Disklavier

At the NAMM Convention here in Anaheim, CA today, Yamaha showed 
prototypes of its new Disklavier "Mark IV" pianos (called
"D4" in the signs we saw).  Yamaha's Service Manager,
Bill Brandom, walked us through the technical details, and crawled 
under the new grands with us.  Since I didn't see a press release
on Yamaha's Web site, I thought I'd report briefly what we
saw. I'm sure Yamaha will supply extensive details soon (and
correct any mistakes I've made here).

Hard drive and I/O: I've been pretty vocal on this forum about
the fact that 1.44M is just too small for recording extended recitals 
on Pros in high-resolution.  Blessedly, the D4 control unit has an 
80GB hard drive!  In addition, there's a new USB port and LAN
connection for getting files in and out.  The control unit will be 
running the Linux operating system.

User interface: The user interface to the D4 control unit is a color 
PDA that can sit in a cradle.  It communicates with the main control 
unit via wireless Wi-Fi.  There is a small unit that sits under the 
front of the grand's keyboard, housing the CD drive and diskette 
drive, but it has just a few buttons on it – unlike the many
buttons on the Mark III control unit.  It has a nice black cover that 
you can close when it's not in use.  The main guts (with the hard 
drive) sit much farther back under the soundboard.

Hammer measurements: The hammer sensors have been improved in an 
amazing way.  If you look at how hammer velocity and angles are 
measured on a Mark III, you'll see a little metal "U." 
The new hammer sensor is a tiny piece of clear film that has a gray-
scale curve on it (kinda hard to describe).  As the hammer moves up, 
the sensors can measure the continuous movement through the gray-
scale, from clear to dark.  Look for the potential for way more 
recording accuracy.  Bill showed us the continuous hammer measurement 
on some internal-use software ("MIDI Check").

Pedal: In addition, there's been at least one more bit of
accuracy added for the pedals (from 7 bits to 8 bits).  I guess that 
means each pedal movement may result in 2 MIDI events, instead of 
one.  Visually, the black unit that holds the pedal pistons on the D4 
grands is much smaller than that in the Mark III.

These were prototype grands; the real D4s will ship "in
summer."  These improvements show a tremendous commitment by
Yamaha's engineering team to iterative refinement of an already-
excellent system.  Our software company, Zenph Studios, writes 
software for Disklavier Pros – we're delighted to see the
ongoing improvements.  Welcome to the 21st century!

- John Q.

John,

Thanks for giving us an informative report on the new Mark IV disklavier 
grand pianos.  These are all welcome developments, especially the 
addition of a HD and the improvements in the hammer sensors.  I will be 
interested to hear if you had any opportunity to sit down at a Mark IV 
and record a selection on it.  If so, how did you feel it's playback 
accuracy compared with your Pro disklavier? 

Thanks again for the report.

Tom

jqw2 wrote:

>At the NAMM Convention here in Anaheim, CA today, Yamaha showed 
>prototypes of its new Disklavier "Mark IV" pianos (called
>"D4" in the signs we saw).  Yamaha's Service Manager,
>Bill Brandom, walked us through the technical details, and crawled 
>under the new grands with us.  Since I didn't see a press release
>on Yamaha's Web site, I thought I'd report briefly what we
>saw. I'm sure Yamaha will supply extensive details soon (and
>correct any mistakes I've made here).
>
>Hard drive and I/O: I've been pretty vocal on this forum about
>the fact that 1.44M is just too small for recording extended recitals 
>on Pros in high-resolution.  Blessedly, the D4 control unit has an 
>80GB hard drive!  In addition, there's a new USB port and LAN
>connection for getting files in and out.  The control unit will be 
>running the Linux operating system.
>
>User interface: The user interface to the D4 control unit is a color 
>PDA that can sit in a cradle.  It communicates with the main control 
>unit via wireless Wi-Fi.  There is a small unit that sits under the 
>front of the grand's keyboard, housing the CD drive and diskette 
>drive, but it has just a few buttons on it - unlike the many
>buttons on the Mark III control unit.  It has a nice black cover that 
>you can close when it's not in use.  The main guts (with the hard 
>drive) sit much farther back under the soundboard.
>
>Hammer measurements: The hammer sensors have been improved in an 
>amazing way.  If you look at how hammer velocity and angles are 
>measured on a Mark III, you'll see a little metal "U." 
>The new hammer sensor is a tiny piece of clear film that has a gray-
>scale curve on it (kinda hard to describe).  As the hammer moves up, 
>the sensors can measure the continuous movement through the gray-
>scale, from clear to dark.  Look for the potential for way more 
>recording accuracy.  Bill showed us the continuous hammer measurement 
>on some internal-use software ("MIDI Check").
>
>Pedal: In addition, there's been at least one more bit of
>accuracy added for the pedals (from 7 bits to 8 bits).  I guess that 
>means each pedal movement may result in 2 MIDI events, instead of 
>one.  Visually, the black unit that holds the pedal pistons on the D4 
>grands is much smaller than that in the Mark III.
>
>These were prototype grands; the real D4s will ship "in
>summer."  These improvements show a tremendous commitment by
>Yamaha's engineering team to iterative refinement of an already-
>excellent system.  Our software company, Zenph Studios, writes 
>software for Disklavier Pros - we're delighted to see the
>ongoing improvements.  Welcome to the 21st century!
>
>- John Q.
>
>
>
>  
>

