David Lai Hmm, would my Yamaha C3 in China be converted into a hybrid?
tonyminas I believe it could yes. Someone here can correct me if I'm wrong but I think you can also have a Yamaha Disklavier with silent system and midi output installed on it, no?
Depends what you mean by "converting" and what you mean by "hybrid".
If you mean "add a MIDI strip under the keys and therefore get a MIDI output", you certainly can, with a plethora of products, @David Lai -- you must have missed many posts that @Paulo164 wrote on this topic. I can give you a list (since I studied several of them), but I won't because I agree with Paulo's conclusion mentioned below.
Most of these products offer also a "silent" system, which is basically a rod of something to stop the hammers before they hit the strings. This is where it gets tricky, because as safe as this sounds, it isn't. That change the regulation of the piano dramatically and many of these do in an excessive way. Even if you could (and you probably can't) you don't want to re-regulate the piano each time you switch to silent from acoustic or vice-versa! With these systems most people regulate the piano in an intermediate way, so it's somewhat okay in both modes (but perfect in neither). Some brands apparently have better ways to achieve this compromise than others, but I did not study that part because I did not care of that aspect (I was studying the thing in the context of building my own hybrid piano from scratch and without any strings).
Of all the MIDI strips @Paulo164 tried, for a reason or another he disliked most of them. Note that he has an upright, not a grand, so YMMV, but with the grand versions I studied (without trying in person) I could see similar, if smaller, limitations apply to a grand (and I mean what I can see from the marketing and technical material about them). The only one @Paulo164 liked is the latest Yamaha versions, which is very similar to what they install in a NU1XA. And our very own @Queue99 sells them (ship from Japan, should be easier for you to get it in China than to get it in the USA) -- also this person does not follow the forum much, more likely to get response by email if you are interested.
It kind of goes in a tangent, I also discussed with the fine PianoDisk/M&H/WNG folks and I nudged them to create a competitor of the AvanGrands: WNG already builds fine actions, M&H builds fine cabinets and PianoDisk build MIDI sensors and MIDI interfaces (only decent IMHO, I'm afraid, but they still do). They categorically said they weren't interested, probably because of
tonyminas the need for the piano industry to adapt to the changing times or risk falling out of touch
Anyway thanks a lot @tony for this report, quite interesting, and keep 'em coming with updates!
