> 
> Date: Wed, 17 May 95 17:56:47 EST
> From: cook@mother.clsi.us.geac.COM (Jim Cook)
> To: automatic-music@foxtail.com
> Subject: Another intro
> 
   <some text deleted>
> 
>   Now my annoying question:  Terry Smythe tossed a couple of options toward
> me for replacing the player mechanism, and recommended Piano-Disc, which I've
> never seen and know nothing about.  Does anyone have a lead on who provides
> this mechanism, what it costs, how difficult is it to install (can I do it
> myself in other words)?  Any help would be appreciated.
> Thanks and Regards to all,
> 
> Jim Cook

Jim,
   A friend of mine just got back from the factory training class at PianoDisc
in California.  He is a piano technician who has done a lot of pneumatic player
piano rebuilding in the past.  He was already reasonably computer-literate
before attending the class, although he'd never done antyhning with MIDI before.

   I asked him to informally give me the "party line".  He doesn't "do" modems
so I'm going to try to repeat here what he said to me, with some of my own
research mixed in.  I'll have to take the responsibility for any garbling of
the message.

   The basic system includes a solenoid rail, power supply, solenoid driver
logic, and a playback box which reads floppy disks.  It will read disks from
PianoDisk's library and it will also read Yamaha Disclavier disks.  You can also
feed it a MIDI signal from an external device (keyboard, sequencer, computer,
etc).  The system controls the solenoids using a pulse-width-modulation
technique and each solenoid's signal is independant of the others.  This is a
substantial improvement over the Pianocorder's bass-cleff/treble-cleff
approach.  Much more dynamic range is available than in the Pianocorder
system, although I personally doubt if any solenoid-based system can do
justice to the 127 level supported by MIDI.

   There are two significant "extras" that you can get.  One is a strip that
goes under the keyboard that allows recording (to disk) someone playing the
piano.  The second is an integrated MIDI synthesizer which they refer to as
the "symphony attachment".  I've heard the theme from the Simpson's cartoon
show played from their library on their synth (sans piano) and it was amazingly
good.  Not everyone will like the mixture of real piano and synthesizer.  I'd
probably go with the non-synth system.  You can do the upgrade later.

   The manufacturer's policy is that to enjoy the warranty it must be installed
by a dealer using a factory trained and certified technician.  The unit, as
installed in this manner, is UL approved.  It was suggested that installations
not done in this manner might leave the installer at some liability if a fire
or electrical safety issue arose later.

   My friend said his class was a full week (about 40 hours).  He said his
first installation on a grand piano took him 60 hours.  He's been told that
by the 10th one he'll have it down to about 24 hours to do the installation.

   My friend said that the suggested retail price, including installation,
ranges from $4000 to $6000 depending on whether you get the symphony attachment
and keyboard strip or not.  Prices appear to be negotiable, depending on the
dealer.  We do not know what it takes to become a dealer.

   PianoDisc's library is good enough that I consider it a shame that its not
available in other formats (Disclavier, plain MIDI files, etc).

Jody

P.S.  My friend said he'd be willing to talk to people who have more questions.
 He lives in the Central time zone.  His name and numbrer are:

	John Dewey    217-595-5535