XW-Addict

Last night I had a dream I dreamed of playing a piano and loved it, Then I played an organ and also loved it the dream made me happy cause for some reason I knew it was a Casio .

As the second all-file patch in the making "Loop The Looper" plus a few sample loops I've made and soon to be added. I'm starting to love making patches and how sound designing works synthesizers are great machine I can't have enough purely because making music is fun and addicted to do.

Well each sixteen steps of step sequencer can be live edited or programmed for a specific function. Once a step is programmed with a live feed by pressing each step button for a pattern then its possible, for each step programmed to change step data , step size , notelength, groove(swing) and octave. There is possibility to use one or all of the sixteen steps in each step sequence for instance if a four step pattern suffice you can do that or five , six , nine , twelve or the full sixteen steps. Which can make for interesting patterns. As well each step sequence can be copied to another step pattern , or do a whole note shift, And each step can have its own scale major , minor , pentatonic , drums , velocity etc. To me personally the step sequence is a big addition to this synth and if only used as a module connected to other synths a typical groovebox it is. Oh and everything you want to know about Step Sequencer can be found in the XW Sequence part of this forum Its quicker to mention questions there.

But what do you do now if you're fingers itch to play a keyboard Chas?

Welcome Well we are a a music , gear loving community this the best place to ask stuff and learn speaking of which Could you provide more information about chromatic patches I have a slight idea what you mean by that but am not sure.

If I'm reading correct you want three things first is learn to play piano, second Arrange music as well to step into synthesizing. Hmmm though one plus you're probably on a budget. Playing piano needs a good feel with weighted keys Casio has those Privia and compact piano now provides a wide range for beginners as well for novice plus they also have arranging possibilities. If you're budget is tight you could go for the P1 as the synthesis capability's would provide you also with the needed sound set and sonic force. The workstation range is already a bit dated seeing the new sound sources and all except the latest like the WK 6250 it has 61 keys which not an option I would wait it out. DAW are budget wise a versatile option using VST piano's and synth, Purchasing a full or semi weighted keyboard controller could suffice for you're need there are plenty options there. Options still being going with keyboard or with out a computer or the option to complement both either way, the music you have in mind or practicing playing piano. Learning these thing is an unavoidable process every instrument needs to be learned from inside out no matter which brand.

The thing with sampling is....the use of it. If the sampler has the capability to give a wide variety of sampling option you can go pretty far. That beside the quality of music making depends on how high you're expectation or creation ability are in addition to the sample quality in that case its simple buy the most expensive gear or go with a software sampler. If it doesn't matter then the only thing important is the skills in how to use the sampler to mold and forge a sample. Its all about sound and the type of sonic blast giving to it being it a loop , one shot or instrumental. The XW has a 16 bit 42khz sampler inside it can create loops, sampled instruments bas, pads or add new drumkits. It has DJ capability when you add it to you're rigs you can do live looping from a total groove. If you like vintage or simple fun sound creation its there, If its you're first step in sampling it can be a good starting point for a hardware sampler. Casio also provide a sample editor for the XW-G1 to set loop points and library management which is also a great addition for this board. So far I myself did lots of musical experimentation which helped me get a better insight in hardware sampling, could have done it with software samplers which has more fidelity but I chose for this option and have not regret it since plus the more sampling gear the better for me.

