Youtube video: "Casio XW-P1 Sounddemonstration"

[Gnomo Alegre]

Hello:

I've found this interesting video.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjbm-1S3qIo

 

[Display Name]

Good find, David! I like how they demo the XW doing soundtrack work... I have found the XW's (and PX-5S) ideal for this application... making atmospheres, sound effects and incidental music.  Lots of creative possibilities here....

[AlenK]

Yes, very nice find. Of the all the keyboards in that place they chose the XW-P1 to demonstrate soundtrack pieces. This should silence anyone who thinks the XW is a toy.

 

The first film was "Run, Lola, Run" and if you haven't seen it it's worth a rental or a download. The second soundtrack piece is very Vangelis like. It's refreshing to hear that kind of music coming from the XW-P1, just as it was nice to hear that Vangelis piece from Blade Runner that Mike Martin played a while back. The XW's can do more than play "screaming leads" and dubstep.

 

Anyone know if the sound starting at 9:18 is a preset or based on a preset? It's a VERY nice polyphonic pad sound with filter sweeps, something that is not too commonly obtained with the XW's polyphonic synthesis modes (because neither Hex Layer nor the PCM melody engine include a resonant filter, much less one that is sweepable).

 

You have to watch at least until 16:54 when something funny happens - a powerful argument against X stands. Casio: Takes a lickin', keeps on tickin'. And many people assumed the XW's weren't sturdy.  

 

At 17:35 the guy points out an essential accessory for soundtrack work and the XW's ability to support it (literally).  

 

For those who weren't listening to music in the early eighties the "Da Da Da" he talks about was a hit song released in 1981 by the German band Trio. Almost the entire thing was done on a Casio VL-1. I wonder if any of those sounds are presets on the XW's?

 

At 19:32 he launches the XW-P1 into interstellar space. Very nice.

[BobbyS]

I don't know what he is saying, but a great vid anyway. He is getting a big sound out of that XW. What are most people running their XW through?

[Null]

I giggled when he set his coffee on the black rubber pad.  Everyone knows it was put there to hold your ashtray :D

[Display Name]

I don't know what he is saying, but a great vid anyway. He is getting a big sound out of that XW. What are most people running their XW through?

 

Powered PA-style speakers are best for keyboards - but I've seen everything from keyboard amps, "bookshelf" speakers and just headphones.. but that's just for live/monitoring. How you record / compress the sound for the will have a BIG impact on the final sound on the 'net. As a rule of thumb, go as lossless as possible, from recording to mastering. SoundCloud and YouTube will stomp down on your sound big time... so make it as good as you can before that final step.   

[Patrick Arend]

Enjoyed video very much, xw among best synth's ever.

[Percivale]

Nice playing on the P1 there. Many ambient, soundtrack-worthy sounds 

[BobbyS]

Powered PA-style speakers are best for keyboards - but I've seen everything from keyboard amps, "bookshelf" speakers and just headphones.. but that's just for live/monitoring. How you record / compress the sound for the will have a BIG impact on the final sound on the 'net. As a rule of thumb, go as lossless as possible, from recording to mastering. SoundCloud and YouTube will stomp down on your sound big time... so make it as good as you can before that final step.   

Thanks for the great info! I'm using Presonus Eris 8 powered studio monitor and it seems to be working pretty well. I'm still a noob but am having fun learning. Forums like this are reallly a big help.

[Display Name]

Thanks for the great info! I'm using Presonus Eris 8 powered studio monitor and it seems to be working pretty well. I'm still a noob but am having fun learning. Forums like this are reallly a big help.

 

No problem.. if you're on Facebook make sure you check out the XW Group over there too! 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Casio.XW.Synths/

[Joe Gerardi]

Powered PA-style speakers are best for keyboards - but I've seen everything from keyboard amps, "bookshelf" speakers and just headphones.. but that's just for live/monitoring. How you record / compress the sound for the will have a BIG impact on the final sound on the 'net. As a rule of thumb, go as lossless as possible, from recording to mastering. SoundCloud and YouTube will stomp down on your sound big time... so make it as good as you can before that final step.   