> connection for getting files in and out.  The control unit will be 
> running the Linux operating system.

Linux?  Interesting...  I wonder if this means that they will be 
posting their source code (a requirement for the linux GPL).

Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean that their proprietary
non-OS source code needs to be released, but this could mean
that tinkerers could make further improvements to their units at
home.

Carl

> These were prototype grands; the real D4s will ship "in
> summer."  These improvements show a tremendous commitment by
> Yamaha's engineering team to iterative refinement of an already-
> excellent system.  Our software company, Zenph Studios, writes 
> software for Disklavier Pros – we're delighted to see the
> ongoing improvements.  Welcome to the 21st century!

I checked out your bio on the ciscopress web site.  Interesting!  What kind=
 of software 
is your company developing for the disklavier?  I couldn't find any info on=
 your web 
site.

Thanks,
Carl Youngblood

Bill Brandom was a gracious host, but made it clear that the pianos 
at NAMM were clearly prototypes -- I don't even think the cables 
underneath the piano were interconnected.  So, although the piano 
portion was clearly working, we didn't power up the electronics or do 
any recording.

One addition: Bill mentioned that the Disklavier Mark IV would have 
32 voices of polyphony, as opposed to 16 voices in the Mark III.  I 
haven't seen this as a big limitation, although I do plan to get an 
XP Mode recording of Frederic Rzewski's "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" 
this year (where the whole left arm plays on the keyboard, imitating 
cotton mill machinery).

- John Q.

--- In disklavier@yahoogroups.com, Tom Wheeler <tnwheeler@n...> wrote:
> John,
> 
> Thanks for giving us an informative report on the new Mark IV 
disklavier 
> grand pianos.  These are all welcome developments, especially the 
> addition of a HD and the improvements in the hammer sensors.  I 
will be 
> interested to hear if you had any opportunity to sit down at a Mark 
IV 
> and record a selection on it.  If so, how did you feel it's 
playback 

> accuracy compared with your Pro disklavier? 
> 
> Thanks again for the report.
> 
> Tom

On the topic of why 32 voices of polyphony on the new Disklavier would be useful:

I would find it very handy for playback of piano duets, and other type recordings 
where more than two hands are playing at the same time. Many old piano rolls are 
actually duets.

- Steve S.

--- In disklavier@yahoogroups.com, "jqw2" <johnq_10@z...> wrote:

> Bill Brandom was a gracious host, but made it clear that the pianos 
> at NAMM were clearly prototypes -- I don't even think the cables 
> underneath the piano were interconnected.  So, although the piano 
> portion was clearly working, we didn't power up the electronics or do 
> any recording.
> 
> One addition: Bill mentioned that the Disklavier Mark IV would have 
> 32 voices of polyphony, as opposed to 16 voices in the Mark III.  I 
> haven't seen this as a big limitation, although I do plan to get an 
> XP Mode recording of Frederic Rzewski's "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" 
> this year (where the whole left arm plays on the keyboard, imitating 
> cotton mill machinery).
> 
> - John Q.
> 
> --- In disklavier@yahoogroups.com, Tom Wheeler <tnwheeler@n...> wrote:
> > John,
> > 
> > Thanks for giving us an informative report on the new Mark IV 
> disklavier 
> > grand pianos.  These are all welcome developments, especially the 
> > addition of a HD and the improvements in the hammer sensors.  I 
> will be 
> > interested to hear if you had any opportunity to sit down at a Mark 
> IV 
> > and record a selection on it.  If so, how did you feel it's 
> playback 
> > accuracy compared with your Pro disklavier? 
> > 
> > Thanks again for the report.
> > 
> > Tom