Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards I have a Casio PX-5S GAS

Interesting link ;
- I was again impressed by the Numa Concert AP sound; pretty organic. The rest of the Numa sounds is...meh..

- The Artis example is unfortunately way to much into overdrive and compression to give a good judgement (at least I hope this isn't how it really sounds).

- Drawbar organ on PX5s seems pretty good ! AP is still a bit thin in the mid-high range to my taste, but that may be personal preference.

Oh, by the way - I think Casio did such a good job getting all these extra sound processing features into the PX, that they may have fallen into the pitfall of overdoing effects in the programming of the presets. Damper resonance and key off effects (Rhodes) etc , don't have to be that unnaturally obvious. Perhaps a bit more modest programming in the next update . Just an advice, I know how tempting it is to show the nice features you have build-in, but beauty is in the (small) details - not "in your face" . Of course you can change it, but nicely perfected factory presets would save a lot off time.

- Roland is again very nice classical SN AP sound (as long as you don't hit it too hard). Still like it a lot.

- Physis - very dynamic , but indeed its slight touch of this artificial pianoteq attack / mid sound. I wonder if it's a 'problem' when you play it yourself, because the connection and interaction with the sound is than so much more important than the last bit of realism. However to listen to it lacks this final touch of realism. But who's going to record a DP for a commercial classical music release...these DP's are mostly for playing yourself anyway. On stage - I think it doesn't matter much either ; other things are important there, like how the AP mixes with the other players and how it sticks through the noise the others and environment produce.

Examples; keep them coming ;-)

I can only guess this was at MusikMesse? They turned UP the effects for the purpose of their demos. Personally, I prefer some of them a little quiter, sometimes louder, it depends on what I'm playing. By default they're in the middle.

Hi Mike,

Thanks - that's very well possible of course. I once had listened to a demo unit of Kawai and had a similar experience - all the piano designer effects we're turned to eleven ! Sounded pretty bad, but when turned to normal all was well.

Sorry I overlooked the probability they exaggerated the effects on the show floor. Hope the factory presets are less 'overdone' ;-)

Nice overall package you guys created. Initial sales figures must be good. Are the organs realtime drawbar emulations by the way, of fixed samples settings of different organ characters ?

Cheers, hope you enjoyed your well-deserved holiday...

I know for a fact that they turned them up. They were asking me to make them as sound as possible for their demos....both damper effects and key off noise.

There are some Stage Settings that have some drawbar control, we will be creating downloable banks with more. In the case of the drawbar organs, we have a sample of a single drawbar that is transposed to properly emulate the pitch of different drawbars. Of course there are traditional organ samples too.

While this is mostly very true, however my question: are You speaking from Pinanoteq 4 or already from Pianoteq 4.5?

Thanks so much for the link James!

Hello:
It's probably about time that I give you folks my first thoughts on the PX-5S...sorry for the delay...my studio has 100 clients that need time sensitive audio work done every month, we have 2 studio locations and the staff consists of me, myself and I. Two of the staff are constant slackers so I never seem to have enough time because I am always covering for them.

The PX-5S is just simply a great keyboard in terms of value, touch, sound, integration and portability. I have already commented on the great work that Mike and the rest of the Casio team is doing with the 5S which really brings added value to this rig but I do have to admit the 5S had me at: battery.
In the early 80's I gigged with a Prophet 600 and then with an added Yamaha DX7 as marching keyboardist with a 250 member marching band playing in a large football stadium. I had a very interesting 3 bicycle wheel contraption strapped to me with the keyboard/s in a plexiglass housing to keep the rain off them. I had retractable power and audio lines going to a heavy duty cart which two people pushed around behind me that had giant 12 volt truck batteries, power inverters and powered PA speakers. This rig could certainly kick some decibels but it was converting DC power (batteries) to AC (for the speakers) and then back to DC for the keyboards. Not very efficient. Could have done a battery "mod" on the keyboards but couldn't afford to have that go sideways so I left well enough alone. At that time I really wished that pro keyboards came standard with a battery backup system...and 30 years later Casio finally did it.

OK....I am stalling here....and I know it...the actual reality is that I am having so much fun with this keyboard that all I have really done with it...is play it a lot...just the presets with small tweaks using the knobs. At this time...I am in no position to give it any kind a review because I haven't actually cracked into it's "engine" at all.

Mike's tip with sticking with the Stage Settings at first and then choosing "other ingredients" is really good and that's what I have done.

It's been a while since I had that feeling of playing a keyboard that for whatever reason is breaking new ground for what I use keyboards for. Some notable keyboards that I put in this category from the past that I still use today because of this fact are: Hohner Clavinet D6, Fender Rhodes, Prophet 5, Yamaha CP-70, Yamaha DX-7 and Yamaha Motif 8.

I can say at this point that the touch and action on this keyboard is extremely good for this price point. I am very particular on what kind of 88 key-keyboards I use for midi control in the studio depending upon what kind of parts I am playing.

I currently use:
Numa Nero (midi controller)
Kurzweil Midi Board (midi controller)
M-Audio keystation Pro 88 (midi controller)
Yamaha KX-8 (Midi controller)
Yamaha Motif 8
Casio PX-330
Kurzweil PC88
Alesis QS 8
M-Audio Prokeys 88SX

Each one of these boards brings something different to the table in terms of touch and feel but the 5S definitely goes to the top of the class. It is amazing how tighter this keyboard feels over the the previous action in the PX-330 (a key action I actually like a lot). Once you get used to the "ivory touch" on the 5S...you kind of miss it when you go to other keyboards. I also shouldn't forget to say that the 5S is only 25 lbs.

