I joined the "solenoid group" and installed a Pianomation system in my
piano.

The unit is very small compared to a pneumatic action, so small in fact
that I still have room for my original player action.

My unit has no trouble playing softly.   Of course this depends on where
you put the unit in the piano.  In the case of my upright, as far back
in the keyboard as possible.  If it is too far forward, the leverage
will be incorrect and soft playing will suffer.  If you have to cut the
keyboard supports off the plate, so be it.

These solenoids seem to have a little trouble with legato notes that are
spaced less than 20 duration apart.  The "off" time is a little slower
than a pneumatic system.  The softer the piano plays, the less noticeable
the problem is.  Then there is that aggravating one second MIDI lag that
runs me crazy with the cakewalk program.

   [ Editor's Note:
   [
   [ MIDI note events denote the time the string is to be struck.
   [ Since softer notes are played by striking with a lower velocity,
   [ they solenoids must be energized for the softer notes longer.
   [ To accomodate this differrence in time to strike a note, each
   [ note of the performance must be delayed by an appropriate
   [ amount for the desired velocity for each note so that MIDI note
   [ events of differrent velocities retain the correct relationship
   [ to each other.  In order to accomplish this, all modern solenoid
   [ systems introduce a delay in the MIDI signal.
   [
   [ I think the average delay is 1/2 second.  Its distinctly noticable
   [ if you are watching the music on the screen while its played, and
   [ its essentially impossible to play the piano with an external MIDI
   [ keyboard unless you turn off the delay feature.
   [
   [ Its also worth noting that all the modern systems have a "Delayed
   [ MIDI Out" which has all other MIDI events appropriately delayed
   [ so they can be sent to a synthesizer which is to play along with
   [ the piano.
   [
   [ I would really appreciate it if someone would comment on whether
   [ soft notes were coded early on expression rolls when there are
   [ differrences in the expression between the two stack halves ?
   [
   [ Jody

The expression is still unreal and a pleasure to listen to.  For the
folks who can't afford a fine reproducer, it is the way to go.  Or you
can make a player out of a straight piano.  It is far far better than
the RAM "universal stacks" made out of plastic that are leaky, just as
expensive and  won't work very long!

And QRS will fully back up their product, with no hassle at all.

I send it big handfuls of MIDI notes and it sails through them like
nothing.  The Magic pedal is really a great feature and works very well.

   [ Editor's Note:
   [
   [ The "Magic Pedal" Andy refers to is a technique for implementing
   [ the sustain pedal fuction by keeping the struck solenoids energized
   [ until the sustain pedal is released.
   [
   [ Jody

Even though the Pianomation will play from CD's I don't care much for
them.  I like to change the key and tempo sometimes.  A CD won't let you
do that.  So I always order the floppies from QRS or make my own files.

                                                         Andy Taylor