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Problems with new Mark 4

Problems with new Mark 4

2007-11-25 by kgoroway

Had my new DC3M4 for 4 days now...and it's developing some problems
with the Disklavier, it would seem.

#1) The sustain(loud) pedal squeaks pretty badly (piano playing it, or
a normal foot)
#2) The sustain pedal thumps pretty badly when it goes to the zero
position (piano playing it, mostly songs right from Yamaha, including
the radio)
#3) While playing the keys in quiet mode (the bar is in the way of the
strings) some notes strike a second time when letting go of the keys.
#4) While playing the keys in quiet mode, the keys (action?) feels
different...certainly not invisible.

Now, mind you, this is the 3rd disklavier we've had in the house in 2
months (DGC1b, DC3M4t, DC3M4).  The DGC1b didn't have quiet mode, so I
can't say much about that, but the sustain pedal had none of these
issues.  

The previous DC3M4t also had a quiet sustain pedal, and I didn't
notice any difference in the keyboard feeling while playing in quiet
mode...and it certainly didn't strike any notes twice.  I only played
it for a little while, so it's possible that I might have felt a
difference, but it was very obvious on the new piano (both the double
strikes, and the different feeling).

It hasn't had it's initial tuning yet (scheduling one next week), so
the tech will probably be able to adjust most of these things...but I
was wondering how common they might be.  Anyone?

Thanks in advance.
-Kevin

Re: [disklavier] Problems with new Mark 4

2007-11-26 by Matthew Teeter

The disklavier at UCI never exhibited these problems.  The only problems it had were related to missing MIDI messages and freezes while sending MIDI input to

Re: [disklavier] Problems with new Mark 4

2007-11-26 by Tom Wheeler

Hi Kevin,

I have the same model Mark IV that you have, i.e. the DC3M4t.  With  
one exception none of the problems that you mentioned are common and  
you definitely should insist that they be fixed by a Yamaha trained  
technician.

The one exception is the "thumping" of the sustain pedal when playing  
back software in which the sustain is only given as full on or full  
off, i.e. midi values of 0 and 127.  When I play such material on my  
Mark IV I, too, experience the kind of thumping that you describe and  
I find it quite annoying.  Fortunately, most Yamaha software uses  
continuous pedaling and the thumping is not a problem there.  I have  
had my piano technician, who is quite good, check my sustain pedal and  
adjust it numerous times, but it does not help with material recorded  
with full on/off pedaling, apparently because of the sudden release of  
the sustain pedal from its fully depressed position.

I do not have any problems with my sustain pedal squeaking and this is  
something that your technician should be able to quickly fix.  When  
playing the piano in Quiet Mode, I do not have any cases where notes  
are struck a second time when the key is released.  That is not normal  
and your piano technician should fix this issue. I also notice no  
difference in the "feel" of the piano when playing in Quiet Mode vs.  
Acoustic Mode and you should not on your Mark IV either. Something  
appears to be distinctly wrong with the Quiet Mode on your Mark IV.

It would appear that your Mark IV was not serviced at all prior to  
delivery to you.  With such an expensive instrument as the Mark IV,  
this definitely should not be the case.  I would certainly firmly  
insist that these problems be corrected by a Yamaha disklavier trained  
technician.  If your dealer is not able to provide such a technician,  
then I would suggest that you contact Yamaha and take the problem(s)  
up directly with them.

Thank you so much for your continuing software efforts for the Mark  
IV.   You are providing features in your software that Yamaha should  
have provided years ago!

Tom
Show quoted textHide quoted text
On Nov 25, 2007, at 6:57 PM, kgoroway wrote:

> Had my new DC3M4 for 4 days now...and it's developing some problems
> with the Disklavier, it would seem.
>
> #1) The sustain(loud) pedal squeaks pretty badly (piano playing it, or
> a normal foot)
> #2) The sustain pedal thumps pretty badly when it goes to the zero
> position (piano playing it, mostly songs right from Yamaha, including
> the radio)
> #3) While playing the keys in quiet mode (the bar is in the way of the
> strings) some notes strike a second time when letting go of the keys.
> #4) While playing the keys in quiet mode, the keys (action?) feels
> different...certainly not invisible.
>
> Now, mind you, this is the 3rd disklavier we've had in the house in 2
> months (DGC1b, DC3M4t, DC3M4).  The DGC1b didn't have quiet mode, so I
> can't say much about that, but the sustain pedal had none of these
> issues.
>
> The previous DC3M4t also had a quiet sustain pedal, and I didn't
> notice any difference in the keyboard feeling while playing in quiet
> mode...and it certainly didn't strike any notes twice.  I only played
> it for a little while, so it's possible that I might have felt a
> difference, but it was very obvious on the new piano (both the double
> strikes, and the different feeling).
>
> It hasn't had it's initial tuning yet (scheduling one next week), so
> the tech will probably be able to adjust most of these things...but I
> was wondering how common they might be.  Anyone?
>
> Thanks in advance.
> -Kevin
>
>
>
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Re: Problems with new Mark 4

