Born to be a Disklavier – Getting to Know the Award-Winning e3

It all started back in the 1970s. A few piano teachers had been requesting a keyboard console that offered them the ability to review and critique student performances along with the student. This, according to Jim Levesque, was how Yamaha’s Disklavier was born. “Yamaha’s development team set out to fulfill this educational need by creating an instrument that could be used as a music tool, with both record and playback functionality,” says Levesque, Disklavier marketing manager, Keyboard division, Yamaha. “In 1982, Yamaha introduced its first reproducing piano in Japan, called the Piano Player. The Piano Player featured a record-and-playback system, floppy disk storage of performance data, and the ability to playback multi-track performance files that included instrumental tracks whose sound was reproduced by a tone generator. While the Piano Player never made its way to U.S. retailers, many of Yamaha’s American staff and consultants provided feedback for what would become the first generation Disklavier, introduced in 1987.” The first consumer sale of a Disklavier didn’t happen, however, until 1988; the instrument was sold to a McDonald’s restaurant in Limon, Colorado.

Fast forward 27 years to the present day and the Disklavier of 2015 is a completely different instrument. Rush Hirota – product manager of the Keyboard division at Yamaha – was able to shed some light on the instrument’s remarkable seven generation evolution. “The initial Disklavier PRO, which was introduced as part of the second generation of Disklavier (MARK II), was the first reproducing system with the ability to capture and reproduce key-off velocity,” mentions Hirota. “Reproducing systems from that time period and many today do not reproduce key-off velocity. What this means is that those other reproducing pianos simply reproduce the strike of the key and then release all notes at the same speed. The Disklavier PRO also brought high resolution MIDI recording and playback in a commercially available product. With the Mark III, Yamaha introduced audio synchronization functionality, allowing the user to create and enjoy piano performances that played along to compact discs. The Mark IV was the first instrument to incorporate continuous grayscale shutters for capturing key, hammer, and pedal movement.”

The current generation of Disklavier, the e3, is manufactured completely by Yamaha. Every bit of technology and all the mechanisms built into the Disklavier were developed, designed, and produced entirely in-house by Yamaha. They’re tailored specifically for the piano they are integrated with before the piano itself is put into production. “The end result is not a Frankenstein’s monster of modified components, not a piano built in the U.S. with electronic components built by a third party factory in China, and not a production piano with a hole cut into it with an unplayable action,” comments Mark Anderson, director of marketing, Keyboard division. “It is a singular, meticulously crafted and technologically refined instrument ‘born to be a Disklavier.’”

The e3 has some of the most accurate record and playback technology on the market today (it can play softer than any other system and retain accuracy) and can connect to the Internet to stream piano music and perform software updates without the use of a third party device, much like the Mark IV before it. The Disklavier e3 is a truly versatile instrument – part educational tool, part entertainment system. “Out of the box, the Disklavier can be used as a standalone entertainment system,” says Levesque. “The instrument can be connected to the Internet, providing the user with streaming piano music for any occasion. It can provide users with live and on-demand video performances that play their piano via our exclusive DisklavierTV service.” A user could purchase albums online through the Yamaha MusicSoft website and transfer it to the instrument using a USB drive or the local network. Levesque explains the e3 can also playback material from a myriad of sources – USB, CD, iPad/iPhone, CD/DVD Player, MIDI, or over a network. Yamaha has invested over $2 million dollars in the creation of the Disklavier’s music software library and has released over 20,000 songs in a variety of software types. The e3 also offers 24/7 streaming radio services with more than 30 channels. “The Disklavier e3 has an iOS app that allows you to control every aspect of the instrument from anywhere in the home,” says Levesque. “Also, third party devices, such as an Apple Airport Express Wi-Fi  base station, allow for cable-less connectivity.” From an educational standpoint, the e3 fits everyone from beginners to the most advanced student. “The big trend in modern college education is to tear down walls,” adds Levesque, “to reach students wherever they may be, and to connect students to resources and to each other regardless of geographic location. The ability to link pianos anywhere in the world is a concept that fits beautifully with this trend in modern education. Remote Lesson provides the opportunity for long distance teaching and performing at an unprecedentedly high level, providing a much more realistic experience compared to teaching or performing via video-conference.”

The Disklavier e3 has numerous unique features that distinguish it from other pianos. “Owners can use it as an entertainment device,” says Anderson, “with a myriad connectivity options for content consumption including the most refined streaming services available with Disklavier Radio and DisklavierTV.” DisklavierTV allows the opportunity to broadcast a musical performance from one Disklavier to many pianos simultaneously, sending a combination of MIDI, video, and audio data. DisklavierTV was launched at NAMM in 2011. There, Roberta Flack played a Disklavier and sang at the Yamaha Piano Salon in New York City, while her music could be heard in real time a continent away in Anaheim, California over Internet-connected Disklavier DCFX and Bösendorfer 200DE3 performance reproducing pianos. DisklavierTV also provides on-demand and live broadcasts of artists performing simultaneously on your TV and your Disklavier (some of those artists have included Elton John and Sarah McLachlan). “The e3 has educational features such as high-resolution recording and playback, SmartKey, and a Silent System that does not negatively impact the playability of the instrument,” adds Anderson.

It’s perhaps this mixture of education and entertainment that won the Disklavier its first MMR Dealers’ Overall Product of the Year Award in 1994. But it didn’t win just once. In 2001, the Disklavier began a 10-year winning streak as overall Product of the Year, an accolade Paul Calvin – vice president/general manager of the Keyboard division – says has really lit a fire in Yamaha. “Yamaha is passionate about music and music education, which is reflected in our relentless determination to delight our customers and to advance the musical landscape, and the Disklavier is certainly reflective of that,” says Calvin. “The string of MMR Dealers’ Choice Awards for “Product of the Year” reminds us that dealers, as well as consumers, recognize the tradition, dedication, innovation and above all, the highest standards of quality that Yamaha is known for, including in our Disklavier. Being recognized with those awards really helps inspire us to build on our goals of being the best, infusing that mission with a focus on sharing passion and performance.” With a slew of Dealers’ Choice Awards under their belts, Yamaha is eagerly working to better the Disklavier in hopes of another DCA. “Yamaha’s eyes and ears are open,” comments Hirota. “We are taking note of the current trends and how consumers interact with their products and media. Our desire is to continue to provide users with the experiences they want as well as create tools that will expand music education in new and meaningful ways. We are extremely proud of the many advantages of the Disklavier, including DisklavierTV, Disklavier Radio, and Remote Lesson. And although we’re currently in our seventh generation of the Disklavier, we’re diligently working on ‘what comes next.’ We can assure you that the Disklavier difference – the performance capabilities that set the Disklavier above any other instrument out there – w will be expanded upon even further.”