theodorn

There is a stage setting where sliders 1-4 have been set to control the volume of the four zones, one for each zone. http://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/files/file/53-4-zones-4-sliders/

I made one 1,5 years ago (wow is it that long?) It is made from the original order (not the alternate order) of stage settings, and you can both find Excel and PDF versions, links in the comments. http://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/topic/4919-a-list-of-stage-settings-and-their-zones/ Edit This is only the stage settings, with information about what is on each zone and whether the zone is on or off, by default. There is a list of tones in the manual.

It depends on whether you are downloading a tone or a stage setting. If it's a tone, you can easily put it in a user location (ones starting with the letter U) and you won't be overwriting anything. These locations (U : 20 and on, in the piano category) simply contain GrPnoConcert, the same piano as is in location P : 00, the first stage setting, 0-0. If you download stage settings, you have to replace any of the 100 factory stage settings, but you can always fetch the old factory settings again, one at a time or all, as Joe points out. I personally like to use the Electric Piano stage settings in bank 1 for user downloaded stage settings, and keep all the piano stage settings in bank 0 intact. The factory stage settings are intended as templates, the user can change to his/her own liking, and even substitute his/her own, though a lot of the factory settings are very good - out of the box, as it's called. One more thing, you are never replacing every sound in the PX-5S, unless you give the Load - All command.

A link to an Excel file. https://copy.com/i9ZNmjx3LrylTTBG

Welcome to the forums, TomAviv. Incidentally, I also upgraded from Yamaha P85, and felt it was quite a jump up in dynamics and features. I also mostly use a piano sound. The 0-0 setting is good enough, but I also like to use 5-0, Just the Way, because I like to add a warm pad to the grand piano sound. Yesterday, I decided to add volume control to it, it's not that hard. You just choose the stage setting, then push EDIT -> Stage Setting -> Common Edit -> Slider [1,2,3,4,5 or 6] and set it to CC07:Volume. Then EXIT all the way back. You can do this for any and each of the four zones. One more thing you need to do, is disable the slider you just set to control volume on zone 1 (or any of the zones) for the other three zones, this way: EDIT -> Stage Setting -> Zone Edit -> Slider1 Enable -> [Off] Instead of Slider1 it could of course be any of the six sliders, just the one you chose in the first step to control the volume for zone X. Again, the slider has to be disabled for all the other three zones. When you're done you simply save the modified stage setting: WRITE -> Stage Setting -> Replace No/Yes? -> +/YES. If you change an existing stage setting,and regret your changes, you can always restore the original ones, the factory settings can be found online.

Choppin is right, PianoManChuck explicitly stated that he was driving both sound sources at the same time, not by playing first the PX-5S and then the Ravenscroft (again with the PX-5S of course.) Line Out for the PX-5S, and the Ravenscroft via the USB connection. Then he assumably edited the video, inserted the Ravenscroft version of each passage, immediately after the same passage recorded with the Casio, through the Line Out. He must have had a screen capturing software to record the interface of the Ravenscroft, which is the UVI workstation, if I'm not mistaken. There are actually two ways to record the PX-5S, using any of it's internal voices. On the USB flash drive or through the Line Out. Recording through a headphone jack might be considered the third way. I don't know if it there is a difference between a Line Out recording and a USB drive audio recording. I know at least the PX-5S doesn't sound the same through a headphone jack and Line Out, there are more distortions through the headphone jack. If there are distortions when playing, there must also be distortions when recording.

Thank you for your comparison video, PianoManChuck. I enjoy your videos very much, keep them coming!

I had guessed that the first one was Ravenscroft, assuming the name of the files was not a hint. Still at some point in time, I thought the second one was the R. Felt as though it had more timbre in the beginning, like a real piano has. I hardly noticed any difference, and I'm not even sure that the Ravenscroft is better, than the PX-5S, and if so, then only by a margin. I've been listening to software pianos day and night the last weeks, wondering if I should get me one, and by now, I feel maybe there's no need. For the record, did you record with the grand piano concert voice, the first piano of the PX-5S's list of piano voices, the one that is by default in stage setting 0-0? I ask, because we have so many possibilities to play with the existing piano voices and make new ones, taylored to our preferences.

