dc2k

yeah, I worry people don't even press the +/- buttons on the right to scroll through the tones.

There are lots of positive reviews out there and I think most people find out about it that way.

It does look very attractive though and the white colour makes it stand out. The knobs and sliders make it look like it does more than the usual keyboards with a set of tones so hopefully people see it and then research it a bit.

I want it to be a huge success so Casio continues in this direction. I hope they don't abandon it. A PX6 could be an amazing machine if they added a few things like the effects pedal (because it's always mentioned), perhaps some quieter keys, more memory for stage settings, a few extra sliders and knobs (and the ability to press a button to flip between different mappings so you could pretty much cover most things on any stage setting).

But I think they would see the most sales increase on any new model if they added a scroll wheel or even just a couple of buttons near the display which you could use to flick through the stage settings. It would really help people who see these in stores for the first time get an idea of what they can do.

I was looking at this stage setting for the PX5S. Layer 1 and 2 are both the SawTothWave1 wave. Is that right? Watching the video, I thought the two waves were supposed to be the inverse of each other and then fine tuning would have a PWM effect.

When you record the phrase, once the blue lights are flashing (as you pressed the phrase button twice) how do you then start the recording off? Is it by pressing the first note of your phrase or perhaps you are pressing a pedal or pressing the record button a third time thus causing a time delay?

BTW if you press the SYS setting button, you can scroll down to phrase options and turn a pre-count on. This works when you press the record button to start recording. It won't do a pre-count if you just use a key to start the recording.

Can you perhaps upload your phrase and I'll take a look at it if you are still having problems?

When you are in phrase record mode (the light is flashing) press the edit button. You can change the time signature here. Change it to 3/4 or 6/4 seeing as your bass line has six notes. Press exit back to the phrase record screen and change the end measure to 1 or 2 depending on whether you used 6/4 or 3/4 time. Now record your phrase again.

I have a feeling you might have left it on default 4/4 time and recorded 2 measures and so you were left with 2 empty beats in the last measure.

BTW in that edit screen you will also see an option to 'undo'. You can use this in overdub [OVDB] mode to undo the last overdub you made on a phrase. You can also hold the record button in overdub mode to do the same thing.

Thanks. I've been experimenting myself,  a lot of the sounds I create are accidental though. I guess I'm having trouble figuring out the relationship between the envelopes for the amp/pitch/filter. I suppose the amp one takes precedence. If you have a short amp attack, it won't matter what the pitch attack is, you won't hear it. This is probably basic synth stuff I need to learn.

The complexity of editing, getting drawn into time wasting

 

I don't think it's that complex once you get your head around it and I like its depth and that there so many things you can edit. It's my first synth so I like exploring what you can do with one. From subtle effects to massive sound-scapes, the possibilities are endless and I've still a lot to learn. Sometimes I like sitting down to explore the stage settings people have uploaded, sometimes I like to tweak the parameters to discover new sounds, some times I like just playing but most times it's all three. Any time I go into a keyboard shop to see what else is on offer, I leave relieved I picked it up.

One think I would suggest to Casio if they want to shift more units would be to put a sticker on the battery compartment explaining how to change the sound-settings and maybe list some features like the arpeggiator/phrase sequencer. Using the bank button to change stage settings is not intuitive. I fear a lot of people try these out in stores but don't realise their power and they think it's just a white Privia 350. That's how one shop assistant described it to me when I asked if they had them. He was surprised when I told him it actually has a massive synth engine and he said unfortunately they can't really learn how to use every keyboard that came in. I worry most people only get as far as trying out a few of the melody tones and ignore the buttons on the right.

I've also been disccussing this on the Kurzweil Forums at Cunka.com.

 

Over there, spotlight kid introduced a refinement that I think is bulletproof in its brilliance.

 

http://www.cunka.com/forum/index.php?topic=4252.0

 

Gary

need a login for that site. What's the gist?

T-minus 5

Tried to search for an answer on google I but can't find one.

Sorry for the probably newb question.

What's their purpose? How do you use them?

I see them in the filter and amp envelopes but in all the synth tutorials I've watched I've never seen anyone mention what you can do if you had two release stages.

Very clever effect. Didn't know this was possible. Seems you did it with the amp envelope, right? 

I was trying to take the clicking out though by increasing the last three parameters, decay time, release time and decay level.

Which way would people suggest is best?

To save them on a usb key:

Insert a USB key into the slot on the right of the keyboard. 

Press and hold down the button on the right labelled audio recorder/media

If you only tapped it and released it, then press the exit button and try again to hold it down until you see a screen called media

Scroll down to "save" using the button labelled '6' with a down arrow below it.

Select 'Stage Setting'.

Use the the -/no and +/yes buttons on the right to scroll to the stage setting number you want to save. You can also use knob 2 to do this.

Press the 'Enter' button when you reach the stage setting you want to save.

Then press the +/yes button again.

Repeat the process for any other stage setting you want to save on the USB key.

edit: Sorry just realised you said you know how to do this.

Next you have to remove the usb key from the keyboard and insert it into your computer.

Create a new folder on your computer.

Copy the files into the folder.

