Yamaha Software
2003-08-13 by Carol Beigel
Count me clueless, but I am not sure I understand the complaints about the Yamaha software. I'm the sort who could not open a door if your painted a lock on it, but so far, I have been able to do all the wonderful things with my DKV by starting with the User's Manuals and a picture of how to plug it into the wall! 1. Yamaha Disklaviers came out 15 years ago in 1987. You can still buy the latest PianoSoft floppies that will work on them, and upgrade the hardware to play the latest things that have been invented in the meantime. What is so bad about that? I certainly can't buy new programs for my Commodore 64! How would you feel if you owned any kind of Yamaha Disklavier and couldn't buy ANYTHING for it. Think BetaMax! In 1987 there were no HD 1.44 floppies, CDs, flash memory, or even the World Wide Web, yet the Disklavier could play MIDI files from a computer connected to the internet. 2. ESEQ is Yamaha's proprietary format to make sure that their PianoSoft floppies are backwardly compatible to older DKV models. There WAS no standard for MIDI files in 1987, so, like everyone else at the time they came up with their own. Besides, they pay royalties and have licensing arrangements with the artists to produce those PianoSoft floppies. You begrudge them the $35 for a music disk they pay big money to produce? How would you feel if you owned a Disklavier and all Yamaha offered was the latest technology - 1.44 floppies, MIDI file format and CD only music - stuff that won't work on your old DKV? Mr. Giebler wrote his software (sells for $30) that duplicates these disks or allows you to put selected songs on IBM 720k formatted diskettes. Many, many, many software writers never supported Mac, so why pick on Yamaha? The writer of the wonderful FREE dkutils has allowed anyone to make back-up copies of the Yamaha PianoSoft disks and even put them into a form a PC computer can see. You can then, for FREE, convert these ESEQ files to MIDI files and play them from your computer to any model Disklavier. We should be grateful that Yamaha does not act like Sony attacking Napster! 3. The fact that Windows operating systems are evolving to more secure formats (more pirate proof) has nothing to do with the fact that Yamaha is still taking care of their customers from 15 years ago. New inventions are constantly included with new models of Disklaviers. The MarkIIXG was the first to use flash memory and 1.44 floppy disks. The MarkIII has transposable audio that nobody even realized had been invented! Now, instead of having to pay to upgrade your DKV, you can download for free the new operating system and install it yourself! This is not nice? My car 15 years ago did not have all-wheel drive, ABS brakes or a computer-controlled everything under the hood and it cost more than a DKV. Could I have upgraded my Ford Escort with these more modern features? I don't think so. Did I complain that it went through 4 clutches and wore out after 189,000 miles? No, I upgraded to a new one! Yamaha's committment to its customers is that the PianoSoft disks they sell will be compatible with ALL Disklaviers; some of the products are clearly labeled for the new technology models. The only hardware you cannot upgrade to on a Disklavier is the Silent Feature and the transposable audio. 4. I am clearly as guilty as every DKV owner I ever met in that I never sat down with the Owner's Manuals that came with the DKV. There was also a coupon to buy those glossy cardboard Reference Manuals that were written for the MarkII and MarkIIXG that explained more about the MIDI and how to connect to a computer. Actually, when I first sat down with these I just did not understand what they were talking about. However, like a blank spreadsheet, as the cells in my knowlege multiplied, so did my capacity to place newfound cells where hard-won concepts belong. Its called "learning something new". As I read and reread these Owner's Manuals, I discover DKV capabilities I didn't know existed. This is Yamaha's fault that I wasn't born knowing these things? Everything these DKVs do is documented somewhere. 5. Thank you to the folks who taught us how to format a 720k floppy in Windows XP. I never would have figured it out otherwise. It is also true that only the dkvcopy and Giebler utilities must run in real DOS. Again, this is Yamaha's fault that some third party software does not work 15 years later? Anyone with a Disklavier older than a MarkIIXG can spend the $1200 and buy the DSR1 upgrade to avoid the hassle of only being able to use 720k disks. The less money you spend (or spent) up front the more hoops you will jump through in the future to keep up with the technology. At least with the Yamaha Disklavier, you CAN keep up without replacing your entire unit. 6. I would like to know specifically what other users would like to see in the way of software and instructions for Disklaviers. I am assuming there might be more than a jukebox player that plays ESEQ files and the capability to download a PianoSoft disk in Mac format. As some of you know, I have been creating a web site for my DKV clients to differently explain some of this DKV technology and help them to be more satisfied with the product. What might you, the user, like to see? I wonder if the key to "easy understanding" might be in cross-cultural differences, or in how quickly we adapt to new information technology and what our expectations are. I know that 10 years ago people were content to have the records of our church stuffed away into several file cabinets full of mimeographs and carbon copies. Now they expect searchable minutes, searchable databases, and instant access on the WWW. We often have discussions in my family trying to remember what our home life was like before we each got PCs, VCRs, cable, DSL, and the Web. It wasn't that long ago we played Bridge with real people sitting at our dining room table, listened to 33 rpm records and subscribed to magazines that were delivered in the mail. Perhaps we just expect old things to work with the new ways, and that is not realistic. Carol Beigel crbrpt@... _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail