Could someone help answer a few of my G1 questions?

[Lune]

Hi XW lovers. I have a P1 and am wondering about getting a G1. The main reason for this is that I love really lightweight boards and take them around the house with me when I am hanging out with family, watching nature outside, etc. (I currently play my P1 in my lap on a rocker recliner every night while my son falls asleep in his room). But the G1 shares much in common with the P1 so the answers you give to my questions will probably make the difference in whether it is worth it. Here goes:

 

1. what is the sound quality of the samples? Are they played back in a noticeably lo-fi way or do they sound pretty close to the original input?

 

2. can you add effects to samples? I am not expecting stellar effects but some would be nice.

 

3. Can you edit samples in any way? Truncate? stretch? alter envelopes?

 

4. How well are the samples transposed within 2 octaves up and down from center? Noticeable artifacts?

 

5. The P1 has a molded plastic underbody which has deep indentations along the bottom and near the sides that allow me to easily grip it with one hand and carry it vertically at my side- does the G1 underbody have these same indentations? 

 

6. How many samples can you keep loaded at one time?

 

7. How many seconds of total sampling can the board keep loaded before maxing out?

 

8. can a sample be a part of a solo synth sound? That is, can you blend samples with each other using sliders? How many max?

 

I really appreciate any answers you can give. I already have a large number of synths so this is more a lifestyle purchase rather than trying to be my main board.

[Brad Saucier]

Hi Lune.  I can help with some of those questions as I have a G1.

 

1.  The best the samples can sound are very near CD quality at 42,819Hz 16 bit.  But, even the 21Khz mode sounds good.  Here's my sample of a Toy piano in 21khz.  https://soundcloud.com/bradmz/toy-piano-demo-for-the-xw-g1

 

2.  As you heard in my sample, I added reverb but the DSP effects can be added as well.  

 

3.  Here's the tables for available editing for user wave tones(samples).  http://support.casio.com/pdf/008/Web_XWG1-E-1B.pdf#page34

 

4.  Transposing sounds the same as speeding up or slowing down playback of a digital recording in software like Audacity. 

 

5.  Yes.  Same body on the G1.

 

6.  5 samples in one user wave tone. 10 user tone slots available in memory.  50 samples total.   Up to 20 samples can be available on the keys at once by using all four zones and 4 User wave tones.  Up to 50 samples on the keys at once in a user drum set although playback of the samples in a drum set is always mono and no pitch shifting of the sample to neighboring keys like in wave tones.  

 

7.  The published spec is up to 19 seconds in mono at 21khz. Half that for 21khzStereo or 42kzMono.   Half it again for 42KzStereo.  There's a trick to go beyond 19 seconds by speeding up the original sample before importing to the G1 and then using the G1 to slow the sample back down to original speed.  This trick causes a lo-fi sound so it may not be everyone's cup of tea. 

 

8.  Yes.  2 samples can be part of a solo synth tone using PCM OSC 1 and 2.  Blending with the sliders in solo synth mode?....I think, but not sure what you mean.  Also, user samples can be part of a user drum set. Up to 4 samples per key(only one sounding at a time with velocity switching).  

[- T -]

Lune

 

If you are planning on doing "looped" samples with the G-1, you may want to read BradMZ's experiences with clicks at the loop points in the G-1's looped samples.  He posted these several days ago in a thread about a different matter:

 

http://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/topic/5272-putting-audio-on-sd-card/#entry12465

 

http://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/topic/5272-putting-audio-on-sd-card/#entry12474

 

Not sure why he did not mention this in his reply above, but if you should decide to go with the G-1, I wouldn't want you to have any unpleasant surprises.  This really shouldn't be a show stopper as it sounds like Brad has found a workaround by doing the looping in his DAW software.

 

Good luck, and I hope you enjoy the G-1 if you go that route !

[Brad Saucier]

To clarify, critical looping such as sustained sounds in piano samples where you want to loop the decay of a note will be troublesome in the G1 itself. See my posts.   Looping in the data editor is no trouble.  Drawback is, the data editor lacks the nice realtime listen-while-you-adjust feature.  I use Audacity to audition the loops.   Also, drum beat looping and looping in general presents no trouble and works fine on the G1 itself. 

[Lune]

Thanks for your replies- by blending I meant assigning different samples to different sliders and altering the volume of each relative to each other in real time to create timbre blends- sounds like this is easily doable. Too bad you can only have two samples loaded on solo synth at a time though. I am not looking at this to be a high end sample player for grand pianos, etc. but more of a fun band in the box machine a la' Korg toys like kaossolator. Just to be clear, when you say "up to 20 samples on the keys at one time" you mean different samples? I am assuming so or you couldn't create a drum set.

 

Also I am a little confused about the 19 second rule- does this mean all your loaded samples cannot exceed 19 seconds cumulatively if all were played end to end? If so, this would seem to be a far greater restriction than the number of samples. So it is not possible to load a number of wave files that together may exceed this 19 second limit? In other words, it will not store more than 19 seconds of played wav. memory? It seems like if you had a wav. atmosphere sample loaded that took 10 seconds to loop then you have consumed half of the time/space you have for samples. I want to be sure about this as I was thinking of creating background atmospheres of industrial or swamp sounds and mix shorter natural element sounds (like machine stamps or bird calls) into synth and PCM tones. It sounds like this synth is mainly geared for very short samples (drum hits, arp plucks, short loops, etc.) is this correct?

 

I REALLY DO APPRECIATE YOUR HELP

[Lune]

Also, I guess I should be a little more open ended to make sure I am not missing something- what do you see as the G1's strengths and weaknesses?

