mike71

Found in a flea market a Sk-5 with instruction manual and box. For 30 euro I bought it.

At first looed as a lemon because with batteries it didn't turn on. But after some wiggling in the external power connector it started working.

I suppose that I have to open it and check the solder joints, or use some contact cleaner to the power connector. Also it smells burnt, and maube it's because the former owner was a smoker or there's something inside that had problems, like tantalium capacitors.

Now I have three Casio keyboards in the house (and a calculator,and two watches)

Old school analog FM headphone like this https://www.p4c.philips.com/files/s/sbchc8440_00/sbchc8440_00_pss_.pdf have a low latency because they dont process the signal. On the other hand it's plain old FM stereo radio, with all the distortions we radio listeners love.

Not having a schematic diagram it's a problem to find where the problem is. Now whe the firmware it's botched, from what I've read the backlight still lit ups. So if you see a completly dark mainboard, and there's a switching regulator for the 5V rail, and the backlight it's 5V, it could be a capacitor in the power supply.

Maybe you coan try to use a passive DI box and get a transfomer-insulated output.

@Jokeyman123 I remember that in hi-fi circle swapping op-amp was a thing. Now it's true that there were Philips-branded and Marantz-branded CD players that were very similar, had the same circuit board but some of the circuitry was different, and the Martants ones were sold at a premium. You  could desolder components from the Philips, put the components used in the Marantz and get the better performance, but I duppose was more cost-effective buy directly a Marantz.

I think it depends on the price. I paid mine 670 euro in 2018 and now the price I see online is 970 euro.

For the 2018 price it's a good buy I think, for 2023 price, I'm not so sure.

On 8/21/2022 at 5:52 PM, Jokeyman123 said:

Any vital MZ-X part that disappeared would have stopped these from being put together, a shame. And since most Casio parts are definitely not "off-the-shelf" that would create a dead-end for the MZ-X's. and the XW's. more puzzling, as many of the older CTK's/WK's are still being sold "new' from some vendors here-which might simply mean these are left-over stock manufactured back when the WK7600 for example, was newly created.

I suppose that the MZ-X 500 uses custom ASIC and mask-programmed microcontrollers, so a chip shortage it's possible on one of these custom parts, and no chip foundry could make them in reasonable time due the technology of manufacturing. Maybe the older keyboard are using different IC that could still manufactured from some foundry. Worse they have used a no longer manufactured standard part. And if this happens and a redesign of the circuit has to be made it's a problem.

I see that in most of online shops in Italy the PX-5S isn't available. Maybe the successor of it is arriving?

Wild wild guesses.....

On 7/17/2022 at 3:22 PM, Brad Saucier said:

It was only available for iPad through the Apple app store. 

 

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/midi-designer-xw/id723189543

Have an iPad 2 that is used basically only for that.

On newer IPads there's the paid MIDI designer PRO2. Maybe it's backward compatible with the XW control?

On 5/23/2022 at 1:39 PM, Joe Muscara said:

You don't even know if this is changeable by programming.

Maybe it's an old school headphone with a switch to exclude the analog audio.

There are jack switches with extra contacts that can work with two jacks in parallel.

51 minutes ago, Satyam said:

yea I know 9 volts are harmless to a human body, just wanted to know is it normal for all the keyboards having 2pin adapter as 870in has 2 pin adapter.

I have an XW-G1 that has 9,6 V input, and the wall adapter doesn't have a ground pin.

The small leakage current maybe it's due to the parasitic capacicance between primary and secondary windings of the switching transformer.

This is because I have the bookmark on the unread content. So I missed the thing on home page.

I've found an annoying "upgrade". Now isn't possible to log in using simply the username, but the form forces you to use the email address for logging in. Interestingly, if the browser was already logged in before, the old username is still working, and from what I've seen in the behaviour, there's someting client side that checks the username format and forbids the logon process if the username doesn't look like an email adderss

35 minutes ago, pianokeyjoe said:

Oooh! @mike71! You sir are a gentleman and a scholar! Wow lol! Thankyou on behalf of all of us interested! Yes, I knew about Roland and actually even Korg, and others that use the Fatar beds, but I did not know Roland was IN Italy at the time. Now as to Proel and Dexibell? You have sparked my interest! What Keyboards are those? Viscount actually used and uses still most of Fatar beds, not just the hammer beds. I know really well about their beautiful wooden pipe organ beds. I bought some as well as the Fatar/Rodgers pipe organ wood/metal beds of which one is due to arrive today at my home!

Proel makes PA system and loudspeaker, solid state amplifiers, microphones for stage. Dexibell it's the keyboard brand, and they make some stage piano and clonewheels in the price range of Clavia Nord products.

Ad a music group they have also a guitar brand and a drum brand.

Roland was in Italy because in the 80s bought the SIEL factory and their IP and patents.

Roland used Fatar keyboards because they made production in Italy. https://goo.gl/maps/iYSxezY219yiWEpH7

Now it's Proel and Dexibell, but if you go back in street view history you find that was indeed Roland. Nearby there's still the Roland plotter factory. https://goo.gl/maps/bzHFZPTxhmbK6dK38

Fatar facory is 70 km north, so makes sense that Roland used Fatar keybeds, as Dexibell does now.

Viscount uses Fatar keybeds for hammer action keyboard, but designs it own for organs, both digital and pipe organs.

