Have you seen this ?....

  • Thread starter Thread starter gilwe
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Wow... An amazing developement for sure. Who needs a weighted action midi controller when you can use your old piano instead. Looks like a great idea. What will they think of next?
 
Yamaha has had stuff like this out for years haven't they? I think it's called disclavier. I believe it also plays MIDI files onto the piano.

Actually, on second thought, I think it might be a lot more expensive and probably a whole custom piano thing.
 
Those have been around since the late 80's. I think Billy Joel and Elton John were some of the first users. I used to sell pianos and we could order those if we wanted. As I recall they were around $10k when they first came out. I've never tried one but I would have to think that a 1/2" strip under the keys would affect the action somewhat.
 
It was a piano that if full automatic - you could load up a midi file and the piano would play it ! But I don't think you could use the piano as a midi controller, and anyway, that Moog thing can make just ANY piano a controller if I got it right !
 
A couple of things . . . you could use a Disclavier as a midi controller if you wanted to, but it would be an expensive way to go. Yamaha also made something called the MidiPiano which was a Disclavier without the "player piano" mechanism. It had a cool "silent" feature that muted the keyboard but left the midi on through the included sound engine so you could practice your acoustic piano through headphones !

The Moog system looks promising. There is a video of a demo of it from NAMM on Harmony Central right now. The bar shouldn't affect the action because it does not touch the keys. It rests on the ends of the piano outside of the keyboard and uses infrared technology to determine keystrokes. As long as it tracks well it seems brilliant.
 
"Cool but I don't like the fact that a mosquito could trigger my sound modules... "

Hey let's not be judgemental! I had a gig at the Elks Lodge once and boy could that little guy play!!
 
I've seen this already. A keyboard forum that I am a member of brought it up.

It's pretty cool, the concept is simple enough. I have hopes that they will come out with 61 key and smaller versions so that I can use my analog 1970's synths as controllers too. That way I can layer them with my digital synths.

Carl
 
Sounds cool. But unless your'e just looking into layering some other sounds with the piano, then I don't quite see the versatility of this thing. I mean, what if you just want to hear a synth sound, there is no way to silence the piano :(
 
Krakit said:
It's pretty cool, the concept is simple enough. I have hopes that they will come out with 61 key and smaller versions so that I can use my analog 1970's synths as controllers too. That way I can layer them with my digital synths.

Carl
Click to expand...

Those have been available in kits for years. Have you looked around for them? I don't recall the names but I remember reading about them awhile back.
 
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