I have decided to purchase a Yamaha MP1Z Midi piano to get a combined acoustic and silent electronic piano for home use. (Seems to be the only make available in my neck of the woods). Because the unit does not record and play back, I am also considering a Yamaha DSR1 Sequencer Recorder. I know it has lots of other things it can do, (perhaps provide the better piano tone?) but what I really want is to be able to simply record and playback - the rest of the features will be "fun".
The price I have on this is $900 Cdn or $600 US. I briefly looked around for similar competitive units, but couldn't find a lot. It is worth the money to me if I don't have to connect a computer to do this function. Should I be looking at other units?

No help here I'm afraid, but just curious why you dont want to be hooked to computer. Space or portablity problems? Also, I'm wondering what the mechanism is for keeping the hammers from hitting the strings in the silent mode.

The piano I am hooking the sequencer to is not adjacent to a computer, and my needs are to have an easy-to-use record mechanism for my family. This will allow my son to quickly play back his practice. I may play with the computer side of it myself, and then I would hook up a laptop on the top of the piano.

When the middle pedal is pressed something comes up inside the piano to stop the hammers just short of the strings.

rharris,
FYI..the Yamaha P80 (keyboard) records and plays back. It is an 88-key that weighs just 37 pounds.

I'm not familiar with the DSR1, but I do know that if you don't need portability, a software based sequencer is going to be a better solution than a hardware based (DSR1) sequencer. Sequencers are very powerful tools and as a result have a bit of a learning curve. I'd prefer learning a new technology while looking at a large color screen (computer) as opposed to looking at a tiny backlit display. If you already have a laptop, this would be my suggestion. Good sequencing software can be purchased for around $100.