CT-S500 CT-S1 Comment and Question

[Jimu]

Hello!

I bought the S500 and S1 a few weeks ago. I like them quite a bit. Have owned PX5,

which was great, but a little bit too big for my reality. Also own/ed Juno DS, Roland RS-5,

Yamaha an1x in addition to OP-1, micro freak, an a number of other synths and sequencers

from Korg, etc. Just a hobbyist who enjoys playing with sound and scales. My first keyboard

as a little kid was an new MT100 on Christmas day.  \m/ Happy kid was I.

 

Some observations/ questions:

1. The S500 is very fun. I wonder if there is currently the ability to set an LFO on the Cutoff,

with rate and depth? If not, it would be delightful to have this in the Knob menu

in a future update. Oh pretty please!

 

2. I'm noticing on the S500 that resonance is almost always not an adjustment that has

any audible effect, even within Saw, Square ,Triangle wave tones. I have come across a few tones

where resonance does indeed effect the sound of the filter, but few and far between. I wonder if

this was a design decision to help protect the onboard speakers from being overpowered by random

frequency jumps as the users adjust the dial?

 

3. I notice on the S1 when Surround sound button is pressed the audio becomes slightly louder with the

effect. However, on the S500, when this button is pressed the audio becomes noticeably quieter. An observation.

 

(A side note: IMO the S1, aesthetically, is a work of art. I bought a white one, it's just beautiful. Great job!)

 

4. Looking through the forum I see this has been touched on, but I'll go there, too. Midi. Gosh, how I would love

it if the midi Usb out would send midi to devices. Not with needing a computer, or a host, just right into an op-1,

a Roland boutique, a micro freak, etc. Even a 1/8 inch midi out which requires a dongle would be epic, 5 pin out even 

more so. Really wish the S500 had this, and/or both could do it over USB. I'm sure there are solid reasons why

it's not there. I get it, costs, etc. But gosh, it would be so great if it was there.

 

5. I love that while the S500 has a menu system , it is not in fact a "menu diver." The buttons and flow of the menu is

very well done and logical. It's a simple and clever interface that just works well. Save a patch is so easy! Great! The

keys feel great, I could go on and on about it, but

Thank you, Casio, for putting together a cool creative team, and for putting out really lovely instruments that check

a lot of boxes for what is very arguably a fair price. Well done!

 

 

Edited May 19, 2022 by Jimu

[Brad Saucier]

1. No, but you can assign DSP type LFO Wah to a tone.  That will give you something controllable like that.  

 

2. The knobs are acting as an offset control over preset settings for each tone.  Some presets are programed in a way that offsetting them will not make any noticable difference.  For example, filter type might be a very subtle low pass filter, such as found on piano tones.  Others might be a high pass filter, or other a bandpass filter.  It just depends on the preset tone.  Experiment with different tones, you'll find all of that variety in there.  

[Chas]

To answer your questions:

 

1. As Brad said, no, there is no LFO nor envelope for the main filter. This surprised me as that would have made the filter so much more useful. There is a workaround as you can use the LFO WAH ACT DSP to get a very similar automatic sweeping filter effect. I cover this in my Part 2 of my S1000V review and demonstrate how to do this (see link below). Note that everything that the S1000V can do, other than the Vocal Synthesis, can also be done with the S500.  The link below will take you to the part of my video where I cover applying and using the LFO WAH DSP to get an automatic filter sweep (starts @31.00).

 

2. Resonance depth is dependent on the actual source sound/ Tone/ Waveform. This behaviour is also similar to a real analogue synth also (my Novation Bass Station 2's filter resonance can vary depending on Waveform/ Patch in use). It also depends on the frequencies present in the source Tone/ sound - certain sounds contain more of the frequencies that 'excite' the resonance part of the filter more than others.

 

3. I don't have an S1 so can't help with this one. Absolutely agree that aesthetically it's a work of art. It's almost worth buying on looks alone!

 

4. This is standard behaviour with USB MIDI, and why a lot of more old school synth fans are not a fan of USB MIDI. USB MIDI MUST have a host to work and to communicate with other MIDI devices, so unless a keyboard has USB MIDI host capabilities, any other synth you wish to control has to also be connected to a host, that would normally be a computer. I * think * some workstation type keyboards can act as a host, but I don't think there are many out there.

 

5. Agree, the MENU system in the S500 and S1000V is very well thought out, quick and easy to use once you're familiar with the the system structure. 

 

 

 

Edited May 19, 2022 by Chas