Disklavier

Carol Beigel wrote:
> 
> Thank you for the responses on balancing the velocities on my DKV files.
> When you refer to Cakewalk, which program are you referring to?

+++ I should have specified "Cakewalk Pro Audio 9."  Someone once pointed out to
me that Home Studio was lacking in velocity editing functions.  I'm pretty sure
your Power Tracks provides everything you need to both scale or add or subtract
velocity to selected events.  You'll certainly want to check that out before
buying another Cakewalk (which is being phased out by a their new grandelephant
product of another name anyway).

> 
> My concern as a piano technician is the difficulty you are encountering not
> being able to play files using a velocity of less than 25 without losing the
> dynamic range.  Are we talking an upright or a grand piano here?

+++ In my case, a grand, a Mark II C3.  As PianoBench has pointed out, when
recording, it's pretty hard to produce note velocities in the teens (or much
over 100) on a DKV.  Quite often the low values come from unintended accidental
notes that never sounded while recording.  However, files made from other
keyboards such as you might download or buy from PG Music often have values
outside the range of 22 to 95.  Those keyboards and the DKV's simply don't
match, so you wouldn't expect the reproductions to do so either.

  The
> Disklavier should be able to play the piano as softly as someone sitting at
> the keyboard can, and no softer!  I personally feel that a velocity of 100
> is too high for a piano action - espcially an upright. Played at that
> velocity over time, the center pins will start walking out of the flanges.

+++ That is surely one reason that Yamaha has built in actual hammer velocity
limiting regardless of how high the velocity is in the driving file.  As you
appreciate, actions do wear from use, more so with hard use, whether they are
driven by bleeding fingers or solenoids.

> Am I correct in assuming that a MIDI file with the piano part set at 100
> played at a volume of -10 means the file is being played at 90?  Still too
> loud!

+++ No, that's not correct.  A note of velocity 100 played at volume -9 is about
14 dB down in loudness from being played at volume 0, which is the same loudness
as the same note being at a velocity of about 38 with the volume set at 0. 
That's a mouthful and much easier to visualize on a graph of the response curves
which I may publish sometime for those of us afflicted with velocity-mania.

> 
> Each time your piano is tuned, is the technician also running the Maintence
> Mode?

+++ I've had a number pins replaced with larger gauge ones as friction is lost
and poor ppp control results when playing manually.

  The DKV occassionally needs recalibrated to compensate for the wear
> and tear on the piano action, and the resulting changes in its geometry.  If
> the piano or the DKV gets too far out of whack messages will start showing
> up in the Error History.
> 
>   It is also very important that the minimum velocity (PPP) for each key be
> set correctly, and I suspect this is where we are talking about limiting the
> voltage.  The volume control on the DKV is not really a volume control like
> on a stereo, but a limiter.  You have to have enough voltage flowing thru
> the solenoids to make them fire.  For the average grand piano, the minimum
> PPP value (the amount of voltage needed to make a sound) is about 4 to 11,
> depending upon the friction encountered in the piano action. When running
> the Keyboard Measurement in the Maintenance Mode, the DKV is trying to find
> a range of voltages after proper adjustment has been done to the piano
> action and pedals.
> 
> I am a new user of the Disklavier, and admit to having a knowlege gap in how
> to play with the thing!  But I do know that I would like to learn to "tweak"
> the system (just like most of my DKV clients!) so  that I am not constantly
> adjusting the volume of the piano and the speakers!
> 
> Carol Beigel
> 
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-- 
Robert Welcyng
Anchorage, Alaska