 

I would agree with this ONLY for a live solution. If you're using the keyboard for recording, then studio monitors are an absolute requirement, a decent set of headphone the absolute minimum. Two sets of monitors are best- one a good set that doesn't color the sound in any way, and then a cheap, crappy set to emulate what you would hear though iPods, MP3 players, computer speakers, earbuds, and the like. That way, when you do the mixdown you can tell what the true sound will be from a variety of sound sources. Powered speakers are going to color the sound, and the  sound your mix will not necessarily be what you planned on.

 

For live, powered are pretty good, but you'll need a mixer if you use more than one keyboard, or if you play anything more than small, semi-pro gigs: otherwise, how to you split the signal between your monitor and the FOH? Also, you need to have enough volume onstage for the guys on the other side of the drummer to hear you, so you have to get the sound over there as well. If the FOH is sending a monitor mix back, there can be some of you in the sidefills to handle that, but otherwise you're going to need enough oomph to fill the stage. Remember this guideline: SPL is far more important that wattage.

 

My home studio has the Tapco S5 monitors. I was very hesitant to get these when Greg Mackie resurrected the Tapco name, because in the '70's we called Tapco "Crapco." That said, I was extremely surprised with how flat the response was and how uncolored the sound was out of them. Also, 120W/side (60W ea on the woofer and tweeter) means I can hear the music quite loud and still have enough headroom that the monitors won't clip. I've been extremely pleased with them for the 8 or 9 years I've had them and was very sorry that Mackie discontinued these.

 

..Joe

[XW-Addict]

I giggled when he set his coffee on the black rubber pad.  Everyone knows it was put there to hold your ashtray :D

I giggled and lolled how he played the keys it was almost real :)

[AlenK]

I giggled and lolled how he played the keys it was almost real :)

I wondered about that myself. I watched it all the way through several times to see if his playing matched what I was hearing. It's possible that he is "key syncing" (like lip syncing but with a keyboard ) but there could also be a slight mismatch of the video and the audio sync that could make it seem like he isn't actually playing it. I can't be sure. He definitely isn't playing (or even pretending to play) everything but it's hard to say if what he is not "playing" is coming from the XW (e.g,. internal sequencer) or from something else.

 

I wish I could understand German and/or that YouTube's automatic caption translation was better (it is laughably bad). It's possible that the whole thing is a "hoax" and that none of what we are hearing is actually coming from the XW-P1.

[Patrick Arend]

The german guy isn't playing in real time, when he start's and stop's the step sequencer he never hit's any button's to start or stop. and he does not have a foot pedal hooked up for step seq start stop. Most everything was probably prerecorded in advance to make the presentation better. I think all of it was done using xw-p1.It is very capable of doing everything I heard in the video and more.  From personal experience I have got better sound's and sequence's from my xw-p1 than this video demonstrate's.but then again, the whole thing could be a hoax, I suppose it could be possible.

[XW-Addict]

The german guy isn't playing in real time, when he start's and stop's the step sequencer he never hit's any button's to start or stop. and he does not have a foot pedal hooked up for step seq start stop. Most everything was probably prerecorded in advance to make the presentation better. I think all of it was done using xw-p1.It is very capable of doing everything I heard in the video and more.  From personal experience I have got better sound's and sequence's from my xw-p1 than this video demonstrate's.but then again, the whole thing could be a hoax, I suppose it could be possible.

I agree it must be key-syncing like AlenK said for the presentation and it surely has to be the XW-P1 sounds we hear ,  

I understand what he is saying but I hardly believe him to be an amateur musician someone else did it for him while

he play-backed a bit off key his hand movements where to erratic for someone playing the keys for real.

 

Still a very interesting and amusing presentation XD. 

