MZX500 HONEST REVIEW AFTER A YEAR OF USE

[brownysweet]

i WROTE A REVIEW BEFORE. THIS SECOND TIME AROUND I AM STILL A TRUE BELIEVER. THIS KEYBOARD ROCKS LIKE NO KEYBOARD EVER DID BEFORE!!!! I HAVE CHANGED EVERY SINGLE PARAMETER ON IT, TAKING THE SOUND THIS BEAST PRODUCES BEYOND OUTER LIMITS. THE RESULTS WERE OUTSTANDING. I HAVE TRANSFORMED THE FACTORY RYTHMS TO GET THE BEST OF THEM, I HAVE CREATED THE ULTIMATE ARRANGER!!!  AND IT IS NOT ME, IT IS THE BEAUTY OF THIS INSTRUMENT WHICH IS THERE TO BE DISCOVERED. THIS IS A KEYBOARD FOR TWEAKHEADS LIKE ME, NOT FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE LAZY AND JUST WANT INSTANT GRATIFICATION. I STILL DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THE CASIO PEOPLE HAVE NOT DONE MUCH TO UPGRADE THIS MARVEL. IT IS LIKE HIDDEN TREASURE THAT ONLY A FEW WILL DISCOVER. IT IS A SUPER POWERFUL MACHINE THAT NEEDS TO BE TWEAKED TO FIND A PLETHORA OF OUT OF THIS WORLD SOUNDS. THE SAMPLES ARE THERE, ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS BE PATIENT AND START DISCOVERING WHAT THIS KEYBOARD IS CAPABLE OF. FROM BEAUTIFUL SAXES TO INCREDIBLE STRINGS, FROM  MULTIDIMENTIONAL AND SPACIOUS SYNTH SOUNDS TO INCREDIBLE COMBINATIONS, ALL IS THERE. THIS  IS BASICALLY CINDERELLA IN DISGUISE. A REAL PRINCESS WHO WAITS FOR THE RIGHT MUSICIAN.  PLEASE MR. MIKE MARTIN, DO NOT LET THE CASIO PEOPLE FORGET THIS INSTRUMENT, IT IS TOO VALUABLE TO BE FORGOTTEN SO EASILY. I HAVE TWO OF THESE NOW AND ALONG WITH MY PRIVIA PX5S THE SKY IS THE LIMIT. CASIO PEOPLE, BUCKLE DOWN AND BRING US THIS INSTRUMENT ON STEROIDS. I WILL BE THE FIRST TO BUY IT. PERIOD. THIS KEYBOARD BLOWS SIMILAR OFFERS FROM OTHER COMPANIES OUT OF THE WATER AND MORE.

[Allanon]

Yes, I agree with you, this is a great instrument but I feel that the software side is somewhat incomplete, with some little improvements this keyboard could really become a monster!
Some features I really miss, for example, are :

- The ability to switch on/off parts/channel using the pads

- The ability to use the drawbars to adjust the 4 parts volume without going to the mixer

- A more comfortable sequencer (this is the main wish I've for this instrument).

- More flexibility to assign and use the DSPs

 

I'm not complaining, this instrument has still much features and flexibility (for example with the pads) that other keyboards doesn't have, I'm just saying that with a little effort on the software side the MZ-X could really became an iconic instrument, if no firmware updates will follow, well... it will be a lost opportunity for Casio to mark the MZ-X a the best innovative instrument of the last few years.

Said that, I still have great fun playing my MZ-X500, excluding the noisy keys, I've not found any issues in my almost-daily use, I'll keep it until I'll be able to bear the noisy keys that sometimes I'm able to hear also thought the headphones!
 

[Rudolph R-N R]

@ Brownysweet,

That’s great that you love this board all the more after a year.  Yes, you spend tweak time and you are richly rewarded with this board.

 

Just a thought, but I’d find your post more enjoyable if you didn’t write in all caps and you broke it up into paragraphs.  

 

[Rudolph R-N R]

On 10/23/2018 at 11:53 PM, Allanon said:

Yes, I agree with you, this is a great instrument but I feel that the software side is somewhat incomplete, with some little improvements this keyboard could really become a monster!
Some features I really miss, for example, are :

- The ability to switch on/off parts/channel using the pads

- The ability to use the drawbars to adjust the 4 parts volume without going to the mixer

- A more comfortable sequencer (this is the main wish I've for this instrument).

- More flexibility to assign and use the DSPs

 

I'm not complaining, this instrument has still much features and flexibility (for example with the pads) that other keyboards doesn't have, I'm just saying that with a little effort on the software side the MZ-X could really became an iconic instrument, if no firmware updates will follow, well... it will be a lost opportunity for Casio to mark the MZ-X a the best innovative instrument of the last few years.