I've used your stage settings quite a lot and I like them. I'll post a more detailed review later. Since we're talking about this, I feel the volume of the MVGRANDPIANO needs to be lower. I notice distortions, if I play forte or above. I also use The Pianist, and I noticed it has a more realistic decay than the basic GrandPianoConcert, setting 0-0. It decays slowly if holding the pedal, while with 0-0 it just stays at the same volume and disrupts suddenly when releasing it. How did you do that?

Do you want to record as AUDIO, not MIDI? The file you want to play, is it MIDI or AUDIO? If it's only MIDI, you can use the Song recorder to combine a few phrases, up to eight in one file. Song -> Edit -> Track edit [Enter] -> Insert (above the stage settings number buttons, for each track you want to add.) For each track, add from your existing phrases collection. When all is done, save the Song with the Write button, a step I often forget myself. Maybe you know all this, and this is not what you want to do? Edit Some time ago I was trying to find out how to send a MIDI file back to the PX-5S and record it, using voices from the instrument. I ended up playing it from Synthesia, just had to make sure on which channel each track was residing, and that the right voices were on the corresponding channels of the PX-5S.

This is a very talked about issue and complaint against digital piano manufacturers, not just Casio, but all of them. With memory as cheap as it is today, it's hard to explain why the companies don't insert bigger memory chips into their products. Even a few gigabytes memory module wouldn't add much to the manufacturing cost, but would open up so much possibilities to improve the sounds. Hopefully the manufacturers will step into the 21st century, what this regards, or as some have said, the 20th century, but if they don't don't, they'll lose customers. People will simply turn to software based pianos and other instruments, coupled with basic not too expensive MIDI controllers.

Don't know if anybody is still following this discussion, but I have no problem with headphones. However I get a high buzzing when I plug my laptop into the Audio In.

I can see the phrases on my laptop. Browser: Firefox.

I'm asking this question on behalf of someone else, but does Casio use the same unweighted actions in all of their WK keyboards? The question originated on the Piano World forums, and an answer will be appreciated there or here, doesn't matter to me. I will keep track of both forums. Here is the thread on Piano World: http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2237524/Best_keyboard_for_learning_Pia.html#2237269 With thanks in advance.

Great job.

I don't think you can have the metronome on without having the phrase recorder on. However, if you don't save the phrase after your playing session, everything that was recorded, is wiped out, when you turn the PX-5S off. If you check the phrase number you used, when you turn it back on, you should discover the phrase is just as it was (with nothing in it, if it was initially an empty user phrase.) Be careful not to record over factory phrases, as you may want to use them later. The empty user phrases start at 100, if I'm not mistaken. Scroll to the phrase you want to use, and press Edit. The time signature appears as Beat, followed by [4/4] if the phrase has not been written to before. Change to the time signature you want to use, with the -/No and +/Yes buttons, and you can hold the Num Key to move in bigger steps. I feel the volume of the metronome is too low, compared to my playing, so I prefer to connect my laptop to Audio In and use some software metronome. Just be careful to turn the volume down before connecting anything to Audio in, as the volume of the external source can be quite high. I connected my laptop with an external USB sound card, and the volume was so high, that I only got distorted sound.

Just for the record, if you Choppin, or anyone reading this thread is not in the Facebook group, the problem has been solved. Mike said the voice in zone 2 was connected to MIDI channel 2. Even if zone 2 is off, external MIDI programs can have access to the voice there and it seems Synthesia and Composer were invoking the voice on zone 2, by sending a request through MIDI channel 2 and therefore strings were played. I simply set all zones to GrPnoConcert, consequently, only GrPnoConcert could be played by the programs.

Not sure if this bank is created on the fly - probably not - rather something that is there by default. Called general midi, everything set to zero. I always have to assign each new score to my new bank, which I simply call StageSet00. A real brute force solution. I wish there was some easier way to do this, I'm still having the same trouble with Synthesia. The problem is understanding MIDI, knowing how all the different stage settings map to our computer programs and how to access that information. Now I'm using something called Loopbe1 with MIDI-OX to run Synthesia. It stops this string fetish of Synthesia, but now the problem is Synthesia won't play the tracks, they are muted. Although I can play myself and the voices are not changed. Maybe it's not worth the time and trouble to sort this out and I should just stick with paper sheets!