Blood-Pudding

Ahhh, my lovely, little, kinda cheesey Roland XP-10. We're in the hear-and-now and it doesn't cut the mustard except on crossfades. Anyway, I was thinking of making a crude cap of sorts to put over two sliders just so they move together. I can see in the heat of battle screwing up moving them both if they are not connected, especially for those of us who admit to being klutzes.

Actually, that did lead to a thought: Can I set sliders 1 & 2 for zones 1 & 2 respectively (regardless of tone) but opposite each other so when I push both up, zone 1 gets louder while zone 2 decreases by the same amount & vice versa when lowering the sliders?

Now I'm really confused. If I have zone 1 strings and zone 2 flute, it is not possible, with one slider (or knob, etc.) to crossfade them? That would be a real shame as my Roland XP-10 could do that very easily (had a crossfade slider). What happens with Brad's example? (I can't get to my keyboard to experiment at the moment.) Now, if I have to do it within hex layers, then I can crossfade only 2 of the 6 layers with one slider, correct?

I've figured out how to control the volume, either 1 zone or all 4 simultaneously, but how do I set crossfades?

I'm slowly getting the hang of altering sounds -- and had a wonderful epiphany over the weekend by adding some mid-high gain (i.e., analyzing the problem and figuring out how to solve it) -- but I'm not getting the controller thing. Here is what I want to do: 1. Stage setting has 4: 1) synstrings 2; 2) woods&strings; 3) flute; 4) warm pad. Attacks are all fast -- this is no New Age pad swell stuff. I'm playing along to flutes and strings. What I want to do is -- 2. Incorporate about a 5 db cut because on one song, the first verse, I play a part that's quieter. Turns out about 5 db works. Then when it's time for verse 2, I want to push a slider up really quickly to get back to normal volume. 3. Volume sliders for each of the tones, but with a minimum sound value. 4. A slider for the relative synstrings/flute volumes (up is more strings, down more flute) 5. Same for W&S/warm pad. If anyone can help, I'm grateful. Needless to say, I'm really excited about using the PX-5. I almost jumped ship to Nord because while the PX-3 was good, I knew I needed something better. Found it.

Is it me or is the keyboard on the PX-3 "softer"/easier to play? I just prefer the action on it to the PX-5, though I prefer everything else about the 5.

Is there somewhere, either here or elsewhere, an explanation as to how the different elements of the hex layers affect the overall tone? Predominantly my question pertains to adjusting the wave forms but also how the layers interact with each other. There has to be some kind of generality -- I'm familiar with lowering the attack value to get the sound up and running faster -- but do adjusting other elements have certain predictable effects?

I've been playing Gabriel Faure's Op.78 with a strings/flute sound.

I'd been a rhythm guitar player for years but have always had a keyboard to add thickness to stuff I wrote -- mostly arpeggios and simple chords; I'm not a piano player. I had a Roland XP-10. I really liked it for that purpose. About a year ago, I decided to take old English country dance-type melodies, write lyrics, and record/perform them with classical instruments but with a pop/rock vibe. (By that I mean something sort of like Fleetwood Mac meets Mumford & Sons.) So I envision M & F singers, electric violin or viola, electric cello, flute, piano, and me on my Privias (5 & 3) essentially being the equivalent of a rhythm guitarist but playing the melodies -- I'm not good enough to "fiddle" around like a lead guitarist would, so I play the backbone of the song and let everyone else do their fancy bits. The piano would also do counterpoint and bass. This kind of music is very riff driven and I can play most pretty much any riff with my right hand. Due to brain wiring issues, I really can't separate my hands -- on a guitar, both hands work together to produce one sound (granted, it's a polyphonic instrument) rather than independently, which is fine for what I want to do. I am, on some songs, learning to play the same riff on both keyboards (dual stand) with different sounds. Honestly, I prefer the PX-3's keyboard action to the 5's and for certain songs, it's enough to use that keyboard predominantly. Generally the sounds I like to use are based around thick strings, flute, and pads with a fast attack, chorus, reverb, etc. However, in my early days of learning the stage settings, I found "Illuminated" which is PERFECT for a song based on the old tune "Bonny at Morn". The deal sealer for me is the ability to edit the wave forms. Shimmery stuff is useless if I can't set the attack.

Mine was, indeed, 1.10.

If I bought my PX-5 (new) around Labor Day, will it just have 1.0 or do they update the firmware prior to shipping?

Hopefully this request doesn't get me scorned. After a couple of years with the PX-3, which I really liked, I recently heard about the PX-5S and after looking into it, bought it. (One thing I absolutely need for string sounds, which I predominantly use layered with flute, is being able to set the attack, which is one reason I stick with Casio.) The 5 is a bit more complex than the 3. I'm just getting into learning to program it so I thought a good way would be to accomplish something worthwhile, like setting up a sound similar to Geddy Lee's beautiful synth sound on Rush's "Subdivisions". Does anyone have any thoughts on how I go about that? (I'm not asking someone to "Pianomanchuck" this request, but some tips would be great.) I guess it's: 1) insight into editing the right tone(s) (by which I mean sound, as I'm not excluding hex layers); and 2) insight on setting the sound up from a macro perspective once the right underlying sound is there. I'm not a piano player. I primarily play guitar for rock stuff, but lately I have been learning English country and Celtic-type melodies on a keyboard using the sound described above. That's why I like a really thick, shimmery string sound and I've gotten pretty good at playing melodically (albeit mostly with my right hand) and I'd love to try the "Subdivisions" sound on a song like Luar Na Lubre's "O Son do Ar". (If I ever get a band going, I'll add a real piano player to handle counterpoint and bass.) Thanks!

I just moved up from the PX-3 to the 5 yesterday and haven't had time to figure things out, but I do use strings, layered with flute, as my primary sound, not piano. I like a thick string sound (like a pad, but not so slow) with some sustain so on the 3, I used synstrings (forget which #) and added a bunch of DSP to thicken it up and shortened the attack. I'll have to dig around the 5 when I get it up and running. The layering with flute really helps though.