Sonickeys

As me me, I own a Casio PX-5S and a Casio PX-560 and formerly owned a Casio PX-360. I bought my daughter a cheaper Casio board to learn on years ago and she liked it. Before I started buying Casio boards, I owned a bunch of Yamaha synths including the big and heavy S-90 and even a PSR 2100. I really thought the PX-5S was a great board but I had some "no media" problems that scared me to death even with the so-called fix with the patch which worked and then it didn't on more than one occasion. I actually bought the PX-560 as a temporary board hoping that Casio would update the PX-5S in a big way. It never happened. I still gig a little with the PX-560 and like it for what it is. I played the PX3000 once in a live jam situation and it didn't float my boat at all. Of course, I was playing a Yamaha Clavinova and a real Hammond at the jam and that might have been part of the problem. I thought the board was a toy in comparison to what I was playing. When Casio refused to come out with a pro board to replace the PX-5S, it temporarily lost me as a customer. I enjoy the action on the PX-560 and would love for a serious pro board replacement. I don't need or want auto accompaniment or other band in the box gimmicks. What I want are playable bread and butter sounds and a decent interface for layering and splitting sounds. The PX-5S community had a bunch of great sound patches. That added to the value of the board. Weight has always been my issue. When Casio made a decent 26 pound 88 key weighted action board which fit in the backseat of my car, that was the best. I am willing to pay more for a more professional Casio board which still keeps the weight and size down.

Love Jethro Tull. More request for the Grateful Dead!

Most of the companies, including Yamaha and Kawai, have been happy to rest their reputation on older boards for quite some time. Even the Yamaha MX88 is not really new. It is basically an 88 key version of the MX 49 and MX 61 which have been out for several years although I think it may have better piano sounds and other improvements which I haven't studied yet. I would like to play it and see for myself. Kawai did release the ES110 which is light and cheap but doesn't have a lot of non-piano features. Even Hammond has been sitting on its SK-1 line which nails the Hammond sound but has less than stellar other sounds for quite some time. It used to be that you had to buy a Hammond clone if you wanted decent Hammond sounds. At this late date, unfortunately, it appears it is still hard to find a board with piano and Hammond sounds at a really high level with the Nord Stage 3 being an exception to the rule. I am not a programmer but find this absurd. Garageband on my IPhone has a more credible Hammond sound than many if not most of the non-clone boards. I have concluded that the really talented programmers are locked down with NDA agreements or no company can afford to put the proper amount of R&D into their boards because they don't make enough money to do so. Yamaha puts out better horn and other acoustic instrument sounds on its high end PSR/Tyros/Genos line than it does on its Motif line. I have first hand experience there. Roland's VK organ module was always better than the organs put in Roland's other boards. In essence, sometimes the companies are intentionally forcing musicians to buy more than one board by dumbing down certain aspects of each of their boards. I realize we live in the age of electronic music and a lot of music companies are competing to come up with the best set of weird synth sounds. Many of us want great piano, Wurly, Rhodes, Clav and Hammond sounds with a decent set of strings, horns, basses, guitars and a few good synth patches to get us through a gig. Where I put Casio Privia on top is its form factor, weight, price, decent piano action and very credible piano and electric piano sounds. If it could do non-piano sounds as well as the piano sounds a little better, I will stay with Casio Privia in the future provided it completely ups its game on Hammond organ sounds. If Casio could match the flute sounds on the high end Yamaha boards, that would even be better. I want to leave my Hammond clone home. The days of bringing three boards to a gig are over for me. And bringing two boards to a gig is getting tiresome. My two cents.

And I forgot to mention the Yamaha MX-88 which just got a great review in Electronic Musician which is light and at a similar price point to the PX-5S. Kurzweil will be releasing its light SP6 in about a month which is also in a similar price point give or take a few dollars. Yes, it is time for Casio to come out with something spectacular simply to stay competitive and please its existing loyal customers which includes me.

I read the responses in context and thought that some of them were more in the context of a personal attack and felt the need to respond because I had the same issue twice. In my world, the "no media" problem is a product defect plain and simple. Apparently, the firmware update 1.13 may have corrected the problem although we wouldn't know it by reading Casio's reasoning for the firmware update. Frankly, most of my musician friends mock me for my love of Casio boards and I defend the boards regularly. I leave my pricy Kurzweil Forte home and would rather play with the PX-5S. You are correct, Mike was dumbfounded that my power supply failed and indicated that I was a first. That didn't make me feel any better when I had to run around and get two sets of multiple batteries at a store at the last minute while my bandmates were trying to figure out why my rig wasn't working at an outdoor gig when the band was supposed to start. (If anyone thinks you can play a 4 plus hour gig on batteries on one set of batteries, I will tell you from first hand experience that you cannot). I will never know how or why the "no media" problem occurred or who or what caused it although I can assure you that people within Casio had to be embarrassed and troubled by what occurred. It should never have happened. To this day, I am inclined to bring a second board to the gig just in case. In a professional product sold to professional musicians, that shouldn't be the case. When a gig starts, neither the audience nor the band leader want to hear that your rig doesn't want to work and you don't know why. Enough said.

