Dave Weiser

Audio demos for the guitar sounds from my buddy Kristian Terzic! https://soundcloud.com/dave-weiser/sets/casio-px-5s-promo-pack

My Promo Pack for PX-5S in finally finished and posted for download! (I had been calling it the Holiday Pack due to the timing.) The file and release notes are here: http://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?%2Ffiles%2Ffile%2F953-weisersound-promo-pack%2F I'll be posting some demo clips shortly. In the meantime I'm hoping that some of the superstars here and on Facebook will post some audio or video with the sounds in action.

In my experience working for manufacturers this kind of thing is usually a characteristic of the actual piano that was sampled. Also, the sample editing and processing required to get raw samples ready for prime time can have an effect on the sound that might yield results similar to what you describe. Sometimes harsh characteristics (harmonics, partials, etc) on certain notes/ranges need to be dampened and rolled off, etc. These steps *need* to be done or the samples would sound INSANE upon playback. The risk of fixing harsh partials is creating too much of a timbral difference between adjacent notes/ranges. Those of us who make a living in sound design drive ourselves mad trying to strike an optimal balance between smoothing out the sound while not going too far and creating unnatural transitions. Based on my experience and that of most PX customers I've observed I'd say that Casio did an admirable job tackling this tricky issue.

Announced on Facebook the other day but figured I should mention it here as well... As a little holiday gift and gesture of gratitude to the Casio community I'm going to be releasing a set of 5 sounds free of charge. Hope to have them finished by the 25th! Stay tuned...

Just uploaded some audio demos from our good friend Kristian Terzic! (His demos are labeled KT.) Always a treat to hear killer players using my sounds. https://soundcloud.com/dave-weiser/jpj_motown?in=dave-weiser/sets/casio-px-5s-pro-bass-pack

Update: I've decided that it makes the most sense to sell the Bass Pack on my own. Many thanks to Casio for the support, the excellent platform and the outstanding community! http://www.weisersound.com/#!casio-pro-bass-pack/c1n7t

Here's the webpage, with a little more info on each tone. http://www.weisersound.com/#!casio-pro-bass-pack/c1n7t

Still unsure if I'm going to release them on my own for sale (like my Gig Piano and Pro Strings) or if Casio will release them for free (like my Vintage Keys set). Waiting to hear back from Casio now. I know budgets for that sort of thing are tight (as a guy who worked for a keys manufacturer myself). Also, Casio has always been quite good to me. So I'd like to show them as much courtesy as possible while we figure it out. Will keep you posted.

OK here are the audio demos for the 10 sounds: https://soundcloud.com/dave-weiser/sets/casio-px-5s-pro-bass-pack Had a blast doing these, love playing bass parts!

Love the Dave Holland clip! Both of my uprights emulate certain characteristics of that sound - I think you'll be pleased.

Yes - I have 3: the JPJ one posted above (now named JPJ/Motown), GetLucky (also a dead ringer for Another One Bites the Dust) and a rock bass caled BriteFinger.

I have two uprights at the moment. I'm quite pleased with the results I'm getting from the PX-5S on this project. Regarding challenges/requests: If you'd like post a youtube clip of a real bass sound on an album or live performance I'll consider taking a shot. But I'm probably going to pass on the Trillian challenge. Just as I would pass on an Ivory challenge. Unless you know of a way to get 21,000 samples with thousands of articulations and 34GB into the Casio. (You saw the part in the video where Eric mentions the 21,000 samples, yes?) Seriously I have spent time with the Trillian collection, studied it when I worked for Kurzweil and have gleaned a few tricks and insights from it. Great stuff. Here's the latest video preview - Jaco fretless with harmonics above middle C.

And one more!

Here's a little taste of what I've been working on.

Ha funny you should ask... I was just popping by to post here that the first tone, a slap bass, is nearly complete. Hope to have a small set ready to release by 19th when I head off to my next show. The size of the set will depend on how much progress I can make vs time vs variety of worthwhile results. I'll have a least one slap, one upright and one fingered Motown type bass, hopefully with a few useful variations.

