When shipping floppy disks, it’s important to package them securely to prevent damage during transit. Follow these steps for safe and efficient shipping:
Shipping One or Two Disks
Attach the disks to a flat piece of cardboard with a rubber band to prevent bending.
Place the wrapped disks in a padded envelope or plain manila envelope and mail.
Shipping Multiple Disks
Use a cardboard box for better protection.
Bundle the disks in sets of five using rubber bands to keep them secure.
Wrap the bundles in bubble wrap, Ziploc bags, or even paper for added protection.
Fill any empty space in the box with dense foam or extra bubble wrap to prevent movement.
Try to keep disks at least two inches away from the edge of the box.
Additional Tips
Label the package “Magnetic Media” to prevent mishandling.
Avoid using packing peanuts, as they offer poor protection.
For hard drives, use dense foam or small-bubble bubble wrap for proper padding.
By following these simple steps, your floppy disks will be securely packaged and ready for shipment.
A comprehensive disk-imaging suite for Windows. Notably, it successfully transfers Yamaha Electone Performance floppy disks when other tools see them as unformatted. Although it can read some Clavinova and Electone floppy disks, it can not read Disklavier floppy disks.
ESEQ Explorer Facilitates the creation and management of PIANODIR.FIL for Yamaha Disklavier. Using ESEQ Explorer, you can create PIANODIR.FIL directories for your ESEQ files. This is necessary for older Disklaviers, and also allows you to modify song titles and metadata.
MIDI2SEQ Convert standard MIDI files to ESEQ for early Yamaha Disklavier compatibility.
ESEQ2MID Transform Yamaha Disklavier ESEQ files into standard MIDI format. This tool is extremely helpful if you’re transferring your songs from floppy disks from an older Disklavier, to a USB stick for a newer one!
MID2PianoCD is a Windows utility by Mark Fontana for encoding MIDI and ESEQ files into player piano-compatible formats. It supports various electronic player piano systems, including Yamaha Disklavier, PianoDisc iQ, Live Performance LX, Marantz Pianocorder, and QRS Pianomation. You can use it to generates CDs that can be played directly on MIDI player pianos, expanding the versatility of your Disklavier’s music library.
Mark Fontana is an extremely knowledgeable and talented individual, and his software — both this and PPFBU below — are vital staples. He requests donations on his website, and if you find his tools useful, you should support him.
Player Piano Floppy Backup Utility (PPFBU) is the premier Windows-based tool for backing up Yamaha Disklavier and PianoDisc floppy disks. It’s an indispensable tool for backing up your old floppy disks. He requests donations on his website, and if you find his tools useful, you should support him. It has a user-friendly interface, and can be used with USB floppy disk drives, even when Windows cannot see or open the disk.
Giebler produced a utility with wide-ranging compatibility with Yamaha devices. It will read older Yamaha Clavinova disks, in addition to Disklavier disks. However, this software is old, requiring versions of Windows that mostly can’t even be installed outside virtual machines. If you’re interested in how to get this running, read my article on using Giebler to explore old Clavinova disks.
For nearly all purposes, I recommend PPFBU above, although in isolated circumstances this software might make more sense for your particular project. Yamaha still recommends them today.
All software runs under MS-DOS on IBM PC-XT, PC-AT, or compatibles with a hard disk drive and an internal (non-USB) 3 1/2″ floppy disk drive. Most programs are also compatible with MS-DOS shells under Windows 3.1, 95, 98, or ME.
The Greaseweazle allows you to duplicate your Yamaha Disklavier floppy disks — or any other floppy disk — without Windows even necessarily being able to open it. Even better, the Greaseweazle can read your floppy disk as an .hfe file, which you can simply drop onto your Nalbantov USB emulator! It can be used in place of all the tools mentioned above.
The Greaseweazle captures raw flux transitions from drives, enabling the capture and analysis of any disk format, including those used by Disklaviers.
FlashFloppy is a powerful firmware solution for Yamaha Disklavier floppy drive replacement and management. A Gotek floppy disk emulator with FlashFloppy installed, used in conjunction with the Greaseweazle, is the single most reliable method of reading floppy disks in USB stick format.
When paired with Greaseweazle, a Gotek with FlashFloppy becomes an exceptionally powerful tool for managing Yamaha Disklavier floppy disks. Greaseweazle captures raw flux transitions to create accurate disk images, which can then be easily written to or read from using FlashFloppy on your Disklavier.
FlashFloppy is open-source, and Keirf’s tools are incredibly valuable for our purposes transferring old floppies. The FlashFloppy firmware can be challenging to install on a Gotek for the first time, so purchase a Gotek with FlashFloppy already installed.
