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http://www.synthzone.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/364890/OT_CASIO_Privia_Pro_PX_5S

Edit: a few interesting examples, but what was this guy smoking...

Is this a re-chargable battery pack?

Very interested in "busking" someday
with a digital..

The unit takes 8 AA batteries. But it says only use alkaline and not NC rechargeables.
I haven't tried it on batteries yet. Been having to much fun playing with it still.
I have to sit down with the manual and really go thru this monster

hmmmm... they do make rechargebale alkaline
AA's now-a-days....

Otherwise would make for expensive busking..

That vid was brilliant! 10 m of energy. . . Good piano.

Can you give us a short impression on how the 'other' sounds are on the PX5S ? I mean, not the piano's or synth/hex layer sounds, of which we heard quite a lot already, but the sounds like organ (real drawbar emulation?), strings, acoustic instruments, basses etc.

I know the synth sounds , AP's and EP's are pretty good, but how the rest - do you need another board for the extra sounds ? The guy in the vid stops short exactly at the moment he was going to touch the organ and acoustic sounds...

I'm out for the day with famaily. I'll try to report back tonight

You are selfish and thoughtless person.
And...

WE'RE your family now so.....

REPORT!

LOL

"Famaily" is his band name, so don't be so harsh on him; he's out for a gig ;-)

That makes it even worse somehow

LOL!

Sorry guys rush out the door. I should of just not responded to the thread.
Just got back with a long day with wife, kids and my in-laws.
We drove out to the the Volvo car museum. I never was there and my father in-law
wanted to go out there to see the cars again and show the grandchildren them.
We all had a wonderful time and then went out to Culver's for dinner and Custard:)

Now back to the PX5s. I only played around for the last hour with the unit.
Still getting the hang of how to edit tones.
Getting there and enjoying going through the 100 stage setting.
There is so nice organ sounds to play with, but I was having the most
fun with the rhodes and clav sounds to be honest. Also I was going
over some pop ballads with the piano and strings stage settings and got lost just playing. So I guess that is a good sign. As far as gigging that is long past for me. Might use it to help out school for plays as in the past or for contemporary church mass.

I need to reread the manual on how to do the phase recordings tonight. I got lost trying to record one just before coming up here to the computer. Probably something
simple I'm missing.

All in all I am having fun with the unit. Hopefully on my next day off I can
get it setup in my practice room to the monitors and hear how it sounds without using headphones. Also want to try recording some of my playing to a USB thumbdrive.

Mine is out for delivery... I'll report on first impressions once she's unpacked!
Steve

This is how it's done right.

Very first impressions:

Shipping and packaging... excellent. Box arrived crisp and secure from Kraft, with their added accessories in a second box.

Audio quality... scared me, until I realized that the free Audio-Technica ATH-T22 headphones included with the Kraft "Bonus Pak" are worth exactly what I paid for them. Fortunately, Sennheiser 598 is arriving tomorrow. (I had one other set of cans that are way better than the freebies, but the cord is so short I have to either lean way left or dance over it while playing!)

Documentation... much more needed. The tutorial and user's guide are only marginally useful if you are trying to understand the architecture... but I'm sure that with huge popularity of this board there will be a lot more information soon. A good conceptual piece would be highly useful for beginners, along with some setup examples.

Keybed feel... even better touch than expected. Kind of a sharp thunk on release compared to my only real data point (RD-700SX), but it is uniform across all the keys. Key surface texture is nice, and they look good as well.

Aesthetics... Quite crisp and lightweight (an important feature for me in the boat, as well as anybody looking for portability). Surprising how good it feels for being well under half the weight of my last board. Panel legends are quite readable, and LEDs are non-intrusive. For such a lightweight box, the case is surprisingly stiff and secure... can probably take a few bumps in handling.

AP sound... still working on it (while figuring out the interface). Initial default had substantial sustain pedal noise and way more open-string resonance (sounded like all strings, not just harmonically related), but those are easily editable. Sound is little thin for my taste yet, but I'm still using those temporary headphones and am early in the learning curve, so it is too early to presume to judge. Long sustain, and my ear did not pick up any obvious looping or other artifacts.

Variety of sounds... huge, especially with all the layers and zones I haven't even figured out how to play with yet. As with my previous board, there are clearly some included tones that will be delicious standouts, and others that are "meh." I hear this is pretty much normal for all manufacturers...

Power and cabling... very nice. 12V barrel connector is right angle, not one of those fragile cylindrical ones, though I would still not want to give it a serious yank for fear of damaging the internal connector mounting. Switching power supply runs cool, and has its own cord (not a wall wart). The battery tray is very clever and will be real win for a lot of people.

User interface... too early to give any kind of detailed assessment, but it is nice to be able to use the knobs to quickly scroll items and tweak values in the editor. Not exactly self-explanatory (see above re documentation), but it looks like you can drill as deep as you want from the front panel. The LCD is small, so a lot of information is packed into a few pixels.

Upgradeability and interfacing... a huge win on this compared to most. It's MIDI class-compliant, so no drivers needed, and firmware upgrades are via front-panel USB stick.

Company support... with Mike here, probably awesome. This was a huge factor in the decision to purchase this unit (I even had pre-sale questions to a couple of other vendors go completely unanswered... can't imagine actually needing help!).


DISCLAIMER: I've only had this for a few hours, and have been mostly doing other things... but I wanted to share a few initial thoughts before they are displaced by work-arounds, tweaks, and the kind of added knowledge that makes it hard to remember what it was like when you first discovered something. Looking forward to finding out how to use the iPad with it (an app?), and will certainly be running Galaxy or other software piano at some point. Overall, I'm impressed at the cost/performance ratio, and it fits my lightweight application very well without also being a big compromise in quality.

Cheers,
Steve

Understood about the documentation. Don't forget the blog at http://priviapro.wordpress.com

New tutorials going up there all the time.

Been checking that blog, Mike - thanks!

Would it be helpful if I send you (off-list) a few of the questions that come up from the perspective of a new user? I have been a tech/documentation writer for ages, and might be able to help spot some areas where other newbies are likely to have questions... including the "overall concept" stuff.

Cheers, and I look forward to posting photos of the nautical installation!
Steve

Please do, send me a PM. ;-)

Let us know what you think of the organ sounds Nomadness. No real demos have been provided by anyone so far!

Excluding the guitar/bass/organ demo...

Organs: Stage Settings ending in 6.
0-6, 1-6, 2-6 and so on.

Congrats Steve - sounds like an excellent board.

HwyStar, there's a shortish audio recording of one of the PX-5S's organs at the page below:

http://www.amazona.de/2013/04/report-musikmesse-frankfurt-2013-e-pianos-organs/5/

Cheers,
James
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