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I couldn't fully understand this sentence. Can you clarify what you mean, please?

Kind regards,
James
x

Yes, I'm curious to know this also. arc7urus mentioned using the Virtual Technician app, but didn't explain how he was capturing/monitoring the sysex commands.

Kind regards,
James
x

Yes arc7urus! Kawai relies heavily on the end user to do their R&D.
Start holding up your end of the deal!

I work in software support/development and I am TOTALLY with James on this!

you don’t seem the least bit shy to me

<sigh> I can see this will become a running theme. When it comes to playing for people, believe me I am! Painfully so. 😢

Well, you have to admit that contrasts somewhat with your outspoken posting.

Guess i would consider myself a shy pianist too, in that regard.
Though much less experienced than yourself.

Well I guess if being unafraid to have an opinion makes me outspoken, then yeah I guess so. 🤷‍♀️ I just like a good chat about things I’m passionate about, and I have no one I can talk to about these things in the real world.

Well that's a bit sad (It's true of me too, but that makes it no less sad! )

Yeah, I should probably clarify that a bit (can’t believe I’m STILL awake). I was just talking about all things piano. I have a family and a long suffering husband, but he just glazes over when I talk to him about piano stuff bless him. And I live in the middle of nowhere. 😊

The instrument change in sound mode only happened once while using the DP, not while using the Kawai apps. The "noise" in pianist mode (which sounded like an error in a DSP filter) also only occurred once while using the DP. This actually happened when I did not have the Kawai apps installed. I often use external third-party apps to record and play MIDI.


I installed the VT app when I bought the CA98. The app showed the complete set of VT settings in sound mode. I re-installed the app this week. A number of VT settings are now missing from the app. I am aware that the app is not compatible with top-tier CA98/CA78/NV10 models, but it does connect at least to the CA98. So, if the app is incompatible, then it should not even recognize the DP in first place to avoid potential problems.


James, I appreciate your support and participation on this forum and elsewhere and I also understand you are in very difficult position since you are representing your employer.

There are several issues reported on the CA/NV threads, including issues related with the GUI usability and with the favourites management. I do not know if Kawai considers them to be "bugs", "features" or a consequence of the "specification" of the product. I also expect Kawai to issue updates not only to correct bugs but also to add or improve the functionality of a product. If this is not the case, then the R&D department should be renamed to Maintenance department

The issue with the settings while switching between favourites and sound/pianist mode can be reproduced although not consistently. For example, set a startup favourite with SHS "Off" and HP Volume "High". When switching from that favourite to sound/pianist mode these settings are still being applied. Now, add, re-order or remove favourites and then switch back to pianist/sound mode. The pianist/sound mode settings will not be the same as before. So, there is an inconsistent behaviour on how settings and favourites operate. In some cases, the settings of an existing favourite are also modified. I notice this since I use high-impedance headphones with the DP and all my favourites use HP Volume "High" and all produce a similar sound volume. However, some favourites suddenly stop observing the HP setting (at least) and will start playing at significant lower sound volume than the other favourites. I cannot reproduce this issue consistently.

Well, if you work in software development, then you should know that you should not depend exclusively on the end-users when it comes to identifying problems. The issues that are being reported here were already reported and discussed months ago in other threads, including workarounds to minimize them. However, not all of them are easy to reproduce. This is where the product developer should step in and start a proper investigation. Or are you just saying that if the end-user cannot provide you with a detailed, step-by-step recipe to reproduce a problem you should just ignore it?

Sometimes the developers can just not reproduce this issue. That's why usually, extremely detailed bug reports with careful steps to reproduce are greatly appreciated in software development.

Sometimes the end-user cannot consistently reproduce an issue. That is why the end-user also appreciates when the software developers release properly tested products and products that are incrementally improved based on feedback. And improving a product is not necessarily the same as correcting bugs that passed through testing. But the end-user, especially when the end-user is also a paying customer, does not appreciate when known limitations and issues that can be reproduced are simply dismissed and considered "features", such as those related to UI usability and favourites management.

In general design limitations are rarely considered bugs, but they can be areas for product enhancement. I speaking in very general terms here, and not about the NV10 per se. Having run a large software development shop in a past life, I can only say that software enhancement requests are often the lowest priority when resources are limited (which is nearly always).

What I don't understand is why problems which no doubt have had so many reports like the audio artifact problem have had such a slow response. If this were safety related, which it's not, in many countries Kawai would likely have been forced to institute a product recall by now.

