PX560 keyboard action

[Jokeyman123]

Keyboard mania-not content to play my PX350, PX575 and XW-P1, I am purchasing the newer PX560 and would like to get some opinions regarding the key action. I looks identical mechanically to my older PX350, which I am very happy with, with some modifications as I've already posted here. But quality control and manufacturing being what it is, I am somewhat concerned this will not be the equal of the PX350. My keys were somewhat clacky (I am picky) thus my mods with additional felt on top and under the keys since the noise was coming both from key down and key return actions. I am hoping the PX560 will not suffer from this same problem,  I don't know if I am equipped to do another extensive mod. I will if I have to.

        Thanks!

[KevinD]

Get your felt ready.  👽 My August, 2017 PX560 keys make a noticeable clunky sound that I do not hear over my headphones nor JBL LSR305 speakers. The display interface is very convenient. Verify that you like the instrument sounds generated by this sophisticated hardware. I am a home user.

[Casiofun]

Casio uses soft felt that compresses quickly especially under hard fast playing. You will likely need to replace felt in whichever Casio you own. I wish they would use felt made from wool that acoustic pianos use. It is more durable and holds up better. You can buy it from piano supply companies and the cost is reasonable. But you do have to to cut it to the width and length dimensions needed.

[Joe Muscara]

The action in the 560 is the same as newer Casio models such as the PX-160, PX-360, and CGP-700. It is not the same as previous generation models such as the PX-350.

 

That's not to say the felt is different nor that some may feel the keys become noisy or not (I haven't encountered this so I cannot judge). I just want to point out there are differences in the actions. I do think the later action is an improvement, generally speaking.

[Jokeyman123]

Thanks all. I can't imagine how the action could be improved-the PX350 is pretty amazing already, and the noise factor on mine was due to it's being used-I could see that when I dissected it-the felt had already been pretty compressed by prior use, must have been a floor model, so no criticism of Casio there. Will post results as soon as I get the PX560 delivered, due next week.

[Casiofun]

I'm reasonably sure the action is the same as the PX-350. It was developed after the PXX30 series run and has not been updated as far as I know.

[Joe Muscara]

8 hours ago, Casiofun said:

I'm reasonably sure the action is the same as the PX-350. It was developed after the PXX30 series run and has not been updated as far as I know.

 

On 6/20/2018 at 5:19 AM, Joe Muscara said:

The action in the 560 is the same as newer Casio models such as the PX-160, PX-360, and CGP-700. It is not the same as previous generation models such as the PX-350.

 

That's not to say the felt is different nor that some may feel the keys become noisy or not (I haven't encountered this so I cannot judge). I just want to point out there are differences in the actions. I do think the later action is an improvement, generally speaking.

 

[Jokeyman123]

Now an even more difficult decision will come up-we should all have these problems right? Whether to keep my PX350 along with the PX560, or sell-I already am changing the nature of the electric aura around my house with my super-abundance of musical technology...🚫  Given i could probably carry both of these to a gig-one under each arm, and tie my sound system around my waist to drag it along with my little red wagon-is pretty enticing. Thoughts anyone? 

[Casiofun]

If it were me, I would sell the PX-350 figuring the PX-560 has what I would need. The color touchscreen upgraded sounds, better action and more polophony. Maybe the bigger question is how much you would play the 350 if you were to keep it and what would its role be in your music making.

[Grigou]

Juste before the PX560 I played a Clavinova CLP 370 (2 sensors, 4 levels of dynamics, bought in 2009).

Of course, it was just a piano (it's why I bought the Casio), but in terms of keyboard (feeling and noise), the Yamaha was, IMHO, much better to play the piano.

[Jokeyman123]

PX-560, a few quick impressions now that I've played it for a day or two.