The alternative to FlashFloppy is HxC’s custom firmware which is paid/closed-source, but is used by Nalbantov below:
Nalbantov provides premium floppy disk emulators tailored for specific Yamaha Disklavier pianos, offering seamless integration and exceptional compatibility. The Nalbantov drive comes with guaranteed compatibility and is easy to use, and their support is excellent.
The Gotek and FlashFloppy solution described above will work as an inexpensive alternative; however, it can be a challenging DIY project, and is not advisable for anyone who isn’t quite comfortable tinkering with their own hardware.
They support a wide range of Yamaha Disklavier models, including early models (MX22, MX80, MX85, MX100A/B, MX116) and advanced models (MX500, Mark II/IIXG/III), as well as various Disklavier Control Units (DKC50R, DKW10, PPC3R, etc.).
For Disklavier owners seeking a reliable and easy-to-use floppy disk emulator with guaranteed compatibility across numerous models, Nalbantov is the best choice. You can search for your model of instrument on their website, and they will send you a properly configured device accompanied by a compatible USB-stick.
The most important part of this step is that you write the files as “Renamed MIDI files.” I typically name each one with the name of the track, and make sure each name starts with the track number (00, 01, 02…). This makes it much easier to keep track of which MIDI file goes with which MP3 later on.
Using PPFBU to extract the files, and then export them as Renamed MIDI files. I’m using a dedicated Windows XP box that I keep just for this purpose. You can rename the files in PPFBU before you export them, or you can rename the MIDI files after (like I did in this case).
Ripping an Audio CD using Asunder on a Linux system.
Name and Organize the Files
Below, you can see the files listed after ripping the audio CD, and after backing up the floppy disk drive using Player Piano Floppy Backup Utility. The floppy disk tracks are MIDI files and have a .mid extension. These contain the instructions to operate the piano. The CD tracks have been ripped as MP3 files and therefore have a .mp3 extension—these contain the audio.
All the files are present, but they will not yet play correctly in the Disklavier, as the filenames do not match.
I wrote a short Python script to automatically rewrite all the filenames to match. Using the numbers at the beginning of each filename, it pairs together matching MIDI and MP3 files and names them whatever the name of the MIDI file is, but without spaces or symbols. This appears to be the same formatting of downloadable Disklavier albums.
Whether you use the script or not, the before and after directory listings indicate how you must rename the files.The script is called using the following syntax:
Note that now the MP3 and MIDI files have identical names for each song, identical capitalization, and that all spaces and symbols have been removed. In the ENSPIRE, unlike earlier iterations of the Disklavier, filename length does not seem to matter. Here’s a graphical representation of the last folder, ready to move:
The filenames match! It’s ready to be put on a USB stick and played in your ENSPIRE.
It’s Time to Play!
At this point, you can move the complete folder (in this case, Kingston Trio) onto a USB stick, and insert it into the front of your ENSPIRE controller.
Once your USB is inserted, you’ll see the My Songs (5) option appear in the ENSPIRE controller app. (This image is copied from the ENSPIRE Controller Operation Manual created by Yamaha, which is available from them.) Just open up the “Album” (which is the folder you created for all of your files on your USB stick), and select a song! It’ll play the piano parts, and the audio will accompany it.
This Python program will recursively rename .FIL files in the specified directory, ensuring they follow the naming convention described, and convert all filenames to uppercase. If, for instance, you have twenty albums, direct this program to run in their parent directory, and all the albums in subdirectories will be corrected.
This script renames all files to be all-caps including extensions, and for the name to be exactly eight characters long with no symbols. It will add filler characters if necessary. It will make sure they’re unique by incrementing a counter. These appear to be the most important factors in making files identifiable to early Disklaviers, based on my experience and those of commenters.
Usage: python renamefordisk.py [TARGET_DIRECTORY]
Just download renamefordisk.py. The source code is also at the bottom of this page.
As mentioned above, this will either correct all the files in the target directory, or will recursively change the names of all .FIL files in subdirectories if pointed at a parent directory. This is very useful if you’re, for instance, transferring many albums using backing up numerous floppy disks.
At this point, you’re ready to use EEXPLORE.EXE to move through each directory and prepare your PIANODIR.FIL. At a future date, I’d like to automate this.
Make certain to back up all files before running this! I can’t guarantee perfect results for all combinations of names and strings of characters.
Filenames before conversion.
Running ESEQ Explorer on the above directory. The names are deformed using MS-DOS shorthand.
The above is not guaranteed to read in a Disklavier. It is not apparent whether this is because of misbehavior by ESEQ Explorer, or is an issue with older Disklaviers. However, this does make it less likely the tracks will read correctly in older systems.
Filenames after conversion.
ESEQ Explorer with proper disk names. Note that the names are consistent with the names in the directories.
If you see the above, it’s quite likely it’ll read in your older Disklavier.