[Brad Saucier]

Just to be clear, when you say "up to 20 samples on the keys at one time" you mean different samples? I am assuming so or you couldn't create a drum set.

Yes.  Up to 5 samples or (splits) in one user tone and 4 user tones can be used in the 4 zones of the G1.   

 

 

Also I am a little confused about the 19 second rule- does this mean all your loaded samples cannot exceed 19 seconds cumulatively if all were played end to end? 

Up to 19 seconds (mono 21khz) in one user wave slot multiplied by 10 user wave slots for a total of 190 seconds.  A user tone's allowed time can be split into 5 splits (samples) or used as 1 long sample. 

 

 

It sounds like this synth is mainly geared for very short samples (drum hits, arp plucks, short loops, etc.) is this correct?

I think that was the intention of the G1's sampling function and it's best used that way.   It is possible to stretch the limits of it's design but if you're looking for long sampling times then the G1 may not be your best option.  Software samplers are much more powerful as far as time allowances and editing. 

[Lune]

Thanks- you really helped! It still may work in a modified form. 190 seconds I can live with.

[Scottym]

Hi dudes, thought I'd build on the questions asked about the XW-G1 as I currently own one. :-) My question relates to sample storage as I've still yet to pick up an my SD Card for it in town. (my camera's one is n/a).

 

Anyway, if the Casio can store up to 190 seconds 21Khz Mono or 85 seconds 42 Khz Stereo across 10 user wave slots, I assume this is within the internal memory. How much could you store on a 32Gig Memory Card ? Also, are these samples loaded as blocks of user waves 1-10 ( for each of the user preset slots ) as one whole or require individual loading of them. In addition to this, is it possible to save an entire performance with all samples assigned and ready to be loaded from the memory card ? 

[Brad Saucier]

Anyway, if the Casio can store up to 190 seconds 21Khz Mono or 85 seconds 42 Khz Stereo across 10 user wave slots, I assume this is within the internal memory. 

Yes.

 

 

How much could you store on a 32Gig Memory Card ? 

A lot.  More than you'll need.  LOL   A user wave tone is 515Kb.  (32gb = 33554432Kb)  Over 65,000 user wave tones.   

 

 

Also, are these samples loaded as blocks of user waves 1-10 ( for each of the user preset slots ) as one whole or require individual loading of them. 

They are loaded individually from the sd card.  

 

 

In addition to this, is it possible to save an entire performance with all samples assigned and ready to be loaded from the memory card ? 

Umm....Not sure what you mean.  An ALL SAVE file can load everything in one shot.  Loading a performance alone will not cause samples to be loaded from the sd card.  If a performance is assigned to samples then it will use the samples that are already loaded into the G1's memory.  You'll need to load the samples separately.

[Scottym]

Yes.

 

 

A lot.  More than you'll need.  LOL   A user wave tone is 515Kb.  (32gb = 33554432Kb)  Over 65,000 user wave tones.   

 

 

They are loaded individually from the sd card.  

 

 

Umm....Not sure what you mean.  An ALL SAVE file can load everything in one shot.  Loading a performance alone will not cause samples to be loaded from the sd card.  If a performance is assigned to samples then it will use the samples that are already loaded into the G1's memory.  You'll need to load the samples separately.

 

Thanks for answering my questions, 515kb is surprisingly small, I just wonder how the quality of say a 16 Bit 44.1 Khz sample retains the quality after the conversion. Come to think of it, this is possibly why the actual output of the synth is stated as being 42Khz due to the sounds having to be converted in the compression process the data editor uses. If that's the case, it would seem that samples which were preloaded onto a card at 16 bit 44.1 Khz retained full 16bit would be internally down sampled when loaded in order to allow the internal processing of the DSP to process effects to be applied or in other words headroom to prevent clipping.

 

Q1: Just to confirm, I take it that all samples need to be converted before the XW's will accept them ?

 

Q2: Oh, something about the data editor, I noticed you could transfer 20 samples to the XW-G1, if I recall correctly meaning that when you do that, it's saving onto the SD card ready for loading or is there an option to apply them to just the memory ? I looked at the setting but could only see the option for a Card.

 

65000 user wave tones would be rather cool in a synth having said that ;-) I could transfer my library of Reason 7's sampled sounds on a 32 Gig card in with folders of 50 lol ( probably take forever ). The ability to map 61 + samples to full note / octave range for every note of the keyboard would be really cool though if it were possible, just so that perfect pitch would be retained, drum loops as you previously mentioned would be ok though. 

 

I also have Reaktor so I'll be grabbing some of Razor, Skanner, Spark ect to sample as well as a few RE's for Reason like Antidote / and Rob Papen's Predator, so I'll see what cool things I can do with them and how limited I am in mapping the sounds. It's nice to not depend on a computer connectivity / screen and take the cool things they have away and play with them and save electricity at the same time. 

 

As for you're query on saving I had, yeah... in saving a performance, I meant every setting and mapping of samples, sound settings ect, which I think you confirmed. 

[Brad Saucier]

1)  Yes.  The data editor does that.  It gives 4 choices.  42khz Stereo or mono and 21khz stereo or mono.  

 

2)  Not sure what you mean.  The data editor transfers samples to the G1 memory and not the sd card. 

 

I recommend downloading the data editor to see what the sampler conversion and transfer is like.  (Note: You can convert samples in the data editor with having a G1 but note that the sound quality of the 21khz mode will sound better on the G1 itself than it does in the data editor. The 42khz mode is about the same quality.)

 

http://support.casio.com/en/support/download.php?cid=008&pid=62