 

The key action feels a little "stiffer" than my PX350-not by much but noticeable and probably because it is factory new. It is also quieter, but again probably for the same reason. Mike Martin has already described that the actions are identical between the newest Privias and I can see that it looks very similar to my older PX350 for those of you who need to know this-I have disassembled the 560, followed the same procedure as the PX350. There are 3 rows of screws that need to be removed plus the side panels with 4 screws each in order to open the top control panel, which comes open in one piece, the keyboard action as an assembly does not have to be removed iand is fastened with several other rows of screws not necessary to remove if you want to open the top panel. I have taken some photos of the insides-not the key assembly just the circuit boards and speakers. I will post if anyone asks. Don't do this if you are under warranty-it will void it. I purchased a store return (risky) for less money but no warranty, so I had no qualms about working on it.

 

I don't particularly care for the factory accompaniments-serviceable but not why I bought it and it is compatible with older .CKF and .AC7 rhythm accompaniments although i haven't tried loading any yet.

 

So this is an impressive instrument IMO, not a workstation strictly speaking, but pretty close for my purposes. Definitely an operational step up from my PX350 and the same excellent pianos with many additional. Different back-firing speaker arrangement which definitely changes the player's perception of what this sounds like-need good front-firing speakers to really hear this beast-the px350 speakers fire out the back and top-but then again, since the top is solid on the 560, less chance of damage to the speakers, speaker grills or getting junk in there-not such a bad idea. And the physical presentation is very nice-my first keyboard that is not black, except for the CZs, which had a kind of metallic dark gray I recall.

 

One other thought-which I should probably post separately-has anyone tried accessing an additional outboard controller with-yes-slide controls for creating drawbars with the PX560 organ sounds? If Casio had added these-it would have been a massive challenge to the competition and maybe somebody here can achieve that.  I know I'm asking for trouble but even my older PX575 has virtual drawbars in the IDES 4.0 software connected to my computers and it works well. -and I am holding onto my old Generalmusic Equinox for just that reason-which still beats the best Casio in that regard. 8 sliders, which control organ drawbars, dedicated buttons for individual percussion and slow/fast leslie. The sliders also control  8 independent sounds in real time-an octal layer if you want to call it that for  controlling volume, pan, resonance and anything you want for each sound in real time. And these each can be stored as a program, and then played live over a separate 16-track sequence-I still see nothing that can do this anywhere from anyone. Maybe in the next Casio PX10s or Privia workstation keyboard. I know the 3 analog controls can be programmed to do some things, but I don't think controlling different organ stops is one of them. I will midi my XW-P to the 560 and see what happens (maybe even the Equinox)  although I haven't studied midi implementation enough to have a clue-yet.

[bfields]

The 560 doesn't have a clonewheel simulation like other keyboards do.  I think it might be possible to get part of the way there by piecing together organ sounds in hex layers and setting an external MIDI controller to control the levels of the various layers?  Never tried it, but I think if you google around you'll find people trying similar tricks with the px-5s (which has a similar synth engine but more physical controllers).

[Jokeyman123]

Thanks-didn't think of that. Will look at PX5s see what they are doing.  And yes, a hex layer might be a good kludge. If I play out with this, I think I would opt for the Equinox for the organs or even the XW-P1-heaven forbid! Playing organ parts with the piano action is not a good idea anyway. My fingers are already stubby enough without wearing them out further.

[Brad Saucier]

Yes, it's possible.  You could use sine waves and two hex layer tones.  It's a fun project, but not something I would do unless it was my only keyboard.  

[Jokeyman123]

Right Brad, probably not worth the hassle. One (maybe) last comment about the key action on my newer PX560-after repeatedly playing this and my heavily modified PX350-the latter is much quieter and less clunky to play-sigh.  But then I did do some heavy modification to get it like this. Maybe i will end up doing the same-again. Maybe in a year or two, was not easy to do. Oh well. The 560 is still an amazing instrument IMO.

 

And I am quibbling, but I wish Casio had used 1/4" jacks for the headphones since most of my pro headsets are-with the 1/8" adapters I use, presents another obstacle to break off-and there is no easy mod for this as there is an integrated dedicated circuit board for the 2 jacks. Doing some research, I discovered this same circuit board is I think, used throughout the Privia range-if you have dual 1/8" input jacks for headphones, it's probably the same part as the PX560. I know this because my jacks were defective, I found the same part listed online for the PX160 which was identical-I couldn't find one listed for the PX560 although I didn't order it from Casio parts, and it fit and worked perfectly.