[MPA] electric piano & midi files

[Primrose Music]

This is very helpful, Scott. Thanks a lot.

The Maxell 3.5 floppy disks that I use with my SuperDisk Drive say 
they're *Windows/MS-DOS*, so that should be okay. I am using OS X, so 
I'll check if Sibelius is okay with DOS. I imagine it will be. (Anyone 
know for sure?)

Yes, ideally we'd go straight from the piano to the Mac, but they're a 
flight of stairs apart! One thought, though:- I wonder if you can get 
extra long midi cables? Then we'd need a USB MIDI interface, I suppose.

Anyway - very many thanks - it's all getting clearer.

- Gilly
>
>
>
> As far as I know all digital pianos that have a disk drive write 
> standard MIDI files to the disk.  I think all digital pianos use a DOS 
> format for their disk drive, but that is O.K. because Mac's can read 
> this format.  No special disk is required, just a standard 3.5 inch.
>
> The superdrive should be just fine.
>
> Sometimes Mac MIDI programs have a problem reading MIDI files from a 
> DOS format,  There is a simple little freeware utility that fixes this 
> called MIDI Typer.  It is available here:
>
> http://www.harmony-central.com/Software/Mac/midi.html
>
> This won't work in OS X on your Mac, if you are using OS X.    I don't 
> know if there is something else that will.  Of course you might not 
> have any problem, so you wouldn't need this utility anyway.
>
> Most digital pianos have a MIDI out connection, so with a simple MIDI 
> interface you could record from your piano directly into the Mac. That 
> way you wouldn't need to have a keyboard with a disk drive.  Just a 
> thought.
>
> Good luck,
>
> Scott
>
>
>
>
>>
>> Thanks, Andy and ct, for your responses. I'll be a bit more specific 
>> about what I'm wanting to do.
>>
>> At the moment we have a Yamaha Clavinova (old one, no built-in disk 
>> drive) with a Roland MT100 sequencer (very old, this, with smaller 
>> than 3.5inch disks), and, in another room,  an iMac with Sibelius 
>> installed and an Imation SuperDisk Drive attached (USB).
>>
>> My partner composes at the Clavinova (using the Sequencer for 
>> playback), and  hand-writes arrangements for her singing students. I 
>> then transfer these to Sibelius in order to get printed copies.
>>
>> We're looking to replace the Clavinova and the Sequencer with a new 
>> electric piano with built-in disk-drive, with the aim of being able 
>> to record midi files at the piano which Sibelius can then import via 
>> the SuperDisk Drive.
>>
>> So I guess the questions are:-
>>
>> 1. When you record onto the disk in an electric piano's disk drive, 
>> is what you get a midi file? (Maybe not necessarily - depends on the 
>> piano?)
>>
>> 2. Should I be looking for a special sort of disk which can be 
>> written in the piano's drive and read in the Imation SuperDisk Drive?
>>
>> 3. Maybe the SuperDisk Drive is not the thing and I need some other 
>> external floppy disk drive?
>>
>> Thanks for any help.
>>
>> - Gilly
>>
>>