I get the impression that devotion to quality is going extinct.I spent nearly my entire career working for a company that placed high priority on product quality and service quality. After leaving that employ I've not since seen the like.

The emphasis today is on speed. Hurry up and get it done. That's the motto.

But "done" no longer means done. It means "ship it" ... and fix it later. Then fix it again. And again. All you sucker who bought the early versions/releases ... tough tacos.

I'm accustomed to better, both as the maker and as the consumer.

At the beginning, it was evident for me that Kawai would solve the GUI issues, but now, after about 18 months, I don't believe it any more, either because they really think that their GUI is perfect, or because only money and not client satisfaction counts for them.

But I see an alternative: Kawai could release the GUI source code into the public domain.

• They wouldn't lose anything as their real know-how is in the sound engine and the hardware
• This would create a community in which dozens of pianist geeks would work for free to improve the GUI
• In no time, the CA78/98/NV10 would benefit of the best possible user interface with according effects on the sales

Let's dream!

The Kawai VT App only works on the iPad, so there is no workaround around this. In my setup I used two iOS devices with BLE (an iPhone and an iPad) and the midiflow iOS app as follows:

• On the iPhone, use midiflow to create and advertise a virtual BLE MIDI port.
• On the iPad, use an app that scans for MIDI BLE ports (like BLE-MIDI or MIDIwrench). Find the virtual BLE MIDI and connect to it. This will connect the iPhone and iPad via BLE MIDI.
• On the iPhone, use midiflow to create a flow with source = iPad, destination = DP. The iPhone will then act as a router that will take the MIDI input coming out of the iPad and transparently send it to the DP. You actually don't need to set the DP as the destination if you just want to log the sysex messages. However, it is useful to check if the messages are actually working as expected on the DP ...
• On the iPhone, enable the inspection of all MIDI messages on midiflow.
• On the iPad, start the Kawai VT app and connect it to the virtual MIDI port on the iPhone. Use the different options on the app. The messages generated by the app on the iPad will be sent to the BLE port on the iPhone, logged by midiflow and then routed via BLE to the DP. Done!

I then use MIDI-OX on the PC to edit the sysex messages and send them to the DP (via USB MIDI). With this you can create "registrations" (i.e. a set of sysex messages on a file) that work in sound mode.

The setup I described above captures all MIDI messages sent over two BLE devices. Instead of using an iPhone or other iOS device as MIDI BLE router, you can also use a Win/Mac/Android device. On iOS, midiflow and midifire support this functionality, but you can certainly find alternative software. All you need is an application that advertises a virtual BLE MIDI port. With that, it is just a matter of redirecting its input data to an app like MIDI-OX (win/mac) or any other MIDI logger. There is another approach that requires a (cheap) piece of hardware (like this BLE packet sniffer) and Wireshark, but it is overkill for this scenario and requires some coding.


A way to try to find if other settings can be controlled via sysex is to create a script to iterate (0..127) through the bytes 7 and 8 of the sysex message and check if some changes occur. At least these two bytes are used to identify the settings, but there may be more. This can be done using a command line script using an utility like SendMIDI. Or maybe Kawai could document the sysex codes... or at least say if other settings can be controlled via sysex or not

Bringing into the public domain the GUI code, the protocol that trebb has reverse engineered or enabling MIDI sysex MIDI sysex to control all settings would open the door for a number of community developed applications on computer and mobile platforms. You could be sure that in a few months, the community developed apps for the Kawai DPs would be competing with Yamaha's and Roland's applications.

However, there is an alternative option, which is to only correct critical "bugs" during the life cycle of a product and keep all code and messages completely closed. With this option Kawai can release the next generation of DPs with a slightly updated GUI and with minimum investment. So, the question is whether they will focus on their community or not.

Moreover, the option of not adding a whole new app to support the top-tiers DPs was a monumental blunder on Kawai's part and goes against all trends. The current apps are already years behind the competition. So, let's see how this story unfolds as Yamaha, Roland and Casio continue to improve their app support and add new features while Kawai is completely locked with an outdated solution. But I doubt that the current generation of top-tier DP will ever see any kind of feature improvement. Maybe they will add the deprecated favourites save/load feature to appease the community, but I am not expecting any UI improvements whatsoever. Cheers!

So here is the panel I made to cover the touch screen, that always remained visible even in switched-off mode:

http://forum.pianoworld.com//ubbthreads.php/galleries/2824986.html#Post2824986