Positive comments about the XW-P1.

[Gnomo Alegre]

 

"Another original music composition ("Adrianna Groove") showing off the power of the Casio XW-P1. This is ONE take, so still sticking to my "play live" attitude. (ok ok, the perfect is the evil of the good, so there is one little blip), but this is just sitting down and playing...the way music should be it seems to me, at least whenever possible....but must admit that I like the better quality computer recording (even on one channel)...Oh well.

The pads and filters are totally on the XWP1, while at the same time I am controlling (2) other synths simultaneously via midi. The piano you hear is a layered Casio and EX5R piano, plus EX5R created arps, with the drums and strange industrial timing sounds being triggered to the Miniak....all played LIVE in ONE take....on ONE channel on ONE Keyboard. Basically mix on the hardware FIRST...then just play and record all at once.

The P1 keys are quick, so my 88 key style is harsh to say the least...(classically trained trumpet fingers). All sounds modified/created by myself (except for the piano of course.) This song blends tons of genres together, and has typical corporate bs structure....oh well.

For the money, this XW-P1 is a real pro sounding power monster, IMHO, and CAN compete against the high dollar big boys, especially in LIVE situations. Thanks

Tune is for my niece......Adri"

[Display Name]

Ray Bell does a great job with his music and videos. I like his "mix it and play it" approach. When I did theatre music that was more or less what I did for the incidental music. It was never the same twice so it had a very epheremal quality to it... like trying to remember a dream. 

[Display Name]

Ray Bell does a great job with his music and videos. I like his "mix it and play it" approach. When I did theatre music that was more or less what I did for the incidental music. It was never the same twice so it had a very epheremal quality to it... like deja vu or trying to remember a dream. 

[Jokeyman123]

I love the XW-P1 and here's why.

 

I've been A/B'ing my XW-P1 with a much older Yamaha RM1X, a formidable instrument in it's own right with a decent pedigree of users past and present which has many similarities to the XW-P1 including creating "parts" and assembling these into full arrangements, real-time control of attack, resonance etc. programmable arpeggios that can be triggered on top of patterns or songs. Many of the sounds are remarkably bad though.

 

Also comparing to my equally venerable old Generalmusic/Ensoniq/Yamaha/Kurzweil instruments-it holds up remarkably well compared to these beasts and as I monitor the acoustic pianos on all of these-I am coming to like the Casio piano and the synth sounds.Through a decent PA with EQ, it  holds up well.

 

I've posted before, if it weighed another 20-30 pounds and had alot of metal and a different brand-name, people could mistake this for a more costly workstation. Yes it's not a B-3, you want it to sound like a B-3, mic it through a Leslie if you don't mind working as a furniture mover. Put a few weights in it if it makes you feel better!

 

And in a live venue-say a wetdown (yeah played a few)-how many people out there are downing their 6th Jack Daniels or 20th Budlite and saying.....hmmm.........that keyboard player sounds like he's playing a ??? Lucky me I try to stay in the back so any drunkbarf (my word) doesn't short-circuit my setup and electrocute the rest of the band. It's the guitar player (or singer) who usually runs defense (Reality check). The drummer god rest his soul has their entire setup and 2 sticks for protection. And I once dropped my freaking 50 pound ensoniq on my foot on a gig, the Casio would have been much better.  Thank you.

[Jokeyman123]

Nice playing by the way, thanks for posting this.