Tuning Drums

[AlenK]

In the XW's drum kits there is no provision for tuning a drum tone.  Sometimes you might find that necessary to fit into the key of a song better.  Real drums can be tuned for exactly this reason.  This is an unfortunate oversight that Casio fixed (and then some!) on the PX-5S. But here's a trick for doing that on the XW.  I have tried it and it works a peach. 

 

The drum kits do provide an editable LFO for controlling pitch, as well as another LFO for volume.  One of the LFO waveforms is a pulse waveform with a 3:1 duty cycle (but even a square wave works).  If you select that waveform and program the pitch LFO rate to be VERY slow so that the first part of the LFO cycle lasts at least the length of the drum tone, when you trigger the tone its pitch will be increased or decreased by the LFO amount that you set.  Be sure to set the delay and rise of the LFO both to zero.  Selecting zero for the rate, which I doubt actually makes the rate zero hertz, seems to make the LFO run so slowly that even the longish instrument hits like cymbal crashes keep the new pitch throughout their entire length (a few seconds).  And remember that if you edit a preset drum kit you have to save it in a user drum kit slot (there are ten).  

 

Keep in mind that the two LFOs are global so the pitch LFO will affect every instrument in a given kit.  So you will need to dedicate the de-tuned drum to its own kit (unless there are other drums in the kit that require the same exact amount of de-tuning).  If you need different de-tunings for different drums, put them in different kits to be driven by different tracks of the step sequencer or by different MIDI channels of an external sequencer.

 

OTOH, if you're looking for a special effect consider playing with the delay and rise parameters to ramp the drum pitch up or down over the course of a "note".  Another possible special effect is a "throbbing" or stuttering drum or cymbal hit; just program the amplitude LFO with a square wave at a suitable rate.

[Jokeyman123]

Very clever, this addresses drum tuning I had mentioned in another post and I will try it. I have used altered drum pitches in other instruments and this can really improve flat sounding samples-something i've wanted to try in the Casio as I find the snares, basses and toms a little lacking in variety and timbre at least in the preset kits. I've noticed a huge variety of PCM samples in the appendix for drum sounds, this bears checking out as there may be a much better sounding bunch of samples to make custom kits, have to find the time to audition all these. Thanks again AlenK.