A couple of new CT-X700 demos on Youtube

[CharlieWorton]

There are two new Casio CT-X700 demos available on YouTube.  Both appear to be pulling audio from the headphone jack (there's a cable going to what I think is the headphone jack, and the sound quality is excellent).

Enjoy!  Here are the links:

 

 

[CharlieWorton]

...And, here's another video.  I'm guessing this is the Casio rep in Poland.  It's an instructional video detailing how to do... something... with the built in sequencer on the CT-X700. 

 

Anyway, the guy has some damn fine keyboarding skills.  Here's the link:

 

And I've gotta admit, I'm a tad jealous.  Poland has a CT-X700, and we can't get them in North America yet?  Geez.

[Mike Martin]

On 2/17/2018 at 8:02 AM, CharlieWorton said:

And I've gotta admit, I'm a tad jealous.  Poland has a CT-X700, and we can't get them in North America yet?  Geez.

 

They've been shipping here since January 29th. 

[Rudolph R-N R]

@ Mike Martin,

Wow, great to see you on this forum and listed as an Admin!  I got your excitement during your presentations of these new boards, they really are ground breakers. I freaking love Casio!

 

Was hoping you’d keep an eye on the MZ-X500/300 forum, and answer questions when pertinent to someone in your position.  Brad is a fantastic facilitator, he’s capable of answering pretty much any of the technical questions that come up.  

 

But he doesn’t work for Casio, AFAIK, and answers to questions like the below needs input from you:

     ? When are more video and pdf tutorials from Casio going to come out for the MZ?

 

     ? Any hope that the various bugs are going to be addressed? (I have no bugs that bother me, this is for others on the forum)

 

     ? How about feature upgrades with a new OS?  

My number one requests are:

 1. Use of the sliders for the various volumes: the 4 tones, aux/mic inputs, etc.  This would make the time consuming job of balancing volumes a slam dunk, and of course is featured on many competing boards.  I use the MZ for its many great sounds, and am often frustrated having to jump around through so many screens to do what could be totally simple, balancing volumes.  It literally takes at least 5 times longer without sliders for at least the volumes of the 4 Tones, creating a useable patch involves constantly resetting volumes as you try out new Tones

 

 2. More user friendly way of using and creating Hex Layer Tones:

         : being able to see on one page 6 layers of: the Wave name/#, its mapping (velocity, key range), and volume, This would enable using a hex layer and not having to fly blind.  As it is, unless you have an exceptional memory or use just a few Hex Tones, you don’t really know what is assigned where, flying blind, using Hex Tones as presets instead of something you can, with confidence, use the sliders with 

         : Utility for re-ordering the placement of Tones in the 6 slots.  That way favorites can have a consistency to them.  This of course is not as important if there was 1 page to see important navigating info as detailed above

       

 3. More Hex Tone Layer sounds.  It’s certainly very possible to create great Hex Tones, but drawing on hundreds and hundreds of waveforms to choose from is not a negligible task.  Casio came out with quite a few Hex Tones for EDM, and even quite a few waveforms that cater to that sound.  How about 100 more Hex Tones created by Casio that are for other types of music, like Rock/Jazz/POP?  For example, overall i’m digging the sounds, but I’d love to have a better Rhodes/Wurli, am having to use an ipad to get good representatives of these sounds.

   - Sample packs from Casio that address some of these kinds of needs, such as Rhodes/Wurlitzer/Bass sounds that can be loaded into sample memory

 

 

You and Rich seem to be the only reps from Casio i see, so you must be spread very thin.  It’s felt lonely on this forum, am hoping that after the big push for the new CTX models that some attention is given to the MZ line!!!

 

 

Thanks!

Randy

 

@ Brad,

I realize this is all about the MZ, so it’d seem logical to move this to the MZ part of the forum.  But, i’ve already expressed these ideas a few times in the MZ forum, and i specifically put this here cause its the first time i’m seeing Mike Martin on these forums and i’m hoping to get his attention

 

 

 

 

[CharlieWorton]

13 hours ago, Mike Martin said:

 

They've been shipping here since January 29th. 

Hi, Mike!  By 'here', I'm guessing you mean USA; I'm in Canada, and there hasn't been a lot of buzz locally.  Musicians Friend is taking pre-orders; first delivery date Feb 2, then feb 20, now Mar 5.  And of course, they won't ship to Canada.

 

Actually there are serious Casio keyboard distributor shortages in Western Canada.  The sole remaining Casio pro keyboard distributor was recently purchased by Long & McQuade, who refuse to sell Casio (feature set duplicates or conflicts with their other brands).  This means that anyone living west of Toronto who wants to purchase a Casio keyboard, must do so mail-order.  Of course this means that they can't hear, or play, the instrument; so they wind up buying something that is locally available.  Which isn't Casio.

