Great find on You Tube. Casio, like the other manufacturers seem to believe the best demonstration possible is a meandering dirge of trendy, go nowhere, "jazz" chords.

Perhaps one day a manufacturer will actually use real music to demonstrate their instrument.

I must say though, I did like it... thought it was a Roland RD 700 NX at first glimpse.

One thing I notice from the clip is they've changed the text on top telling you what the buttons are - that looks rather more legible in low light conditions than on the 330.

Will any of you who currently own a PX-X30 series piano upgrade?
I did find the tone a little more natural than the current series. The attack on the demo did seem high, and it would be nice to hear a full song

I don't suppose there's any chance we're hearing the onboard speakers on that?

On the Keyboard Corner Forum, Mike Martin of Casio said he ran the output through the line in of his MacBook laptop. He claimed the audio was not clean due to some interference he could not specify. He also said the PX-350 at the Casio booth was a prototype and said the non acoustic sounds were not finalized and that more tweaking would be done before they are released. I am guessing these might start to show up in stores in late September or mid to late October.

That was Tom Brislin playing. Perhaps you've heard of him, he actually substituted for Rick Wakeman on tour for Yes. I don't know of too many people that have the chops or the courage to be able to handle such a gig. He's also toured with Meat Loaf, Marshall Crenshaw, Debbie Harry (Blondie) and countless others. He writes part time for Keyboard Magazine and also has one heck of a solo album about to come out (he's a great singer too). Frankly he's one of the best musician's I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Tom worked with Casio to demonstrate the XW-P1 synths at Winter NAMM and at this show the new Privia digital pianos.

I'm not sure how many of you have worked a NAMM show before, but it is exhausting. It is 8-10 hours of nearly continuous playing for 3-4 days straight (depending on winter or summer NAMM). Demos with dealers tend to come in waves and I took a moment between dealer demos to grab my camera and get a few moments of Tom just relaxing at the Privia and improvising for a few minutes. Yep it was informal and perhaps you think it was "meandering dirge of trendy, go nowhere, "jazz" chords". Needless to say, I look forward to hearing and seeing videos of your work very soon.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of my own and do not necessarily reflect the official position of any company that I work for.

Hi Mike!

Many thanks for posting the demo video of the new Casio PX-350 at summer NAMM. When will these new Privia models be available for purchase in the US? Also, will the wooden stand and triple-pedal unit of the PX-330 fit the new PX-350?

Cheers,

Kevin

I have two answers to this

(1) I recently sold a way-old Roland to a guy who makes his living playing in public. He thinks the sound is fine when you put it in a mix with others. People are making money with entry level or worse DPs while us play at home types complain about all kinds of technical stuff.

(2) you CAN have all that technical stuff, multi-gigabyte non-looped samples, layered sounds and studio quality impulse response reverb and you name it if only you connect a computer. The little Mac Mini only costs $600 and is the size of a large power brick. Sound is so good using a computer that most home users will make better recordings using MIDI than if they mic'd their acoustic grand piano.

Mike,
You are missing the point. I am not in any way criticising the musician, I am not on any ego trip, I am happy to admit he is, (like many demonstrators) better than me.

I am not criticising the instrument, NAMM, workers/staff or anything like that.

I am criticising the manufacturers. Why, when so much great music that we can all identify and relate to, is in the public domain do companies think we all want to hear this stuff?
OK, this IS the first upload and yes, certainly, anything is better than nothing. Perhaps Casio will mix styles in their official output.
But many, many, videos DO use this sort of music to demonstrate a product.

Here as an example is a previous Casio video... it starts so well too (well, about 18 seconds in)....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kfcz2YIgIY

I don't care how good a musician is, I (personally) hate it, I am sick of it and I stand by all I said.

Good thing we aren't all alike and please don't waste your time waiting for anything I may produce, even if I did it is quite obvious we probably have wildly differing tastes, despite the fact I do play Meatloaf, Blondie and Yes, along with the attempts at Chopin and Bach.

But, as I also said in my first post, I think it sounds like a great piano, I would just have liked to have heard it play something I know to give me a real reference.

As a Roland fan I have regard for John Maul and Scott Tibbs and am envious of ANY musician who works with these companies. It is a great honour to recieve the trust of people with so much to lose. That doesn't mean that I automatically love the choice of music, I (very) often don't.

Slipperykeys,
If there is something stylistically that you'd like to hear, then why not simply say what that is? I had nothing to do with the video you referenced but again instead of offering a suggestion of what kind of music you'd like to hear, you simply say what you don't want to hear. I'm not sure why you'd assume that we have different tastes in music, I don't think you know anything about me other than an assumption based on what Tom happened to be playing when I a quick moment to grab a camera.

The reality is during a NAMM show and an instrument like Privia we try to cover all styles of music and we played everything from classical, rock, jazz and everything in between.

Have a nice day,

This strikes me as rather rude. You make it sound like only those with serious performance cred are qualified to comment on Casio videos.