The many sound sculpting and function in the XW synth can be edited and even after these many moons have passed since I've gotten my G1 synth its simple parts even get me by surprise. I've always used the standard form of the DSP , Compression , Flanger , Delay and such and in the beginning tried the hard way by changing them with General CC messages. Which didn't give the full or fixed spectrum for usage but still workable. First time got frowns how they made sounds well sound like for instance delay 1 to 5 subtle changes holding single notes would let the effect apparent by releasing the note. As well with chords. The impression was that it would go on while the notes where played on hold. Frankly a great deal of the DSP feels like an after though when applied to tones the tones rise and then the DSP kicks in. Some of the DSP are an exception like Pan , Distortion etc. Still considering the way one could do sound designing it could works well into an advantage in sound sculpting and that what I did. But to apply those advantage one needs to program the desired effect by editing an DSP store it and later us multi-key to switch between several DSP. Many way's to accomplish using DSP's. One thing that surprise me while building a performance patch was when using DSP compression on two tones but I did not realize to have selected this also for channel 10 which Ive used for hi-hats. While playing with both patches founding it odd like hey the hi-hats are getting quieter if I play something. And get louder again when I stop playing notes. Now I had a new thing to use when I'm going to build a patch how powerful is that even for Step Sequencing, With a solo-synth patch its a no-brainer but to expand on that is even greater. I wont go into the process of doing that and spare you guys on that part it simple to set it up but getting the desired DSP chain is another thing but purely in a sound design sense. Its pretty remarkable there are Pro's and Con's to the DSP like to much and and it sounds like digitized metal ringing or the flangers a bit sounding like a ping pong fixed at one point in a plane field. But depending on usage can give a rewarding sense of accomplishment when creating a specific sound set. Managing wise one file for all those changed parameters for tones , dsp , arpeggio would be a first though addition giving room to countless sound or performances making.

Zone one indeed is the only zone for editing tones outside the performance mode hah look at that didn't payed attention, Tones for zones 2 ,3 and 4 need to be already edited and saved in user slots to use them in performance mode. Its kinda a sloppy method as a complaint it should be part of performance mode to store user tones sets with their specific tone value's. Editing individual tones is a powerful asset with XW but using them in performance can be a bit overwhelming if the edit tone library expands even more. It means you have to save that library and keep it in its specific order if there are performance patches that use them. I've work around using smaller library of 15 tones for a specific genre or soundscape. Something done only with the editor. I was hoping for an firmware update simplifying this.

Octave - transpose buttons close above the pitch and modulation wheels.

I imagine why to some having this keyboard raises a smile.

Actually that is... its all ready a known fact compression is used for the waveform. Besides the fidelity role in case of the G1 using waves could be done by creating a sampled wave with the resonance or any other filter curve inside the wave. This method would be much more easier then a spectrum analyzer speaking of which any daw has the proper tools suffice for that purpose . http://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/topic/6160-using-the-xws-resonant-filter-with-polyphonic-tones/ Plus there is a fidelity difference between the G1 and P1 overall, The P1 has better instrument waves which is a fact. The interesting part still remains if two tones are layered and resonance is applied depending on the wave some do get canceled out by an resonance value. BrettM and Chas used and played with the filters not particular for that reason tho. I'm curious if the XW engine recognize such curves , I've found such an application to design waves and experiment at.

My thoughts about the XW PCM. Its true the PCM are no crisp waves and they do not seem what I think they are just as BrettM wrote in his post found several filter differences on them. The waves where composed purely for the XW synth engine, I have a feeling those waves consist with a bit more wave processing all based on the quality of the engine which could be based on 8 / 16 bit wave parts. And as it seems compression is part of the engineering mantra at this device probably also the reason why there is a small rompler footprint. Thus the different waves on the XW might have resonance sweep at certain parts and others none, Just as there are waves with analog parts in them seems more like waves with sonic three dimension parts build in to keep them compact and small . It shows compared to the PX5S which has a stronger synth engine and more fidelity, The waves where probably designed being hybrid to begin with *guessing*, with XW as the engine developed it became what it was based on the processing capabilities given and the other parts sequencing, arpeggio etc. How the tones sound on themselves seem to be Casio characteristic sound design, Crisp in one spectrum of the sound and muffled in another, All together a variant tonality recognizable to some of their sound engines like AHL, AIR, HPSS. I'm only guessing if some of these complex hybrid waves are also made for the PX5S.

Oh hurry up I can't stand the suspension already.

Tempted to spend next years saving on that my head still riding the band wagon / do it / don't / do it / don't