2007-12-14 by nornrider

Kevin,

Thank you for your awesome software authoring efforts.  I confess that I have not been 
able to get your browser to see my mark IV (even though I can use the To/From PC folder 
with my wifi-enabled computers at home), but I'll give 0.30 a try soon and hopefully that 
will do the trick.

It could be based on your symptom list below that your dealer forgot (or did not realize) to 
calibrate your piano before delivery.  You can perform this calibration yourself (do this at 
your own risk!), as follows (from memory, so pardon the possible errors):

- Quit the interface on the PDA and instead run the Service program, which can be found 
in the main set of PDA program icons.

- You'll see a white screen with about 3 text options, none of which are particularly 
exciting.

- Slide down the keyboard cover on your PDA, and hold the D, M, and P keys down 
together (they don't need to be pressed at the same time, just held down together).

- You should see the service options expand greatly into a maintenance mode-like menu.

- There is an option to perform a "Full Calibration w/GS check"-- GS meaning the 
grayscale sensors.  It's a couple menu options deep, but shouldn't be too difficult to find.
  Run this.

- Your Mark IV will undergo a large number of self-calibrations, which include how much 
voltage is needed to depress the pedals to various extents, how much voltage is needed to 
make each key play at a certain volume, etc.  The calibration process makes a lot of (very 
cool) sounds... so don't start it unless your housemates don't mind a lot of increasingly 
loud piano playing.

- If your Mark IV passes each set of calibrations, it will play a single C-Major chord; if it 
fails, it will play a c-minor chord.  You'll get text messages throughout the roughly 15 
minute process as well.

- At the end, the Disklavier writes all of the newly-derived parameters to a file that is 
used to optimize playback.

I've found this process to be very helpful in getting my M4 optimized; hopefully it will 
help you as well.

-J

--- In disklavier@yahoogroups.com, "kgoroway" <kgoroway@...> wrote:
Show quoted textHide quoted text
>
> Had my new DC3M4 for 4 days now...and it's developing some problems
> with the Disklavier, it would seem.
> 
> #1) The sustain(loud) pedal squeaks pretty badly (piano playing it, or
> a normal foot)
> #2) The sustain pedal thumps pretty badly when it goes to the zero
> position (piano playing it, mostly songs right from Yamaha, including
> the radio)
> #3) While playing the keys in quiet mode (the bar is in the way of the
> strings) some notes strike a second time when letting go of the keys.
> #4) While playing the keys in quiet mode, the keys (action?) feels
> different...certainly not invisible.
> 
> Now, mind you, this is the 3rd disklavier we've had in the house in 2
> months (DGC1b, DC3M4t, DC3M4).  The DGC1b didn't have quiet mode, so I
> can't say much about that, but the sustain pedal had none of these
> issues.  
> 
> The previous DC3M4t also had a quiet sustain pedal, and I didn't
> notice any difference in the keyboard feeling while playing in quiet
> mode...and it certainly didn't strike any notes twice.  I only played
> it for a little while, so it's possible that I might have felt a
> difference, but it was very obvious on the new piano (both the double
> strikes, and the different feeling).
> 
> It hasn't had it's initial tuning yet (scheduling one next week), so
> the tech will probably be able to adjust most of these things...but I
> was wondering how common they might be.  Anyone?
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> -Kevin
>

Re: [disklavier] Re: Problems with new Mark 4

2007-12-15 by Kevin Goroway

No problem, I enjoy working on DKVBrowser.  And now that I have some help (writing documentation, writing web sites, general beta testing, and now a working Mac version!) it's even more fun.

Version 0.35 is out now, and the features are being added at a furious pace...but let's get it working for you...

If you can see the To/From PC folder from your wireless PC then you must have added something to your piano to give it a wireless interface.  Is that correct?

