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CASIO, the beginning of a NEW ERA


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Quote Originally Posted by Mike Martin

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McHale,

Yes, technically I live in Naperville. I work in Dover, NJ which means I'm not in Naperville as often as I'd like. We'll figure out something later this month, maybe meet up somewhere.

 

That would absolutely rock. I'm really stoked about both new boards.


Thanks Mike!


-Mc

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Quote Originally Posted by SoundwaveLove

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If Casio released this like 8 years ago, they could have had a hit on their hands.

 

Yep. And I'm pretty sure they will with this NOW too. NOBODY has a larger distribution channel than Casio (from K-Mart to Sears to Guitar Center to Amazon and a whole lot more) and you can not beat the price for it. If this thing were a dog, it'd have been slammed pretty hard in this thread already. So far, it passes the smell test and I'm betting that it will do well. I hope it sells well enough they stay in the game for a while. THIS my friends is truly a game changer.
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Quote Originally Posted by SoundwaveLove

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If Casio released this like 8 years ago, they could have had a hit on their hands.

 

Why can't it be a hit now?


I can see people in growing economies like Brazil, Mexico, Korea, China, India, Russia and the Middle East, where the average population still doesn't make as much as in the US or most of Europe, grabbing this like crazy. And I think a lot of people in richer countries will be adding this to their collection as well. I'm pretty sure it will do quite well - it probably won't sell DX7 numbers, but it will probably outsell any workstation made in the last 20 years, when you add the worldwide numbers. That'd be my guess.

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Quote Originally Posted by McHale

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NOBODY has a larger distribution channel than Casio (from K-Mart to Sears to Guitar Center to Amazon and a whole lot more) and you can not beat the price for it.

 

I don't expect this synth to show up at K-Mart or Sears.


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Quote Originally Posted by tedmich

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its no VZ1...

 

i had a VZ1 so to me that's a good thing...i found it [vz1] really hard to program/edit and it had a handful of good presets...the aftertouch keyboard was nice as was the general build quality on the VZ1..if only it was more approachable like the cz range for editing.
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One thing you don't really hear from the NAMM videos and such, and I only noticed because I could actually hear the boards in person, is that they have a kind of "rich" yet detailed sound. By detailed I don't mean brittle or bright, just that when you hear multiple oscillators playing together, you can sort of pick them out individually smile.gif The richness has a kind of, for lack of a better term, "digital warmth." Of course I thought the feature set was cool, but I think it's the sound that's going to get people interested in these keyboards. The low price simply means more people will be able to afford them.

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So Mike, you're obviously well versed in the ways of Synthesizers, i'd be interested to know how hard it was to convince the top dogs and Shareholders at Casio to produce a synth after all this time. Casio has been making some very good consumer-grade stuff over the last few years, home keyboards with great features for their price bracket, and obviously there's a good market for them. So what prompted Casio to take the risk with a synth?


Best of luck with the synths, i'll be going to the store to play one as soon as they come out!

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Quote Originally Posted by Mike Martin

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The architecture of the SoloSynth is the same on both the XW-G1 and XW-P1.


In regards to the SoloSynth:

Each Oscillator has it own Pitch Envelope, Filter Envelope and Amp Envelope. All Oscillators eventually go to the TOTAL FILTER which also has its own envelope. All the envelopes have the follow parameters:


Init Level

Atk. Time

Atk. Level

Dec. Time

Sus. Level

Rel. Time1

Rel. Level1

Rel. Time2

Rel. Level2

Clock Trigger (with many divisions of the beat(s))


There are two LFO's which you can access on any of the Pitch, Filter and Amp pages including the Total Filter. The LFO's can also clock sync.


Each Oscillator in the SoloSynth has a basic LowPass filter (non resonant). The Total Filter has BandPass, HighPass and Lowpass choices all with Resonance.


Each Oscillator (except Noise) has independent Pitch tracking. You can even reverse the keyscaling if you'd like. Each Oscillator has independent Portamento time.


Oscillators 1 and 2, give you options to do sync and PWM depending on the waveform selected. There are about 100 waveforms to choose from for Oscillator 1 & 2, plus variations (total of 310) Total disclosure here: I'm getting clarification from Tokyo but the majority of these are in fact samples. Oscillators 3 & 4 each have access a total of 2157 waveforms (which also includes variations). This area opens up some crazy possibilities.


As you can see from the picture of the G1 above, it allows for more real-time control over the SoloSynth. On the P1, the sliders only give you control over the level of each oscillator. There are 8 "Virtual Controllers" in the P1 (not sure about G1) that allow you to map just about any continuous controller to any parameter.


The when the SoloSynth is active you have the choice of 6 insert effects (which other parts can share). AutoPan, Distortion, Flanger, Chorus, Delay (with tempo sync) and RingMod.


*All specifications subject to error on my part.


I'll get more into the Hex section later.


-Mike Martin

Casio America, Inc.

 

Hi Mike, Does it have a drum machine like the previous Casio WK 7500, where there is an intro, fill (variations) and ending? I really hope so. Thanks in advance!
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Quote Originally Posted by xanderbeanz

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So Mike, you're obviously well versed in the ways of Synthesizers, i'd be interested to know how hard it was to convince the top dogs and Shareholders at Casio to produce a synth after all this time. Casio has been making some very good consumer-grade stuff over the last few years, home keyboards with great features for their price bracket, and obviously there's a good market for them. So what prompted Casio to take the risk with a synth?


Best of luck with the synths, i'll be going to the store to play one as soon as they come out!

 

It is a group effort. There are some really talented engineers at Casio R&D. Over the last couple years I have spoken to them a lot about repositioning some of our technology. The arranger features in products like the WK-7500 are absolutely incredible - but in a product with built-in speakers some people don't take it seriously even though it's uses as a songwriting tool are infinite. So while the XW-P1 does have "drum patterns" it is a new way of working. The step sequencer comes from our arranger technology but it is presented and used in a different way. It is an absolute blast and is one of the most ingenious parts of the XW-P1.


Early in this thread when the pictures of the XW-P1 first leaked out, someone posted a picture of the CTK-4200. There are some obvious similarities in construction. That is Casio manufacturing at its best. In order to justify the time involved in developing the software that makes the XW-P1 possible, physical components have to be shared with other models. So it made sense from a manufacturing standpoint.


Ultimately our goal was to do something different. I think with both the XW-series products we've done that. We've created products that are affordable enough that virtually anyone can get involved with playing a synthesizer. It has a combination of powerful and unique sounds and features that are seriously FUN for both the pro and amateur. And for the Pro user, these products are ridiculously deep, just in the last two days I've discovered things that I had no idea it could it do. My hat is off to the team in Japan.


-Mike Martin

Casio America, Inc.

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