anotherscott

That was a great help, thanks!

That's the part I need help with.

Can anyone summarize how to assign some short samples to pads, by playing them in from the Line input? I can record onto one pad, but it seems that when I try to assign something to a second pad, it forgets what I did on the first. And also, even though I name/write the sound, it's gone when I reboot. The manual instructions seem incomplete (Recording a Sampled Sound on page EN-36 and the Save instructions on EN-37), I must be missing some steps. Also, I saw a post where someone said they assigned samples to pads by importing WAVs from a USB stick, that would be good too. Probably better, really. But I didn't see that in the manual at all. Is there any documentation or videos on any of this? p.s. - once assigned, I'd like the sample to play through to the end every time I hit the pad (without holding it)

The MZ-X500 does it differently from the PX5S, but I don't think it's a "problem," it's just the way it's designed . I think the MZX method is closer to the way a lot of other boards work. Wasn't your Roland FA-06 similar? i.e. if you made changes to a sound, you had to save it as a user tone, and could not just save that modified tone inside a Studio Set (equivalent to Casio Stage Setting or Registration), right? Even if Casio does do more system updates, I doubt they would make such a fundamental change to the operational architecture of the board, especially since there really isn't anything inherently wrong with how it works, even if it isn't your preference. AlenK's workaround for this can help... you can often store sounds in other categories if you need more user slots for a particular kind of sound, by writing the sound to a USB stick and then loading the sound back in somewhere else. Certain sounds have to be in their own categories (hexlayer, tonewheel organ, and piano I think), but you should be able to save more than 10 synth sounds by saving them in another category.

Oh, I think that's basically the same as the PX560 then... you could mix and match all your regular tones in one category, except hexlayers had to go in their own category. I guess a bit more problematic in the MZ-X500 because there are even more than just the two categories. An unfortunate limitation, but might still be pretty useful.

It turns out that the MZ does this trick too! As Brad said in the thread at http://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/topic/12381-need-midi-issue-solved-if-possible/ "If tones are saved to usb, they can be loaded into any user category. So you can combine everything into one area. " Cool!

Wow, what a wonderful hidden nugget, glad I found this!

I agree about the Balance menu being awkward. While there's no one perfect solution here, I found these alternate approaches that are usually better, with different ones being good in different circumstances: * Define K1 and K2 to be volumes for your two primary sounds. You can't control all four this way, but if you're playing just two (or only two you would commonly need to adjust the volume of), this gives you the best immediate access. (And if you don't exceed three total sounds, the combination of the two K knobs and the master volume essentially give you the ability to balance all three.) * Do your live sound selection from the TONE screen instead of the MAIN screen. Then you can edit any of the four volumes by hitting it's SELECT, EDIT, VOLUME and then the knob. It's 3 clicks before the knob, although just 2 if you happen to need to adjust the volume of the sound that is already Selected. In terms of total effort, it's very similar to going to the Balance menu, but what I like is that you select the sound you want to adjust based on the name of the sound, which I think is better than on the Balance screen, where you select the sound by its location. My brain says "bring up the Strings," not "bring up Upper 2" so this works better for me. * Instead of the Balance screen, go to the Mixer screen. This is great because, as soon as you go to the screen (without even hitting another button) you can immediately use the first four sliders to be your parts 1-4 volume controls, and the screen also tells you the names of the sounds assigned to each. Drawback is that the Mixer function is located on the second Menu screen instead of the first, adding a slow swipe to the process. Also, when in this mode, you lose the use of the Sliders for other functions (drawbars, hexlayer levels). (ETA: You can avoid the slow swipe by a tap on the arrow, but better yet, you can move the Mixer screen on to the first page!) * I haven't tried this, but if you can build the combination of sounds you want inside a hexlayer, you should be able to use the sliders to balance the individual parts in real time.

* Direct slider control of organ drawbars. * Ability to load custom samples (as keyboard-playable instruments). * the Arranger functions (arguably the main purpose of the board, though not something I've used). * Velocity sensitive pads. * Ability to easily change just the left or just the right sound of a split on the fly and adjust its octave and volume if need be. * Ability to switch among sets of split/layered sounds (Casio registrations, Roland studio sets) without having the old sound cut off when you switch to the new (in most cases). * Keys that are more consistent in how they feel from front to back. * Separate mod and pitch wheels, which I prefer to Roland's lever, because you can leave the mod wheel in place at any point and it's easier to do modulation without accidentally bending pitch. Of course, the FA also has many things that the Casio does not.

