Quality midi or stage piano?

[JonDinham]

Hi. I have for a while been very confused as to what to do. I currently have a juno-d which I like but as a pianist I need to be getting a proper stage piano. However I have been told by a friend that instead of spending a thousand plus pounds on a stage piano, I could just get a quality midi keyboard and then purchase a Macbook (which I plan to buy one day anyway) and use the sounds that I can download on there. I have an interface so that is an option.

So are the best midi keyboards as piano like to play as stage pianos? And are the very best sounds I can find to download as real as good stage pianos? As I only really need it for playing and home recording would this be a cheaper but as good an option?

 

[happyrat1]

Take a close look at some Studiologic Controllers. They're built with Fatar keybeds so they share the feel of many many high end 88 key actions out there.

Gary

 

[CowboyNQ]

For home recording a good controller such as the one Gary suggested plus a Mac would work fine.

If you were playing live I'd go with a stage piano - relying on computers in a live environment is a tad risky.

 

[anotherscott]

One of the difficulties here is that many of the better actions you can get simply aren't available as soundless controllers. An inexpensive board with a nice action is the Casio PX-150. You can ignore the fact that it has internal sounds... just as a controller for piano sounds, I don't think you can find anything better for the price.

Up from there, there are boards like the Kawai MP7, Roland FP80, Yamaha CP4, all with high quality (but different feeling) actions, not available in soundless boards. A high quality soundless board would be the Kawai VPC1. I happen to prefer the MP7 because I like a lighter action, but if you prefer a heavier action, the VPC1 can be a great choice (or even better, the MP11, which again, has sounds). But these are all in the "thousand plus pound" category, soundless or not.