Jokeyman123 Posted April 16, 2021 Share Posted April 16, 2021 Just boning up on Kris Nicholson's demos of the venerable MZ-2000, which I know several of you here still play. After hearing his organ demo-is it just Youtube, or does this have a killer Leslie simulation-to my ears, its sounds better than the 560 and XW! Is that possible-those of you who can compare. I do not have an MZ-but seriously contemplating based on just the organ demo-I also have a ZPI PX575 Casio which has a very good acoustic piano set-will this sound pretty much the same organ and piano wise, if you can compare? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Saucier Posted April 16, 2021 Share Posted April 16, 2021 Short answer, yes, I think the MZ-2000 is still the better all around organ. However, if you add a good external rotary sim to any of the new models, they'll sound as good and better than the old MZ. Keep in mind, Kris is showing the sampled organs rather than the virtual drawbar organ engine. MZ-2000 has 65 preset organ tones based on samples. Most of them have sampled rotary effects of some level baked in, and the programmers were clever enough to combine that with the DSP rotary effects to make things sound better than either one could standing on its own. The DSP rotary effects in the MZ-2000 versus the newer Casio products is similar, but some noticable differences help it stand out. Probably the biggest difference, MZ-2000 DSP rotary was a mono effect, where newer products are a stereo effect, and that brings a noticable change in the sound. The stereo effect is a tradeoff from having dual rotating speaker speeds. MZ-2000 favors emulating dual speed rotating speakers rather than stereo. For me, I would not favor stereo at the cost of those dual speaker speeds. Probably the second most noticable difference is that the MZ-2000 has different rotary DSP effects with different EQ characteristics. Rotary preset 3 on the MZ is warm, rich sounding. I think all of the current ones sound most like preset 1 in the MZ. You would need to use the master EQ on the PX-560 to emulate the different EQ characteristics baked into the different rotary presets on the MZ. I think you would have fun with the MZ-2000. It has 2 different sampled grand pianos. Neither one is stereo, and neither one is multi strike, but the velocity controlled filter makes them expressive despite. A preset "stereo" piano tone combines both sampled pianos for an interesting sound. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chas Posted April 16, 2021 Share Posted April 16, 2021 Always worth pointing out that the MZ2000 also has a surprisingly good synth section with a very sweet sounding DSP resonant filter. I programmed some Moog style payches into mine that could literally shake foundations! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Saucier Posted April 16, 2021 Share Posted April 16, 2021 Oh, and the crazy part about the MZ's virtual drawbar organ emulation, you can press the synth button and adjust filter cutoff, resonance, and brilliance of the drawbar organ, something you can't do on any of the newer models, only can be done on sampled organ tones in those. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jokeyman123 Posted April 16, 2021 Author Share Posted April 16, 2021 Thanks-that explains the leslie effect. Being used to the real Leslies, i though I heard a difference-its impressive no matter how Casio did it. And drawbars used for synth funcions-in real time. Can these canges be recorded in real time using the drawbars? Hmm....hat eto show my hand but I'm asking as there is an MZ on e***, I'm pretty close to pulling the trigger. Kris is quite a player...does he still do Casio demos? I know this one was a long time ago. And Ed Alstrom-another Casio name from the past-found some very detailed posts from him from way back. Guess Mike Martin has taken over some or all of his chores. That's what keeps me watching Casio-just when you think they are predictable, they throw in an MZ-2000. or a GP piano-or the PX560, or...... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chas Posted April 17, 2021 Share Posted April 17, 2021 Kris is still pretty active, though he's not done much Casio related videos of late. I think partly because he's currently sponsored by Williams Pianos, so he has an obligation to feature them more: https://youtube.com/c/KMNKeyboardVault Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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