The good thing about Casio pianos is that you can try them for yourself, playing whatever style of music you like. I would expect that these new models will be in stores well before the Christmas rush. With manufacturers such as Kawai, you are very often totally reliant on videos/sound samples in making your purchasing decision.

Personally, I didn't mind Tom Brislin's improvisation, as it revealed the basic character of the new Privia. My initial reaction was reasonably positive, although I thought I still detected the rapid decay issue. I hope to get to play one in a few weeks, if my local GC deigns to carry one.

I think we should try to encourage Mike to say around on here. There will be issues that he can advise upon and perhaps even resolve and he could be a great resource for Casio owners. We all know how much we value Kawai James around here. All the manufacturers should have a PianoWorld envoy!

Steve

Dewster,
You're right, I probably shouldn't have added that last comment and I'm sorry that I did. My apologies if that came across as rude.   I just found his post rather puzzling.  Never in my career have I seen the what a performer played criticized, followed up by the words hate and sick about the same performance of a product demonstration.  Regardless of Tom's history and talent,  wouldn't it have been more constructive to say what you'd want to hear rather the trash what was played? We've got some time before these new Privia begin shipping, so I'd be happy to take requests on what you want to hear. In the meantime, I have a lot of audio and some additional video from NAMM that I'll try to get posted as quickly as possible. 

I hoped that would be the case after the XW launch, when Mike popped up on this forum after a long absence. Although I expect he's very busy, I too would like it if he could participate more widely (i.e not just at product launch times).

Sorry to talk about you in the third person, Mike!

Only a million miles off-topic, but if you like watching good improv and musicians having a great time with a well-known song, check out THIS.

I agree. My fault I suppose, I tend to see an "argument from authority" around every tree.

I can be your envoy for "Over The Hill Piano Company"

Mike I apologize for jumping on you, I suppose it's too easy to perceive intent that just isn't there within a text post.

Some do tend to let their hair down around here (guilty!) so if a comment seems overly harsh often it's just off-the-cuff and shouldn't be taken to heart.

I don't want to put words in Slipperykeys mouth, but some of the negativity may be due to frustration with the "flurry of notes" phenomenon so common with DP demos and built-in demo songs. This prevents one from hearing what individual sustained notes sound like. (And I must confess that jazz noodling isn't exactly my cup of tea either.)

Mike,
We enjoy having you post here on this forum. I think someone should commend you on the work you have been doing for Casio over the last three years. The knowledge and support you have given users on the XW-P1 has been phenominal. There's no other manufacturer that I can think of that provides tutorials, workshops, product info and product launches quite the way that Casio has been doing. I appreciate the knowledge and straight foward approach you bring. You are doing a great job.

I'm reading the forum all the time. Your feedback is critical for Casio's future. So I read it all, the good stuff as well as the criticisms not only here but on other forums. There honestly haven't been too many XW questions here on this forum and understand I have to watch some of the other high traffic XW threads such as the one on Harmony Central that has over 400 posts and almost 60,000 views.

Don't worry about talking about Mike in the third person, Mike does it all the time.

Thanks Galaxy4t,
I just looked the calendar. 4 years ago today was my first day at Casio. Time flies when you're having fun!

+1

K.

Yes, synth stuff doesn't feature too prominently here, and I understand you must go where the interest lies. Just remember, though, Piano World is the Rolls-Royce of keyboard forums!

I agree with everyone who's said that it's really good to have you contributing here, when you have the time and energy. Heck, we need an industry rep who's not totally besotted with red paint!!!

Ouch!

Can you ladies stop fighting so Mike can show us a picture of the PX-750 and the PX-850. I want more info on these before I pull the trigger on an F-120

Two thank-yous:

pops: Thank you for sharing that very enjoyable "Billie Jean" clip.

slipperykeys: Thank you for speaking truth to power.

Privia PX-750


Privia PX-850

Wow...very nice! I'm very much looking forward to seeing the spec sheets for the PX-750 and PX-850, and actually playing them. Looks like I'm going to put off buying a DP until these new Privias hit the streets! Any news about when they'll be available?

Cheers,

K.

The PX-150 and PX-350 should ship before the end of September here in the US. The PX-750 and PX-850 are targeted for October.

The PX-750 has a similar specification to the PX-150, the primary difference is the included stand with key cover.

The PX-850 is a different animal. In addition to the many physical differences in the cabinet, like the opening lid on top, the PX-850 has different capabilities of the AiR chip unlocked. Here is a quick run down:

18 Instrument Tones (5 are piano)
256 Note Polyphony
Damper Resonance
Hammer Response
Sympathetic Resonance
Lid simulation (This is separate from what the PX-850 cabinet will do) you can choose whether you ant the lid on the Grand Piano open, closed, half or removed.
1/4" Outputs
USB to Device with Audio Recording

So the 850 is the only model with sympathetic string resonance? It seems a shame that it's not in any compact/portable model (i.e. the 350).