2008-03-04 by George F. Litterst
Good evening, everyone.
On Mar 3, 2008, at 6:55 PM, Loi wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am a newbie to the Disklavier. I just bought a GH1 Mark III (year
> 2000).
> Question 1: I downloaded midi songs into the floppy disk and load into
> the mark 3. All songs come up without titles. The display
> shows "Untittle". How do I name the songs? IS there somekind of
> software to name the songs?
>
> Question 2: All songs seemed to play in alphabetical order. How do I
> re-
> arrange songs in my own ordering?
>
Question 2 is the easiest to answer: Song files come up in the order
in which they were copied to the floppy disk. If you dragged a bunch
to the disk on your computer from a window that sorted them in
alphabetical order, that may have caused them to be copied in that
order.
You can copy them one at a time in any order that you wish. You can
also use the Disklavier's Song Sort feature to change the order, but
that can be time-consuming.
The answer to question 1 is complicated. I have pasted details below.
It sounds to me as though the authors of these MIDI files did not
embed MIDI sequence names.
Regards,
PianoBench
www.georgelitterst.com
www.timewarptech.com
******************
As best I can determine, the Disklavier display can get the file name
for a SMF song from any of these four places:
(1) a name stored in a directory that the Disklavier creates on the
floppy disk when you make a recording to the disk,
(2) a Yamaha proprietary meta event added to the SMF by the Disklavier,
(3) the so-called "sequence" name meta event which is imbedded in the
MIDI file--usually by a sequencing program,
and
(4) the DOS file name.
Which name does the Disklavier use for display?
In the case of pre-Mark IV Disklaviers, it seems as though the
Disklavier defaults to reading the name in the directory file if one
is present.
The display name registered in the directory file is put there when
the directory file is initially created. This directory file is
created when a recording is made. Subsequently, whenever a new piece
is recorded or an old one rerecorded, the directory file is updated
with respect to the file being recorded or otherwise altered.
If a directory file is not present, the Disklavier reads the name
embedded in the Yamaha meta event. This meta event is created by the
Disklavier and is embedded in the file when you use the front panel of
the Disklavier to add a title to a SMF. Adding a title is,
technically, a recording procedure which also updates the directory on
the disk or creates a new one if one is not present.
Keep in mind that a proprietary meta event will normally not be read
by another other piece of hardware or software except one that is made
by the manufacturer which is identified as the creator of the meta
event. Therefore, Yamaha title meta events may be read by the
Clavinova CVP, but will not be read by another manufacturer's keyboard
or by your sequencer.
If a Yamaha meta event title is not embedded in the file and a
directory file is not present which contains info about the file in
question, the Disklavier displays the sequence name. This name is
added in a sequencer, such as Cakewalk, Vision, Performer, Metro, etc.
For example, with Cakewalk Pro Audio 7, you can go to the File menu
and select Info.... This brings up a dialog which lets you add a
title. With Performer, you open the Chunks window and create the
sequence name there.
When you resave the SMF from a sequencer, the Yamaha meta event--if
any--is usually lost. The sequencer may add a sequence name for the
song title. If you do not specify a title in your sequencer, your
sequencer may automatically add a sequence name anyway. This default
title usually shows up on the Disklavier display with the name
"Untitled."
Note that the sequence name meta event is actually a "public" meta
event--for lack of a better word; it is one that is universally
recognized.
Finally, if a directory file is not present, a Yamaha title meta event
is not present, and a SMF sequence title meta event is not present,
the Disklavier will use the DOS file name for display. You can create
this last situation by taking a SMF, opening it in a sequencer,
setting the sequence name to nothing, and resaving the SMF file to a
disk which has no directory already on it.
How should you add your titles? If you work with a sequencer a lot,
your best bet is to add the sequence title when you have the SMF open
for editing. Otherwise, adding titles using the Disklavier's front
panel is fine. The advantage to adding titles with your sequencer is
that the title stays "glued" to the file, regardless of whether the
file is opened in a sequencer by someone else or put on a disk to
which the Disklavier later adds a directory file.
Keep in mind that on any Disklavier other than a Mark IV, the display
name can be up to 32 characters long as far as the Disklavier's
display is concerned. The first 16 characters (including spaces) go on
the top line, the rest on the bottom line.
On the Mark IV, there seems to be no limit as to the number of
characters in a song title. The Mark IV provides a place to enter long
song titles. Those names are stored a sequence name meta events in the
MIDI file.