I had the "no media" problem twice; once in the beginning and once at about the 3 year mark. I also had a defective jack in the back at about the 2 year mark. My separate Casio power supply Cable also failed on a gig in the meantime. (Used batteries to get through the gig). The first time, I believe Mike Martin helped me correct it and the last time I took it for service under warranty. Frankly, the "no media" problem always frightened me because of the potential for a repeat on an actual gig. Mike Martin could not believe that the power supply had failed when I brought it to his attention and I bought a suitable non-Casio replacement rather than make a federal case out of it. Since the bass player in my band is an electronics genius and he tested it with a meter to confirm its failure, I didn't think I would have to write a legal brief to ask for a free replacement. I live in a suburb 40 minutes North of Philadelphia, PA. I had to travel to North Jersey over an hour and a half to find an authorized repair service and they were a little bitchy about my proving the extension of my warranty which was registered with Casio when I couldn't find my original receipt. Guitar Center sent me a computerized print-out of the original sale and that was the end of it. The entire experience was exhausting and aggravating. Seriously, Casio can't find a suitable repair center in the Philadelphia area? And what is the purpose of registering your product with Casio if the repair service won't accept proof of that without the original warranty? The service center in North Jersey was good and professional. Whatever they did to correct both problems, I have had no problems in the past 6 months. I happen to really like the board. Hopefully, it will work without incident going forward. As for people on this board who may suggest directly or indirectly that someone is making up a problem, they are being very disrespectful of all of us. It makes one believe that the board is filled with Casio trolls using the medium to simply only say good things about the product. That is complete nonsense. There is room on the board for honest opinion, dissent and criticism. Otherwise, this site should not be called a "forum." I can assure you that I did experience each of the problems outlined above. I have a PX-560 which has worked fine. No problems. Frankly, however, I am waiting for a replacement for my PX-5S which should have come out last year and didn't. No, the PX-560 is not a replacement for the PX-5S IMHO. And if I ever buy another Casio board which does not work when I turn it on, I will go elsewhere. That defect is not what I would call minor. Thank you for listening.

There is now the Dexibell S7, the Korg Grandstage, Roland RD-2000, the Kurzweil SP6, the Roland VR-730 and I am sure that Kawai and Yamaha will up their game as to boards which are three or four years old at this point, i.e., MP-7 and CP-4. I could not understand that Casio sort of forced its PX-5S owners to buy the PX-560 rather than releasing a new and improved PX-5S over a year ago. I am a fan of the Privia line, having owned four Privia boards but am frustrated with the less than stellar organ sounds, a sort of complicated and non-intuitive interface and am hoping that when Casio puts out an updated model, it will wow me. Otherwise, I will go to the competition. At 26 pounds and with very good piano action and sounds, an updated version of the PX-5S could be killer. Although I enjoy my PX-560 in my home, I gig with my PX-5S with a Roland VR-09 on top. I don't think the PX-5S standing alone, cuts it in a cover band. I would love that to change. If I could gig with a single board and cover Hammond parts as well as piano parts at a high level, I would be in synth heaven. (I am tired of crappy Hammond sounds on boards with great piano sounds; can't Casio steal away a programmer that really knows how to nail the Hammond sound?) That is the idea behind the Roland VR-730 although I am sure that the piano sounds will not be as good as those on the PX-5S. I realize that many of us use two boards because we want piano action on the bottom and synth action on the top. Sometimes, I just want one light and compact board that can do it all. In summary, I am hoping Namm 2018 will be the year of the keyboard and Casio will be part of the excitement by releasing a great replacement for the PX-5S. It is time.

I used Garage Band at a live gig two weeks ago, solely for its Hammond organ sounds. The Leslie on the Garage Band is pretty good. I ran Garage Band from my IPad through the USB midi on my 5S and then ran the audio out to my mixer for both the 5S and the IPad. I used a Soundcraft DI box so that I ultimately was running an XLR cable into my mixer from the IPad. The little toy has a gain control which is helpful. I was able to mix the organ sounds coming from Garage Band through my IPad and sounds on the 5S through the mixer on separate channels which was right next to me. The stupid Garage Band App cut out a couple times during the night. But for 90% of the evening, I had a pretty sweet set-up. I have a Hammond XK-1 and I decided I wanted to only play with one board that night and thought the idea of combining organ and piano samples through one board would work nicely. My music tech at the local Guitar Center told me that IPads will sometimes crash at unexpected moments. He suggested taking off some of my Apps. Maybe the new and more powerful IPad would be more stable. I seem to have to jiggle the lightning cable a couple of times or pull it in and out to get the sound to work properly. One time the volume seemed to drop for no apparent reason. (I will have to experiment to make this more glitch free). I will bet that the same Garage Band on a MAC will be more stable and sound better. But I like the convenience of an IPad which I parked on my 5S. My band mates were impressed with the set-up and didn't miss the XK-1 very much. The only downside was playing organ on a piano keyboard. It was a trade-off. Having only one board simplified my set-up on a tight stage. Although I really like the piano and electric piano sounds on the 5S, the organ sounds don't quite cut it for me. So Garage Band or a second more serious Hammond clone is my answer. Rick