Midi velocity sensitive drum pad with Piezo and push puttons

[mikewww]

looking to build two drum pads as pictured below

First one is a three zone Drum Pad that has three Piezo sensors for each black pad. I would want all these to be velocity sensitive

Second one is a one zone Drum Pad with one Piezo sensors that is velocity sensitive where the black pad is. Then 12 LED Illuminated Pushbutton http://www.adafruit.com/products/492 that are represented by the red circles.

I am wondering what is the best arduino board to get to build both of these? each would be free standing from the other so I would need to arduino boards. Also any input on help with the code and how to wire the Piezo sensors.

I was looking at this project https://learn.adafruit.com/midi-drum-glove/ but that seems to translate the piezos into key strokes rather then midi data that could be used in a program like Abelton.