Said that, I still have great fun playing my MZ-X500, excluding the noisy keys, I've not found any issues in my almost-daily use, I'll keep it until I'll be able to bear the noisy keys that sometimes I'm able to hear also thought the headphones!
 

 

Allanon, I very much agree, there’s some really basic software improvements that would go a long ways.

- Cool idea to switch on/off parts/channel using the pads!  Examples please.  Do you mean like with some Yamaha workstations where you can switch on/off 16 different sounds using hardware buttons?

 

- Drawbars to adjust 4 parts volume without going to mixer?  How would this be done?  At the very least the Mixer page needs to be on the first screen, instead of having to scroll to the second screen.  In the course of editing or performing, I’m using the Mixer page a lot, and it makes no sense that there’s a dedicated hardware button to access Tones, PLUS they put access to the Tone page on that first screen.

 

- What is it about the sequencer that is not working for you?

 

- More flexibility to assign and use DSPs: once again, how would you have this implemented?  I suppose cost restraints made this decision, but only having 2 DSPs instead of 4 makes things harder.  

 

 

I’d love to see a moderated thread for these kinds of suggestions.  I suppose there might be some trickle down to Casio from the many threads on improvements to the MZ-X, but what if there was one thread that was moderated by Brad?  Much better chance of Casio looking at it and not having to go thru so many threads

- Only firmware improvements, not ideas for a next generation board

- Basic guidelines laid out for how to format our suggestions

 

Randy

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Brad Saucier]

1 hour ago, Randelph said:

I’m using the Mixer page a lot, and it makes no sense that there’s a dedicated hardware button to access Tones, PLUS they put access to the Tone page on that first screen

 

You can customize the icons that show up on the first screen.  Go to system settings, advanced, menu settings.

[anotherscott]

11 hours ago, Brad Saucier said:

 

You can customize the icons that show up on the first screen.  Go to system settings, advanced, menu settings.

 

Wow, what a difference that makes! (I also realized that, if you need to navigate to the second page, you don't have to deal with the slow swipe, you can do a quick transition by tapping directly on the arrow, which I'd somehow missed originally. But now that I know you can customize the first screen, that hardly matters.) I've put Tone, Registration, and Mixer at the top of page 1. Tone for when I want to mix-and-match upper/lower sounds on the fly (where those Octave buttons are really useful); Registration for calling up my pre-configured favorites (because I can see their names); Mixer for sound balancing.

 

To me, one of the flaws in the interface is the lack of a single screen where you can enable/choose the split point, adjust the octaves of the sounds on either side of the split, and adjust the volumes for the sounds on either side of the split. These are really three parts of the same operation, and you have to go to three different screens to do those things (Main, Tone, and Mixer pages respectively, though there are other ways to address volume). But at least organizing the screens as I did makes the navigation among those screens less cumbersome.

[Brad Saucier]

3 minutes ago, anotherscott said:

Tone for when I want to mix-and-match upper/lower sounds on the fly (where those Octave buttons are really useful);

 

There is a physical tone button next to the screen that will take you to the same page that the tone icon will in the menu.  I would replace that menu item with something else.  😉

[anotherscott]

I never noticed it! So then I'm always just 1 tap away from Main or Tone, 2 taps away from Mixer, cool.

[Allanon]

On 11/2/2018 at 12:05 PM, Randelph said:

 

Allanon, I very much agree, there’s some really basic software improvements that would go a long ways.

- Cool idea to switch on/off parts/channel using the pads!  Examples please.  Do you mean like with some Yamaha workstations where you can switch on/off 16 different sounds using hardware buttons?

 

- Drawbars to adjust 4 parts volume without going to mixer?  How would this be done?  At the very least the Mixer page needs to be on the first screen, instead of having to scroll to the second screen.  In the course of editing or performing, I’m using the Mixer page a lot, and it makes no sense that there’s a dedicated hardware button to access Tones, PLUS they put access to the Tone page on that first screen.

 

- What is it about the sequencer that is not working for you?

 

- More flexibility to assign and use DSPs: once again, how would you have this implemented?  I suppose cost restraints made this decision, but only having 2 DSPs instead of 4 makes things harder.  

 

 

I’d love to see a moderated thread for these kinds of suggestions.  I suppose there might be some trickle down to Casio from the many threads on improvements to the MZ-X, but what if there was one thread that was moderated by Brad?  Much better chance of Casio looking at it and not having to go thru so many threads

- Only firmware improvements, not ideas for a next generation board

- Basic guidelines laid out for how to format our suggestions

 

Randy

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Randy!

