"Pro" Keyboard???

[SwissMac]

 

Hello everyone

 

I just ordered my PX-5s and am waiting to ship by the end of the week. Myself is a giging musician playing in two different cover bands, one pop rock blues and the other one country rock. So lots of vintage sounds and in between some synth requirements such as the Moog Solo of Davy's on the road again. Anyhow, I own(ed) lots of instruments in order to achieve a perfect sound/weight/action/schlepp-factor balance on stage, such as Rhodes MKII, Roland RD 170, FP2, FP4, FP5, VR760, Kawai MP5, MP6, Kurzweil PC3, SP4-7, SP4-8 Yamaha CP33,  MOX8 and some more. 

 

We do not have many music gear retailers here in Switzerland, so I always have to order my gear "blindfold" which is what I did for the PX-5s also. Unfortunately I was assuming some standards to apply to keyboards that claim to be PRO, be it current or past, namely 2 Pedal Inputs, and to be even more precise: CC or Expression! I guess y'all know what I mean. Playing organ sounds without expression is like having a date/sxx with a roboter... Definitely not PRO at all and useless for a "one board for all" approach.  

 

Unfortunately I can not cancel my order so I'll have to arrange with this flaw. I'll wait until the board arrives and just hope that the buyers remorse effect will stand out in favor of the rest of the unit.

 

Cheers from Switzerland 

 

Mac

 

 

   

 

 

 

             

[pianoralf]

You can use one of the sliders for volumen control instead. I think this is one of the feature which 5 justifies the "Pro"

 

You will not feel remorse. It is like a single cloud on the blue heaven. 
We have almost everything we need and this for a very low price.
You have saved money to add an external equipment like Behringer FCB1010, Rocktron Midi Mate or

MIDI Solutions Pedal to MIDI Converter or the Digitech Control 2

The Midi floor boards offer some other functions but, I don't know they will be able to send the required MIDI Data for changing stage settings on the PX 5S, or command effects on the sounds. Maybe some of the users her own such a board and will be able to report.

Ralf

[SwissMac]

Well, the "very low" price argument does not strike here in europe. I pay exactly 1'500 USD for the device (1'090 EUR). Now having to add the midisolutions pedal controller for expression (plus one more power supply as midi in does not provide power) makes it 250 USD higher and levels it with the boys around Krome, P50, PCLE, MP6, MOX8 and such, which all provide CC/Exp on Pedal 2. The savings of a few cents for a tip ring sleeve jack connector at factory side has quite some leverage effect on mine :-P Unless it could be solved with a firmware update.

 

Anyway, looking forward to put my hands and ears on it :-)

[PianoManChuck]

Yes - I see your point, and you're right.  Luckily I don't need an epxression pedal for my stuff.

 

Do you have an update for us on what (if anything) you did to solve the problem since your last post?

[SwissMac]

Well, I decided to not play organs with the PX5 and rather use my NE3 as top tier. Its not only the lack of expression pedal input but also soundwise as I think organs are not competitive when compared side by side with a NE3. But I just noticed the nine layer organ patch in the download section. I will give it a try later on today.

[PianoManChuck]

Thanks for the update.  Curious to hear your thoughts on the 9-layer organ if you get a chance to try it.

[jimmyjames]

So you know, I worked with my NE4 to create the Nine Layer Stage setting.  It is not possible to get all of the tonal complexities on the PX-5S that Nord has in its B3 sound so I would not be so bold to suggest that this setting rivals the sound of the Nord.  It generally has the same underlying tonal characteristics, does contain all nine harmonics and has them volume balanced against each other relatively close to the Nord.  The largest deficiency IMO is in the Leslie sim.  While I compliment Casio for creating a two level sim (speakers speeding an slowing at different rates) and I think it sounds pretty good on the slow setting, the fast setting is choppy and transistory compared to the Nord sim (btw, I matched the rotations speeds from the new 122 sim on the Nord as best I could).  The vibrato/chorus settings on the Nord are also fabulous and again, while it is very nice that Casio took the time to add these to the PX-5S, they are nowhere near as accurate as Nord's version.  I think Mike Martin has been very honest from the beginning that the PX-5S is many things, but it is not a clone wheel.  Nonetheless, I hope my setting shows you can get a little closer to it than maybe even Mike thought...close enough that some of us amateur/semi-pro players can just bring the Casio for a club gig if there is some light to moderate duty B3-like sound needed.  Also, I fully expect someone will find a way to better my setting in the not-too-distant future...I look forward to it!

[SonnyDaye]

Speaking of Organs....can someone tell me if there's a way to change any of the organ patches to become velocity sensitive. There ARE a couple of organs in the keyboard that are programmed to be velocity sensitive - I think they're the GM organs, I had this discussion with Mike way back before the PX-5S shipped and was actually still in the final stages of development. But, I don't remember and can't find what Mike said about the possibility of enabling velocity sensitivity in all of the organ patches. Real organ players please forgive me, I'm a pianist and not an organ player, so my volume chops are in my fingers, NOT in a foot pedal.

Thanks!

Hoping perhaps someone can upload some nice B3 organs with velocity sensitivity turned on!

[pianoralf]

Yes it can be done: In  PC Edtior go to 

Tone Z1 on Tab Zone and on Osc1 scroll down to Amp

turn Vleocity Sense to 63.

Repeat it for all used oscillators.

There is another veloctiy parameter for the filter. Experiment which effect in sound you want to control over velocity.

Then go to Tone Z2 if used and  repeat the procedure

The velocity parameter on the StageSetting Tab Zon Mixer "Velo Range" controls the "input" range.

So if you adjust it to 64, then soft attacks will not be send to the tone generator.

I have done these changes on Jim's 9Draw Org4. Here I also changed the usage of Pedals.
I moved the vent control on Pedal 2 and assigned Pedal 1 for Sustain ( Organ players would forgive me, I am also a PianoPlayer!)

Ralf

[SonnyDaye]

Thanks Ralf for once again coming to my rescue! I'm out of town this week but can't wait to experiment with this when I get back. And, yes, I also will need to enable the sustain pedal (again with apologies to real organ players). Once I get this done, I will then apply the rotary effect to the edited sounds, hopefully with no problems.

Thanks again!

Yes it can be done: In  PC Edtior go to 

Tone Z1 on Tab Zone and on Osc1 scroll down to Amp

turn Vleocity Sense to 63.

Repeat it for all used oscillators.

There is another veloctiy parameter for the filter. Experiment which effect in sound you want to control over velocity.

Then go to Tone Z2 if used and  repeat the procedure

The velocity parameter on the StageSetting Tab Zon Mixer "Velo Range" controls the "input" range.

So if you adjust it to 64, then soft attacks will not be send to the tone generator.

I have done these changes on Jim's 9Draw Org4. Here I also changed the usage of Pedals.

I moved the vent control on Pedal 2 and assigned Pedal 1 for Sustain ( Organ players would forgive me, I am also a PianoPlayer!)

Ralf