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

Wow! Now that's service!!! Thanks, Mike.

Why change the habit of a lifetime?

Yup, the AP (sigh) ; I was fiddling with that too. But I knew what to expect, cause I listened very carefully to the sound demo's. That's why I wanted to combine it with a software AP routed through the PX5 right from the start. But only when playing at home and for pure piano parts. For a live situation I very much doubt if the 'plinkyness' higher up is an issue, it may even be an advantage ; having the bright sound pierce right through in the mix. You have so many tools available to shape the sound with the PX5. Played around with the velocity settings and other settings and by carefully balancing the parameters you can get a pretty good controllable AP preset in the end. I think that's what Mike is cooking up for you now too ;-) For the rest I agree; amazing package overall and soooo light ! IMHO the AP base sample set is the only part that really need a work-over for a next PX line in 2015 (?) - but just for the 5% of over-critical users like you and me ;-) Don't know if that (5%) carries enough weight, but nevertheless. If PX's are sold to the other 95% of key enthusiasts Casio has already hit a home-run anyway!

"Plinkyness" and short decay are two dead giveaways that I'm listening to a DP rather than a real AP - be it solo, in a band, or in a pop recording. I've inadvertently developed an antipathy to hearing either.

Last weekend at a yard sale my wife and I looked at an old Baldwin upright (40" so just barely out of the spinet category). Keys were surprisingly short to the pivot and a bit sluggish, but it sure did resonate with the pedal down.

If Casio were to commission new high quality samples at the level of Nord's, they could rival any other DP out there, IMO.

I do hope that Casio has hit a home run with the PX-5S; that way the funds will be there to really push the envelope with the next series. And after all the effort put in to produce and refine this amazing little machine, they deserve that success. In fact, I would say that's a really good reason for me to keep the PX - to show solidarity with Mike and his team for the months of listening to fussy keyboard nerds, tweaking endlessly, and responding with good humor to hundreds of dumb (and some not-so-dumb) questions.

No one here will insult or offend me with criticism. All pianos sound different. Two acoustic pianos from the same brand will sound different. Try to mic them up to record them or sample them, you can easily get two radically different results.

I think the group at Casio Tokyo has done an amazing job with this piano sample. I actually think the range around C5 is very good. I do agree this was the range that needed work on the previous generation. I find it melodic and definitely not short. Without hearing what stylistically VoxPops is playing it is hard to comment further. Based on his comments I would suggest that he try the System Velocity set at Touch 3 which requires the most force to reach the highest dynamic. I think he'll find it more melodic as he plays softer. That combined with the alternate patch that I'll post later today, I think he'll find something that works well.

Also, we haven't posted any piano presets that utilize the insert or system EQ's to change the "upper mids", which btw you probably don't want to cut them out for playing live.

I've got some other piano sound variations in the works that I'm building from scratch using Hex Layers but it will be a little while before those are available. I'm taking some time off next week.

In the end when VoxPops gets to a gig, he'll realize that live and in mono our pianos rival anything out there, regardless of price.

VoxPops - Here is another piano for you. See the link below. Lowered initial attack with full dynamic range as the original Concert Grand. I'd have to dig into programming a Hex Layer based piano do anything more radically different than this which I may do at a later date.

Leaving for vacation tomorrow. Catch you guys in a week or so.

http://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/files/file/44-concert-grand-v2/

Thank you very much, Mike - sincerely appreciated! I'll give it a try tomorrow. Have a great vacation!

Awesome.

PS - That Grand Piano is not utilizing an insert effect. Slap the EQ effect in there and dial in to taste.

Hex based piano ; that's going to be great - much more parameters to tweak the sound to your liking. Great service Mike and have a nice and well deserved holiday !

Just spent literally a few seconds with Mike's new piano - sounds good! I've got to start getting gear together for tonight, so it'll be a "suck it and see" situation, but seems like Mike's done a great job creating a smoother piano tone. Just shows how flexible the PX is, even though I think I'll leave the programming to younger, more agile minds.

Don't know if I've mentioned this before, but The PX seems like the MP6's younger sibling. They both share similar hands-on plus in-depth control, and can both muster a range of sounds for tweaking. Obviously the PX has a much deeper synth capability, but essentially they do the same job. Nice!

It's really cool once you "look under the hood" to see how the sounds are created and layered. For the less technically minded (like me), I do recommended using the free data editor to visually see how a sound is generated from the oscillator level, and then how the oscillators are all combined to make a hex-layer, and then how the hex-layers can combine to make the Stage Settings. It's a very powerful engine.

@MM - How are you making these sounds, and can end users do the same thing?!

For those needing a music rest for their PX-5S, I just discovered a useful, quick and dirty solution using the K&M 18880 and the Nord music rest. I was thinking about attaching brackets to the Casio to take the Nord or SV-1 rests when I discovered that the Nord rest is just long enough to be attached to the 18880 with suitable clips or other devices. At this stage it's not very aesthetically pleasing, but I'll work on that.

The front panel, nothing more

Looks good, Vox! I'll post my PX-5S music stand here too, just so anyone searching on this topic can see a variety of solutions in one place. I used a stock Manhasset music desk (20" wide and 12" tall) and raised it 5 inches with folding legs... then wrote a little how-to article:

http://nomadness.com/how-to/music-stand-px-5s-digital-piano

-Steve

How does the board on the Privia PX-350 compare with the PX-5s?


From the demos I've heard the PX-5s sounds way better, but I need something with built in speakers for improntu jam sessions

The keyboard action is the same but if built-in speakers are a deal-breaker, only the 350 has them: 2 x 8W


For me, though, the sonic power of the PX-5S makes it worth bringing a little battery powered amp with. Speaking of that, the PX-5S can run on 8aa's... you need power for the 350.

It all depends on what you need more.

Is the piano sound similar? What is AIR?
Is the PX-5S just a 350 with more synth tones and more flexibility?


Why can't Casio make a PX-5S with built in speakers!