Disklavier

For Mac users or those that want to be, 1) both iTunes (free) and
SoundConverter will convert from midi to WAV (CD), 2)  for a $39 drive, Macs
can read PC diskettes/files (midi), 3) the Disklavier will format diskettes
in the proper format, 4) Bootcamp (free from Apple) will
write/transfer/format files to the diskettes, 5) mtool is available in the
public domain and on Mac download forums, and 6) ESEQ conversion for Mac is
available at http://download.goo.ne.jp/software/category/mac/art/music/midi/

However, a good low-level programmer could make one app, or convert the
existing group PC utilites, and obviate the above options.


On 6/6/07 10:52 PM, "Mark Fontana" <mfontana@...> wrote:

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> On Wed, 6 Jun 2007, Matthew Walworth wrote:
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>> > What is ridiculous is that Yamaha makes the Cadillac of pianos and
>> > requires the Volkswagon of computers to interact with it. Joan is
>> > absolutely correct that, while arguably necessary, the suggestion
>> > will strike any Mac user as ridiculous.
> 
> Maybe I'm confused here, but I don't think Yamaha is forcing anyone to
> use a PC.  They don't provide much in the way of tools to enhance the
> Disklavier from EITHER platform, do they? The existing Windows tools
> mentioned on this forum like Root-A-Ripper and dkvutils were written by
> fellow Disklavier owners or enthusiasts, and most of them are fairly
> old.  The Giebler utilities for Disklavier are SO old (early 1990s) that
> the 8 MHz Mac Classic (running System 6 or System 7) was the current
> model of Macintosh at the time!
> 
> One could obviate the need for a Windows PC by writing (or making it
> worth someone's time to write) some Mac software to perform the same
> functions as these PC utilities.  I have to believe that formatting DOS
> floppies and reading and writing them via low-level disk access must be
> possible on a Mac, although you might need to run the app as a
> privileged user to do it.  Linux users can access DOS diskettes (even
> without mounting them) using a set of command-line utilities called
> "mtools" - perhaps this could be ported to the Mac platform, if it
> hasn't been already?  This would give Mac users the ability to format
> and transfer files to and from Disklavier floppies.  Command line
> utilities to convert to and from ESEQ format would be fairly
> straightforward to write.  The CD encoding software MID2PianoCD could be
> ported fairly readily by someone familiar with Mac GUI programming.
> 
> I'm willing to help with this effort, but I don't have a Mac available
> for development yet, and it's not my primary day-to-day platform.  But
> as Vista appears to be the most obnoxious and bloated version of Windows
> yet, I'm giving serious consideration to joining the Mac camp within the
> next year or two when Microsoft begins forcing people to upgrade from
> XP.  I should probably buy a Mac mini to play with in the meantime...
> 
> Mark Fontana
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