Disklavier

I had an idea the other day.

Do all Mark III Disklaviers have a pair of RCA jacks labeled "ANALOG
MIDI IN" on the back of the control unit?

If so, it would be possible to set up an inexpensive wireless MIDI link
to a personal computer by plugging a stereo wireless receiver into these
jacks (the type of product used to send MP3 audio from jukebox software
on your computer to a home stereo).

All it would take is software on the PC side to handle the jukebox
software and generate the "analog MIDI" control stream to send over the
wireless link.

You could even convert your PianoSoft Plus Audio CDs to WAV or MP3 files
and play them from the PC, jukebox style.

I'm envisioning jukebox software that could handle a playlist of
PianoSoft Plus Audio WAV/MP3 files, ESEQ files, and MIDI files, sending
all of them over the same wireless link to the piano.

This could be a nice solution for Mark III owners to bring them some of
the capabilities of the Mark IV.

I think I could handle the software side of this, and I have a
particular wireless link in mind that I think would work well for this
application. The total cost could easily be kept under $200.

So back to the key question-- do all Mark III Disklaviers (i.e. those
equipped with CD players) have the ANALOG MIDI IN ports?

And is anyone interested in running their Disklavier this way?

Happy holidays!
Mark Fontana

Can't say about Mark III, but even my DCD1 (added on to a MarkIIXG) has the 
RCA analog MIDI inputs.  And yes personally I would be interested in your 
suggested implementation.

However, I did try ripping a PianoSoft Plus Audio CD to MP3 files, and 
played that on an MP3 player hooked up to those RCA analog MIDI input 
jacks.  It did work (piano played at the same time as the music from 
speakers), but some piano notes were dropped.  The higher the bitrate of 
the MP3, the less dropped notes dropped.  But even at the highest bitrate I 
tried (I think it was 256kbps) there were still some dropped piano 
notes.  Hooking up a CD walkman to the same RCA input jacks resulted in 
perfect playing of both piano notes and the rest of the music.  So 
apparently the MP3 compression doesn't seem to work so well with the analog 
MIDI signal - at least with the equipments I tested (DCD1 and iPod).  It is 
conceivable that a wireless link may result in more static noise and cause 
more drops in the analog MIDI signal.  But if you come up with a solution, 
I will certainly be eager to try it out.

CCW


At 12:22 PM 12/24/2004, you wrote:

>I had an idea the other day.
>
>Do all Mark III Disklaviers have a pair of RCA jacks labeled "ANALOG
>MIDI IN" on the back of the control unit?
>
>If so, it would be possible to set up an inexpensive wireless MIDI link
>to a personal computer by plugging a stereo wireless receiver into these
>jacks (the type of product used to send MP3 audio from jukebox software
>on your computer to a home stereo).
>
>All it would take is software on the PC side to handle the jukebox
>software and generate the "analog MIDI" control stream to send over the
>wireless link.
>
>You could even convert your PianoSoft Plus Audio CDs to WAV or MP3 files
>and play them from the PC, jukebox style.
>
>I'm envisioning jukebox software that could handle a playlist of
>PianoSoft Plus Audio WAV/MP3 files, ESEQ files, and MIDI files, sending
>all of them over the same wireless link to the piano.
>
>This could be a nice solution for Mark III owners to bring them some of
>the capabilities of the Mark IV.
>
>I think I could handle the software side of this, and I have a
>particular wireless link in mind that I think would work well for this
>application. The total cost could easily be kept under $200.
>
>So back to the key question-- do all Mark III Disklaviers (i.e. those
>equipped with CD players) have the ANALOG MIDI IN ports?
>
>And is anyone interested in running their Disklavier this way?
>
>Happy holidays!
>Mark Fontana
>
>
>
>
>
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