XW-P1 $399 on Amazon!

[Radon_22]

Couldn't pass it up. My main workstation of choice has been a Roland Fantom X-7. I love it, but some of my knobs are beginning to get wonky and I'm tired of lugging this beast around a couple of times a week.

I was debating between getting a midi board for use with a laptop/iPad or a a lightweight synth with some basic pad/B3 sounds. Some of Ralph Maten's videos convinced me the XW-P1 would fit either category. At this price, it seems like an easy choice.

I tend to dig deep and build new patches/layers/etc., and believe in sharing. Stay tuned.

[-ED-]

Good deal there.

Looking forward to hearing some tunez and sharing stuff

[Technics]

@radon22

was the unit new, used, refurbished?

your price is the lowest i've heard of so far, even used units are selling for $420+ on ebay.

was this sold directly by amazon or by one of their subcontracted merchants?

Couldn't pass it up. My main workstation of choice has been a Roland Fantom X-7. I love it, but some of my knobs are beginning to get wonky and I'm tired of lugging this beast around a couple of times a week.

I was debating between getting a midi board for use with a laptop/iPad or a a lightweight synth with some basic pad/B3 sounds. Some of Ralph Maten's videos convinced me the XW-P1 would fit either category. At this price, it seems like an easy choice.

I tend to dig deep and build new patches/layers/etc., and believe in sharing. Stay tuned.

[Travst]

I bought mine as a customer return from AMS for that price. I would never have known it had been out of the box.

[Radon_22]

These are brand new. They're actually from J&R- I've done business with them in the past- their pretty reputable. They are currently out of stock (and no wonder), but you can check out the price/backorder them here: http://www.jr.com/pr...g.jsp?Ntt=xw-p1 . Chances are you can get another major music retailer to price match.

Mine's arriving tomorrow- I'm pretty stoked.

[Scal3r]

That was a good deal. Guitar Center has $75.00 off 499 so it's close and you get to choose between the standard or the GDK3.

**Guitar Center now offering $100 off $499 or more.

[Radon_22]

I have a love/hate relationship with GC, but they have plenty of storefronts, and this means you could get the gold version for the same price.

My XW-P1 arrived yesterday. Got top play around with it for around 4-5 hours. It's suprisiningly intuitive: The only instructions I've read so far were the ones for completing the update. Built a few patches tones (I have get used to the Casio nomenclature!), including a dirty, growly B3; few "suitecase Rhodes"; and wobbly bases. While the interface isn't as pretty as the color screen on a Fantom or Jupiter, in some ways it's more accessable. Simplicity can be its own blessing at times.

I'll post my overall impressions later. Honestly, they're pretty mixed- I've been pleasantly suprised by some things that people have criticized if for, while I'm somewhat "meh" about some of the touted portions of the board.

[Travst]

I'd be curious to know the settings for your B3 sound. I haven't attempted to create that tone yet, since I have NI Vintage Organs and a JV-1080 that do a good job. However, it would be nice to have on the Casio.

[Radon_22]

I'll post a couple of tones up this weekend. It's a bit frustrating though- there's no way to use both the rotary and distortion effects in the DSP at the same time. You can "cheat" by using DSP #31 and exagerate the chorus depth, but can't simply switch the effect on/off. The closest I've came to a working solution is to have one with the chorus jacked up, and another tone right next to it with the chorus off, and using the yes/no buttons as my "switch". It sounds good enough in a mix, but I can't believe that the engineers spent this level of time and energy into building an organ simulator and then assumed no one would want to dirty it up.

Mike- If you're reading this- any chance of a future update allowing one of the DSP combos to be distortion/rotary? Or are they hardcoded as is?

[Travst]

I find both the leslie and the distortion unusable for the most part.

[Radon_22]

So I shipped my XW-P1 back today. Hated to do it- couldn't be helped. I was looking for a lightweight blues/rock gigging board that wouldn't break the bank. The XW-P1 was so close but...

Don't get me wrong. It's a fantastic machine for the money. The step sequencer is outstanding. If you're into EDM or a budget synth, it's probably the best budget value out there. I love EDM (Annie Mac on BBC Radio 1, baby!), but at the end of the day, the "bread and butter" sounds are the weakest part of the XW-P1. Some of the PCM sounds are downright painful. Add to that a rather lackluster effects set, and you don't have a lot to work with. Casio obviously spent a great deal of time on the drawbar mode, then left out the ability to add any effects (unless you ditch the Leslie). Rhodes/Wurlies weren't really usable, but the stereo grand was suprisingly better than the rest of the samples. Pads were nice, too. If your after more of a synth that a rompler in this range, it's the board for you.