More evidence that the MZ-X is out of production and that Casio and its dealers are just selling off what's left: Sweetwater now shows "Hurry, limited quantity available" on the 500 (and the 300 is special order only). Sam Ash does not have the 300 on their web site. Thomann doesn't have either model on their web site.

I was hoping there was something yet for me to discover here. The PX560 has a nice trick where you can pretty much save your users sounds anywhere (as long as you keep standard and hexlayer tones segregated, IIRC). So I created a single screen with, for example, my favorite Piano, Rhodes, Wurli, string, brass, vibes, flute, and clav sounds. Easy, fast switching. There is no way to do this on the MZ, right? Registrations comes close (I can create a set of 8 registrations that consist of nothing but those 8 sounds), or I think I can save all 8 sounds within a single registration and switch among them using the solo buttons on the mixer screens (4 at a time), but the advantage of saving them on a screen of user tones is that they can easily be split-and-layered with each other as you play, something I don't think you can do if you'e accessing the sounds via registrations. Any hints for best possible workarounds? I guess I could create a chart and do number pad entry, but that's more cumbersome than a single press in a sound-name. (And actually, I had 24 sounds, grouped on to 3 adjacent pages of 8!) Something else for my wish list... I wish I could move sounds around within their categories, so that my favorite string sounds come up at the top of the strings list, etc. Any way to accomplish anything like this? ETA: Brad answered my related query in the facebook group... "Press and hold the tone category button to shortcut to user tones." Very helpful! So if you move (even unchanged) copies of your favorite sounds in a group to User locations, you can get to them more quickly this way (though they will still have to remain in their own categories). and p.s. -- while using Solo to switch among 16 favorite sounds from the Mixer screen might be a useful trick sometimes, unlike the other modes, sounds will cut off when you switch from one to the other.

Thanks. Yes, I hadn't checked back here yet, but I did discover it on the mixer page. In fact I've discovered all kinds of cool things. 😉

Well the Roland DS has rhythm pads. But if the argument is that 96 registrations is insufficient for pro use because the Casio registrations also have to handle rhythm/accompaniment settings, I could look at that from the other side and say a lot of pros wouldn't care about the rhythm/accompaniment features, they could be choosing the board for other reasons. (BTW, just curious, are there arrangers in the MZ-X price range that support many more registrations?)

I'm not sure I'd make that connection. Casio seems to pretty much split between "pro" boards that don't have speakers (like PX-5S and XW), and consumer/"prosumer" models that do (like PX560 and MZ-X). I'm not sure sales levels of the latter is necessarily tied to development of the former. From a pro perspective in particular, note that all the MIDI functionalities of the PX-5S and XW-P1 were omitted from the later PX560 and MZ-X (unfortunately). I think this indicates that they probably do not see these as follow-on "pro" products to those earlier models, even though many may be using them that way. I don't think that's the case. It has 96 registrations, which can be recalled pretty easily. Compare this to, for example, Roland VR-09/VR-730 (100 registrations, and awkward to call up any after the first 16), Roland Juno DS61/88 (128 performances), Korg/Vox Continental (16 scenes), Yamaha MX49/61/88 (128 Performances). These are not strictly amateur/hobbyist boards. I think the MZX actually happens to acquit itself pretty well here. At least you can do that from the Mixer screen. I do wish they had put that on the first Menu page instead of having to swipe over to the second page. (ETA: It turns out you can move it to the first page!)

Is it possible to create a Registration where the organ sound is panned to the Left output, and all the other sounds are panned to the Right? Either as a parameter within the Registration itself, or by creating User Tones that include pan position, and then incorporating those tones into the Registration? I didn't see a way to do this in the manual, but wanted to be sure I didn't miss something.

The MIDI Implementation manual says that the MZ-X recognizes Program Change commands for "Stage Setups" but the regular manuals don't mention Stage Setups. Maybe they're referring to Registrations? If so, that should give you the info to put into a PX5S to change a registration on the MZ-X.

I've had it happen again as well (after the 1.13 update). I have a suspicion that the problem may be caused by an AC power glitch (or at least that that could be one thing that could cause it).

