Jazzman

Is anyone else having issues with the volume of the microphone? When I plug my Shure SM58 or PG58 in via a Hosa MIT-176 XLR3F to 1/4" impedance matched adapter the volume is so muted that it doesn't cut through the rhythm and melody I am playing. I have to severely mute the volume of the accompaniment parts with the balance controls in order to have enough mic volume. Do I need to get an external mic preamp or another connection method? Any suggestions?

The speakers are quite sufficient for a moderate sized room. I used to lug an external powered speaker around but now I just use the internal speakers of my MZ-X500. I have run two guitars and three mics thru a mixer to the Line In jacks and I am very pleased with the overall live mix. The one issue I have is with the mic-in preamp in my board. When playing alone I use a very standard Shure dynamic mic and it just doesn't cut through the mix without an external boost. I need to go to the balance control and significantly reduce all the volumes to get the proper relative mic level if I am plugging directly to my board.

I have located a local Casio authorized service person and will be taking my board to him for repair. He has promised me pics of what he finds and I will post them in about two weeks if all goes well. I'm encouraged that the keyboard can be disassembled for repair. Since we have not seen others join with similar noise issues perhaps our two keyboards are an exception.

Joe, while I appreciate your position as a defender of Casio, if there are such a very small number of owners that are experiencing premature deterioration of the key bed then I would suggest that Casio should do an advanced replacement for the defective units and pay freight for the return of the defective keyboard. As it is, users cannot even request a repair from Casio (try going to "ecasiorepair.casio.com" and see how far you get), must work through the company that sold the keyboard, pay the freight to return it and wait 4-6 weeks to get it back. In my case I have used the board for less than 3 months and I have to go through all this?? That is not my definition of excellent support. I definitely encourage anyone with a failing key bed to get it repaired while under warranty because it will only worsen with time. It will be interesting to see if others join on this conversation. In the mean time, out of respect, I will hold off on the youtube video and just click and clack away for the next four months.

Update: I was unable to figure out how to contact Casio directly so I went back to the service department of the online source (Sweetwater) where I made the original purchase. They told me that they repair this model in house and authorized the return for evaluation of repair under warranty with me paying freight one way. Problem is the repair is likely to take 4-6 weeks plus shipping. We winter in Florida to escape the cold of the Northeast and this is the only board I have here until I return North in May. On one had I'm pleased that the repair may be covered under warranty but I am still quite displeased about the premature failure and all the inconvenience that it is causing me. I don't really have an alternative but to live with it until I get back to my other boards. I'll be sending it back in May for sure and will post another update upon the results of the repair. Meanwhile I will be alerting the online community to the possible deficiency of the MZ-X500/300 where ever I can to save others this headache. When I have the time I will post a youtube video that illustrates the noise. Casio, if you are listening, do the right thing and solve this issue. One of the most important elements of a keyboard is quite obviously the keys. Except for the premature breakdown of the key bed this is a marvelous product.

Well this is ominous. I called Casio phone support at 800.706.2534 and a very nice man said I needed to enter a repair request at their website "ecasiorepair.casio.com". I went through the required process of setting up an online account and got to a screen that asked me to enter the model number of the product to proceed. That was the end of the process because I received the message "model not found or cannot be repaired". I attached a screen shot of this "screen of death". Perhaps someone here with knowledge of how to reach Casio to get a warranty repair performed on my "clickity clack" keyboard could give me some guidance on what to do next?? I hope that Casio will stand behind their three month old product.

Thanks Jokeyman123, it sounds like I have a similar problem to your experience. In addition i experience squeaking on some of the keys which I don't think replacing the felt would address. I hope that Casio will step up and make or cover the repair. Other than the key bed failure it is a fun board to play so I hope it can be remedied. I play a Roland BK-9 regularly and after three years the keys feel the same as the day I bought it. I almost bought a Roland E-A7 because the keys seemed to be higher quality but I opted for the MZ-X500 because of the touch screen and velocity sensitive pads. Hope I don't live to regret my decision. I will contact Casio and update my post with their response.

After two months or so of play my keys are starting to make annoyingly loud mechanical noises. Not all keys are the same. It almost seems like if there were a damping material at the end of travel that it is failing because at the end of travel on the downstroke there is more of a plastic on plastic sound rather than a softened thud. I am also finding that there is a squeak on some of the keys in addition to the other sound. The noise is definitely not coming from the speakers but is strictly mechanical in nature. It is loud enough that it overpowers the softer moments in a performance and is making it unsuitable for public play. Another symptom is that if i slide off a fully depressed key and let it rise of its own accord some make a rattle type sound when reaching their natural position. It seems like some damping material has failed on the upstroke as well. These issues are getting progressively worse as I use the board. Is anyone else having this issue? What can be done to fix it? Do I have a lemon?