File Name: Sitar Groove File Submitter: XW-Addict File Submitted: 21 Sep 2015 File Category: XW-G1 Install to a Free User Slot. Don't forget if needed to let the Performance know where Arpeggio, Step sequence and DSP. This can be done in edit mode sequencing etc same also for the sample loop. Set the Bpm to 138 this is to sync with the sample loop. Zipped the step-sequence and DSP for reasons known. I've set the knobs to Cutoff , Attack , Release, Decay My settings are: Due to my peculiar sound design skills you may need to transpose the keyboard to -03 Holding Transpose and press minus button. Cutoff 110 Attack 50 Release 110 Decay 50 One more interesting performance thing if you've set it up right press Hold Arpeggio, Select with the Minus step button this will change the which sync type you want during performance this can be handy to set up front. I've set it up on S/Sq so that when I hold a key the Arpeggio and step sequence play at once and when the key is released it stop playing by switching arp on and off during performance play its awesome. Plus by switching the sync to on only it switches the S/seq off leaving room to turn on the sample looper and have a go with the pre-recorded performance to play along with. Enjoy. Click here to download this file

I got into Sitars this week and tried several way of performance synthesis, After several day's I got something to my liking I though to share it with you guys as it is one better yet the first complete performance patch I've created since having an XW-G1. For the listeners I have this noodling I've made with the SitarGroove Performance patch, For owners of the G1 the patch is downloadable here. http://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/files/file/919-sitar-groove/ Note of interest I created prior before even improving or finishing the patch made a sample loop from the second try and am using that to switch from Sseq to Sample loop creating this ambiance which you can hear in the noodling as usual my enthusiasm make some wrong notes but its late (*Half past twelve close to midnight*) I'll do another one some other time. Enjoy. SitarGrooving.MP3 Sitar greets.MP3

Amen to that Gary I remember being in the middle of a soft synth session when it crashed and again to say the least I did feel delighted by the result I've made not with losing it all :|>. I't will occur to hardware once when many moons have passed.

I like hardware synth the most, I've tried several soft synth doesn't matter how good they are or sound with the processing power of the cpu behind it The depth of programming seems simple but can be a deep dip wading through a forest of functions envelopes , effects and what not. I like certain limits to get most out of something ease of programming is one of them it takes time getting an idea and sculpt it out of concept. Such steers my creativity shaping not only how to work around things but how it needs to sound and if getting a satisfying sound. Most sound created in a synthesized way are either because of the wanted result or by accident. I've have not as of yet put much effort in sculpting sound with envelopes could not wrap my head around but eventually learning doing it step wise entering value's for parameters could pay of in time. I'm still stuck as in the big bad wolf huffing and puffing blowing the house down. To me sound is just a gush of wind instead of a blowing effect of an brass ensemble which would sound nicer if I could make such early reference of such, Experimenting gave such insight. Creating something like a slow whoop sound is a challenge. Its just recently that I've started keeping zone 1 free for the solo-synth for the sake of programming envelope style or any sound movement in performance mode doing it on the G1, Should reference more to the exemplary template available to get a feel for it adjusting settings what not. I'm glad synthesizers have more then two knobs or sliders . Sounds a bit biased saying my preference is to hard synth more then soft synth, honestly I've put more time in G1 then my other gear which as a learning base should not be solely at one instrument to say the least. But all in all the effort put in there gave me a wider view in sound design and synthesis so it doesn't feel like a total loss . I've got two more powerful instruments the PX5S and MW1 and the sonar software synths the only time consuming is the time to lay it out for an, performance level aka Vangelis studio but that a different story .

Valentina Lisitsa I'm a bit of fan of her , Its not fair to make a comparison like that if you know Valentina a bit she can even play an slightly out of tune piano to sound like a master piece to the untrained ear. She is one of the world class pianist plus a piano sound as good as the one playing it.

A modulation button , synthesizer function I have stop thinking what some keyboards are.

File Name: Groovy Sample Loops Part 2 File Submitter: XW-Addict File Submitted: 11 Sep 2015 File Category: XW-G1 Groovy Loops Part 2. Based on Performance patches and Step sequence. Package for this going to be called Run_The_Looper Some of these loops where build with one Performance patch, Others with stacking another on top. Some drum patterns have been realized by creating two patterns and stacking them on top of each other which was one way to do it but I've also could program a full step sequence using Bass , sol 1 2 for drums Have fun if you have any idea's shoot me a few. *added 8 more loops which are some of my experimental kind of stuff. Package available soon. Click here to download this file

LFO is ideal for some added wobble to you're patches by assigning CC message VibRate, VibDelay for the knobs. It's easy adding these patches to the P1 download section of this forum that way everyone can find them, This post probably can get lost when other post stack up when users seek for new sounds..