aron

Yes I know. I almost bought another one, but I had to get something else.. The biggest problem was that it had a great piano, and a decent electric piano. But the rest was serviceable. Most other companies have lots more now. I mean even if they just updated the internal sounds that would enough. Anyway, awesome of you guys to keep the forum going!

After all these years. Too bad there is no replacement. I would have bought one, but I guess it's not going to happen. It was a great keyboard for the time. I loved mine.

Good news for us. My friend - first, he is a professional piano player and gigging musician in the SF Bay Area has played a PX-5S for years and moved on to the PC4. He also has an Avant Grand at his house. He said the PC4 keybed was better than the PX-5S. He said the feel was tighter with less slop. I trust him since he is a professional and I know he's picky. I'm also trying to see if the Arturia Keylab 88 Mkii action is any good. I've heard it's heavy to press so that's bumming me out. The PX-5S has dropped in price and I guess I could purchase another but I wish there was a successor.

It's been years now.... My PX5S is still going but has been banged up due to too many gigs! I need a new keyboard for controlling MainStage. It would be great to get a new Privia. I'm hoping they bring something out otherwise I will probably go with a weighted MIDI controller or something like the Kurzweil PC4.

I don't know why I got a notification about this since I haven't been on this forum since.... 3 years or so? In any case, having used the PX-5S for multiple concerts, I have to say the piano sound is fine. It's really great live and I have actually found a few really usable electric pianos that I use live. I hardly use any of the other sounds, but it's the same for the CP-88 that I use. 3 really great sounds. Works well for live. For the rest of the sounds, I use my Kronos or JP8000 (for analog type sounds).

<Thanks for the wonderful forum> Enjoy your PX-5S

Whatever. That's why I said almost. Whatever you said will not affect the sound as much as the difference between the KC amps and his computer speakers. We can get technical if you want - but please give me a break.

Lets use logic on this problem. You do admit that the piano sounds I posted and Brad posted sound fine on your computer speakers. In my sample case - this was recorded directly onboard the PX direct to USB. In other words this is almost a direct copy of the output of the PX-5S. So if you play your PX-5S with the Dolce program, your output of your PX would be the same. So if your computer speakers sound OK, then your "bell sound" is a result of your live performance speakers. I know the KC DOES have that ringing problem you describe. I am sure if you get another pair of speakers and adjust the EQ you should be able to get it to sound like you want. So 2 things are happening: 1: Your computer speakers are stereo 2: They have a radically different timbre than your KC speaker. So EQ a new pair to sound closer to your computer speakers. Change both of these for live and you should be good to go.

Rocknrolldentist, what if you play your PX-5S through your computer speakers. If you don't hear the bell tone, then you can proceed to find speakers that don't "ring" and cause the problem for live. The computer speakers are in stereo so that might be part of it. If you do hear it, then there might not be anything we can do about it.

Rocknrolldentist, Here is the dolce piano I was talking about, does it sound clangy in this file? http://aronnelson.com/px-5s/PX-5S%20Dolce.mp3

You need to try the QSC or EV live to appreciate how much better it is than the KC. Also if you can, run in stereo. It makes a HUGE difference. If you run in stereo, you can use the smaller versions 8" etc... They sound great. I have heard really good things about the Space Station and yes - they demo a CASIO: http://www.keyboardmag.com/combo-amps/1210/we-couldnt-believe-how-much-stage-filling-stereo-sound-this-tiny-combo-amp-puts-out/52338

Send a bank select then program change as per this manual: http://download.yamaha.com/api/asset/file/?language=tr&site=tr.yamaha.com&asset_id=2592

That's why I asked about the speakers. The speaker and the instrument are the two most important parts of the tone. I really, really dislike the Roland KC amps. Terrible tone, terrible response, almost everything is bad about it. I mean, I _can_ play through it IF I totally mangle the tone knobs but they are band..... as in the worse to me. The only piano on the Motif I really liked was the newest XF8 - it had a very good piano. I love the S90ES piano as well. The rest of the motif line - I can deal with it, but I don't like the piano sounds. Heck, I'm not in love with my Kronos pianos either. Although I realize the Kross piano is inferior, for some odd reason it is completely playable on a gig and I have fun with it. All in all, I like the PX-5S piano - the EP are still in judgement mode! I still need to work on the strings as well..... rrrrrr!

