dc2k

I'll try. So your question is: How to modify and save stage settings on the PX5S? I simply want to be able to select a tone, modify it as needed and save it for stage recall. Ok so select a stage setting. Do you know how to do that? press bank and then the stage setting number you want. Each stage setting has up to four zones. Each zone can contain a tone. Zone 1 is the only zone that can contain a drum tone. Zones 1 and 2 are the only zones that can contain hex layers. You cycle between the zones using the buttons marked zone/part/step/track + and - to the left of the LCD screen. To turn a zone on and off, you select a zone and press the + and - buttons together. Select the zone you want to edit. Now you can put another tone in this zone by pressing one of the tone bank buttons (piano, organ, synth various etc) just above the zone+ and - buttons and then cycling through the available tones by using the -no +yes buttons all the way on the very right of they keyboard. So once you have the tone in the zone you want to edit, you press the edit button which is just below the num key button on the right hand side. Now you can select tone or stage setting to edit. you move the cursor by using the 5,6,7,8 buttons on the right which are also marked underneath with left, up, down, right. Select tone and press the enter button. Now you will see a new menu, again use the 5,6,7,8 buttons to move the cursor and use the enter button to select. Move back a menu using the exit button. Up, and down move through the menu items sequentially one by one while left and right is a fast way to move through the menu items, moving up and down three items at a time (the next page of options) Once you are deep into a menu, you use the yes+/no- buttons to change parameters for what you want to edit. So having done you edits, to save the tone, exit all the way back to the main screen and then press the "write" button. You will be asked whether you want to save the stage setting or the tone. If you didn't exit all the way back before you pressed the write button, it will assume you want to just save the tone. Choose stage setting in your case. Press the 6 and 7 buttons, you can see the cursor move between the name of the tone and the stage setting position you want to save it to. First decide where you want to save it. Select a stage setting you want to save over by using the yes+/no- buttons . Then move the cursor down to the name, change the name using the yes/no buttons to change letters and the 5 and 8 buttons to next space. One tip is, you can use the k2 knob instead of the yes+/no- buttons and knob k1 instead of the 6/7 buttons through-out this tutorial. Like Brad suggested though. I highly recommend you watch Mike's vids. You'll learn it very easily by seeing it in action.

I'm interested so do let us know. I'm trying (among other things) to learn sythesis myself so I can make full use of the px5s. One program I came across was called syntorial: http://www.syntorial.com/ What you get is a soft synth and a series of video/audio tutorials going over all the most common functions of a synth. The creator starts you off at the very beginning and explains one function. Then he plays a sequence of notes using whatever function he was talking about and you have to set the synthesizer to replicate the sound. You start off with a synthesizer with just a couple of knobs to choose wave type and pulse width, and gradually he adds more and more controls, each time demonstrating them and then playing different sequences which you have to replicate. You don't have to replicate the sequence of notes, just adjust the controls so it sounds like the patch he used. The program then tells you which controls you adjusted correctly and which you didn't and you can try again. I've only tried the demo but it was very good. It had 5 lessons. The full version is over $100 so it is a bit expensive but I would like to get it. I think it would be worth it. Hopefully I'll see a coupon for it. I can understand its cost as it is a niche thing and the guy put a lot of work into it.

When you save a stage setting, it's saves the tone for you, you don't have to have it saved independently. You may notice in the default stage settings, many of the tones they are comprised of in all the different zones are not saved. You can't access them via the tone banks unless you save them yourself as tones. Take the tone on zone1 in stage setting 5:1 for example. Mike Martin (probably) created a very nice electric piano type tone using the hex layers but it doesn't feature in the hex layers tone bank. When he created the tone, he just saved the stage setting and that saved the tone he had created along with it. In order to use that tone in another stage setting, you would need to save it as tone (hex layer) first yourself. The same thing happens with arpeggios. Many of the default stage settings use arpeggios which were never saved as independent arpeggios in the arpeggio bank. Mike created the arpeggio specifically for a stage setting he had in mind and just saved the stage setting. The arpeggio was saved along with it so you don't need anything else. To use the arpeggio in a different stage setting, you select the stage setting, go into the arpeggio section and save it as a user arpeggio. Then you can use it anywhere. The benefit of this system makes it very easy for us users to swap stage setting with each other. We don't need to upload tones and arps and tell people to put them in certain positions, we just upload the one stage setting and violá! Then if you just want to pick out an arp or tone from a stage setting, you can. I'm a total novice with professional keyboards but I think I remember Mike or someone saying this is a very novel approach compared to other keyboards.

I don't want a tumblr account but I will read it.

I was wondering about this myself. I was thinking that as newb, there might be some best practices for recording I'm not aware of. There are volume settings for the stage settings, the tones and a master volume so maybe there is a best way to set these. I asked about it here but didn't get an answer yet: http://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/topic/6006-best-practices-for-volume-settings-when-recording-using-the-px-5s/

Even if I wanted to, I couldn't as when I click the buy now button I just get: "Sorry, no basket items matching that search criteria were found. Please try again."

Hope some of you pros can chime in here. I was trying to figure out a way to turn the arpeggiator on/off with pedal 2. Reason is, I wanted to pitch bend a note using pedal 2. I'm new to keyboards like this so it took me a while to figure out you couldn't set any control to pitch bend. You can only bend via the bend wheel. So as a work around I created a 4 step arp, and set it to control>only [bend] which bends up and down a small amount and back to zero. It works great but I was wondering if it was possible to use pedal 2 to turn it on and off.

cool, let us know.