 

I'm kinda concerned about Casio keyboard availability in Canada.  Best Buy sells the cheap stuff; but they don't carry the good stuff.  I don't know who is responsible for Canadian market penetration, but I hope they're on top of this.  Casio is about to disappear as an instrument choice for over 10 million Canadians.

[AlenK]

4 hours ago, CharlieWorton said:

Actually there are serious Casio keyboard distributor shortages in Western Canada.  The sole remaining Casio pro keyboard distributor was recently purchased by Long & McQuade, who refuse to sell Casio (feature set duplicates or conflicts with their other brands).  

 

Long & McQuade is a decently large chain in Canada and it's unfortunate that they stopped carrying Casio several years ago. They did sell the XW synths for a few years after they came out; it's where I bought mine. They didn't carry them in my local store. They probably didn't physically carry them in more than a few stores, if any at all. I had to special order mine and the sales guy asked me, "Are you sure this is what you want?," apparently concerned I was making a bad choice (special orders can't be returned, evidently). But they dropped them a couple of years after I bought. I don't recall Long & McQuade ever offering the PX-5S, strangely enough. See here. It's the one Casio model that probably would have sold well for them.   

[CharlieWorton]

I contacted Long & McQuade, and asked them if they would be carrying Casio keyboards.  Here is their response:

 

"Thanks very much for your feedback.  We haven't taken over the store and we will not be doing so until June 1. 

We will definitely be reviewing all of the lines that they carry and how they may fit in with our company.  

It is a complicated question because in some cases suplliers will not allow us to carry their products unless we put them in multiple stores and in some cases the products are very similar to a different brand that  we are already supporting nationally. 

However I know that Casio does have some good unique products and we will be reviewing this as we get closer to the take over date. 

Thanks for your feedback. 

Steve Long 

 

So, there you have it.  A definite Maybe.  Certainly better than a definite No.  It would actually help Casio exposure significantly if Long & McQuade picked them up; they have a total of 74 brick and mortar locations across Canada.  I like Axe music and I'm sorry to see them leave, but they had one location in Canada.

 

So either Casio becomes a ghost west of Toronto, or they dramatically boost their local exposure across Canada.  Lets hope for the latter.

 

>Charlie

[AlenK]

On 2018-02-22 at 12:16 PM, CharlieWorton said:

"..in some cases the products are very similar to a different brand that  we are already supporting nationally."

 

I have to admit I don't understand the reasoning behind this justification. I see many similarities in the features of keyboards that L&M does already carry, yet I see no sign of them dropping any of those. I'm speaking of products made by Yamaha, Roland, Korg, and Clavia primarily. It's called offering choices and all good retailers do it. 

 

I think L&M simply decided they could drop Casio without any repercussions; they probably weren't moving very many XW synths (not putting them in showrooms almost guaranteed that -> see my PS below). They knew they can't do the same with any of the other manufacturers I named. I also think their decision way back in 2013 not to carry the PX-5S was a pretty dumb move that actually lead to them dropping all Casio products a few years later. I'm sure that the PX-5S has been Casio's best selling pro model in recent times. (I don't know how many CZ synths they sold back in the 80's but I'm sure it was WAY more.) If L&M had decided to carry the PX-5S back then, the decent sales might have persuaded them to continue to carry Casio even to the present day. 

 

PS. I think one of the reasons L&M didn't put XW's in showrooms is that it would have made the low-end synths from those other brands look less competitive in comparison. Despite all the faults of the XW-P1 (and by now I know them all), customers playing one and then playing any of those other synths would have wondered why the others were so much more expensive. The higher the cost of a product the more money the dealer gets on each sale, so why use up precious space in your showroom for a product that generates less income on each sale and has the potential to reduce sales of those other products? 

[CharlieWorton]

In terms of bang for buck, Casio keyboards blow away the competition.  I had been considering a WK-7600; I can tell you that there's nothing that even comes close in terms of features at similar price levels.  L&M may have looked at the economics and decided that they'd rather have their customers paying $1,500 for a keyboard, rather than $500.  Hence, they chose not to sell Casio.  I don't know this to be true, but the logic holds.

 

It's my hope that L&M will carry Casio - at least, those Casio models that are not available through Best Buy.  (And while Best Buy technically makes a lot of Casio keyboards available for purchase, they don't stock them or display them.  You can special order them, but that's it.)

 

We really need to get Casio keyboards out before the buying public.  No matter how terrific the sound or overwhelming the features, people can't buy something that isn't available for purchase.

[Rudolph R-N R]

I’’’d say you’re lucky you waited this long before buying the WK7600 and now instead can buy the CTX series.  I too looked forward to having a 7600 with my limited budget, bang for buck and all, and after having one for 3-4 years i can without hesitation say that its not worth it.  

