I was also going to recommend the Reface CP. I absolutely love that thing. Sometimes I midi it up to my Take 5 when I want full-sized keys.
I’d go for a Zynthian, which includes Pianoteq and has a nice DAC and stuff already. It’s prebaked for this exact use case.
Depending on what you are looking for, the tiny Roland MC-101 might do what you need… It has a heap of classic Roland acoustic piano and epiano patches, all sample based of course.
There is a good sound list demo of the MC-101 on Youtube called " Roland MC-101 | Play (sounds demo)" by a user called @Whentherushcomes. Go to 07:11 where he does some of the pianos. The MC-101 has quite a few piano sounds, so that quick demo isnt showing you anything near all of them - you can see most of them on page 3 and page 10 of the soundlist PDF but there are many others sprinkled around:
This is it for me i think! Wow excellent thank you @tapesky
This video auditions pianos at 9:51
But i guess not for everybody because its diy.
The Yamaha Reface CP does have a piano sound but it’s not official supported: You’ll need a cumbersome power up sequence by setting a knob in between two values before turning it on or you’ll need to mod it.
The piano sound is ok’ish but nothing compared to something like pianoteq.
The EP sounds are really awesome though!
It’s true, but it is more like assembling a Korg NTS than a DIY module build where you would need to solder.
The kit directions are here so prospective buyers can get an idea of what is needed:
https://wiki.zynthian.org/index.php/Assembling_Zynthian_Kit_V5.1
Another option for piano modules is here:
But I’ve never tried it, just something I came across a while back.
Im not the OP so this thread is not about me haha but I had the 1010 blackbox and multi sampled a Native Instruments piano. It was awesome! But I didnt really use the blackbox for much else and sold it. Been on the hunt for a simple dawless piano module/small box since.
I didnt realize til @alexwasashrimp suggested it, that tangerine multi samples as well.
I think there’s some polyphony limitations as compared to the v3 sounds or the very interesting Zynthian. But its dead simple and does come with a multi sampled piano that bobeats thinks is AOK.
Might go this route since Zynthian is beyond deep and more than probably most would want just for a piano module, I suppose.
I used the piano from 1010music’s Tangerine i think. Maybe i tweaked it a bit.
Has anyone got this running? I found a (old-ish) guide on Scribbd that was 39 pages long including an extraordinary amount of hacking around in scripts. I like a challenge but….
I have an old Pi 3 (and a 400 actually) that I had notions of setting up as a permanent ‘piano’ with my semi-weighted controller.
Answering my own shit as usual ![]()
I found this which looks very interesting, seems to only support Pi5 though.
I want this as well as I have limited living space, but want to be able to teach my kids piano. MIDI controller + module/rack would be nice.
Right now I have the XV-5080 and its awesome, has pianos and great EPs as well as everything else.
If Arturia made an Astrolab module, I probably would have gotten that instead.
Numa Player, frequently underrated like everything Studiologic does.
I have this running on exact the same hardware (pi5 and pisound). Takes some setting up. But when done works fine and sounds amazing.
Does this require a paid license? It references a license key on the github.
I was looking for one but so hard to find.
Yeah I got mine used for a good price but then it needed a ton of repair work $$$
I tried running pianoteq on iPhone but the sound quality was garbage, I tried to use a USB midi converter into a dongle that had a separate supposedly decent integrated sound card but it just did not sound good. And there’s no dedicated headphone jack anymore, it sounded better on Bluetooth but the latency was unplayable.
Frankly I’m really surprised there’s nothing on the market for this, a simple compact desktop module with high quality multisample or modelled piano and rhodes and EP sounds with midi IO and a decent sound card with stereo and headphone out.
Song Athletics’ ORB Pi Based Sample Player
I’d still recommend the MC-101/MC-707 as you can filter and add FX. EPs sound great after EQ and FX no one recorded them dry on all those great records.
Keyscape in hardware box would sell a lot of copies.
Yes. But without a license you can play for about 20 minutes and some missing notes.