Rick Stirling

44 minutes ago, Casiokid said:

Anyone experienced an intermittent 'hum,' that sometimes comes on, since updating to 1.40? 

 

It disappears when MZ is switched off and back on again?

Can you record the "hum"? In other words, is it on the audio bus before the output amplifier?

On 8/15/2016 at 10:42 AM, Rick Sterling said:

All manuals from the Casio site are PW protected. In particular the latest 1.31 Appendix PDF ... Web_MZX500APPEND-131-WL-1A.pdf   as shown below. It is trivial to bypass the PW protection however. ;-)

 

 

Just a note: The new 1.40 Appendix is also password protected. Not that it really matters. ;-)

Check out this page for free Yamaha Brazilian styles 

http://br.yamaha.com/pt/products/musical-instruments/keyboards/digitalkeyboards/arranger_workstations/awk/vse/

Your best bet is to find some Brazilian styles in Yamaha .STY format and convert them with the X500.  I've done a few Yamaha JAZZ styles from the TYROS series with good results. 

Sua melhor aposta é encontrar alguns estilos brasileiros no formato Yamaha. STY e convertê-los com o X500. Eu fiz alguns estilos de JAZZ da Yamaha da série TYROS com bons resultados.

NOTE: If anyone wants to hear an audition of any of the other styles shown in my 1st post above, just let me know and I'll  create an audition file for you.

cheers,

Rick

36 minutes ago, Jazzman said:

How can I load the new rhythms?  Will they overwrite any of the existing that I have used in registrations already?

Download the ZIP file, unzip to get the ZPK Package file.  Store the ZPK file in the MUSICDAT directory on your USB thumb-drive.  Insert thumb-drive on your X500  and go to MEDIA and select  LOAD then select PACKAGE. You should see your ZPK file. Select it and load. The new styles will be stored in your USER RHYTHM section. They will not overwrite unless you force it by adjusting the 'User Area' parameter.

Only preset I've figured out so far is 092 My Swing = All of Me 

All Of Me.pdf

OrchestralSwing2_81_C.mp3

NYSwing_124_C.mp3

SteadyJazz_128_C.mp3

Here's an audio recording of the new SmoothJazz style in this format

Key: C

Tempo: 93

Intro1:Var1:Fill1:Var2:Fill2:Var3:Fill3:Var4:Fill4:Ending1

Key Cm

Tempo: 93

Intro1:Ending1

SmoothJazz_ 93_C.mp3

Here's an audio recording of the new CoolJazz style in this format

Key: C

Tempo: 130

Intro1:Var1:Fill1:Var2:Fill2:Var3:Fill3:Var4:Fill4:Ending1

Key Cm

Tempo: 130

Intro1:Ending1

CoolJazz_130_C.mp3

Here's an audio recording of the new UpTempoJazz style in this format

Key: C

Tempo: 153

Intro1:Var1:Fill1:Var2:Fill2:Var3:Fill3:Var4:Fill4:Ending1

Key Cm

Tempo: 153

Intro1:Ending1

UpTempoJazz_153_C.mp3

On 11/10/2016 at 1:46 AM, JohnMak said:

[snip] ...

Any comment you can make on wether these new rythyms will be suitable for me would be much appreciated Rick as I cant find any good demos on YouTube yet.

 

kind regards,

John 

Eminently suitable John.  I mostly play the jazz standards. The added jazz styles in this offering from Casio have really increased my enjoyment of the X500.

11 minutes ago, Rick Sterling said:

Tried to search the forums for 'zpk or '.zpk' without luck this morning. Apparently the forum software will not search for three letter words. Is there a work-a-round?

Found my work-a-round. Google to the rescue ....

zpk site:http://www.casiomusicforums.com/  did the trick.

EDIT: Note this will only work with Google Chrome of course. ;-)

Tried to search the forums for 'zpk or '.zpk' without luck this morning. Apparently the forum software will not search for three letter words. Is there a work-a-round?

Just now, BradMZ said:

  I suspect the next firmware update will also be pretty awesome! 

I am VERY MUCH looking forward to the new firmware! ;-) 

These new styles are awesome! I have some new jazz favorites now!

Casio has released 40 new rhythms that are really outstanding. 

Find them here ... 