 

Yes, a good deal in the under $500 price point, but that’s only because the competition also has lackluster boards at that price point.  The sounds are anemic, the grand piano was close to the only sound that was half way decent in my book, hardly seemed there were any velocity layers.  And the keybed is a joke, my playing instantly became sloppy when playing it (which might partly because i played it so long, it may have been better earlier on; though it’s only been another Casio that i’ve ever experienced a keybed wearing out, another low cost leader, the CDP 100).  

 

I don’t know about the keybed, but apparently they’ve done a major upgrade on the sounds with the CTX series.  The MZ series is a worthy and substantial upgrade, but of course much more expensive.

 

Randy

[stpat]

I'm in Ottawa Canada, same issue... Interested in the CT-X700 but no idea where to get one. I bought my xwp1 at Long & McQuade, but as you guys have said, they dropped Casio years ago (I realize I'm not adding anything to the conversation, just trying to flag to Mike that there's yet another Canadian interested in his company's products without anywhere to purchase except online...) 

[Mike Martin]

On 2/21/2018 at 4:17 PM, Randelph said:

@ Mike Martin,

Wow, great to see you on this forum and listed as an Admin!  I got your excitement during your presentations of these new boards, they really are ground breakers. I freaking love Casio!

 

Was hoping you’d keep an eye on the MZ-X500/300 forum, and answer questions when pertinent to someone in your position.  Brad is a fantastic facilitator, he’s capable of answering pretty much any of the technical questions that come up.  

 

But he doesn’t work for Casio, AFAIK, and answers to questions like the below needs input from you:

     ? When are more video and pdf tutorials from Casio going to come out for the MZ?

 

     ? Any hope that the various bugs are going to be addressed? (I have no bugs that bother me, this is for others on the forum)

 

     ? How about feature upgrades with a new OS?  

My number one requests are:

 1. Use of the sliders for the various volumes: the 4 tones, aux/mic inputs, etc.  This would make the time consuming job of balancing volumes a slam dunk, and of course is featured on many competing boards.  I use the MZ for its many great sounds, and am often frustrated having to jump around through so many screens to do what could be totally simple, balancing volumes.  It literally takes at least 5 times longer without sliders for at least the volumes of the 4 Tones, creating a useable patch involves constantly resetting volumes as you try out new Tones

 

 2. More user friendly way of using and creating Hex Layer Tones:

         : being able to see on one page 6 layers of: the Wave name/#, its mapping (velocity, key range), and volume, This would enable using a hex layer and not having to fly blind.  As it is, unless you have an exceptional memory or use just a few Hex Tones, you don’t really know what is assigned where, flying blind, using Hex Tones as presets instead of something you can, with confidence, use the sliders with 

         : Utility for re-ordering the placement of Tones in the 6 slots.  That way favorites can have a consistency to them.  This of course is not as important if there was 1 page to see important navigating info as detailed above

       

 3. More Hex Tone Layer sounds.  It’s certainly very possible to create great Hex Tones, but drawing on hundreds and hundreds of waveforms to choose from is not a negligible task.  Casio came out with quite a few Hex Tones for EDM, and even quite a few waveforms that cater to that sound.  How about 100 more Hex Tones created by Casio that are for other types of music, like Rock/Jazz/POP?  For example, overall i’m digging the sounds, but I’d love to have a better Rhodes/Wurli, am having to use an ipad to get good representatives of these sounds.

   - Sample packs from Casio that address some of these kinds of needs, such as Rhodes/Wurlitzer/Bass sounds that can be loaded into sample memory

 

 

You and Rich seem to be the only reps from Casio i see, so you must be spread very thin.  It’s felt lonely on this forum, am hoping that after the big push for the new CTX models that some attention is given to the MZ line!!!

 

 

Thanks!

Randy

 

@ Brad,

I realize this is all about the MZ, so it’d seem logical to move this to the MZ part of the forum.  But, i’ve already expressed these ideas a few times in the MZ forum, and i specifically put this here cause its the first time i’m seeing Mike Martin on these forums and i’m hoping to get his attention

 

 

 

 

 

 

Randy, this is way off topic for this thread. I'm no stranger to the forum, I helped get it started and as you can see I have nearly 1,000 posts here.  I do read the as much of the forum as often as I can. As for feature requests we always collect them and forward to Japan but we can never guarantee an instrument will do more than what it initially did when it was introduced. Bugs are one thing but new features are a completely different issue.  

As for support materials, yes Rich and I are spread very thin and unfortunately we haven't been able to spend as much time on MZ-X as we would like.  I spent a lot of my personal time on a sound development project for MZ-X that unfortunately was all lost when my laptop was stolen last year. Believe it or not it is very difficult for us to do video tutorials during work hours so we really have to put in a lot of extra time that goes above and beyond how we normally spend our days.   We're working as hard as we can.

