XW-P1 to play Rush

[Narnea22]

I'm thinking of buying a new Casio XW-P1 as they are still manufactured. The price is relatively affordable, and I liked the tones I saw in the videos. I wanted to play music from the 80s, especially Rush. The synth solo tones sound very good, and some even remind me of the 70's Moog tones. What worries me are the more harmonic tones, where chords are used, since I read that chords can only be played in Hex Layer mode. Naturally, that would worry me. I don't know if I could reproduce the synth tone of songs like Subdivisions, Turn The Page, Witch Hunt, and the one that worries me the most, The Camera Eye, where there is a "repetition" while the note is being pressed. Could you tell me if this synth works for this type of sound? Is there a possibility to save MIDI tones directly to the keyboard memory card? Or just being connected to a PC/iPad?

[Chas]

I'm surprised that you managed to find an XW-P1 available new as I thought that they were long discontinued. Despite being released almost a decade ago, they are still great synths.

 

You are right in that the Solo Synth section of the XW-P1 can only play single notes. It's basically replicaing a mono synth, therefore it's monophonic. It would be able to replicate much of Geddy's MiniMoog synth parts and do a good job of covering the Taurus bass pedals.

 

For the polyphonic parts, Geddy's favourite poly synth for a number of years (first half of the 80s mostly) was his Oberheim OBx. He also dabbled with a Jupiter 8 occasionally. For Turn the Page (from Hold Your Fire), he was also using digital synths and samplers. 

 

The "repetition" sound you describe from The Camera Eye, that can be heard at the beginning behind the melody and chords of the intro, is the Sample and Hold feature of one of the synths being used.  I seem to recall an XW patch available that can replicate this. 

 

To answer your question, yes, the XW-P1 could deliver most of those sounds you are after,  but bare in mind that you are trying to emulate multiple different (and iconic) synths and synthesis types. It will take some work and understanding of how to program the XW to get them. Also, the Hex Layers can deliver some very powerful and complex polyphonic sounds, as well as fat analogue style sound. One caveat with the XW-P1 is that you can only use the Solo Synth OR the Hex Layers (or the Drawbar Organ) at any given time. You can't use both simultaneously, even if you split the keyboard. You can, however, use polyphonic PCM tones with the Solo Synth.

 

As for saving patches, there are user slots for those that you can save to directly in the XW. You can program the XW from the front panel,  but as the XW is a pretty deep synth, using the Data Editor via a computer makes it much easier. Plus the Data Editor works as a librarian too, making it easier to arrange and store patches and all other settings.

 

Check out some of Mike Martin's video tutorials and guides (see below) for the XW and you'll get a good idea of how to get the sounds that you are after.  Also check the pinned posts at the top of the XW sub section for the XW-P1 Companion Guide and also another video guide series. 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2022 by Chas

[Narnea22]

4 horas atrás, Chas disse:

Estou surpreso que você tenha encontrado muito disponível um novo XW-P11, pois pensei que eles estavam descontinuados há tempo. Apesar de terem sido lançados há quase uma década, eles ainda são ótimos sintetizadores.

 

Você está certo em que a seção Solo Synth do XW-P1 só pode tocar notas simples. É basicamente replicar um sintetizador mono, portanto é monofônico. Seriaria muitas das partes do sintetizador inferior e fazer um bom trabalho de replicar os pedais de baixo Taurus.

 

Para as partes polifônicas, o poly synth favorito de Geddy por vários anos (principalmente na primeira metade dos anos 80) foi seu Oberheim OBx. Ele se identifica com um também. Para Turn the Page (de Hold Your Fire), ele também estava usando sintetizadores e samplers digitais. 

 

O som de "repetição" que você descreve do The Camera Eye, que pode ser ouvido no início por trás da melodia e dos acordes da introdução, é o recurso Sample and Hold de um dos sintetizadores usados. Parece que me lembro de um patch XW disponível que pode replicar isso. 

 

Para responder à sua pergunta, sim, o XW-P1 pode fornecer a maioria dos filhos que você procura, mas lembre-se de que você está tentando emular vários sintetizadores e tipos de síntese diferentes (e icônicos). Levará e compreensão para o X algum dia de trabalho como programas. Além disso, as Hex Layers podem fornecer muitos elementos polifônicos e ricos, como um som de estilo podem fornecer bem gordos. Uma ressalva com o XW-P1 é que você só pode usar o Solo Synth OU as Hex Layers (ou o Drawbar Organ) a qualquer momento. Você pode usar dois simultaneamente, mesmo não se dividindo o teclado. Você pode, no entanto, usar toneladas de PCM polifônicos com o Solo Synth.

 

Quanto a salvar patches, existem slots de usuários para aqueles que você pode salvar diretamente no XW. Você pode programar o XW a partir do painel frontal, mas como o XW é um sintetizador bastante profundo, use o Data Editor por meio de um computador facilita muito. Além disso, o Data Editor Além disso, o Data Editor também funciona como todas as configurações e outras configurações.

 

Confira alguns dos tutoriais e guias em vídeo de Mike Martin (veja abaixo) para o XW e você terá uma boa ideia de como obter os filhos que procura. Verifique também outras séries- vídeos na parte superior da subseção de guias XW o Guia Complementar XW para guias P1. 

 

 

That was the answer I was looking for! Currently, the XW-P1 can still be found new in stores here in Brazil, even though it's an old synthesizer... I even thought about trying to buy a used Roland Fantom 7, but it's an even older synth... About the solo/hex layer discussion, the idea would be, in the future, to have 2 or more synths for this function, as seen in Subdivisions, for example, or try to save the sounds as presets and change them during the song (which seems quite laborious ). Speaking of tones, there are some plugins to simulate Oberheim, but I really don't know if these presets can be saved in the XW-P1's memory. Glad to know that it can be used to replicate the Taurus pedals, because in the future, I want to buy a MIDI pedalboard. In the video below, he uses an effect similar to The Camera Eye, from the "Arpeggio" function, but I don't understand much and I don't really know how it works... He uses the function at 9:09.