very cheap way to play piano on midi keyboard?

I am looking for a way to use my old midi keyboard without the computer to practice piano playing. It has no build in instruments just midi in and out. I just need something like a very cheap synth module to plugin a midi cable and start playing.

I did a search for cheap midi sound module and found stuff for over 300 but nothing cheaper. I think this thread is probably your real answer. Your going to have to some find ancient thing used somewhere.

  Quote

Any recomendations on a decent midi sound module which could be picked up cheap on ebay?

We would need some nice strong piano, string, and organ sounds.

Any ideas out there?

When I say cheap, I mean "the cheaper the better", $50 - $200

  Quote

It's going to be tough finding anything very good at that price point - software synths have pretty much taken over the low end world. Alesis used to make little boxes called "nano synths" and "nano pianos". they were small, about 6x6x1.5 inches. A friend of mine had a nano piano, it worked ok, the piano sounds were average even for the time it came out, but if you want cheap they were plenty cheap. If you wanted to do any patch editing you had to use a computer running some software that was included. I'm guessing if you found one used the software would be MIA.

I checked ebay just now, didn't see any on there but you might be able to find one somewhere.

  On 10/4/2010 at 1:01 PM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

I did a search for cheap midi sound module and found stuff for over 300 but nothing cheaper. I think this thread is probably your real answer. Your going to have to some find ancient thing used somewhere.

 

  Quote

Any recomendations on a decent midi sound module which could be picked up cheap on ebay?

We would need some nice strong piano, string, and organ sounds.

Any ideas out there?

When I say cheap, I mean "the cheaper the better", $50 - $200

 

  Quote

It's going to be tough finding anything very good at that price point - software synths have pretty much taken over the low end world. Alesis used to make little boxes called "nano synths" and "nano pianos". they were small, about 6x6x1.5 inches. A friend of mine had a nano piano, it worked ok, the piano sounds were average even for the time it came out, but if you want cheap they were plenty cheap. If you wanted to do any patch editing you had to use a computer running some software that was included. I'm guessing if you found one used the software would be MIA.

I checked ebay just now, didn't see any on there but you might be able to find one somewhere.

So basically the cheapest way is to buy something like this:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/clifton_lp5420_incl_micro.htm or this: http://www.thomann.de/gb/caemon_lp_6180.htm

instead of trying to make the midi one work.

why don't you want to hook it up to your computer (which is by far the easiest way to achieve what you want)?

anyway, if you really can't/won't use you computer, all you need is something with GM (General Midi) sounds. There are lots of standard piano sounds in the GM soundset. you should be able to pick up a GM sound module for fuck all secondhand.

Basically yeah unless you have some really nice old weighted midi controller that you should get a midi uno to usb adapter get a cheap keyboard at a thrift store or something.

  On 10/4/2010 at 1:20 PM, BCM said:

you should be able to pick up a GM sound module for fuck all secondhand.

Yeah ebay currently has one going for £21 - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Yamaha-MIDI-sound-module-TG-100-expander-GM-MIDI-/200524067331?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Keyboard_RL&hash=item2eb02a7203

(still two days to go - but you get the idea anyways)

  On 10/4/2010 at 5:31 PM, mcbpete said:

  On 10/4/2010 at 1:20 PM, BCM said:

you should be able to pick up a GM sound module for fuck all secondhand.

Yeah ebay currently has one going for £21 - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Yamaha-MIDI-sound-module-TG-100-expander-GM-MIDI-/200524067331?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Keyboard_RL&hash=item2eb02a7203

(still two days to go - but you get the idea anyways)

thats exactly what I am looking for thx