Although it says "Global" I would characterize them as "Western" ;-)

Here's a list ...

Rhythm Name - Display Name
USA FOLK ROCK USA FolkRock
NOUGHTIES FUNK NoughtieFunk
ROCK ANTHEM Rock Anthem
UP TEMPO JAZZ UpTempoJazz
90's BALLAD 2 90'sBallad 2
REGGAE DANCE Reggae Dance
80's POP ROCK 80's PopRock
80's POP STAR 80's PopStar
POP DISCO Pop Disco
DANCE POP 2 Dance Pop 2
HARD ROCK Hard Rock
BOOGIE BLUES Boogie Blues
COOL JAZZ Cool Jazz
ORCHESTRA BOSSA Orch. Bossa
POP CHA CHA Pop Cha Cha
SALSA DANCE Salsa Dance
POP REGGAE Pop Reggae
SLOW BALLAD 3 SlowBallad 3
16 BEAT BALLAD 2 16Beat Bld 2
FOLK REGGAE Folk Reggae
ACOUSTIC GUITAR 8 BEAT A.Guitar 8Bt
80's SYNTH POP 80'sSynthPop
FUNK SOUL Funk Soul
JAZZ FUNK Jazz Funk
SMOOTH JAZZ Smooth Jazz
80's SUPER ROCK 80sSuperRock
MODERN ROCK Modern Rock
GUITAR 8 BEAT 2 Guitar8Beat2
CHART DANCE Chart Dance
STEADY JAZZ Steady Jazz
BOOGIE BIG BAND Boogie Band
MODERN BIG BAND Mod Big Band
NEW YORK SWING NY Swing
ORCHESTRA SWING 2 Orch.Swing 2
EURO SAMBA PARTY Euro Samba
POP RHUMBA Pop Rhumba
INDIGENOUS DANCE Indig Dance
SYNTH POP EXPANSION SynthPop Exp
FUNK 8 BEAT EXPANSION Funk8BeatExp
POP ROCK EXPANSION Pop Rock Exp

13 hours ago, Scott Hamlin said:

Just be aware: using anything other than the provided adapter is done at your own risk. Maybe nothing will happen using something else, maybe you could fry your MZ beyond repair. Be careful, Casio brothers! 

Very true ... If you are at all concerned about this, just use a beefy 12v DC battery with a >= 100 watt DC to AC sine wave inverter and plug your factory power brick into the inverter.  It will cost a LOT more to do it this way but if you're not an electrical engineer (I am) you wont have to worry about blowing up your keyboard. ;-)

According to Mike Martin on Facebook ... " A very big update coming later this month "

Let the speculation begin! ;-)

1 hour ago, dfahrner said:

Rick - what kind of DC power connector did you use to connect the batteries to the MZX?  I'm trying to find out what industry standard type (EIAJ-?), or manufacturers part numbers, are used for the MZX power connections...???

 

df

I have no idea.  As an amateur radio operator I have boxes filled with all sorts of electronic parts. One large box was just old power supply bricks and I found one with the right plug on it. Looking at the plug I would think Radio Shack would have an DC Adaptaplug that would work.  It looks like the outer diameter is 6.9mm ... that would probably be an Adaptaplug R You can see the Adaptaplug specs here ... http://support.radioshack.com/support_tutorials/batteries/pwrgde-2H.htm  good luck!

If the outside diameter is 6.5mm then it's probably a 'T' plug seen here ... https://www.radioshack.com/products/radioshack-adaptaplug-t?variant=20331678085

3 hours ago, BradMZ said:

Example: Choose a drawbar vtw organ tone that has the rotary effect for upper 1. Press menu>controller>pedal 1 edit>target>page 16>speed (DSP1 Param 1).  Return to main menu and save as a registration.  

 

 

Found it. Thank you Brad!

1 hour ago, BradMZ said:

You can assign it to the pedals, knobs or mod wheel.  Go to controllers, pick your choice of controller, select speed fast slow parameter as the target for the controller then save it as a registration.  

What page is that on in Controllers Brad? I looked all through there and didn't see it. Must be getting blind! ;-)

Doesn't look like there is a direct way to do this. Perhaps you could save your changes in registrations and then use the Foot switch pedal to step through the registrations.

I use two 12v 7AH gel cells in series for portable power. Works great