Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Kawai VPC1: a 3D model for any DIY purposes

Drinking bird solution:

Mine doesn't. It stays on for days and days. Is that a setup option?

If you use the VPC editor software you can set it to stay on.
You can still turn it off with the power button, so that wouldn't keep someone from switching it off.

Back when I ran Windows, I remember being able to change the function of the power button to run suspend on/off instead of power on/off.

Option 2, run a web server on your headless computer, attach a script to relaunch "rescan usb" (or whatever that function is) and then bookmark that in your smartphone.

Personally, sounds like you should send a bug report to Cantabile and get the developers on the software end to figure out a solution. I routinely power my Privia on/off and my dedicated laptop w/ Linux+Pianoteq detects it just fine.

David-san,

The VPC1 should memorise the selected preset memory when the power button is pushed to turn off the controller. Just like touch curves and other settings, the selected preset will be stored to non-volatile memory, meaning it will survive even if the USB or power cables are not connected.

Please try the following:



Regarding the auto-power off feature, as others have noted, this behaviour can be adjusted in the VPC Editor:



Regarding the VPC1's slightly curved surface, this is intended to reduce the vertical heigh of the instrument (required to accommodate the tall wooden key action).

Kind regards,
James
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Hello James,

I followed your procedure and that's right it works. So, I had to figure out why I had a different behavior. It wasn't difficult to find, if you remove step 3 from your procedure
then the touch curve is no more correctly recalled. This means that the last used touch curve is stored only when turning the VPC1 off using the button. I don't turn the VPC1 off with the button, this explains why my curve was not recalled. This is an interesting information to me.

Thanks for the "Auto power-off" settings... RTFM David, RTFM!!!

OHHHHH James, but look at my version of the VPC Editor, there is a GREAT NEW OPTION!!!



Oh no, really?... it was just a dream?...

More seriously, this could be a fine tuning of my firmware upgrade proposition:

- add an "Auto power: always on" option in both the VPC1 and VPC Editor (the VPC1 goes automatically ON when powered and never goes OFF)
- add a "Force turn OFF" option to the VPC1 (turns the VPC1 OFF anyway after pushing the button at least 10s)

I think this is easier than my former proposition and also solves the issue with Cantabile (and other softwares) when using a computer without screen. Be sure I am not the only one who works this way.

Will you try to propose this wonderful upgrade to the development team?

Hello David,



Correct. I believe the majority of VPC1 users turn the controller on/off using the power button.



Indeed.



Nice job with the Photoshopped editor.
I obviously cannot promise anything, but I will raise your suggestion with the VPC team.

Kind regards,
James
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Hello James,

I also wanted to try to have the support of the Kawai guy I had contacted by email and who had given me his help to make the Kawai USB-MIDI drivers run under Windows 8.1. But, I just checked, and as it is a certain James M. B., I think it won't bring me more support...

One more thing about the very nice curved top of the VPC1: as the VPC1 is not only thicker than other keyboards, but also deeper, the curved form of the top also bring much more rigidity to the hood.

David

PS: James, WHAT?!?!... You suggest that I could have used Photoshop on a screenshot?!?!! Never!...
I always use The Gimp

James,

I just noticed that the link you give on the VPC Facebook page for the 3D model of the VPC1 is only a link to the illustrative picture of the model and not to the model itself. The link of the model is :

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=u2eb9abbd-6258-4b81-9b7b-794da64b6b98

David

Ah, sorry about that.

It's fixed now - thank you.

James
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It is quite rare to have a music rest on a master keyboard. The VPC1 has a tiny one, that's nice, but I am used to build custom music rests that better satisfy my needs. For the VPC1, I think of a grand-like music rest. This is my first idea:



It is very large, but I don't think it is oversized for the VPC1. Well, I think I'm starting to like the idea...

Looks great! I'd love to have one for my MP11. Currently, I'm using a long piece of cardboard that just sits on top of the current music rest.

If you are altering the music rest, may I make a suggestion? On the current VPC1 and MP11 music desk, it is made from metal. The bottom part where the music sits has a portion on the front that is bent and comes up. The angle is slight, but when playing from a book it inevitably bends/rips the bottom of each page when turning. I get that this is there to prevent the book from sliding forward, but there are other ways of doing this that won't ruin the music.

What many grand pianos have is felt or some rubbery foam on the bottom that allows pages and books to stay put and not slide, but doesn't cause issues when you have to turn pages. There is also no lip at the edge.

Thanks for your suggestions, I will take them into account for the final design.

+1 to Morodiene again.
The same is valid for the metal music stand that comes with the MP7. I ripped apart one sheet of a valued old music book on the first page turn, only then I noticed the little notch at the base of the note stand ...

Speaking of altering angles, may I also suggest you fix it so the music rest is more perpendicular instead of angling back away from the VCP1. I find it to be set back a little further than most piano rests, making it a little more difficult to read the music. If you use the rubberized grips that Morodiene suggests, then you could have it at more of right angle without having the music fall off. Or perhaps some cantiliever effect that projected the stand a little over the VCP1 without changing the angle would be a better solution.

Taking the cue from grand pianos, they are always adjustable, which is great to suit the height and distance needed for the pianist. So ideally, this music desk would be on sliders where you could bring the music closer or farther away, and also adjustable for different angles.

You set the bar very high! As my personal grand piano is a Kawai VPC1 I don't know how a grand piano music rack is built. If I remember well, it is based on sliding parts. If you can post some pictures of yours, I would appreciate.

Alas, I will not be near mine for another 3-4 months! I'm sure you can look up online to see pictures of how they are done and get the idea though.

Very cool project.

James
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