bahman

Several large online retailers in the EU started discounting this model last month (from ca. 1100 to 750-800 EUR) and it is not available for immediate order as before. So, even if Casio is not officially discontinuing the 560 — and obviously they have no commercial reason to do it — this model does seem to have reached the end of its life, too short, IMO, for a “pro” stage piano. I just wonder if Casio will have a range of stage pianos in the near future at all.

Hi! Can you please check and confirm that your new PX 560 comes with firmware version 1.15? The latest available version is 1.14 and was released in April 2017.

Hi! This topic comes up frequently. Note that speakers designed for use at home or studio meet very different requirements than those designed for stage. So, there will be some level of compromise if you want to share the same speaker setup. I suggest you have a look at some of the answers posted on this forum - just search for "speakers". You will also find many answers on other forums elsewhere (pianoworld, pianostreet, reddit r/piano/, etc.)

Yes, this is a problem not only with the 560 but with most DPs in this segment that have built in speakers. I have my 560 against a wall and that improves the sound significantly - but it still sounds bad. Try also adjusting the master equalizer. But it will sound much better through quality headphones. If you plan using the 560 frequently without headphones I would suggest to connect it through a pair of external monitors/speakers.

Hi AlenK. I mixed up capacitive with resistive. Sorry for that and thanks for the correction. But my point was not about the technology behind the touch screen but about the interaction with the interface. The fact is that the 560 has low responsiveness when compared to many mainstream electronic devices that use touch screens, especially smartphones and tablets. And yes, the screen is pressure based (resistive) as the air gap between the layers is visible and it can be operated with a non-conductive object. This is all about expectations. There are user segments that may not expect to find nowadays the same kind of user interface experience they got from a 15 year old sat-nav/GPS device. Unless you for some reason assume that all user segments should have very low expectations regarding the interface of digital keyboards. Nevertheless, I do find the 560's interface to be adequate and I also do not have problems with it. It is just a pity that the 560 does not exploit the potential capabilities of such an interface as those could have been a major differentiating feature.

According to the manual the tuning frequency and the temperament is only saved if the "Auto Resume" option (B) is on. But they will not be stored as part of a registration - that would be indicated by option (C). Not being able to store the temperament and tuning settings to a registration makes absolutely no sense. The same applies to the acoustic model config which is also not saved with a registration. As Joe Muscara as said, the touchscreen is not what you find on a mainstream smartphone. These use resistive touchscreens whereas the 560 uses a capacitive touchscreen which is much less responsive. Try to use just the tip of one finger to "click" on the screen or on the menu buttons - and yes, the menu buttons on the side are too small. But not drag your finger, use multiple fingers or try doing gestures.

Hi! I am trying to edit the dynamics of a piano tone, i.e. change how the volume level relates to the key velocity. I tried editing the low velocity range of the tone and also make the volume low when the key velocity is also low. Can this be edited? I have gone through all the envelopes and other parameters but I have been unable to do so. Note this is a standard tone from the piano bank and not an hex layer sound. If I edit an hex layer sound the dynamics can be somewhat adjusted through the envelopes and "velocity range". But I cannot achieve the same results when I edit a normal/non hex layer sound. The main reason I am trying to edit a sound from the piano bank is to try preserving the "acoustic simulator" effects, especially the string and damper resonance, since these effects only apply to some piano bank tones and not to any of the hex layer tones. Thanks!

Thanks! I think that the 560 now works properly with PianoTeq. I have the default MIDI settings on the PX-560 and have reset PianoTeq's and the ASIO driver's settings. With the "high resolution velocity" turned on, the keyboard seems to send the note-off velocity. I will test it properly over the weekend. I have to dedicate some time to try to configure PianoTeq properly because the piano sounds I get are significantly worse than the demos. It is mainly about the spatiality of the sound. It almost sounds like a monophonic output where the soundstage is concentrated in the centre. With the "binaural" pianos and sound output there are some improvements, but even so it is very far from the demos. The only "out of the box" sound I find to be very similar to the Pianoteq demos is from the Ruckers and other Kivir harpsichords. But with the harpsichords there are no complex velocity curves to be adjusted. Note that I have PianoTeq Standard but have been testing the different instruments in the trial version... I am also currently using PianoTeq on a laptop and this may be contributing to poor sound quality as it may even lack the power output to properly drive the headphones. I have a desktop connected via an optical link to an amplifier but at the moment the 560 and the desktop are not in the same room... so I still have to test the output from PianoTeq with a proper setup. But I do find the piano tone of the 560 to be really good through headphones! And if it was possible to improve and add more resonance to itm the sound would be amazing. I find the current "acoustic simulator" to be too conservative and far from the levels of resonance and noise found even on a modest upright.