5 hours ago, AlenK said:

Speech synthesis. Pretty cool. It's in a nice product but I don't need a keyboard like that. Maybe Casio will put it in something more upscale that is not an 88-key piano (the only upscale products they make nowadays - CT-X5000 is midrange). 

 

 

I agree it's a nice product. The speech synthesis is an interesting feature. For the sampler I have the XW-G1 🙂 and anyway I don't have the space for another keyboard so I think I will pass...

A funny note: I was seeking videos about the little brother CT-S500. I was baffled because I found a lot ob road bike videos. CT-S500 it's also a Shimano product.

14 hours ago, Jokeyman123 said:

I've said it before-put it in a metal-framed workstation cabinet, make it weight another 10-20 pounds and take off the Casio name and you would be willing to pay 1000 or so for it-but you don't have to.

I think that if it was made with a metal frame with wooden sides, a more "robust" keyboard, like the TP40, the TP 8, the price had to be increased. Making a synth with a sturdy frame is a two edged sword, because makes it more heavy and more expensive.

14 hours ago, Jokeyman123 said:

Hex layers-I hadn't seen anything like that since Generalmusic disappeared and with it my Equinox-which I've kept for precisely that reason-and a drawbar model-which can also be used for many other things-just like the XW.

Gem was declared bankrupt, some of the engineers are now employed by Dexibell and Viscount, but these firms are more on organs an digital pianos rather than synthesizers, and unfortunately their instruments are way more expensive than a Casio synth.

There are a lot of courses online on even books with DVD lessons.

As a learner there are some really hard things to learn that require effort at ha physical and coordination level. So you have to practice.

The first problem is that a lot of pianists and teachers are following an old style of teaching, using Hanon, Czerny, Pozzoli and so on. These methods have in common with more modern ones, like Suzuki, the fact they're aimed at children.

I'm a learner too, actually restarting to use the keyboard after a stop. Now I'm following the site pianote.com and find online lesson quite clear. But of course you need to practice and this require time.

You could try to use the sdcard formatter utility, to try to have the correct layout in the partition.

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

Not having a schematic diagram of the piano I could only make an educated guess. If the digital recordin it's OK, the problem lies in the DAC and analog parts.

On 12/7/2021 at 6:59 AM, GGGeoff said:

Selecting different tones, such as Harpsichord, or Electric Bass, provide stranger sounds... like you are standing at the very back of an enormous hall and hearing only reverberated sound.

 

 

It could be you're hearing the difference of left and right channel. The piano sounds weird even if listened with headphones or using the line outs to an external amplifier?

If the audio amplifier board  is on a separate board and the audio signal is on a loose connector the effect will be you're going to hear the differential signal. GP-510 doesn't have hex layers so I suppose you can't make a tone with a simple mono triangle wave. Using a simple mono signal makes the differential signal null.

About the picture, I found it on the parish site, and never visited that church actually, and the photo wasn't about the organ, but the wooden angel statue.

There are a lot of interesting things about the making of the movie, that I discovered listening to a radio programme. Anothet interesting story is that while the music was composed by Claudio Simonetti and Gobiln, the first group Dario Argento was thinking about were the Pink Floyd, but was too expensive.

Nice cover song.

A bit of trivia: the originali organ track story is quite interesting, because the song was recorded there https://www.forumstudios.it/en/

The recording studio is near a big church with a big pipe organ, the one in the photo below, so for Simonetti and friend was easy to get a big fat pipe organ sound on the recording.

Kenkraft 400 by zombie Nation... sorry Electronic Ensemble - It happened then

At 1:50 appears a Casiotone in the monitor.

I'm not sure but maybe they also used the Casiotone for the synth tracks...

I suppose that it not possible. Maybe Casio someday will sell a PXS30000m expander with MIDI DIN ports, buy I feel that isn't very probable.

DSP engines are totally different.

I think also that, because Casio still sells model designed years ago, like the px-5s and the WK-7600 marketed in 2013, means that these model are using an older and less capable technology.

Of course, as Jockeyman123 said, salespeople are pushed to sell a particular brand. When I bought my last car I was interested on a Skoda model, and the dealer absolutely wanted to sell me the equivalent Volkswagen model. Bought VW if you are curious because he put a 10% discount, so I paid less the VW model than the Skoda one, the parking lot was full of VWs.

On 1/27/2021 at 11:53 PM, Chandler Holloway said:

I think you're overestimating the demand for DIN-MIDI on general-purpose keyboards in the sub $500 market. If Casio designs a product aimed at users who really need stuff like DIN-MIDI, they will include it. But the kinds of users who have lots of other gear they want to sync up are 1) willing to invest more money into buying pro-level gear and 2) much more discerning about the specs and feature set, so the products aimed at these types of musicians will naturally carry a higher price point and more advanced functionality to go along with it.

There are a lot of 61-keys master keyboard under the $500 range, by M-Audio, Arturia, Novation and others. There are some expanders made by Roland, Behringer and others that are also in the under $500 range.

Now Casio is known and loved for thee weird mashed up products, like the Casio KX-101

Now, makin a Master Keyboard wirh Midi-USB and MIDI-DIN combo with a mice low cost instrument is a thing I expect from Casio. Actually Viscount/Oberhem with the Viva/MC1000 did that thing. Basically they made a master keyboard, put in parallel to the midi out connector a waveblaster compatible socket.