I have noticed occasional unit-to-unit variations in keyboard feel from Casio as well as some other brands (I noticed it very much on the XW-P1, for example) . This are a number of reasons this can happen, including using parts from multiple sources, which in theory should all be identical, but actually may not be, even if they are all "within spec." My point is, while I believe you when you say that the PX560 model(s) you played feel better than the PX5S model(s), I don't think that you can extrapolate from that that *all* PX560 boards will feel better than *all* PX5S boards. Personally, I own a PX560 and a PX5S which feel the same to me. It may be that some units feel a bit different, but if it happens, I suspect it will be "luck of the draw" as to whether that different feeling action ended up in a PX560 or a PX5S. And while you're correct that some people have decided to move from a PX5S to a PX560, personally, I have not seen action as a reason. Rather, they preferred some of its features (touchscreen interface, expression pedal input, whatever), and felt that they didn't really need the things it was missing relative to the PX5S.

What are examples of kinds of things you'd like to do live, that you find difficult to do on the MX49?

No, the system update does not address this. I'm talking about an alternate downloadable piano sound, "Piano/AltAtk" - Click the link, download the patch, and install it. The note about the system update is just there to let you know that loading this piano sound requires that you have that firmware installed.

If you don't want to spend the money on a Vent (or Burn), the cheaper Electro-Harmonix Lester K has gotten some good reviews.

What you want is a pedal that can send MIDI Program Changes. Possibilities include Rocktron MIDI Mate, Behringer FCB1010, Rolls MP128, Tech21 MIDI Mouse

Best fix is to download this:

There is a ROM upgrade for the FCB1010 called UnO which adds a bunch of functionality, including, I believe, the ability to program it to send sysex commands, which I think would allow you to adjust master volume. But for master volume, it is simpler just to put a plain analog volume pedal on the Line Out. The advantage of the normal operation of the FCB1010 (or other channel-specific expression pedal solution)--which also gets back to the general question of the thread about the benefits of these pedals in general--is to allow you to control individual parts that have been assigned to different channels. A common example is being able to fade strings in and out under piano. But any time you are splitting or layering two sounds, it can be useful to have a pedal that affects the volume of one but not the other, that's where you'd want to use an expression pedal rather than an analog volume pedal. For another example, let's say you've split the keyboard for playing left hand bass. What if you want to make your right hand sound louder or quieter without affecting the volume of the bass? A pedal is a great way to do that. Sure, you could also use one of the sliders, but that requires that you stop playing with one of your hands in order to make the adjustment. Typically, when playing LH bass, you can't stop that part. So if you want to adjust your right hand sound (piano, for example), you'll have to stop playing your right hand part, adjust the slider then go back to playing... an approach that is further complicated by the fact that there will be some guesswork involved in setting the level, as you can't play the part and adjust the level of the part at the same time. A solution for that problem that does not require an expression pedal would be to pan your bass sound left and your piano sound right, and then if you had an analog pedal on the right line out, you'd be able to use that to control your RH sound without affecting your LH sound. Of course, that limits you to playing mono sounds. Another use for an expression pedal is to introduce any other sound alteration, like modulation or filter, without having to use a hand. Again, if your LH is busy playing bass or some other part, it can be nice to be able to introduce effects like vibrato or filter sweeps on your lead part without having to use a hand. (Aftertouch is another way to do this on some boards, but not the PX5S.)

Ah, yes means filtering it out, got it! I'm not sure that's the most obvious implementation they could have come up with for determining what will and won't be saved in regsitrations, but so be it. ;-) If they apply to all 96 registrations, though, what is the purpose of being able to change the top line to 96 separate entries? Is there some other functionality there that I'm not seeing? Oh geez, I had downloaded that appendix long ago too. Completely forgot. This is what happens when I'm up until 3 am programming for a gig. It's a complex show (a bunch of ELP, etc.), and last time I did it with 6 keyboards, and I'm working on getting the count down for this one! I've got a little Roland JP-08 on the right of the PX560, and have programmed in registrations that let me split and layer the Casio with the Roland. While it obviously has its MIDI limitations relative to the PX5S, with a little creativity, you can do some nice tricks, as the different "parts" transmit on different MIDI channels, and you can feed the external module's sound into the Casio itself, and use the Casio knobs to control the volumes of the internal and "line in" sounds, and store the internal/external splits, layers, and relative volumes as registrations. Cool.