We have several Disklaviers of various incarnations including the latest upright model MX1 which is quite an instrument, built in tone generator and everything. All of our instruments are uprights although we'd like to have a Disklavier grand one day. They are getting used more and more but the key to their growing popularity among students is that a couple of professors use the Disklaviers in a big way. The trombone prof wanted the Disklavier to do juries which has worked out great. The string bass prof practices scales and tuning with his Disklavier. (By the way he wants very narrow octaves in the bass so I tune the fourths practically pure. He loves it that way.) An older voice prof just got a Disklavier in her studio and is excited about having her students practice with it. We have 3 Disklaviers that are available to students for practice and they are busy. Since we have only Disklaviers, I can't comment on other reproducer mechanisms, but the Disklaviers have been relatively problem free and the few repairs I've made haven't been too bad. The worst repair wasn't even a Disklavier problem. The electricity in the studio was erratic and caused the Disklavier to act up. A clean electrical line cured the problem. Another repair was a blown fuse; if that didn't feel strange replacing a fuse in a piano! It was the trombone prof that got most of this started. He's a computer freak and has shown how much faster students improve when they have piano accompanyment at their beck and call. The tracks are laid down at lesson time so there's no need for prerecorded stuff. The accompanyists aren't upset because it allows them to do more things and students are better prepared to play with a real time, real person when the time comes. We also maintain computers that can be checked out from the library, rolled into the Disklavier practice room, and plugged into the Disklavier. Students can edit disks, and compose and do whatever they do with midi and computers and Disklaviers. There has been some problem with disks. Disklaviers still use the double sided, double density disks instead the of high density ones. I don't know whether that's going to change or not, but it's getting harder and harder to get double density disks. There's a fellow NE chapter member who installs a lot of PianoDisk systems. They seem comparable to Disklaviers but I've heard they don't reproduce quite as accurately and the pedal mechanism isn't as sophisticated. This is only hearsay. We don't have any pianos with PianoDisk mechanisms. They do play Disklavier disks, by they way. Disklaviers won't play PianoDisk created disks. That's why we've stayed with one brand so far, but I'd like to try PianoDisk just to compare. Also, since PianoDisks may be installed by trained independant technicians, the quality of installation can vary with the experience and ability of the technician. Yamaha installs all its own Disklavier systems. There was a movement to make Disklavier installation retrofit kits, but Yamaha decided not to pursue that option. I don't know the reason other than quality control. Richard West University of Nebraska
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