Electric Acoustic Piano with Midi

[dudetato]

I am looking for an Electric Acoustic piano with Midi out so I can record the midi from it. It can also be full acoustic but I am looking for something under $1000. I will use it mainly to map out musical ideas on midi and I dont like the feel of digital pianos. Also would greatly prefer an upright piano as I am tight on space

I have currently seen:
- Yamaha CP 60m
- Yamaha CP 80m
- Adding Moog Piano Bar, Disklavier, or PianoDisc to acoustic piano

[Cormac Long]

The cheapest option is going to be a weighted digital piano or one of the entry level stage pianos from Korg, Yamaha etc. But they will have the same feel typical of digital pianos.

If you're really looking for a more traditional feel, then you would need to go the route of acquiring a normal upright piano, possibly with a practice pedal to muffle the main sound and go the route of having a MIDI retrofit. Thats going to be well clear of the $1000 limit if you consider the used price for a good condition upright and the retrofit.

Some of the shops that service Rhodes and the like actually fit the same kind of mod to Rhodes to make them MIDI-capable. The principle is based on a sensor strip positioned under the key bed that detects the motion and translates that into MIDI signals. There are probably other piano techs out there that do the same.

From what I've read, it used to be a royal PITA to fit and tune these systems. But the technology may have improved. Hopefully some of the techs experienced with this kind of mod can chime in here.

[dudetato]

Sensor strip looks like a good bet. I dont really care about the volume of the piano, I actually want it to be loud, so a practice pedal isnt needed. I dont think I will go the Rhodes route because I already have one in my studio, I just need a regular piano for home and midi recording

[pianotuner steveo]

I agree with Cormac- that will be nearly impossible to find in your price range...

I've never added a midi mod partly because I was always told that they are a PITA...

[Cormac Long]

Unless one of the techs comment or pm you on this, I'd start to reach out to some of the Rhodes shops to see if they do these retrofits and if they would do one on a real piano. Given its a key bed mod, I suspect it's done the same way.

Either that or start rebooking at different stage pianos in case you can find a tolerable action.

[Ben Bove]

As a point of reference, I believe the MIDI-9 sensor strip unit I installed in a suitcase 88 was roughly $1200.  Tried to look it up, and not sure if they're still selling units or not, just an email address on the site.  It took some calibration through PC software to set the optical recognition of distances, otherwise works pretty good.  Might be cost-prohibitive that that for what you're looking for