by Linwood » Tue Nov 26, 2019 9:15 am
I probably ran a couple things together...
The player piano can play analog music in a special form, the right channel has keystroke information modulated into an audio signal much like an old style modem squeal. The left channel can have a (mono) audio accompaniment played through a speaker under the piano. This is special music bought from the manufacturer (Pianodisc). It presents as a normal MP3 (or similar) file, so I can catalog and "play" it from any media program, so long as I can output it to the headphone type jack on the piano.
The sheet music reader display on the piano I put together with custom software to display PDF's from self-scanned sheet music. That mostly requires a human to read and play, though some I have run through music recognition software to turn it into a music score, then from there (via Musescore) to Midi. So while it can't happen on the fly, and requires a lot of manual cleanup, I can go from sheet music to an actual track that can play on the player system, though those midi files (and associated PDF so you can see the score) will not "fit" in MediaMonkey. I keep them in Calibre which is a bit more format-agnostic than audio server software with MM, and access them from my sheet reader software (Qt based on linux).
But the interesting part to me is being able now to make the piano part of the overall house system. When I tell it to play, lights change around the room and inside the piano, I can stop other music on other players (if any), power up the outlets with the player system and speaker, and start the music. All from a voice command.
But for the future what I'd love to see this simplified, one music server somewhere which can play to any renderer (the piano would be one, albeit a bit of a special one). Just no music player/server I've found really has all the pieces in one place (Plex was close but lacked a good player/renderer for linux). MM5 (or better MMS + MM5) is by far a better media manager, but lacks linux support (so far) and remote control.
Incidentally, by installing gmrender-resurrect on the linux box, I also have it as a DLNA renderer in and of itself (no player), so I can play straight from MM5 on another system to the piano, no VLC in the middle. I just can't remote control MM5. But this is handy for sitting at my desk and organizing music, playing a bit of a track to see if I like it, etc.
Sorry, I ramble. Just trying to give some encouragement for thinking "home automation" as you work on MM5/MMs.
I probably ran a couple things together...
The player piano can play analog music in a special form, the right channel has keystroke information modulated into an audio signal much like an old style modem squeal. The left channel can have a (mono) audio accompaniment played through a speaker under the piano. This is special music bought from the manufacturer (Pianodisc). It presents as a normal MP3 (or similar) file, so I can catalog and "play" it from any media program, so long as I can output it to the headphone type jack on the piano.
The sheet music reader display on the piano I put together with custom software to display PDF's from self-scanned sheet music. That mostly requires a human to read and play, though some I have run through music recognition software to turn it into a music score, then from there (via Musescore) to Midi. So while it can't happen on the fly, and requires a lot of manual cleanup, I can go from sheet music to an actual track that can play on the player system, though those midi files (and associated PDF so you can see the score) will not "fit" in MediaMonkey. I keep them in Calibre which is a bit more format-agnostic than audio server software with MM, and access them from my sheet reader software (Qt based on linux).
But the interesting part to me is being able now to make the piano part of the overall house system. When I tell it to play, lights change around the room and inside the piano, I can stop other music on other players (if any), power up the outlets with the player system and speaker, and start the music. All from a voice command.
But for the future what I'd love to see this simplified, one music server somewhere which can play to any renderer (the piano would be one, albeit a bit of a special one). Just no music player/server I've found really has all the pieces in one place (Plex was close but lacked a good player/renderer for linux). MM5 (or better MMS + MM5) is by far a better media manager, but lacks linux support (so far) and remote control.
Incidentally, by installing gmrender-resurrect on the linux box, I also have it as a DLNA renderer in and of itself (no player), so I can play straight from MM5 on another system to the piano, no VLC in the middle. I just can't remote control MM5. But this is handy for sitting at my desk and organizing music, playing a bit of a track to see if I like it, etc.
Sorry, I ramble. Just trying to give some encouragement for thinking "home automation" as you work on MM5/MMs.