I’ve recently started recommending customers with worn-out floppy disk drives upgrade them to so-called “Floppy Disk Emulators.” There are a couple of these on the market, but it looks like the easiest to use and most reliable is the Nalbantov USB Floppy Disk Emulator. I use these regularly in Yamaha Disklaviers, but they can also be installed in keyboards. I install these quite regularly. If you do order from Nalbantov directly, make sure to use the AlexPiano for a 5% discount on orders from Nalbantov.
Why Upgrade?
There are several reasons why you might want to replace an old floppy disk drive with a USB floppy disk emulator, including:
Increased reliability: USB floppy disk emulators are more reliable than traditional floppy disk drives, as they have no moving parts and are less susceptible to mechanical failure. Most customers reach out to me after their floppy disk drive has failed.
Compatibility: USB floppy disk emulators are compatible with modern computers, which may not have floppy disk drives built-in or may no longer support floppy disks.
Speed: USB floppy disk emulators transfer data faster than traditional floppy disk drives, making it easier and quicker to transfer large amounts of data.
Convenience: USB floppy disk emulators can be easily connected and disconnected, making it easier to transfer data between different computers or to store data.
Cost-effectiveness: USB floppy disk emulators are often more cost-effective than purchasing a new floppy disk drive or repairing an old one.
I’ve found some floppy disk drives now cost more than the replacement USB emulators, especially if they’ve had minimal use. And hardly anybody knows how to actually repair a floppy drive—that’s a nearly lost art.
Operation
After the Nalbantov is installed, you can use a single USB stick to represent up to 1000 floppy disks. Because it’s a floppy disk emulator, the Disklavier actually believes you’re inserting a different floppy disk. As you switch between virtual “disks” by pressing the arrows, you’ll see the display on the Disklavier behave as though you’ve inserted a new disk. Of course, if you have more than 1000 floppy disks, you can invest in another USB stick, although I haven’t run into this particular situation yet!
This is the #2 track on the #27 floppy disk stored on that USB stick!
Installation
Some customers opt to install the Nalbantov unit themselves. Depending on the design, this is quite doable, although I don’t recommend attempting it with most Yamaha MX100II Disklaviers (see below). It is a very easy installation on, for instance, the DKC5R and the DKC500RW, just to pick a couple.
With some generations of Disklavier (most notably Mark II / MX100II / MX100A / MX100B devices), the floppy disk drives are mounted behind a shaped plastic piece. In these cases, you’ll need to cut away the old plastic facing (a pair of flush-cut nippers is helpful here), install the new drive, and put some kind of buffer around it. I’ve experimented with a few different choices for something functional and attractive. Purchasing neoprene strips is a cheap solution.
New solution: I have a 3D model of a floppy bezel that’s sized to fit around a Nalbantov. You can 3D print this yourself, or I can mail you one. This mount holds the Nalbantov in place, and also fills in the gaps around the edges. It’s an all-in-one solution for mounting the Nalbantov, and allows you to reuse the same screws the original floppy disk drive was installed with.
For backing up your current Disklavier floppy disks to a format that can be stored on your USB stick, see my article on Backing up Disklavier Floppy Disks. They can then be moved onto a virtual “disk” with Nalbantov’s proprietary tool.
This post is intended to help you read from, write to, or replace Yamaha Disklavier floppy disks.
Some of my customers choose to upgrade their older Disklavier’s floppy drive to a Nalbantov USB drive, and want to know how to copy songs from their old Disklavier floppy disks onto a USB. Some of them just want to be able to back up their disks in case they need to make new ones later. Or maybe, you’re just trying to figure out how to write to disks your Disklavier can actually read!
The content on the original floppy disk is protected by copyright and is the property of its respective owners. These instructions are provided to assist owners of legitimate copies in converting the files for personal use on their own Yamaha instruments. Unauthorized copying, sharing, distribution, or commercial use of the converted files is strictly prohibited. By using these instructions, you agree to comply with all applicable copyright laws, licensing agreements, and Yamaha’s terms of use. I disclaim any responsibility for misuse of the information provided.
If you’re adding new music to a floppy disk or Nalbantov USB and have an older Disklavier (such as the popular MX100II), you’ll need to make sure the files are in Yamaha’s proprietary ESEQ format. Using the tools below, you can convert your MIDI files to ESEQ so that they will be in your Disklavier’s native language.
Obtaining Files from your Yamaha Disks
Yamaha floppy disks are a great source of songs that you know will be formatted correctly for your piano. However, floppy disks often don’t age well, and are very susceptible to sunlight and magnetic fields. (This is one more reason to back them up!)
Disklavier floppy disks cannot be natively read by your computer without special software. They will appear as unformatted disks.
