I was given a heads up by Mack (ironically) about Yamaha's new grand piano: MARK IV Disklavier. Sure we have all seen pianos that can play on its own but I have never seen anything like the Mark IV. It literally is a home theatre system! Here is a run down of some of the features:
- preloaded with tons of songs and room for plenty more (80 GB hardrive)
- can be controlled wirelessly or using the LCD touchscreen
- can be integrated into your home sound system
- The ability to record yourself (including video) and play it back on TV
- Karaoke mode complete with features you would find on any karaoke machine
- Offers orchestrated arrangement and will follow your pace while you play (I'm a little skeptical about this feature)
I am really impressed with this piano and out of curiosity phoned the local piano dealer for the price. They didn't have a price on the MARK IV but their smallest MARK III grand piano (4-5 feet) which only has a 16 mb hardrive costs $26,000 CDN. I would imagine the MARK IV would cost at least $33,000. The full size Mark IV would probably cost $45,000. To put this in perspective, you could get a full size yamaha grand piano (11 feet I think) for about $28,000. Furthermore, a 4-5 feet grand piano is like a midget in the world of grand pianos. It looks quite unnatural and the sound will definitely reflect that. In any case, its time to start saving!
You can watch a short video of the Mark IV here. But considering how technologically advance the piano is, I expected the video to be much better.