e-competition files
2002-06-20 by mcgregor2play
I would like to offer my comments about the e-competition and the MIDI files from that competition. First, it is a shame that Wen-Yin Chan's preliminary files were lost. I hope that Yamaha will take steps to make this occurrence less likely in the future, for the sake of the contestants as well as us file users. Second, can anyone shed light on why finalist Tao Lin was not awarded anything. From what I hear on the MIDI files, his playing was rather good if not excellent. Was there a big boo-boo on the quintet or concerto portion of the competition? Was he disqualified for some reason? Third, it is a testimony to the robustness of the Disklavier Pro recording and editing process that the files were able to be segmented, edited, and posted so quickly - to say nothing of how magnificent they sound. Finally, some suggestions for downloads. 1. I believe all of the files are OK, but a number of my initial download attempts only captured part of the file. The telltale sign (at least for me)is a file size of 64k in Windows Explorer. In every case, I got "incomplete" errors when trying to play files of that size, even though the incomplete file would begin to play. A second attempt to download usually captured the complete file. So I advise everyone to check your e-competition downloads and try to play all of the files of size 64k and smaller. If you get an error, it is likely you have an incomplete file, and you should keep trying to download it until you get an error-free file. 2. Errors occurred if I tried to change the file name during download. So I kept the original file names and truncated them later as needed in order to make all file names unique in the first 8 character positions (for bulk ESEQ conversion using MID2ESEQ). To my pleasant surprise, the resulting ESEQ files were well-labeled for display on the Disklavier control unit. 3. The Bach-Busoni Chaconne, one of Tao Lin's preliminary performances, contains 1264 measures of dead air at the beginning of the file. If you play this file in MIDI format, the empty measures are ignored. However if you convert it to ESEQ format uusing DKVUTILS MID2ESEQ utility, all of those dead measures are there - over 40 minutes of silence before the Chaconne begins to play. On the EExplore utility, this 15-minute piece displays as 58 minutes long. I fixed it by using a sequencer to remove the first 1264 measures ffrom the original MIDI file, then converted the modified file to ESEQ. If anyone else faces the same situation, I will gladly forward the modified MIDI file to you. (Or possibly the MIDI file has been corrected at the e-competition site by now?) 4. I downloaded the HTML page for each semifinalist and finalist, as a single file (web archive). I found that I could open the page in an HTML editor such as Word, and edit the HREF references so that when I click on a link, the downloaded MIDI file plays. It is a matter of removing everyhing in the link definition (if that is the right term) except the MIDI file name, and then saving the page again. If that MIDI file resides in the same folder as the saved HTML page for that artist, then it will play your downloaded file rather than going to the internet to retrieve the file from the e- competiton web site, or returning an error if you are not connected to the internet. Thus you have a playlist for each artist and keep it visible when you are playing the files. That's all I have. Enjoy! Mike McGregor Double Oak, TX