Assuming that is true, here's your problem.  Your wireless PC is connecting to the wireless network that you have connected to the ethernet port on the disklavier.  When you use DKVBrowser you are pretending that your PC is the PDA or Tablet, and those use a different wireless network.  You should try to connect your pc to a wireless network with a name that looks something like DKV123ABC.  If you do that, you will not be able to access To/From PC (or the internet, if you also use that same wireless interface to talk to your home network), but you will be able to run DKVBrowser to talk to your piano, most likely.  It should be fairly trivial to switch between the two networks, so this shouldn't pose much of a problem.  On my PC, the wireless card is only used to talk to the piano, so I don't have that issue.  If you'd like to take this conversation private to work through this, please feel free to email me directly.

I really appreciate the information about the service program.  I may have to run that this weekend after I see if the problem (quiet mode double hits) is still there.  The tech was here and fixed everything else, but wasn't sure what to do about that problem...

-Kevin
Show quoted textHide quoted text
----- Original Message ----
From: nornrider <onasj@...>
To: disklavier@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 4:19:55 PM
Subject: [disklavier] Re: Problems with new Mark 4










  


    
            

Kevin,



Thank you for your awesome software authoring efforts.  I confess that I have not been 

able to get your browser to see my mark IV (even though I can use the To/From PC folder 

with my wifi-enabled computers at home), but I'll give 0.30 a try soon and hopefully that 

will do the trick.



It could be based on your symptom list below that your dealer forgot (or did not realize) to 

calibrate your piano before delivery.  You can perform this calibration yourself (do this at 

your own risk!), as follows (from memory, so pardon the possible errors):



- Quit the interface on the PDA and instead run the Service program, which can be found 

in the main set of PDA program icons.



- You'll see a white screen with about 3 text options, none of which are particularly 

exciting.



- Slide down the keyboard cover on your PDA, and hold the D, M, and P keys down 

together (they don't need to be pressed at the same time, just held down together).



- You should see the service options expand greatly into a maintenance mode-like menu.



- There is an option to perform a "Full Calibration w/GS check"-- GS meaning the 

grayscale sensors.  It's a couple menu options deep, but shouldn't be too difficult to find.

  Run this.



- Your Mark IV will undergo a large number of self-calibrations, which include how much 

voltage is needed to depress the pedals to various extents, how much voltage is needed to 

make each key play at a certain volume, etc.  The calibration process makes a lot of (very 

cool) sounds... so don't start it unless your housemates don't mind a lot of increasingly 

loud piano playing.



- If your Mark IV passes each set of calibrations, it will play a single C-Major chord; if it 

fails, it will play a c-minor chord.  You'll get text messages throughout the roughly 15 

minute process as well.



- At the end, the Disklavier writes all of the newly-derived parameters to a file that is 

used to optimize playback.



I've found this process to be very helpful in getting my M4 optimized; hopefully it will 

help you as well.



-J



--- In disklavier@yahoogro ups.com, "kgoroway" <kgoroway@.. .> wrote:

>

> Had my new DC3M4 for 4 days now...and it's developing some problems

> with the Disklavier, it would seem.

> 

> #1) The sustain(loud) pedal squeaks pretty badly (piano playing it, or

> a normal foot)

> #2) The sustain pedal thumps pretty badly when it goes to the zero

> position (piano playing it, mostly songs right from Yamaha, including

> the radio)

> #3) While playing the keys in quiet mode (the bar is in the way of the

> strings) some notes strike a second time when letting go of the keys.

> #4) While playing the keys in quiet mode, the keys (action?) feels

> different... certainly not invisible.

> 

> Now, mind you, this is the 3rd disklavier we've had in the house in 2

> months (DGC1b, DC3M4t, DC3M4).  The DGC1b didn't have quiet mode, so I

> can't say much about that, but the sustain pedal had none of these

> issues.  

> 

> The previous DC3M4t also had a quiet sustain pedal, and I didn't

> notice any difference in the keyboard feeling while playing in quiet

> mode...and it certainly didn't strike any notes twice.  I only played

> it for a little while, so it's possible that I might have felt a

> difference, but it was very obvious on the new piano (both the double

> strikes, and the different feeling).

> 

> It hasn't had it's initial tuning yet (scheduling one next week), so

> the tech will probably be able to adjust most of these things...but I

> was wondering how common they might be.  Anyone?

> 

> Thanks in advance.

> -Kevin

>





    
  

    
    




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