Thanks for the replies so far! 1. This unfortunately happens with any tone. I think I was using Synth 04 (Mellow Saw Lead). 2. It also happens over MIDI without local control, i.e. while using the 560 just as a MIDI controller. 3. This happens with any key I have tried in any octave. The black notes are a real issue in normal playing since fast grace notes or appogiaturas that can be played by sliding down from a black into a white key will often create this situation. With the white keys, playing a fast sliding glissando will sometimes leave a couple of keys playing. This will not be that noticeable with piano or fast decaying tones, as it will sound like normal sustain or reverberation. But it makes the keyboard completely unusable with any slow or non-decaying tone like organs, synths or some EPs. A friend who is a jazz keyboard player discovered this problem less than one minute after switching from a piano tone to an organ tone. Half of the time he played some fast jazz ornamentation some note would keep sounding after being released... 4. This is independent of the MIDI note-off velocity message. However, I actually started testing the keyboard with PianoTeq after discovering this issue to check whether this was a problem related to the internal sound engine or if it could also be reproduced over MIDI. That was when I found that the 560 was not sending the note-off velocity over MIDI. However, I have now the default MIDI settings in the PX-560 and have reset PianoTeq's and the ASIO driver's settings and the MIDI note-off velocity now seems to work fine in PianoTeq. I will test it properly over the weekend. However, the problem with the keys still remains. The video was shot after resetting the MIDI settings...

So, here is a short video demonstrating the problem. This can be replicated with any key of the keyboard. The sensors are not registering the key release, at least according to the MIDI messages. Whenever this problem happens there is one note-on message for that key but no note-off message. Therefore the sounds keeps playing until the key is pressed and released again and the note-off is correctly generated. Some extra info: the keyboard has the latest firmware version (v. 1.14, April 2017) . I have the keyboard connected to the SP-33 pedal unit but tested it also with the pedal unit disconnected. The problem happens with or without a MIDI USB connection. I have not yet tested any other Casio keyboard with the same keyboard technology. As far as I know, this keyboard is used in most or even all current Privia PX and Celviano AP models. So, I am not sure this is a problem of my particular PX-560 or if it is just a "feature" of this keyboard technology. Px560.m4v

I will try to record it today. It is quite easy to replicate once you know what to do. It is all about rapid attack and release. The sensors will register the initial key press but will *not* register the key release. So, the sound will continue to play until you press the key again. At least this what a MIDI monitor tells me. First thing to do is to select sound that does not decay, such as an organ or a synth. Then the ideia is to "pluck" a white key with just the tip of a finger. So, raise your hand above the keyboard. Close your hand and extend just one finger. Then let the hand fall down with gravity and slap/pluck just the tip of any white key with the very tip of the extended finger. The finger will not rest on the key at all. It will just slap/pluck it. This is exactly the same movement as plucking a string with the tip of an extended finger. Just imagine that the tip of the white key is the string to be plucked. And this is not about pounding the key at all! A light "pluck" is more than enough because the only goal is to maximize velocity. For me this procedure unfortunately worked with any key I have tried after a couple of tries at most. Of course, one could say that the exercise above is irrelevant because no-one plays a keyboard like that. I agree. The big problem is that you can also replicate such behaviour with normal playing. For me it happens with grace notes and fast appogiaturas or accaciaturas. An example is when a finger rapidly presses and then "slides" from a black key into a white key as in a chromatic appogiatura. And this is exactly like "plucking" the black key. So, the problem described above will occur. The only good news is that with a piano tone at least the sound will decay fast :-) Anyway, I will try to make a short recording of this today.

What is your opinion of the of PianoTeq vs the PX-560 piano tones? My first reaction to PianoTeq was that the sound was somehow muffled and lacked spatial distribution even after tweaking the microphone placement and sound settings. But there are dozens and dozens of configuration options in PianoTeq. And I have listened to PianoTeq recordings and demos that sounded very different. So, I wonder what is your experience as PianoTeq and a PX-560 user. BTW, I mostly play the 560 with a pair of good quality headphones.

This is good news as it is then a matter of finding the correct configuration in the 560. I believe the problem is not with the ASIO driver or PianoTeq configuration because I get note-off velocity when using a different MIDI keyboard. I will then read the 560 manual and try to set the default options. Thanks!

I have that tone (and several others from this forum) installed on my 560. Try pressing the Grand Piano button first. This will select the standard grand piano into the upper 1 section. Then go to media, load the new Steinway D tone and save into an empty user slot in the piano section. This should only fail if you are trying to load an hex-layer tone into a slot outside the hex-layer section or vice-versa. So, make sure you have a tone from the piano category as your upper 1 tone.Then, load the corresponding registration, go to Tone, select the new Steinway D as upper 1, and save the registration.

When I play a key with very rapid attack and release (e.g. a fast appogiatura starting on a black key and falling on a white key) I noticed that sometimes the short note keeps sounding as if the corresponding key is still pressed. The sound will not stop until that key is pressed again. I became aware of this problem when a friend used my keyboard to play a piece with many fast ornamentations. After a couple of minutes there were 3 or 4 notes continuously sounding in the background as if the keys were still pressed! Unfortunately, I tried to repeat this behaviour and I am able to reproduce it with any key of the keyboard after a couple of attempts. So, I believe this is not a problem with a specific sensor. And this has nothing to do with force. The key just needs to be pressed using a very fast attack. I can record and post the audio recording of this if anyone is interested. Since there are many professional players in this forum, has any of you experienced this behaviour? And would such a behaviour be covered by the warranty (within the EU)? I have the keyboard for just one year now and the warranty goes for two years. I was thinking of trying to activate the warranty anyway because some keys in the middle octaves started to sound "clunky" (like plastic hitting plastic without any damping/muffling) and the problem is gradually affecting other frequently used keys.