Installing MIDI to Rhodes

[Peter Cherry]

Hi,
do you have experience with installing MIDI to Rhodes Mark I? I know it is possible, there are several solutions:

http://www.oceanbeach.com/ches/daves_gear/rhodes.html
http://www.midi9.com/
http://electric-piano-service.de/midi.html

I would like to buy its parts and install it myself, do you know about any other solutions? What is the price and performance?

Thanks for tips and help
Peter

[mirko]

Peter ... don't do it .. buy new rhodes instead,if you want midi ... installing midi in mark I is ... bad

[Peter Cherry]

Bad? Do you have any reason for that except subjective feelings like no midi into classical Rhodes?

I see the main problem in price -> more than 1000EUR

[mirko]

No midi into classical rhodes,it is not meant to be that way ...

Midi ruined playing,big time..on other hand it was revolution in studios...

Anyway,why do you want midi in your rhodes?You want rhodes action with modern synths?

I don't know....personally I would buy some master midi controller and put it on the rhodes...it is way cheaper that way....


....and things would be like they need to be

[Peter Cherry]

I would like to play classical Piano on Rhodes keyboard (it means to use Rhodes as Rhodes and Piano). Virtual instruments such as Pianoteq and TruePianos sounds fantastic. You can disagree, ok, it is personal, but I was asking mainly for technical solution. Some solutions have optical sensors, so it is not true, that it affects Rhodes keyboard action.

[Rob A]

If you can find a Moog PianoBar, it would be entirely a non-destructive retrofit.

[sean]

I certainly would love to have Midi on all my Rhodes pianos, if it were free.  However, I am impressed with the determination of someone who might pay a thousand bucks to add Midi to any old instrument.

For a thousand dollars, I could buy an extra Rhodes piano AND a really good midi controller keyboard.  

...Or I could buy a really really good stage piano that already has midi, and I could pick which stage piano according to my personal tastes for the action: (or for the included sounds, or whatever)
- If I wanted a stiff awesome-feeling piano action, I could choose a Yamaha (like the P80 I have, or any subsequent generation)
- If I wanted a floppy light mushy action I could get a Roland.
- etc. etc. depending on personal predjudice....
(Sorry for bashing the Roland.  Well, ...a little sorry.)

I really really really like the action on every Rhodes I have touched (except my long-lost beloved 1973), and I wonder what it would be like to play the Rhodes action, but hear an acoustic piano sound instead.   Hmmm... well, I don't think I would pay a thousand bucks for that experience.

Hmmm... now that I think about it, it might be cheaper and easier to take a beat up Rhodes, remove the action and install the guts from a midi-controller keyboard in the case.  It would probably require grinding away lots of metal off the name rail, and the cheek block area might be hard to make it look like a clean instrument, but....  Crud.  That idea is too flawed.

Hmmm... Maybe I can break into Chick Corea's house, and steal the keys to his storage shed.... that might not work out so good.

[mirko]

Hello,

Please can somebody tell us,what is action with new rhodes,that have midi? Maybe this would be solution ?