Members Mike Martin Posted June 5, 2012 Members Share Posted June 5, 2012 Originally Posted by happyrat1 Should such a file not yet exist, is there any chance Mike could get the programming geniuses at Casio to whip up such a file? It would be invaluable to all XW-P1 owners both present and future. I should be able to get a INS definition file done soon, maybe by the end of next week. This is by no means is necessary or required to use the XW with Cakewalk but if you're not sending bank changes you're indeed only going to get the GM sound set (GM is something the XW has, but isn't really designed to do). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mike Martin Posted June 5, 2012 Members Share Posted June 5, 2012 A new updater for Apple Mac computers has been uploaded to our support website. Note that I haven't personally used this version yet but I believe this new version was created to address the issues that a few Mac users have had when updating their XW-P1. I'll give a try myself tomorrow.Here is the link - http://support.casio.com/download.ph...d=008&pid=1161Quick reminder, I'll be doing a live clinic tonight. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/casiomusicgear#events Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members happyrat1 Posted June 5, 2012 Members Share Posted June 5, 2012 Originally Posted by Mike Martin I should be able to get a INS definition file done soon, maybe by the end of next week. This is by no means is necessary or required to use the XW with Cakewalk but if you're not sending bank changes you're indeed only going to get the GM sound set (GM is something the XW has, but isn't really designed to do). Thanks muchly for the prompt response Mike. Generally when I sequence I set up one instrument per track and pretty much leave it except for modulation, pitchbend, pedals and other controllers so this would be an enormous help for myself and all the other struggling MIDI composers out there. I agree that no one buys this instrument strictly to use GM tones, but I still think Casio could put a little more effort into refining those patches as well. After all, most standard MIDI files on the net still use standard GM patches whether we like it or not. It would be nice to listen to these tunes with an evenly balanced patchset. BTW, is the wavetable data in the XW series in ROM or flashable RAM? It would be lovely to be able to upgrade wave data with a simple flash operation should there be any future improvements. Looking forward to seeing the INS file posted soon. Regards, Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members happyrat1 Posted June 6, 2012 Members Share Posted June 6, 2012 Originally Posted by Mike Martin Quick reminder, I'll be doing a live clinic tonight. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/casiomusicgear#events I managed to catch the last 45 minutes of your workshop tonight. Kudos to you on a great job of explaining some of the finer nuances of the XW-P1. Is the session going to be archived anywhere for future reference? Some of the details were pretty intense and flew past kind of quickly. I'd also like to catch anything I might have missed in the first 25 minutes. Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted June 6, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 6, 2012 Originally Posted by happyrat1 Is the session going to be archived anywhere for future reference? I'll cast a vote for that as well!! Harmony Central would be more than happy to host it, or embed it in here if you put it on YouTube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members happyrat1 Posted June 6, 2012 Members Share Posted June 6, 2012 One other small question since I didn't notice it mentioned in the workshop. How do you change the stock arpeggiator pattern independently of the program being used in tone mode? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members happyrat1 Posted June 6, 2012 Members Share Posted June 6, 2012 Never mind. I found it on page 41 of the manual. Press and hold the arpeggiator button to edit arpeggiator settings. (Facepalm) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Paulogic Posted June 6, 2012 Members Share Posted June 6, 2012 I' wasn't able to attend the online Workshop.Will it be on youtube sometime? I would love to watch it and learn...Edit : I just found it : http://www.ustream.tv/channel/casiomusicgear#eventsGreat quality !!I love the T-shirt. Can we buy these shirts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mike Martin Posted June 6, 2012 Members Share Posted June 6, 2012 Thanks for the comments the workshop last night was really a lot of fun. Although it may not have the polish of a well produced video On YouTube, this format was so easy to do and it was great to interact with the audience. So I think we'll be doing more of these. So we might have some "Live from Mike's office" sessions happening very soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members happyrat1 Posted June 6, 2012 Members Share Posted June 6, 2012 Originally Posted by Paulogic I love the T-shirt. Can we buy these shirts? Was I the only one who noticed that at a casual glance the T-Shirt reads "Casio XW Pig!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted June 7, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 7, 2012 Here's yet another XW-P1 compositional element - the Phrase. Phrases can exist independently of sounds, in other words, you can build up a library of phrases and change the instrument playing back the phrase in real time. Furthermore, this sort of gets into "arranger-land" because you can transpose the phrase by playing on the keyboard. The XW-P1 comes with a library of 100 factory phrases, and 100 user locations. While I suppose you can play back factory phrases for inspiration, I think the real action is recording your own phrases, so I made a beeline for that. The main use I see for phrases is as a scratchpad digital audio recorder. Whereas creating a sound with the step sequencer requires a bit of effort, if you get some great chord progression idea and you don't want to lose it, hit Rec and go. Well, it's not quite that simple; you may need to navigate to a particular phrase, but you can still