Thing#3

[sbrbot]

Number buttons (small buttons for numbers 1 til 9) could be built on front panel of CVP in order one to be able to insert numeric values directly.

[wally]

I'd like to take this wish up a level or two. At the very top end of the model line, I think the CVP should have a pull-out keyboard. I'm not sure where it would pull out from, but for people who do a lot of sequencing and MIDI file editing, this would be a big help. I would also expect the top model to have a full up sequencer, like Cake Walk, built right in.

[sbrbot]

Unfortunately I cannot here agree with you. Building in full size sequencer in CVP is almost impossible. (complex software, small display, need for processor power, etc.) CVP will never be so comfortable as computer for sequencing and other editing purposes. MIDI editor can be improved further but not so much to imitate full scale sequencers like Cake Walk or Cubase.

If you start with such an ideas then only the heaven's a limit. One could have full WXGA screen (in order to represent scores), full mixing studio with tons of effects, soft touch screen that can immediately play and transform into scores what you write on screen with pen ... :-)

[dbjorck]

Hi!

Exactly! That's what we want. That is all technically possible and with these exorbitant prices, a bit of what we would expect. There hasn't been much innovation from them for several years now. This is the kind of direction they should be taking by now. They've been touting how important IDC is going to be for updating your instrument for years. New developments in sequencing and so on could in other words be directly downloaded.

For some reason they've just stopped short, just on the threshold of what they could do to revolutionise these instruments.

PS - welcome, you busy bee! A this rate you are going to surpass me in posts within a week!!

Brgds

Danny

[sbrbot]

Hi!

Exactly! That's what we want. That is all technically possible and with these exorbitant prices, a bit of what we would expect. There hasn't been much innovation from them for several years now. This is the kind of direction they should be taking by now. They've been touting how important IDC is going to be for updating your instrument for years. New developments in sequencing and so on could in other words be directly downloaded.

I hope that you're just kidding. :-)

For some reason they've just stopped short, just on the threshold of what they could do to revolutionise these instruments.

Right, I can agree with you that rapid development and improvement of digital pianos like CVP from previous decades almost stopped. I'm comparing older CVP-30x serie with CVP-40x serie and do not see big differences. OK, more memory, no more SmartMedia card (thank God), no more FDD, USB, more sounds etc. Nothing less is even expected. Come on, SmartMedia is replaced with USB, this should have happened many years ago. I purchased my PSR-1500 2 years ago which has SmartMedia reader, and even then there hadn't been SmartMedia cards on Market for years.

PS - welcome, you busy bee! A this rate you are going to surpass me in posts within a week!!

Brgds

Danny

Thx Danny

[dbjorck]

Hi!

I hope that you're just kidding. :-)


Nope! Why not? I see no compelling reason to not be able to do things like this. Including your great idea of being able to write the score directly on the screen and it will automatically translate it into MIDI events. And yes, it should then also recognise performance notation such as rit, staccato, forte, etc! The technology to do all this exists today, why not bring it out of the PC and into the CVP? This technology isn't too expensive to produce today either. It's the same as your IDC thread; where you are asking to open up browsing completely on the CVP. I see no reason to leave sequencing behind on the PC. It also ties in with your O/S thread; why not ditch their own O/S and go for a professional O/S such as Linux (or similar); buy a finished sequencing package (I wouldn't be surprised if they have the money to buy Cakewalk for instance), and bundle it all in a super uberkeyboard.

I think they could do this to market fairly quickly, and professional musicians certainly would like it, and they can stand to pay for it as well.

Brgds

Danny (known for thinking out of the box. Only it becomes muffled in here :) )

[sbrbot]

Hi!
Nope! Why not? I see no compelling reason to not be able to do things like this. Including your great idea of being able to write the score directly on the screen and it will automatically translate it into MIDI events. And yes, it should then also recognise performance notation such as rit, staccato, forte, etc! The technology to do all this exists today, why not bring it out of the PC and into the CVP? This technology isn't too expensive to produce today either.

OK, you're right, this could be possible today, but it will require much more artificiall intelligence for recognition, much more sofisticated OS, much more complex software support, etc. At the end of the day this is too far from music creation and music playing. I personally would be able to accept all this features like few of us technical geeks, why not, but think how many musicians that use CVP are able to cope with all this features, how many professional pianists are capable to deal with this. This requires computer power users.

On the other hand, again, my humble opinion is that this software integrated in CVP machine can be better but will never reach possibilities of computer. Comp software are more flexibile, can be changed more easily, faster, etc. Also, all these features integrated in CVP will raise the price of CVP so much that it will become not worth this. Today you can buy notebook for really reasonable money and it can give you much more in terms of functionalities than any software that could be integrated inside CVP.

My opinion is that Yamaha (like any other keyboard vendor) should much more work on connectivity and interfaces, allow connection of whole Internet, integrate firewire, new USB 2.0, put 2.5" HDD into smallest CVP machine with modularity in mind for upgrade.

Also I think that Yamaha must develop much more free available software for their instruments. They developed all these standards GM2, XG, XF and you cannot find few good programs that can work with this.

[dbjorck]

Good morning, I hope you slept well!

OK, you're right, this could be possible today, but it will require much more artificiall intelligence for recognition, much more sofisticated OS, much more complex software support, etc. At the end of the day this is too far from music creation and music playing. I personally would be able to accept all this features like few of us technical geeks, why not, but think how many musicians that use CVP are able to cope with all this features, how many professional pianists are capable to deal with this. This requires computer power users.
I don't agree. Your own idea of making it possible to write the score directly on the screen, and have it automatically converted to MIDI events, takes it out of the hands of power computer users, and directly into the hands of musicians! Secondly, I'm a programmer myself and this does not require AI (a much misused term). Some complex algorithms yes, but these are already available in existing sequencing software. And since musicians are already using sequencing software on their PC's, why would they not be capable of dealing with this when it's on their CVP?

On the other hand, again, my humble opinion is that this software integrated in CVP machine can be better but will never reach possibilities of computer. Comp software are more flexibile, can be changed more easily, faster, etc. Also, all these features integrated in CVP will raise the price of CVP so much that it will become not worth this. Today you can buy notebook for really reasonable money and it can give you much more in terms of functionalities than any software that could be integrated inside CVP.
My point is that the CVP is already a computer. It has everything a computer needs. As you point out a laptop today is cheap, and so they can easily put all that functionality in the CVP, cheaply. As to easy changes, IDC was touted from the start to be able to upgrade the software. So all components are in place to do this already, at a fairly low cost. Only problem is Yamaha always marks the prices up 1000% so yes, they would sell it for much more that it is worth. And that is another problem in their attitude - which I think they need to change soon or a new company will quickly snatch their market shares... They need innovation, customer interaction, consistent sales and support globally, and fair pricing.

Brgds

Danny

[sbrbot]

Good morning, I hope you slept well!
I don't agree. Your own idea of making it possible to write the score directly on the screen, and have it automatically converted to MIDI events, takes it out of the hands of power computer users, and directly into the hands of musicians! Secondly, I'm a programmer myself and this does not require AI (a much misused term). Some complex algorithms yes, but these are already available in existing sequencing software. And since musicians are already using sequencing software on their PC's, why would they not be capable of dealing with this when it's on their CVP?

I'm glad to see how advocating you can be for this idea of writing notes on scren and transformin it into MIDI/score. Maybe I should copyright this idea :-))