Please don't forget to check out speakers as well. If you are still using the Roland Keyboard amps - they are absolutely the worst speakers for keyboards ever. They have a midrange hump that really makes exactly those notes you mentioned sound horrible. Now that you reminded me, I need to put in my rider - no Roland KC amps.

Interesting about the C above middle C. What about the A above that C. It's brighter and more brassy.

Rocknrolldentist, have you dialed up GrPianoDolce in the layer? That one seems to have less brightness. Does it sound less clangy to you?

The Casio piano is surely a Steinway. It has to be since it sounds like several recordings of Steinways that I have heard. It's interesting that you say that - I find the Motif's piano to be the weakest link and even Yamaha thought so since they "fixed" it in the Montage. So I gather that you played the PX-5S through the same speakers as the MOX,Kross and Forte? Interesting. Good luck with the quest.

Rocknrolldentist, Any updates? Did you get together with Dave?

Don't lock this thread, I want to hear what Dave Weiser says about what can be done. I do believe that he will be able to do something to improve the problem.

>this has been a very interesting study. I was able reach Dave, thanks to you, and am meeting him at his house to further investigate the sound i am looking for GREAT! Good luck and I hope it works out for you!

> . Its a light stage piano and the addition of the synth part makes it enjoyable lots more whatever doesn't sound to liking the hexlayers could solve that because that is ground not covered to its full potential yet. I have no idea what you are talking about Look at the hex layer, it is a simple subtractive synthesis style. What ground is not covered, it's a super simple layer. I'm not going to convince you or argue with you about synthesis, you apparently know how to turn a fixed sample into something else, so I'm done with this.

It's a synthesizer but a limited one. It is a mostly subtractive synthesizer for the piano/waveforms. That means you can use filters (lowpass/highpass etc) but you cannot "synthesize" a new raw piano waveform in the sense that you have to start with what is there. Almost every professional keyboard has a way to alter the piano sound by making it brighter, darker etc... But unless you can change the samples, you are limited in what you can do to alter the sound. That's why almost every piano in the PX-5s has that "bell sound" for those people that hear it.

The real truth is this entire thread is as old as samplers. Think about it. Every note needs to be sampled and played back - in the PX-5S case they are obviously not since you can hear split points. OK, lets move on. Keys are played to record a piano note - now is there a robot playing the piano? I hope so because if you think about it, even a minute thing such as a key being pressed a little harder will cause the timbre to be brighter. For all we know, the note chosen for the sample note might actually be brighter on the real piano. If you sat down on the real piano, you might even notice that one note rings out more than another due to sympathetic vibrations or the resonance of the piano. The piano is imperfect, so the recording is imperfect. Add to the fact that you are not recording every note - so it's imperfect. Now, add the fact that for some people they don't like the sound of the hammers hitting the strings - it sounds "brassy" or "bell-like". To some people this is bothering them - but I would say the majority of people love the piano sound in the PX. You can't please everyone. The samples are fixed in the unit. Casio likes the way it sounds or else they wouldn't have burned the sound in and released the keyboard. Every piano has a different sound. When you didn't like the sound of your piano, what did you do before? There is only one real answer. Get a keyboard that sounds the way you want or get another that can load in multiple pianos until you find one that suits you. Or live with the one you have and deal with it. You/We purchased a killer keyboard at a breakthrough low price. The amazing thing about this keyboard are the concessions made to bring this incredible product out at this low price. Plastic, wall adapter, smaller sample ROM (to offset the high cost of memory), no sequencer, 4 parts instead of 16. Finally, it has one piano sample in there and it is not replaceable. Yes you can try and "alter" it, but you cannot replace the samples. You didn't pay for a keyboard that can replace the piano or other samples - you paid for the PX-5S. Many people find the piano in this keyboard pretty darn amazing - even if you ignore the price.

I tried the more Mellow piano sound I posted. Although it is darker - it is not a bad sound - considering it's removing the hammer strike on the strings.