Pianodisc, midi files and such

[Alan Forsyth]

Hello congregation....oops, I mean list,

....."The Monkeys are available on the internet.  MIDI files abound all over
the place".......

While we are on the subject of Pianodisc, may I ask what the trade price, or
recommended retail price is for a Pianodisc setup. I was interested in
installing such a unit in my own piano a couple of years ago and contacted
the nearest supplier as to the cost. Needless to say, I was horrified at the
price quoted me; in the region of $8000. I informed the dealer that I would
have a pretty tough time justifying that cost, considering that at the time
$8000 would buy a brand new small car or about 5 laptop computers. As with
most other websites, the Pianodisc site did not mention prices (one of my
pet hates) at the time. BTW the price of $8000 did include installation.

And while on this subject as well, does anyone know how to route the midi
signal from a laptop soundcard to one of the external ports,(parallel,
serial, USB etc, so that it can control an external keyboard, in this case a
Roland electronic piano.
On a  normal desktop PC with soundcard in the PCI slot, the midi signal goes
through the "gaming" port on the soundcard. Laptops do not have this
facility. However, programs like Media Player and Real Player are able to
play Midi files, so there must be a way of getting that signal to an
external port without any additional hardware or external devices. The music
shops here want to sell me some sort of Midi convertor contraption with a
whole lot of wiring, but to me what's the point when the Midi signal is
there anyway and all that extra external stuff negates the whole point of a
laptop. My  system is Windows 98.

Hope some of you understand my drift here.
Any ideas, anyone.

Leaving you in pieces,
Alan Forsyth
calling from "Auld Reekie"