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The XW-P1 Companion - Rev 2


AlenK

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It's been four months since I uploaded the first version of The XW-P1 Companion - A Guide to the Synthesis Capabilities of Casio's XW-P1 Performance Synthesizer. This is a revision of that document. I have corrected numerous spelling errors and other typos. I can't guarantee that it still doesn't have any but there shouldn't be too many now. I revised the wording in several sections to clarify them, to add the suggestions I received from Brett Myors, and to include the changes I mentioned later in the original XW-P1 Companion thread. I reduced the depth of the chorus effect described in section 6.3.3.2 in the context of attempting to emulate a Solina string synthesizer. The original values in Table 15 were too aggressive. I also added a new section that discusses emulating the dynamics of acoustic instruments.

 

Update: This version has been deleted. See here for the latest revision.

 

 

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Hey Alen,

 

I just noticed a subtle difference between Revisions 1 and 2 of your XW Companion: the cover page of Revision 2 refers to "Volume 1" whereas there is no such reference in Revision 1. Does that mean you have other volumes in the works?

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17 hours ago, BrettM said:

I just noticed a subtle difference between Revisions 1 and 2 of your XW Companion: the cover page of Revision 2 refers to "Volume 1" whereas there is no such reference in Revision 1. Does that mean you have other volumes in the works?

 

Yes. I am working on a Volume 2 that will contain examples/tutorials about how to achieve specific sounds from vintage synths in selected songs as well as emulating acoustic instruments. As you can imagine it's going to take a while to finish. Hopefully not as long as it took me to finish Volume 1! 😄

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The more I study this, the more amazed i am. This must have taken an amazing commitment, timewise and technically. How did you determine the exact number of samples you describe for the various PCM and other sounds? This alone mst have taken hours. And it might be posted here somewhere, but I did not realize the "break" function for the leslie fast/slow effect can be utilized the way you describe. Excellent description of the Hammond and leslie technology. I'm glad you have documented this. Without these old "cutting edge" technologies, none of this new technology would have had a base to create from.

 

I have been able to appreciate my XW's technology coming from many other instruments, acoustic and otherwise (as well as it's few limitations IMO) but studying this is definitely giving me a new inspiration to dealing with the depth available on this-it's easy to underestimate the XW's power with all the competition and years of development from many other manufacturers. I hope Casio will give you some recognition for what you've accomplished. I'm sure you did not do it for that reason-this is a labor of love I would think-but had you written the original manuals for all the Casios, we might not have needed this forum!(wouldn't want that anyway)   :banana:   :2thu:    :applause:

 

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Just a note to let those interested know that I made a correction to the document. Because the change is fairly small I gave the new version a 2a number and simply updated the document for download in the first post of this thread, Specifically, in section 6.3.3.1 I forgot to update the description of what to do with oscillators in the solo synth when you want to "steal" the solo synth's filter to process "paraphonically" one or more PCM melody tones in a Performance. For correct operation you need to keep at least one oscillator enabled and turn its volume down to zero.

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One other thing I wanted to mention. The XW-P1 Companion uses what is known as Scientific Pitch Notation (SPN) in which middle C is designated as C4 (or more properly C4). That system has been around a long time and predates MIDI. However, many MIDI references you will find online identify middle C as C5 (C5) while many MIDI software apps (e.g., DAWs) and Yamaha keyboards identify middle C as C3 (C3). Those are arbitrary assignments. The MIDI standard itself only specifies that note 60 is middle C (making A440 note 69). The XW-P1 Companion uses SPN because I prefer it and, more importantly, it's what the XW-P1 itself and Casio's supporting literature ALSO use (e.g., the range from MIDI note 0 to 127 is specified as C- or C-1 to G9, not C0 to G10 or C-2 to G8).

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On 2-6-2016 at 4:23 AM, AlenK said:

Just a note to let those interested know that I made a correction to the document. Because the change is fairly small I gave the new version a 2a number and simply updated the document for download in the first post of this thread, Specifically, in section 6.3.3.1 I forgot to update the description of what to do with oscillators in the solo synth when you want to "steal" the solo synth's filter to process "paraphonically" one or more PCM melody tones in a Performance. For correct operation you need to keep at least one oscillator enabled and turn its volume down to zero.

 

This is one of my favorite thing the XW does, You have to discover this the preset don't demonstrate this but they do show the possibilities. 

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