There's really only 3 other choices in the under $500 61 key synth range:

• Yamaha MM6- Tries to be a stripped down Motif. A little TOO stripped down. Not that impressive, showing it's age. Sounds range from acceptable to ex
  
• Korg Microstation- It's great! Great sound, decent sequencer, a steal at this price. Unless you need to actually play the thing. Keys are way too tiny, and unless you strap it on like a keytar, you look a bit silly with this on a stage.
  
• Korg PS60- Good sounds, great layout. Based off of the M3, with really good effects. A lot of editability, but only when using the PC editor. A players keyboard only, though. No arpeggiator, no rhythyms (not even any drum sounds), patterns, etc.
  

So if my budget ever improves, I'll definately snag another XW-P1 for fun. I'm really looking forward to Casio's next synth/workstation effort, and hope they keep in the synth game.

[Grasspike]

There's really only 3 other choices in the under $500 61 key synth range:

actually the Korg Microarranger at $499 is also an amazing synth. It's based of the Triton synth engine and is pretty much an exact replica of the PA80 only with minikeys. It gets overlooked because of all the cheesey to downright terrible preprogrammed "arranger styles" however if you ignore then it is filled with a great variety of high quaity Korg sounds that since they are from the Triton are different than the M3 based Microstation.

Beyond that you get very deep sequencers. However the coolest part of the synth is the "arranger sequencer". Don't think of it as an arranger, think of it instead as a multi timbrel, multi-midi channel 2 bar looping phrase sequncer, with a built in drum machine. It's amazing for EDM

[Mike Martin]

Hey guys,

No big deal but in the future, keep discussions about pricing elsewhere.

See the Forum Rules.

The bottom line is we'll get someone pretending to be a user just like anyone else here. He'll start talking about what an awesome deal he got at this store, when in reality he's a store employee and he's trying to direct business to himself.

[Larry]

As a new owner of a G1 i was looking for a used one for the last 30 days (march 2014) for a best price.

No go.

But i found a new one at Kraft Music in a bundle that was on sale.

I will say that the XW's seem to hold there value as it's been, what 2 years? and the price drop is not much.

People just don't want to sell them, and i cant blame them.

 

I love my G1 and it's not that im a new owner, it's that it's a different kind of board then all the others i've played with.

It's fun, easy to navigate and can really dish out some custom sounds with out a lot of legwork.

[Jokeyman123]

I like the XW-P1 so much, I sold mine on eBay for less than I paid for it but here's the best part- I sold it to myself and saved a bundle off what I originally paid for it What a deal. Man I love eBay. Hey if you can follow this logic, maybe you can figure out the XW manual, too. Now you know why I'm called Jokeyman, and will never have a professional career at it. Thank you and have a nice day.

[Display Name]

I like the XW-P1 so much, I sold mine on eBay for less than I paid for it but here's the best part- I sold it to myself and saved a bundle off what I originally paid for it What a deal. Man I love eBay. Hey if you can follow this logic, maybe you can figure out the XW manual, too. Now you know why I'm called Jokeyman, and will never have a professional career at it. Thank you and have a nice day.

 

[Jokeyman123]

Nice picture, thanks for the compliment Scott, I wish I was as funny as he was. "And my wife, what a cook! Hey, I don't think meatloaf should glow in the dark!" Like Mike said, I was just trying to get off the topic recommending merchandisers, it's hard to resist a favorite store, but yes there is always the possibility of a "shill" out there trying to sell through a forum-there's enough spam and garbage, some of my older groups not well regulated by systm administrators have com[letely been given over to spammers and commercials-like TV and unfortunately alot of the web. That's why I like this forum so much, it stays knowledge and creativity based, very nice. "Nice boy, good boy! (Now I know why tigers eat their young.)" "This steak has marks from where the jockey was hitting it!" (Caddyshack, RIP Rodney!) .

[Chas]

I like the XW-P1 so much, I sold mine on eBay for less than I paid for it but here's the best part- I sold it to myself and saved a bundle off what I originally paid for it What a deal. Man I love eBay. Hey if you can follow this logic, maybe you can figure out the XW manual, too. Now you know why I'm called Jokeyman, and will never have a professional career at it. Thank you and have a nice day.

 

I'm recovering from night shifts so didn't quite understand this in my frazzled brain state. But it made me laugh anyway so that's good!

[Jokeyman123]

I take Mike Martin's posting rules seriously, i just don't take myself seriously. I'm ike an old keyboard, I might be roadworthy and sound pretty good, but that's about it!