New Member and a response for MIDI velocity
2003-03-12 by bdpotts
Hi everyone, I just joined the group today. I've had a Yamaha DC2S grand for a little over 2 years now. For those not familiar with the model numbers it is a C2 grand with the Disklavier and the silent option. I love the silent option because I can practice at night while the kids are sleeping. I don't have a whole lot to offer to the original poster of the MIDI velocity question, but I do have a "reverse" observation. I have downloaded several MIDI piano pieces for the piano. I learned quickly that you don't just download and play it on the piano. People who sequence these pieces must play them back on their computer instead of an analog device like the disklavier because the velocity is almost always set near the maximum (usually above 120, I see 127 a LOT). If you've ever played something with this velocity on a Disklavier Grand, you know it is LOUD (and the little bit of volume that you can adjust doesn't cut it). I've found I need to adjust MIDI velocities down around 80. I haven't found an easy way to do this (I have Cakewalk Home Studio). Other interesting MIDI to disklavier items I have found: 1. People who sequence tend to "pedal off" and "pedal on" so quickly that the piano can't actually respond, leading to a "pedal on" all the time. There needs to be some "clicks" (referring to bar/beat/click in cakewalk) in order for the piano to physically get the pedal off before it goes back on. 2. Sequencers that produce a seperate left and right hand create "pedal on" and "pedal off" events for both the left and right hand. This is great for a MIDI device, but totally confuses a piano with only one pedal. It usually results in a "pedal on" all the time situation. with an occasional "pedal off" if both the left and right hand have the pedal off at the same time. 3. Many times the piano part is not channel 1 and 2 (for left and right hand) I have had the piano play the part of a different instrument and have the piano part coming out of the speaker. This is actually pretty easy to change though. At first the music I played on the piano wasn't very pleasing. Now after making these changes to different pieces it's much better. One interesting thing I did this past halloween was to download a bunch of "scary" music. Our piano is near a window by our front door. The piano was playing the music all evening by itself, like the ghost and Mr. Chicken (actually this is one of the pieces I had). It was pretty funny. Thanks for the forum. Brian