevin

 

  _____  

From: mjburby <mark.burby@gmail. com>
To: disklavier@yahoogro ups.com
Sent: Tue, October 20, 2009 12:49:52 PM
Subject: [disklavier] Request for better network functionality

  

Hi

Not sure if this has been posted about before, but one feature I would LOVE
to see implemented on a future version of software is the ability for the
Disklavier to be able to access files from a networked hard drive. Having
access to networked hard drives offers many benefits including elimination
of storage limitations, stream music direct from the remote storage to the
piano over the network, cleaner backup of the internal hard drive, ability
to manage files better, no need to physically attach anything (USB stick USB
hard drive or CD) to the Disklavier other than the network cable which
nearly all of us have already.

Currently, the PRC has been programmed so that you don't get to chose which
locations it looks in, the PRC has these preset; you click on CD to access
the CD drive, USB for the USB port, and FromToPC to access the FromToPC
folder on the Disklavier hard drive. I appreciate that this is to enhance
usability and make things less complex but access to a directory list of
music locations accessible to the disklavier would not phase too many people
out. If necessary, this could be tucked away in the Setup section.

Firstly I would like to be able to list drives such as the CD, floppy, USB,
and hard disk as a list, and drill into the directory structure of each.

Secondly, I'd like the ability to add network drives to this list.

Thirdly, I'd like to be able to have the facility to move/copy files from
one location to another e.g. from my disklavier hard drive to my network
drive or vice versa

Fourthly (and most importantly) , to have the ability to play music stored
on a network drive directly, streaming it real time over the network (this
could be buffered in the disklavier much as the internet radio streams do)
to basically obviate the need for the attached hard drive.

I don't think I'm asking for too much - the functionality is there but the
UI on the PRC doesn't give you access to it.

Providing this functionality effectively eliminates the issue of the built
in hard disk space limitation and provides a cleaner way to ensure that the
disklavier hard drive is backed up.

Please please Yamaha implement this high value, low effort facility.