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Wrong tone when turning on the piano


Newbie17

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I just got my new Px-560M a couple of days ago. It came with firmware version 1.12. When I first turn it on, the LCD screen showed that the upper 1 tone was set to Grand Piano 1 (default). However, the sound was not that of a grand piano (you can hear it in the attached take00.wav file). The sound is the same on the speakers, over earphones, and even when recorded in a wav file and played on my PC.

I tried pressing the "Grand Piano" key, but nothing happened.

I then updated the firmware to 1.14 and performed a "factory reset", but the problem persisted.

Then, by chance, I entered the "mixer" section. The sound immediatly changed to the correct grand piano sound (hear to take01.wav).

If I turn off the piano and on again, the problem reappears, and goes away (for that session) by simply entering the "mixer" section of the menu, whithout changing any parameter, just by entering that section of the menu.

I don't understand what is happening, and it doesn't appear to be a normal behaviour. Any suggestions? Has this happened to anyone else? 

TAKE00.WAV

TAKE01.WAV

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This is not the first time this has come up: 

 

Real acoustic pianos don't have modulation wheels nor can you give the tone from a real acoustic piano vibrato. Really, Casio should have disabled the vibrato (and pitch bend for the same reasons) on the acoustic piano tones by default. Anyone wanting either for some reason could always edit the tone to add. An unwise decision, IMO. 

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45 minutes ago, AlenK said:

This is not the first time this has come up: 

 

Real acoustic pianos don't have modulation wheels nor can you give the tone from a real acoustic piano vibrato. Really, Casio should have disabled the vibrato (and pitch bend for the same reasons) on the acoustic piano tones by default. Anyone wanting either for some reason could always edit the tone to add. An unwise decision, IMO. 

 

I have been searching the net for solutions during a couple of days, read thoroughly the Casio manuals and faqs, and found nothing about it. I was starting to think that they had sent me a defective unit and was ready to send it back. It would have taken me ages to figure it out on my own. I don't know if it is a good idea to include these features, but sure, they shoud be disabled by default. And the manual should be better. If there is such a knob that must be in the right position in order to start playing, there should be a clear indication in the manuals, sort of a checklist to go over when you first try to use your new instrument.

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Screenshot_20171105-215943.png

 

It's been said they do it for a reason.  If a user moves a mod wheel with no effect, they may think the wheel is defective.  Likewise, most tones play a sound on every key, even if the real instrument can't produce the full range of notes itself.  Users may think silent keys are faulty.   

 

The modulation wheel enabled by default has led quite a few new users to ask questions and discover something they may have otherwise overlooked, learning something new.....which is always a good thing. Maybe they should bring back the arrow on the wheel in addition to the manual entry.

 

Alos note, piano sounds with vibrato have been used in popular music (the intro of "Hanson - This Time Around" is one example).  Add a little mod wheel to concert grand and you get a very convincing piano sound heard on that record.  

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Sure, I'm not saying vibrato on piano tones doesn't have a creative use. But it is outside of the norm and, as I said, on keyboards that allow user editing of the tone the capability can always  be enabled by the user. (On keyboards that don't allow user editing it could be added as another preset, e.g., "A.Piano+Vib".) Given that these keyboards always have other sounds, some for which vibrato is normally useful, I don't agree that users would think the mod wheel is defective If it didn't do anything on an acoustic piano tone. Users normally wouldn't expect it to do anything on THAT tone. If they hadn't tried the wheel on another tone for which it would work appropriately they would probably just ask what it is supposed to do. And how is thinking their electronic keyboard sounds like an alien harpsichord instead of a piano (for which we actually have objective proof of occurrence) any better than thinking their wheel is defective?

 

Note that the page referenced above says "Each tone is preset with effects that are appropriate for it." In the context of the rest of the section that includes vibrato, which 99.9% of the time is NOT appropriate for acoustic piano. Nor is pitch bend but at least that wheel spring-returns to zero and won't do anything to the tone unless it is actively manipulated. And "Do not touch the wheels or knobs  as you turn on the Digital Piano" is the kind of warning that is evidently ineffective (the mod wheel can be moved by accident before power is turned on) and would be mostly unnecessary if largely inappropriate "effects" like vibrato on acoustic piano were not enabled by default. My opinion has not changed. 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On ‎11‎/‎5‎/‎2017 at 3:52 PM, BradMZ said:

That is indeed the grand piano tone, but with the vibrato effect applied.  Your modulation wheel needs to be in the full down position, not centered like the pitch bender wheel.  That is the correct "home" position for modulation wheels.  That will remove the vibrato effect.

I got my new PX-560 and the first thing I noticed was the weird Grand Piano vibrato reverbery unnatural sound it was making out of the box.  I searched through the settings feverishly trying to see if it was some effects setting causing that tremolo or vibrato effect and couldn't figure out how to get rid of it.  I too was thinking that I might have got a defective unit until I searched and found this forum topic and your post. It was indeed the modulation wheel causing the unnatural vibrato effect. I felt so relieved that that is all it was.  The piano is sounding excellent! Thank You!

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