I think if you go into sys settings>initialise>initialise stage setting, then choose a stage setting, That should give you a blank stage setting with defaults, not completely sure what you get though. I did it once because I thought it would revert saved changes I had made to a stage setting but it doesn't do that. It gives you a blank default stage setting but I can't remember exactly what the initial params are set to.

Well I'm going to answer a couple of my questions myself. Been having a hard time getting my questions on this forum lately As for deleting a tone, it is possible. I was thinking you could just overwrite one but there is a way and I actually remember knowing about if before too as I think Mike even mentioned it in a previous video: Just go to sys settings > initialise > initialise tone, select your tone and the job is done. As for EQ controls. They are a global control so it doesn't matter if you align EQ settings to the knob controls and then turn off those knobs off for a particular zone. EQ will affect all zones at the same time, not matter what.

Hey guys, just wondering if you have any tips for setting the volume when recording. It seems to me than when I record something and play it back on the PX-5S, it sounds loud but when I play it back on my computer, I have to turn the volume up past the normal volume setting to hear it. I was just wondering if this is normal of perhaps there are some best practices for setting the volume on the board when recording. For example maybe it's best to have stage settings' volumes up, while the tone volume settings are down or vice versa, or maybe there is a recommended position for the master volume control. Here is something I recorded yesterday. I'm playing around with the Blade Runner theme using an adjusted version of stage setting 3:3 Please let me know if you think the volume is too low and what to do about it. https://soundcloud.com/smallchanger/blade-runner-main-theme-casio-px5s Thanks guys!

I only realised recently that if I change parameters in master effects and system effects while in the stage settings, those changes actually save globally. That means if you turn off the board and turn it on again or switch to a different stage setting, any adjustments you made to system or master effects remain. I had just assumed they would be reset if you change to a different stage setting or turn off the board, seeing as they appear in the stage setting menu. I thought the reason they appeared in the stage setting menu was so you could save unique master and system effects for each stage setting. I think it would be better if they only saved globally if you pressed the dedicated buttons to access them and saved locally for the stage setting if you accessed them via the stage setting menu....or really only if you re-save that stage setting. To reset them to default, in case anyone doesn't know BTW, you have select each attribute and press the yes/+ and no/- buttons together.

Looking more an more likely I'll have to splurge on an ipad some day because of this and the midi designer even though I'd prefer to avoid the apple eco-system and the extra cables. I'll probably be back to ask for help if I ever do.

I think this might be the issue. The ZLT extension I think means it is a tone, not a stage setting. So when you press load, then select tone and you should see it. Then stick it in an empty slot. It sounds like it is probably a hex layer so you won't have the option to put it anywhere else but the hex layer bank. Figure out which is the next empty slot in the hex bank before you load it so you know where to put it.

Can you explain what you are talking about here please? You connected a Korg ix300 to the PX5S and somehow this makes it sound better or...?

They advise you to format it on the board. I think if you stick it in, hold the media button and then you can select format.

How can you modulate the detuning? Do you mean with an LFO? And might as well throw this question in too as I've been wondering. Is "fine tune" in stage settings>zone>mixer the same as "detune" which I only see as an option in the hex layers.

Hadn't heard of this at the time under-appreciated "Spectrum Dynamic" synth from the late 80's though it apparently now has a fan base and it's no wonder hearing these jams. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_SD_Synthesizers

Actually, now I don't think the above info is even correct. I was experimenting with zone 2 on stage setting 3:3 when I did these tests. Init by wave was set to off and when I changed the tone on layer 1, the parameters seemed to carry to the next tone I selected for that layer........but I tried experimenting with stage setting 1:7 today and did the same thing for layer 5 because I was trying to figure out how the pad on the layer sounded like a bell (like I say, I'm new to synths) but when I chose a different tone for that layer, the parameters didn't seem to carry. Maybe some do and some don't.

Hey guys, just trying to figure out the hex layers and the init by wave function. Let me know if I have got this right: Set 'init by wave' to on: This means when I scroll through the tones on a layer, any tone I select will be the raw sample with some default parameter values set by Casio which they thought would be suitable. If I then edit the parameters on a tone and then select a different tone, those edited values will not be carried to next tone....all except for any I configured using the hard controls (knobs and sliders). For example, if slider 1 is set to cutoff and I set that to 0 using the slider, cutoff will be still be 0 for the next tone I scroll to, but if I set the cutoff to 0 using the display and scroll to another tone, the cutoff value will not carry and it will be set to whatever the default value casio decided for that tone. Set 'init by wave' to off: This means any edits I make to the parameters of a tone on a layer will carry to any subsequent tone I select for that layer, no matter if I edit them via the hard controls (knobs and sliders) or display. In order to hear the raw samples, it would be best to edit a blank hex layer as any other hex layers would more than likely have various parameters on each of the layers altered.....unless, I'm wondering, if there is a quick way to remove these alterations and revert them to their raw sample state. Anyone know if there is a way?

oh cool, thanks.

I'm new to synthesizers and so I'm going through a synth tutorial. The first lesson demonstrated thin, medium and square width pulse waves. Once you selected the pulse wave and you could cycle through the sizes with a knob. I was trying to replicate the process on the PX-5s, but I don't think there is the option to adjust the width of a pulse wave. I see there are about 10 different pulse wave forms so I'm thinking maybe some of these are thin, some are medium, and then there are about 5 square waves too. Is that the way it works?

Noticed spammers trying to post a spammy vid loaded with an affiliate link to the px-5s on youtube today. They do it for all hot products so it gave me reason to believe the px is having an impact. Reported the vid.

nice demo: This kid is having fun too:

Cool, thanks Scott. Anyone know if the PX-THX stage setting he played at 34:30 is a download and what did he do to make it sound like that? Looks like he just hit one key and was turning the portaTime knob.