Hammond XK1 MIDI capabilities

[soiledheart]

Hi all,

First post on Organ Forum! But I've been reading it for a while.

I have a new XK-1, that which for some reason I thought had an acoustic piano voice (does not). The piano sound is something I will need for my current band, and I am hoping to avoid having two keyboards, MIDI or not. Does anyone know if is is possible to upload a piano voice into the XK1, or if there is some kind of small box that I can MIDI in a piano sound?

Otherwise, I'll be looking for an SK-1

Thanks

[jdoc]

look for a Roland Sound Canvas or some small midi module if you don't need to many different piano patches.
Even a cheap little Yamaha Portasound type keyboard thru a midi cable would be dirt cheap or a craigslist Casio keyboard, small, light and out there cheap by the dozens. And.....they sound good thru an amp if you are not a perfectionist.

[JJMcS]

New voices can't be loaded into the XK-1. The Kurzweil ME-1:

http://kurzweil.com/product/me-1/

has been used by quite a few XK-3 and '3c users who wanted more sounds.

[soiledheart]

Thanks for the responses.
Cheap/best value would have to be what I need if I keep the XK-1, since I found an SK-1 store demo for $1500.

Will I need to buy an interface to MIDI those old school cheap yamaha/casio keyboards?

[PeteKnobloch]

I bought a NanoSynth from eBay about 1 year ago Good pianos sounds along with over 600 other voices. If you just want Piano you could get the NanoPiano, both made by Alesis. Here is an eBay link.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=....c0.m270.l1313
Cost is usually $140 and up.

[soiledheart]

Thanks Pete.

Anyone ever play a Yamaha P50M? Found one on craigsdregs for $150.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANsSkHDK1pw

Does the nanosynth have a fender rhodes-like electric piano sound? (I play in an alt country band now...)