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First Day with the Casio XW-PD1


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So I've had a couple hours to get into the XW-PD1. First, I went though all the preset patterns to see what type of sounds it capable of. Most of these are EDM, hip-hop and dub oriented. Not my cup of tea, but they sound pretty good for those styles. It did give insight into the built-in samples and synth sounds. (More on the architecture of this later this week.)

 

Next, I started building my own drum kits. This can be tedious only because there are so many drum sounds.. over 800 in this section alone. So going through them all is what takes some time. If you load in your own samples, this would be quicker as presumably you have pre-selected your sounds. The data editor will also make this much faster. Once you have your kit built, that's when the fun starts.

 

Next I build up a track using my kit - this is really easy to do: Just pick a pad to select what sound you want and then use the rings around the PD1 to select what step you want it assigned to. For longer sounds like bass drones or "one-shot" samples, you can "spread" the sound over a series of steps to sustain it. The data editor may also speed this up --- I haven't go to that yet.

 

Tomorrow I plan to go through the synth tones and phrases then maybe chain some patterns together. Then there is still the effects, data editor and MIDI section to explore.

 

It will be a week or so before I can give a full review. Like the XW Synths, the PD1 is pretty deep so there is a bit of a learning curve. But here's my initial assessment:

 

- As far as build quality, it feels solid for being so light and made of plastic. The pads, knobs and buttons are responsive and feel good.

 

- The display was originally an area of concern. While I appreciate the old-school bright LED, it doesn't convey a lot of information when setting up kits on the PD1 itself. However, I think the idea is to use the PC/MAC data editor to set up the kits and then enjoy playing them on the PD1, as once the kits are set-up, you really don't need the display. Looking at the screen shots of the data editor, it looks like it makes short work of setting up the instruments. I doubt a larger LCD would be of much use setting up kits given the huge amount of sounds you get to choose from! 

 

- It passes the "fun test". Once you have your kits, sounds and effects set-up, it's a blast to play and easy to build up beats. And who doesn't like flashy lights blinking and spinning around? glasses emoticon

More in a couple days!

 

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Looks a little like my old Mattel Synsonics drum toy/Simon musical game from years ago but bumped up a bit. Or an Akai controller re-designed by Willie Wonka. Looks like alot of fun in a small package. Sounds reminiscent of my old GEM Equinox. Listening to the sample tracks-sounds pretty nice to me. And the thing runs on batteries. Tough market for something like this. Definitely bears looking into further.

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Heheh I want to meet that person from Casio wanting to put his marks on design and the choice for it.

 

My guess is they wanted to use the same case as the XW-DJ1 so they just worked with the form factor they had.  The step-sequence buttons around the edge are genus though. Very easy to see where you are in the pattern and quite fun to watch the lights spin.  B)

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My guess is that Casio wanted a piece of hardware that stands out in a crowd or on a televised stage that people would instantly be able to recognize as a Casio product.

 

There's a reason Nords are all bright red boxes that are instantly recognizable on stage, regardless of how much masking tape is glommed on top of the manufacturer name.

 

Gary ;)

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Still selling for 299.00 US dollars in all places I looked. But with the amazing things the XW-P1 can do, tough call. Still only using half of what that is capable of, but this looks like it will sell real well. And will soon follow-music mod and tinkerer's de-light!

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Still selling for 299.00 US dollars in all places I looked. But with the amazing things the XW-P1 can do, tough call. Still only using half of what that is capable of, but this looks like it will sell real well. And will soon follow-music mod and tinkerer's de-light!

 

......And like the XW's it's tough to paint the PD1 with one brush. It's kind of a Swiss Army Knife for audio production (hey the color is right). It's a drum machine, sampler, effects unit, step sequencer, MIDI controller, remix machine and groove box all-in-one standalone instrument. I'm very happy with it, and I haven't even really scratched the surface yet! 

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A question just occurred to me (don't know if it's been discussed before): Is the usb midi class compliant, so I could use a Kenton MIDI/USB host?  

 

Yes it's class compliant. There is another box in the works as well.. waiting to hear a price. May be a bit cheaper than the Kenton. I am also thinking about the          iConnectivity MIDI4 box as I have a lot of stuff I need to sync and not all of it has MIDI thru.

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