There are several tools that will allow you to read them: I use the Player Piano Floppy Backup Utility 1.4, created by Mark Fontana. It’s freeware, but he requests donations. You can download it from him, or you can download ppfbu_v1.4_setup.exe from me. It can read and save directly in ESEQ format, even if the disk it’s reading from is in MIDI. It appears to run acceptably on Mac / Linux using emulators, although this can add complications.
If you copied the files in ESEQ format, there’s an extra step before your Disklavier can read them. See below!
The Player Piano Floppy Backup Utility v1.4 running on my dedicated “floppy copy” box.
Obtaining even More ESEQ Files from the Internet
In addition to the originals you might have, you can sometimes find these on eBay or at local music stores. Older disks on eBay are seldom tested, so there’s some risk of receiving junk disks.
There are several large online repositories in both ESEQ and MIDI formats. Some of these are of dubious legality. One legitimate resource was kuhmann.com, which had quite a large repository. I have a copy of their entire database. (I worry a lot about these older resources disappearing! They disappeared. Kuhmann’s inventory does appear to be available on the Wayback Machine, but his original website is now off the internet.)
You can also source files from Yamaha’s website, although this a more expensive option. Many of their MIDI files have multiple instruments (or even limited piano), and are more designed for their keyboards and other MIDI devices. However, they do have an entire category of Piano Solos, and these are what you’ll want to search for when selecting files. When you download these, you get their associated MIDI files, which are comfortably sized for floppy disk purposes.
Once you download DKVUTILS.ZIP from my site or theirs, you’ll need to extract it. The program that converts MIDI files to ESEQ files is MID2ESEQ.EXE. This program runs only on Windows, and does not seem to run with emulators. Reach out to me and I can assist with conversion.
Using MID2ESEQ, just drag and drop MIDI files into the window.
MIDI files that have only one track are called Type 0 files. MIDI files with multiple parts are Type 1. Occasionally, the piano will be spread between two tracks. In that case, you’ll find the piano is playing only half or so of the notes it should be. You can convert Type 1 to Type 0 files using the tool gn1to0.exe. This is a slightly cumbersome tool, but will either run on Windows or on Linux/Mac using Wine.
Using conversion software to merge all the MIDI tracks.
Please also note that the ESEQ filenames should be strictly eight characters long, have no spaces, and be entirely uppercase, including the FIL extension BEFORE creating the PIANODIR.FIL file. I’ve created a script to automate this proper naming process, discussed in my creating a PIANODIR.FIL index instructions.
Formatting 2DD Floppy Disks
Some people choose to use the original floppy disk drives in their 90s-vintage Disklaviers, rather than converting to a Nalbantov. First, it’s important to make certain you’re using the correct floppy disks. The more “modern” 2HD floppy disks require stronger magnetic fields to write, and may not always be compatible with older Disklaviers. The slightly older 2DD drives, however, will work. You can tell the difference readily: 2HD disks have openings at both corners of the Disk, while 2DD disks will have only one.
2HD disks have openings at both corners, but 2DD disks do not. You’ll usually find the write-protect slider in one corner, but other will be blank.
Some have reported covering the hole with electrical tape will trick the Disklavier into believing the disk is a 2DD disk. You may or may not be able to write to it using the Disklavier, but you should be able to read from it using this trick, provided your 2HD disk is formatted as a 2DD disk.
Formatting a 2DD 720KB floppy disk in Linux.
I formatted mine on my Pop!_OS Linux machine with the instruction sudo ufiformat -f 720 -v /dev/[yourdevice]. If you’re using a Windows machine, the instruction is format a: /t:80 /n:9. Pictured below, you can see what this command looks like on my Windows XP floppy transfer box. This command does work in Windows 10 and 11, but requires you to be using an external floppy disk drive that allows this format. Not all of them do.
Formatting a 720KB 2DD floppy disk in Windows XP.
At this point, you can transfer your .FIL files and PIANODIR.FIL file to your floppy disk. Put them in the root directory, and do not use any folders.
If you’re using an actual floppy disk, it must be a 2DD disk formatted to 720 KB. See the above section on identifying the disk and formatting it correctly.
Earlier Disklaviers can be finicky about their ESEQ files. Sometimes, they’ll work without any trouble, even without a PIANODIR.FIL file. However, particularly in earlier Disklaviers (such as the DK5R), you’ll need to be more careful with the naming conventions, and you’ll definitely need that PIANODIR.FIL described above.
I’m very grateful for the research of Mike Isreal (in the comments below), who did experimentation with his own Disklavier. Beforecreating a PIANODIR.FIL for your disk, make certain that all filenames are precisely eight characters long, and that both the filename and extension are in all-caps. The filename must contain no spaces.
Some have commented that it appears you can also omit the .FIL extension (at least in some cases). According to Nalbantov, there might be cases where a fully lower-case filename and extension are called for, although I have not run into that particular case yet.