Here are some things that could be implemented in software, as I said I enjoy the MZ X500 but dreaming does not costs too much 

 

PADS

The interface should show a new button where the player can select how the pads should behave, it could really nice to have these modes:

- Playback (the currently implemented mode)

- Switch Channels (this could be very helpful to mute or solo tracks, for example during the playback of a midi file you could use pads to mute or solo certain tracks on the fly)

- Instrument Select (Using this mode you could switch to an instrument in defined in the mixer, suppose you have track1 : Bass, track 2 : Sax, track 3 : Strings, etc... uosing this mode when you prss pad 1 the istrument in track 1 is assigned to the currently selected voice (1-4), it could be very handy to have a more extended palette of sounds under your finger tips).

- Cool idea to switch on/off parts/channel using the pads!  Examples please.  Do you mean like with some Yamaha workstations where you can switch on/off 16 different sounds using hardware buttons?

 

DRAWBARS

The interface should allow to select how the drawbars works, right now the drawbars behaviour changes depending on the selected tone (standard tone, hex layer, drawbar organ, mixer), this is ok but it could allow more flexibility implementing the following:
- Auto (the current implemented mode)
- Performance (Allow to change volume & Cutoff of the 4 voices used for the upper/lower)
- Volumes (Allow to change volume of the channels, again very useful to adjust midi playback on the fly, the organ percussion buttons could be used to select the 1-8 tracks & 9-16 tracks).

- Effect Tweaker (allow to tweak the DSP effects on real time without the need to dig into the tone edit screen)
The Mixer page is very well designed but during live you miss many useful informations like chord, beat count, split, arpegiator, knob assignments, etc... it could be very useful to arrange volumes from the main screen.

 

SEQUENCER
A workstation like the MZ X500 deserves at least a sequencer like the one seen on the Roland FA 🙂

Come on guys, we are almost on 2019!

DSP
Well, on this topic I've no idea if it is possible or not to add more flexibily because of the hardware implementation...  anyway I do not say to increase DSP channels, that's impossible because as I said it's binded to the hardware implementation, instead I was wondering if it is possible to allow more flexibility on the routing system.

Ok, finished
That's my dream for my first Casio Keyboard I ever had, come on Casio make your customers happy!
...and forgive my childish english!
 

[sslyutov]

Questions about MZ:

How many different arpeggio patterns can be played simultaneously?
How many channels can be used to generate a new custom arpeggio?
How many notes can be programmed per channel when creating a custom arpeggio?

[sslyutov]

FA sequencer is a useless piece of art :) I love FA but do not miss it.

[Brad Saucier]

1 hour ago, sslyutov said:

Questions about MZ:

How many different arpeggio patterns can be played simultaneously?
How many channels can be used to generate a new custom arpeggio?
How many notes can be programmed per channel when creating a custom arpeggio?

 

There is one arpeggiator.  It can trigger up to two zones at once.

[sslyutov]

55 minutes ago, Brad Saucier said:

 

There is one arpeggiator.  It can trigger up to two zones at once.

Here is the area which can be improved.

Listed above questions have a more advanced implementation in some products of other brands.

 

[Brad Saucier]

Casio also has more advanced arpeggiators in other products.  PX-5S has 4 arpeggiators with controller tracks.    

[sslyutov]

2 hours ago, Brad Saucier said:

Casio also has more advanced arpeggiators in other products.  PX-5S has 4 arpeggiators with controller tracks.    

Another option is to create an arpeggiator with MIDI events(not notes) 

[Brad Saucier]

1 hour ago, sslyutov said:

Another option is to create an arpeggiator with MIDI events(not notes) 

 

That is exactly what the controller track does.  

[Leonh]

Yes MZ series lack in software development they could do much better but there is a way around it  I use Cubase  for recording so for the relative cheap price of MZX 500  399£ plus Cubase  you get very powerful package for peanuts.

[eldo gultom]

Has anyone ever made a "comparison" on the MZX 500 with the Yamaha PSR SX600?

I may have the opportunity to buy one of them with used condition.

I tend to choose Casio because of the price, but if anyone has experience with both of them, please share.

 

Thank You

[Just Alex]

Yes I did.

 

MZ-X500 is only good if you want to play with your own sounds - create some eerie, strange and futuristics (as they were thought in 80s) voices. If you looking for all-round arranger keyboard, SX600 is far better in terms of sound quality, expansion pack availability and functionality.

[eldo gultom]

Thanks Alex for the input..

I just bought a MZ-X500, I already have a used Yamaha DGX 670, and after I tried the PR SX600, I think they (DGX 670 and SX600) are quite similar,  in feel and sounds.

 

Strangely, my DGX 670 and MZ-X500 (both bought used), priced the same as a new SX600 !! .

So I think I get a good  deal..

Hope I have the patience to play around with this new toy. My plan is to use MZ-X500 with my previously bought used PX-560 on stage.