travel piano/keyboard project

[tomomac33]

Hi,

Firstly I would like to say hello to everyone on the forum, thanks for running such a site and hopefully someone may be able to help me with my specific questions – so thanks again in advance for the info. I apologise if this is the wrong type of forum for the questions  i have, but after trawling the internet you guys seem to be very knowledgeable in this area.

As the title says, I am currently designing/modifying a MIDI Keyboard into a "folding" slim line 4 octave travel keyboard that I can take away with me in a suitcase to practice learning the piano/sight reading.
The IMPORTANT thing for me when I am away with work is to have the "feel" of a piano (ie full size keys, weighted touch/ portable) and I have the perfect midi keyboard as a donor, however it's OLD, I have no information on it, and doesn't produce any sound.

My question to you guys is, is there a simple solution to connecting this midi keyboard to my laptop and generating a sound from it through my laptop speakers in real time? The ports available are 1x MIDI Out, 1x Joystick and 1x MPC port (I haven't a clue what an MPC port is). Im finding it difficult to understand these ports - they midi keyboard has NO power input to i assume it gets 5v from one of the ports? does anyone know what a MPC port is?? what is the purpose of the Joystick port?

The quality of sound isn't important, I also understand electronics fairly well, so making my own leads incorporating MIDI/USB with a Edirol UM1SX type interface isn't really a problem – I just don't know how to connect this keyboard to a laptop/ software/ and leads to do it.

If this isn't possible, then I have a plan B! Which I know I can execute! But it involves putting my own electronics into this Midi Keyboard with a speaker etc and then it gets a little messy and complicated, and i start to loose the portable element.

Many thanks for your help and advice


Thanks
Tom