[BobbyS]

The german guy isn't playing in real time, when he start's and stop's the step sequencer he never hit's any button's to start or stop. and he does not have a foot pedal hooked up for step seq start stop. Most everything was probably prerecorded in advance to make the presentation better. I think all of it was done using xw-p1.It is very capable of doing everything I heard in the video and more.  From personal experience I have got better sound's and sequence's from my xw-p1 than this video demonstrate's.but then again, the whole thing could be a hoax, I suppose it could be possible.

If I may ask; what do you tweak to get better sounds? I'm a noob and could use some good tips-N-pointers if possible from more knowledgeble folks.......please?

[Gnomo Alegre]

It's a fake....... Why?

[Patrick Arend]

Hi Bobbys,  i don't know a lot about synth's tech speak, please forgive my lack of specific's. I do mess around with filter's  to take the edge off most xw pad's that might other wise seem to bright. The xw-p1 hex layer's (to my ear's) really start's to shine when I apply it's effect's. It's strange because even effect's you would not expect to  bring in a stereo widening effect somehow add a little bit of a better stereo and fattening.(minus dist/ovd). When im in hex layer I like to go in layer edit and tweak effect's in real time with the two far right slider's. For  motion effect's, stereo imaging, and cool sonic effect's, this is very good, and if you use effect's like flanger's and phazer's  you can get some trippy real time effect's with those two slider's. Also sometime's I create hex layer's  with two identical tone's , then I slightly detune them in opposite direction's and pan them(a little or a lot) in opposite direction's. Then I might even add one more identical tone in a lower octave with lower volume to create a subtle harmonic effect.  Overall, i just experiment with tweaking knob's and slider's, and parameter's. When  I get a sound I like I save it.   I hope this was helpfull .

[Patrick Arend]

Hi AllenK, maybe the german guy was using an external filter sweep in hex mode, if not, I wish I knew how the heck he did that on the xw-p1.

[Display Name]

It's a fake....... Why?

 

 

No I don't think it was a "fake" - Pretty sure everything was made on the P1.. but they probably just pre-recorded it and he did a mimed performance. Why? Simple - if you mess up on the musical performance you have to re-shoot the whole video segment until it nailed. 

[Patrick Arend]

Scott, what you just said make's perfect sense.

[Display Name]

Scott, what you just said make's perfect sense.

 

 

Hey - there's a first time for everything! 

[BobbyS]

Hi Bobbys,  i don't know a lot about synth's tech speak, please forgive my lack of specific's. I do mess around with filter's  to take the edge off most xw pad's that might other wise seem to bright. The xw-p1 hex layer's (to my ear's) really start's to shine when I apply it's effect's. It's strange because even effect's you would not expect to  bring in a stereo widening effect somehow add a little bit of a better stereo and fattening.(minus dist/ovd). When im in hex layer I like to go in layer edit and tweak effect's in real time with the two far right slider's. For  motion effect's, stereo imaging, and cool sonic effect's, this is very good, and if you use effect's like flanger's and phazer's  you can get some trippy real time effect's with those two slider's. Also sometime's I create hex layer's  with two identical tone's , then I slightly detune them in opposite direction's and pan them(a little or a lot) in opposite direction's. Then I might even add one more identical tone in a lower octave with lower volume to create a subtle harmonic effect.  Overall, i just experiment with tweaking knob's and slider's, and parameter's. When  I get a sound I like I save it.   I hope this was helpfull .

 

Thanks Patrick!

[AlenK]

According to Bing translate the author's comment on YouTube says:

"In some sound examples I show what is possible in terms of this synthesizer of Casio. All songs have been composed by me and played live and it is the "quiet sphere sound" rather used. Thanks to PPC music Hanover, we were allowed to turn in their premises on October 10, 2013. CAUTION! This synth is "not" PPC music available or is available for testing! Please contact an authorized dealer!"

[Patrick Arend]

Scott, lol.