I would sell my mother to the Taliban if it could convince all synth manufacturers to use actual units of measurement - seconds (for times), Hz (for filter/EQ frequencies), dB (for level boosts on anything), etc. That is all.

Update: I'm currently plugging away on a few basses, making decent progress. Leaving again on Thursday for Phantom of the Opera Germany, back again on the 9th. Hope to have something to unveil after that, before leaving for the next show, setting up ALW's Wizard of Oz US tour in Utica NY on the 19th. BTW the Strings Pack price has been reduced.

Thanks for the kind words y'all! I'll try to take a crack at some basses when I get home.... Was in Hamburg a the beginning of the week for Love Never Dies, now in Korea for Les Mis back home to Boston on the 17th. Will keep you posted...

I should have been more clear.... what I was trying to articulate, and correct me if I'm wrong was, "The 560 does not seem to be a direct replacement/successor for the 5S".

Both boards are lovely but each fills a different role. The PX-5S is a "pro" board, meaning that it's set up for playing live/studio gigs, with lots of splitting/layering capability. The 560 seems to be more of "home" board intended for non-gig playing, for fun at home, mainly due to the built-in speakers, limited splitting/layering, etc. So if you're out playing gigs with a band or have a home studio setup, I would go with the 5S, if you're playing at home for fun, I'd go with the 560. The 560 looks like it's built on a new platform, so I think that we can expect a pro board based on that platform sometime in the near future. For whatever reason, Casio decided to do the home board first with this platform.

Excellent!! Casio is lucky to have you man. Power users like you are worth their weight in gold to manufacturers.

Please let us know how you make out once you've adjusted the VST's velocity response settings and once you've heard back from thier tech support. VST companies deal with complaints like this all the time as some boards' actions work better/worse with certain VSTs. Their support people will likely have heard similar issues and should have good advice for you.

If you're talking about ONLY VST stuff sounding different - and not talking about the PX-5's sound - then the only issue at play is MIDI velocity values that the PX is spitting out to the VST. No "processing" involved. The PX5 action just isn't triggering the same velocity values as the 725. If you're only triggering the softer samples on a piano VST, it's going to sound muffled as hell.... because you're not triggering those harder, brighter samples. So you're going to need to adjust the velocity response on the PX-5. But... you might also need to adjust velocity response of the VST. This is a common issue with all kinds of keyboard-VST pairings. One advantage that a hardware keyboard has over VST is the hardware board engineers can customize the software velocity curves and the sound programming to work with one action - the one included on the board! Makers of VSTs can't do this customization because users will be hooking up a wide varitety of actions. When I worked at Kurzweil, creating velocity maps was a huge process, done by hand by some keyboard playing schmuck like me... separate maps for black and white keys since the lever/fulcrum physics are different for each. Took many many hours. I'm sure the guys at Casio do similar work to customize the sounds and software in their boards to work with the action. Don't fret - I think between the PX5 and VST velocity settings, you should be able to dial in something that feels better. You might want to contact the tech support for the VST company and check any related user forums.

Be sure to check out *all* of the piano sounds in the PX-5S... lots of variety, and more varreity to be found in online content. If you can describe the qualities of the CP piano tone that you happen to like I'm sure some of the more knowledgeable folks here could point you towards a similar tone for the PX.

I've spent some time with this recently... I do usually like to use a controller (or aftertouch) on certain keyboards to adjust the vibrato rate in real-time. But the PX only allows the pitch LFO rate to be modifed in real-time - the amp (volume) and filter LFO rates remain fixed. (You can of course adjust rates when editing a tone, you just can't use a slider to change the rates when not editing.) The best vibrato results are usually achieved by using BOTH pitch AND amp LFOs. When I mocked up a solo/quartet sound with both, but then adjusted only the pitch rate in real-time.... the fact that the amp LFO rate didn't change in along with the pitch one was a deal-breaker. What I found was that if given the choice, it was more important to have both amp and pitch LFO in sync than to be able to adjust the rate of just pitch. Best results were achived with very modest depth settings and by using the vibrato very sparingly. I used SW2 pedal for reverse volume swells to help overcome the static nature of the samples. Hope some of this info proves helpful.