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Entranced by XW StepSeq ,Arpeggio and Phrase seq


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I'm having myself an acquaintance with the arpeggio parts from the XW and flipping it reversing turning it upside down and jump hoops.

Did allot of reading about arpeggios and what comes with it and not. Have to applaud Casio for a well done job, These arpeggio , phrases and step Seq are really something else.

 

The Step Sequencer.

 

FIrst the step sequencer well the XW-G1 is the first keyboard that I play with a build in Sseq. You'll get nine arpeggio's totally programmable individually I mean each part has there own pitch volume and multiple assignment option available. For each step sequence made you can create eight additionel scene like arpeggio called step sequence patterns. Its possible to program the sliders on the XW for note , velocity or both. giving each pattern their own dimension this is cool but if you played lots with it somehow you want to control more like dsp , turning some part on and off , Eq. But the XW has more options to do stuff like that. In addition in a step sequencer pattern the parameters to each arp part have settings to adjust individually like stepsize, groove,note length etc for each nine parts add the four controls that are also available and you've got a very versatile step sequencer. 

 

Programming the step sequencer is a breeze once you get used to it and in combination with performance mode blast the heck of  any performance you create mind that I've done it so many times never got enough of it and filled all of the user slots one day to my own dismay doing that I've also discovered a bit of lag there due to that  :unsure: .

 

I've have not tried yet to program a Sseq pattern using external devices like a DAW or Music creation app don't know if its possible to switch patterns or chain them externally want to use an app for that.

 

The Arpeggio.

 

The arpeggio another arp l've played with using the build in presets, fun stuff but the real part of that starts with editing one of those presets. I never touch it in the beginning after I did it was hard to not do things with it. See the Arpeggio has 16 steps can play lowest to the high note and five notes at once yes that correct. I guess everyone plays a single key or hit  chord when playing the arpeggio to bad because you're leaving something good out not delving in this part. Once edit is pressed in arpeggio mode go to the Parameter and change the groove , pedal hold and step size. Now go to Step Edit and change the type being it low or high notes or how many notes(P1 , P5) you want to hear at once. Its addicting once you start being creative with this.

 

The Phrase.

 

This arpeggio has nice presets to work with to me as a not so good keyboard player gives me the creative freedom to program a performance with a phrase pattern and hit chords just like the arpeggio.

 

The phrase plays back anything you record into it being it "Picking , Strumming , Plucking or Hammering" depending on how the keyboardist plays and records this in the phrase sequence :).

 

I especially love this feature because of the key freedom as mention before about the subject of the phrase sequencer a complete orchestra can be played assigning different instrument tones to the zone of the key's and record by playing something anywhere. 

Casio demonstrated external music creation devices like the Ipad as an performance addition how cool is that. I have to wait until I can afford an ipad its the only device for musicians as I have understood there are certain apps that arouse my attention to experiment with on the XW like StepPolyArp or ChordPolyPad Synth apps and such.

 

Another beauty of the phrase is it plays well together with the arpeggio once a matching variation is used.

 

All and all something that deserve a more in depth explorations just like Performance mode every new song I want to create invents a different approach making that possible and I'm now trying to find the appropriate tools to make it happen in a intuitive way. Casio gave big feature on these synth I did not expect that but I became a bit better musician :)).

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Nicely said! This is an incredibly versatile piece of kit as the UK people say, There are so many possibilities for music creation on this it is a bit overwheming if you grew up practicing say on a Wurlitzer electric piano, or many of the simplest early synths where you'd need a roomful of equipment to do all you can do with an XW-I only wish it were a little more beefy in the keys and buttons, since these will wear fairly quickly with alot of use (I see the keys getting loosey already on my XW as I play with my sausage fingers/hammer hands). If I wear this out, I'll make it into a module and just play it with the PX-350 or one of my other keyboards. ;)

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I've messing around the arpeggiator on the PX-5S today. It sounds similar though I'm hoping to get a G1 too one day.

I'm also hoping to find some material about cool techniques to program the arpeggiator. Like you say, it seems you could create some amazing sounds.

One I was playing with today:

I put a cello type sound on two zones.

I set the bend pitch up to 12 and the bet pitch down to 12 on each zone.

Then I programmed two separate but similar arps.

In one arp I set all the steps to tie and set the control parameter to -127 for step 1.

I incremented the parameter for each step until step 16 was 0.

For the second arp I did the same except step 1 was set to 128 and each step decremented until step 16 was 0.

Both arps were set to smooth.

Now when you play just one note, you get two cello sounds each starting two octave apart and bending until they've both reached the note you pressed.

It sounded interesting!

But then I tried it with a couple of the crazy hex layers :D

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It would be a good mod case module if any been thinking bout that :).  I cant wait to get my fingers on the PX5S and combine it with the G1 I hope keyboardist will create cool stuff around the arps and phrases. Funny tho while playing the  G1 and like any find out all of the controls and mode's it takes a few consideration of how far you can get what the XW can do at once sometimes doing to much I get ugly music result instead of using it as a synthesizer or groove box.

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