Hi John, I had many of the same concerns that you raise but bit the bullet and bought the MZ-X500 about a month ago. I was searching for an affordable arranger with built in speakers and easy portability. I have a Roland BK-9 (76 keys) and it came down to the Roland EA-7 or the Casio MZ-X500. I really like the BK-9 Roland sounds and keybed feel but I have been disappointed in Roland's lack of system upgrades, tutorials and user support so I settled on Casio. So far I am very happy. The Casio is much more user friendly, the touch screen adds to usability, and the options with the 16 velocity sensitive pads make it a lot fun to play. I have only missed the lack of 15 keys in a few songs, I was expecting to have to make a lot of adjustments but that was not the case. There are plenty of jazz accompaniments, most of the rhythms are quite good and sound natural. Already Casio is adding to them, something that Roland has never done. The speakers are very good and adequate for a small venue like typical nursing homes or small rooms. I find that the keybed could be better as it clicks and clacks a bit but it is very playable and I'm getting used to it. The other shortcoming is the piano sounds. They are much improved from the prior Casio pianos but still, in my opinion, lack depth, resonance and sustain as compared to my Roland. All things considered, I would buy the Casio MZ-X500 again.

How can I load the new rhythms? Will they overwrite any of the existing that I have used in registrations already?

Thank you BradMZ, worked like a charm. I assigned it to the modulation wheel, a much easier target to hit while performing.

Is there a way to assign the slow/fast function of the tone wheel organ speaker to a foot control pedal or one of the pads on the MZ-X500? I'm finding that the small "slow/fast" button at the far left of the keyboard is not in a very convenient location and is a very small target during a live performance.

I have had my MZ-X500 for just shy of a week now and it certainly has an impressive array of features. My intended use is as a one man band arranger and I'll probably not use many of the in-depth features for customizing sounds. What is important to me is the ability to catalog and recall registrations quickly by song name. I find that in this area Casio has significantly limited our ability without having an external reference sheet. Here are the limitations that I hope Casio can address in a future system update: 1. A registration name is limited to 12 characters. This is problematic because many songs have similar names, twelve characters including spaces is simply not enough to easily differentiate the titles. The character limit also mens that you need to drop some words so for example, while you may be looking for "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" you may have named the registration "It's Alright" or "Don't Think". There is plenty of room in the on-screen name field to expand the character limit to 24 characters which would be greatly appreciated. 2. The customized name of the song registrations does not appear on the main screen, only the bank # and registration # appear there. Unless you are very exact in how you are going to play the song sequence for your set you may inadvertently start the wrong rhythm pattern. Alternatively you can see and select the song you want to play from the registration naming screen but then you cannot change the part you are playing on the fly unless you exit back to the main screen. That is a lot of jumping around. It would be easily solved if the display showed the registration name along with the bank and registration # on the main screen. 3. There is no capability to display the registration names in alpha order. They are kept in order by the bank # then registration # so you end up with 96 random song titles in the list. I hope Casio will consider allowing us to sort by alpha order. 4. Registration set names are limited to eight uppercase characters. This means that you really need to be creative in abbreviating the sets names. For example, if I want to have a set for "Thanksgiving 2016 at XYZ Club" i need to abbreviate to something like "Nov_2016" or "TGIV2016". Not very descriptive, so you lack the ability to name a venue and date for future reference. This must be a hold over from the old 8 character dos filename convention. I hope Casio will consider allowing us to name sets with an alias of reasonable length like 36 characters with punctuation, upper and lower case characters.

Sorry about that but cudos to both of you!! I need to keep the loop repeating becuse I need it to play for about 8 bars. Good idea for one shots though. Thanx.

Thank you Lobbard, your option 2 should work for me although the touch to get the right volume it very sensitive!! Option 1 won't work for me for the reason you stated. Option 3 may be the best choice but I haven't tried it yet. If I go the option 3 route the negative would be that for future uses of the modified pad sound in other registrations I would be stuck with the change in volume level. Maybe Casio will add an individual volume control option on a future system update to make this easier for us.

To further clarify, I am trying to turn down the volume of pad 16 in "Perc Loops EthnicPerc3". It is data phrase P184. I really like the beat but it overpowers everything else. Would be great in "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from the "Lion King". I'm thinking that only certain types of pre-loaded pad sounds have the ability to adjust volume? Is ther a work around?

That is where I expected to see a "volume" label. Unfortunately when I get to the "Pad Data Setting" screen there is no "volume" label on screen 1/2 or 2/2. What am I missing?

How can I diminish or increase the preset volume level of the standard percussive sounds assigned to the pads relative to the other voices? Some I've the drums triggered by the pads overpower the accompanying rhythm and tones. Specifically P182 EthnicPerc 1 and P184 EthnicPerc 3