[CharlieWorton]

On 2/22/2018 at 1:09 PM, Randelph said:

I’’’d say you’re lucky you waited this long before buying the WK7600 and now instead can buy the CTX series.  I too looked forward to having a 7600 with my limited budget, bang for buck and all, and after having one for 3-4 years i can without hesitation say that its not worth it.  

 

Yes, a good deal in the under $500 price point, but that’s only because the competition also has lackluster boards at that price point.  The sounds are anemic, the grand piano was close to the only sound that was half way decent in my book, hardly seemed there were any velocity layers.  And the keybed is a joke, my playing instantly became sloppy when playing it (which might partly because i played it so long, it may have been better earlier on; though it’s only been another Casio that i’ve ever experienced a keybed wearing out, another low cost leader, the CDP 100).  

 

I don’t know about the keybed, but apparently they’ve done a major upgrade on the sounds with the CTX series.  The MZ series is a worthy and substantial upgrade, but of course much more expensive.

 

Randy

It was exactly the price/features ratio that captured my attention.  My finances are such that spending in the 4 figures just wasn't something I could do.  But the WK 7600 seemed affordable, affordable to the point that I actually ordered one from Amazon.  12 hours (literally) later I found the press release for the new CT-X series, and tried to cancel the order... but it had already shipped.  I contacted Axe Music (who was the vendor for Amazon) and asked them if I could cancel.  To their great credit, Brad at Axe told me I could simply refuse the order when it arrived.  So I did, the WK-7600 went back to Axe, and Axe Music paid for shipping on both ends of the deal.  I still feel a bit bad for them, and made a mental note that they would get my future business, without any last minute second guessing.  Then came the word that they'd been sold to Long & McQuade.  So, sigh.

 

I don't know exactly what road I'll go down.  I think for the time being I'll just stand on the sidelines, and wait for word on a 76 key version of the CT-X5000.  I'm sorry to see the slidebars go, but if past performance is any guide, the 76 key versions of 62 key keyboards have been exact duplicates of the electronics, with the addition of 14 keys being the only change.

 

Peace - Charlie

[AlenK]

Charlie, when Casio introduced the first generation of the keyboards you are talking about (by which I mean the WK-7500 and CTK-7000) did they introduce the 76-key version (WK-7500) after the 61-key version (CTK-7000)? I can't find the original press release from 2011 but this video would seem to prove that they were introduced at the same time.

 

Why do I mention this? Because Casio hasn't released a 76-key keyboard since the WK-7600 in 2013 (barring the possible exception of some international or "oriental" model that I am not aware of), and that was just a functional upgrade to the WK-7500 from 2011 (identical case, as far as I can tell). If Casio were going to release a 76-key version of a CT-X I think they would have done it at the same time as the 61-key models. 

 

I don't have a crystal ball but I think Casio is done with 76-key keyboards. I would love to be proven wrong since I have always thought that a successor to the XW synth series (my interest) should be available in both 61-key and 76-key versions.

 

Maybe we'll see an announcement about a 76-key keyboard that uses the new technology in the CT-X models (it might not be a direct member of that line) at the next big music show, which is Musikmesse in April. I'd cross all my fingers until then for your sake but it would be pretty hard to play anything (if I may be allowed to call what I do on a keyboard "playing").

[CharlieWorton]

I think the 7600 increased the number of slider positions to 9 from 3 on the 7500.  But outside of that, there were no physical differences of which I am aware.

 

I hope Casio introduces some new 76 key keyboards.  That's kind of a deal breaker for me.  I'd prefer 88, but I can live with 76.  If Casio is no longer engineering new 76 key keyboards, I'd probably have to look at the competition; and those boards are pricey enough that I probably would wind up purchasing nothing.

 

Sigh.  If the 7600 had better voices, it would be the perfect keyboard.

 

>Charlie

[Lee33]

5 hours ago, CharlieWorton said:

I think the 7600 increased the number of slider positions to 9 from 3 on the 7500.  But outside of that, there were no physical differences of which I am aware.

 

I hope Casio introduces some new 76 key keyboards.  That's kind of a deal breaker for me.  I'd prefer 88, but I can live with 76.  If Casio is no longer engineering new 76 key keyboards, I'd probably have to look at the competition; and those boards are pricey enough that I probably would wind up purchasing nothing.

 

Sigh.  If the 7600 had better voices, it would be the perfect keyboard.

 

>Charlie

The screen was slightly inclined more on the wk7600 and the separate external mic volume control knob the was omitted. I think there were a few extra tones and rhythms and the speakers reportedly sound a bit better but overall the changes were subtle to say the least.

[TheBradge]

Kris Nicholson does a comparison between the 7500 and 7600, talks about the better speakersystem, but also how the keys are less noisy and how the piano sound is better.