You can give the folder a name if you like.

Let me know if you're not sure how to do any of this.

Next you need to zip the folder which just compresses the files so they take up less space.

You might already have a zip application installed so right click on the folder with your mouse and see if you can find a menu item called 'zip'.

If not, you need to download and install this program if you use Microsoft windows:

http://www.7-zip.org/

If you use something other than Windows try and find a different zip application for your operating system.

Once it's installed, right-click on the folder containing your stage settings and select 'add to [folder name].zip'

Then you can upload it to this forum by choosing 'More Reply Options' in the text box you reply to posts with and then select the button marked 'attach files/choose files'

Try an locate your zipped folder and then post your post.

Which bit are you having trouble with? Do you know how to save a stage setting to a usb? Have you used a zip application before?

Sounds weird to me on my headphones but maybe it suits your live set-up. Thanks for posting, interesting none the less.

What's your keyboard rest on, a frame or flat surface? I wonder if it makes a difference.

Looks like there are some really interesting stage settings in here. Looking forward to trying them out. Thanks for the detailed write up on the sounds and for sticking the info in a PDF. Very handy.

sounds feasible.

you can do that or you can just turn zone 1 on temporarily, adjust volume, then turn it off again.

 

A hex layer is the only way you will be able to control the volume of two sounds in the same stage setting using the sliders.

It is possible without using hex layers.

Under edit>stage setting>zone>control you can turn off the controls for various zones. [use zone+/- buttons to flip between the zones in this menu]

So you can set both slider 1 and slider 2 to control volume [cc no.11 I think] in edit>stage setting>common

Then turn off slider 1 for zone 1 and turn off slider 2 for zone 2 and you have one slider controlling zone 1 volume and one slider controlling zone 2 volume.

 

Example:  Let's say cutoff is set to 127 in the hex tone.  Your slider starts in the 127 position.  Slowly lower the slider.  You'll notice that the slider has no effect on cutoff until it drops below 64.  The reverse is true if you start at 0 with both controls. 

 

ah, didn't realise this. so you can't get a higher cut-off by setting it to 127 in the menu and then pushing the slider up. It doesn't go up to a combined total of 191 (127+64).

So the slider's range in this case will be 64 to 127 and it maxes out half way up.

Thanks for your time Brad. Getting closer to figuring everything out

It's my first proper digital piano with any kind of synth features so a lot of this kind of detail is probably widely understood by most people who have had previous keyboards but it has been confusing me.

Sure, I understand the difference. The way you explained it is a good way of seeing it. It threw me off when I first started messing around with hex layers having learned what the init function did.

I'm still not 100% on which way the controls offset parameters.

One thing I wondered is why in the hex layers you can adjust say the cut-off from 1 - 127 but in non-hex layer tones the range is -64 to +64.

I'm guessing it is because the hex layer feature was developed independently from the rest and this is just a design quirk.

But my confusion is due to the offsetting.

If I set the cut-off for a hexlayer tone to 0 in the settings, What does slider 1 do (assuming its min and max settings are 0 and 127)?

If I push the slider to the top does it go up to 127 or does go up to 64. Do I consider a middle point for the slider as the original cut-off setting in the menu?

But what happens if the slider's min and max settings are say 48 and 96?

Sure:

Pick a blank hex layer tone for zone 1 in say the default 0-0 stage setting.

So by default, you have a sine wave loaded for the 1st layer and all other layers are off.

Make sure init by wave is set to on.

Use slider 1 to set the cut-off to zero.

Scroll to the previous wave, the gun shot. You will notice you can't hear anything. Because cut-off was set to zero using the slider and this change carries.

Scroll back to sine wave too. You will notice it still sounds like cut-off is set to zero. It wasn't set back to the default casio envelope for the sine wave.

Does that make sense?

If you do those previous steps but instead of using the slider, you change the cut-off using the display menu, then "init by wave:on" works the way you expect and the sine wave is reset to the casio default envelope but not if you use the slider to change it.  

some here:

http://www.thomann.de/ie/sustain_pedals.html?ls=50

I bought a Roland dp10. It's fine though I'd prefer something lower probably. About $40. I think the M-Audio SP-2 is supposed to ok and cheaper. Couldn't find any Casio ones.

To be honest though I've been thinking about getting one of these I've seen talked about: 

http://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/topic/5638-no-ability-for-expression-pedal-input-ill-work-around-it/#entry14703

Looks like it's a little over $100

yeah I did mean waves Brad, sorry.

It's a great feature to have as you can easily hear what other waves sound like with some same envelope if you want.

But do you notice that no matter whether init is set to off or on, if you use the hard controls to adjust some parameter, those changes stay when you select a new wave.

Makes sense to be like that in 'init off' mode but I think it would be better if in 'init on' mode, any changes you made with the hard controls are cancelled too when you choose a new wave.  

That was what was confusing me about  init on/off.

Minor thing really. I just have to remember not to use the hard controls when scanning through the waves in on mode to hear them properly.

Sounds like you got it figured out. One thing I had to do was to change the key range from A0 to A0 in zone 1 so the bottom note triggered the bongo arp. I think you had it at C2.