Now lets talk polyphony. I have in the archives somewhere..the monophonic Korg synth.(can't remember the model off hand) that was multi-tracked to tape in the studio just to be able to play chords for the original NASA theme song. Now looking at the 5S's 256 note polyphony...is a game changer. I always check new keyboards to see how well they steal played notes when they get over their polyphony limit by holding down the sustain pedal. Haven't even thought about this with the 5S.

Some other little things I noted so far:
- Whether you like the white color of the 5S or not (personally I really don't have any preference except I will note the fact that this keyboard stands out in the crowd and I would think that Casio doesn't really mind that at all) the black writing around the controls is very easy to read. All the back connection jacks are listed on the top which is very helpful.

- The power switch is very easily found on the top panel by the volume control....no more trying to reach it from the back or the side. It is a momentary switch which you actually have to hold a bit to turn the unit off...should help with accidentally turning the power off. Of course if the plug gets pulled you have the batteries to keep you going. I am using Eneloops 2 gens. rechargeable bats 1900mah + power rating 1.2V. AA's. The 5S seems to do OK with these...but I need to test how long they actually last. Manual mentions run time of 3-4 hours with headphones on ...we shall see. I wondered about the 5S accidentally being turn on in a gig bag but the 5S has a auto off function of 5 minutes when in battery mode if it is not being played (4 hours...if it is plugged into a AC socket)

OK...I started with this post with batteries and will end here with batteries. I will try to come back here and report more about this 5S later...but then again....maybe not because I will be to busy playing it.

cheers
JimaSound (yes Tom Fine...I am "living the dream"...Thank You for noticing)

p.s. I forgot to mention something I didn't like about the 5S...well....I thought the EQ's could be a little more robust..........never mind...that is being dealt with on the next firmware update that should be out soon.


disclaimer: I am not affiliated or work for Casio...but these days...it definitely sounds like a fun gig.

Great review - love the "side notes"
But you may want to check on those
Nickel battereies - thought I read
somewhere that nickels were a non non this Casio...

Now you sound like me. I just learned to use the audio recorder and have mostly
been playing with the presets and just tinkering a little to with the stage settings.

I was scared to listen to myself, but I didn't sound to bad:)
I'm getting the hang of the layout of the board. I still have to try the batteries.
I think I'll do that after this post:)

I don't have a lot of equipment to compare the PX-5s to. I had a Alesis QS8 that I
donated to my kids school music department. They are still using it.
I have a Studiologic VMK188plus that has been having velocity troubles with some keys and I decided I needed a keyboard with sounds again. This way I don't have to have the computer on and a VST running to play late at night. Just turn on the unit and play.
Anyway, off to try out the batteries.

Ed

Earlier in this thread:[post]

Random tinkering update:

I just noticed that the Apple wireless keyboard fits perfectly atop the right side of the PX-5S, with its little cylindrical battery-tube structure hanging over the back to keep it from sliding around.

Cheers,
Steve

I recently discovered that myself, I was going to take a picture for the blog.

When does the PX5S become available in the UK?

Paul,
I don't know yet. I'm trying to find out from other Casio staff. My best guess would be June

Gene - I know EXACTLY what you mean.
I will freely admit I have a "prejustice"
against Casio for just that reason.. I
assosiate them with "toys" and not pro-level.

Why do I not feel the same way about Yamaha?
They have plenty of toy keyboards out there too....

This is my problem tho, and this looks like a quality
instrument so I may have to get over it so that I many just own soon!

Also, I noticed they don't put "C A S I O" on the back
but rather "Privia" - kinda of like Privia is the "BRAND", not Casio - kinda makes it seem like an "Acura" under the Honda banner. Hope that makes sense.

Yamaha has predominantly offered serious products and along the way a relative few toys. Casio was predominantly a toy/recreational brand product until a few years ago.

When I first started looking for a DP I was astonished to see pros recommending Casio. Of all people, if a pro feels good enough about Casio to use one on stage Casios are worth considering.

The white/black/blue color scheme of the PX5S is fine to me. I just would have preferred an orange "P" and white text on black for "Privia" instead of all black text on white.

They use both "CASIO" and "Privia" on the back of the PX5S, BTW.

I can verify that both the Casio and the Privia name are on the back of the unit.

Sorry I worked a 12 hour day and I'm to tired to play with my new toy.
If interested there is some reviews over at
http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2465609/27

Ed

The Casio Privia line has been well regarded for some time now. I don't think many pros thought highly of Casio until the PX-330 was released. I think that model helped change many negative opinions about Casio and the Privia line. Truth is Privia has been a successful product for Casio going back to the PX-100 which I think was the first Privia. It also didn't hurt that they reorganized the musical instrument division and brought in people who know the business and have been around for decades. That's why your seeing products like the PX-5S.

I see that in the pics now.. the other
views I have seen were only of the
"bass" side of the back.

Looking forward to hearing more about
this DP...

I don't want to wait until August to get mine here i Scandinavia and am concidering ordering one from the states. This would mean I loose my waranty here and would have to send back and forth to the states if anything goes wrong.
And that would be expensive.