be capturing ideas within seconds if you just go with the defaults (which include having a metronome reference). A secondary use (although I suppose it could be a primary use for some) is to create backing loops. You can play through a phrase as a one-shot, or loop it ad infinitum. Ad infinitum. Ad infinitum. Ad infinitum What's more, you can quantize your playing coming in, and quantize the ending (I usually choose 1 measure, so I can play right up to the end, hit stop, and have the phrase end on a measure boundary). And...you can overdub, too. However, you can't overdub using a different sound; this is not really a "live performance looping" function unless you can stay within one sound. Drums are well suited to this as an alternative to using the step sequencer, as you can build up loops and overdub percussion parts. You can pause the overdubbing process, which is extremely helpful - for example if you can't remember where a drum sound is that you want to play, you can pause, find the sound, then resume. The phrase will record pedal, wheel, and knob gestures but these are not separate for overdubs - for example if you add pitch bend while playing an overdub, previous parts will be subject to the pitch bend as well. One final overdub fine point is that you can undo the most recent overdub by pressing and holding the recording button, whereupon you're given the option to undo. There's not much else to say, other than phrases don't have to be little snippets - a phrase can be up to about 1600 events. Of course, if you're recording lots of controller data that eats into the number of events more quickly than just playing notes, but still, you can do some pretty lengthy recordings as phrases. In order to keep moving through more functionality, I don't really see much point in taking the time to create an audio example...a phrase is really just a series of notes, and what's make phrase recording cool isn't the sound, it's the overdubs and other speed with which you can capture ideas. But if you want to hear some representative factory phrases, go ahead and holler! As I've noted, we do take requests. Just not...Freebird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mike Martin Posted June 7, 2012 Members Share Posted June 7, 2012 Hi Craig,The more time I spend with the XW series, the more I appreciate the tools that are in it like the Phrase Sequencer. Yes it can be used as a recorder. In fact if you've built a chain of Step Sequence patterns you could use the phrase to do a linear sequence part of the top of the entire song.I think the applications actually go far beyond that. In a Performance a phrase can be assigned to a particular zone. So you can use it on one sound to trigger a bass line while leaving you free to play over the top with a different sound. Phrases can be used for a "chord hold". Play a single sustained chord. Then that chord is available and can transpose. As a similar example, I've created a phrase that has a single long note, I think I held it for several minute. This allowed me to get a long sustaining bass note, while I played chords and solo lines over the top. I used this when I programmed the "Blade Runner" Performance which you may have seen on YouTube.You can create phrases that are nothing other than controller movements - so as an example you could create a phrase that has filter sweeps and other adjustments for your Solo Synth.Using the XW-P1's Mac or PC editor, you can import MIDI files and convert them into phrases. There are libraries of "Twiddly Bits" and other MIDI files out there on the web, some for free and some for purchase. If you're looking for things like guitar strums and other musical riffs, you can find them or create them to supplement the factory content.Last but not least, Phrases can trigger internal sounds or external MIDI devices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted June 7, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 7, 2012 Sorry if that seemed incomplete but as using phrases as part of a Zone and as a "Chord Hold" had already been mentioned, I figured I shouldn't mention them again. But, the idea of storing only controller patterns is something that never occurred to me - that could be extremely cool for stuttering effects and such. I also didn't consider triggering external MIDI devices but that makes sense. I think one of the coolest possibilities might be to use a phrase to trigger a sound on the XW-P1, but then you could also send the phrase into a DAW to "double" that part with another virtual instrument.Frankly I'm not much into "canned" playback-type features, but maybe I should be! I'll try working some phrases into what I do, and see if I can use them to advantage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mike Martin Posted June 8, 2012 Members Share Posted June 8, 2012 Originally Posted by Mike Martin A new updater for Apple Mac computers has been uploaded to our support website. Note that I haven't personally used this version yet but I believe this new version was created to address the issues that a few Mac users have had when updating their XW-P1. I'll give a try myself tomorrow. Here is the link - http://support.casio.com/download.ph...d=008&pid=1161 I confirmed with Tokyo that this is a new updater tool that was developed after some users experienced some problems updating their XW-P1. I also heard that one of the users that experienced this problem was able to use this new updater without a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Korianna Posted June 9, 2012 Members Share Posted June 9, 2012 Im very impressed with all the vids, the forums, the support....especially Mike...Ive seen him in so many vids and forums that I feel like I kinda know him now lol. I came across the XW while watchin techno/dance vids on youtube. I used to play piano in HS but Ive never played a synth. Anymore I just appreciate music and the only thing I play now is my iPod Somethin about the XW kinda stood out tho, maybe that 80's sorta kewlness to it, anyways Ive spent the last week following forums, watchin the training, demo, workshop vids and Im defo sold on getting a G1. I went to Guitar Center yesterday and checked one out in person. Seems very kewl to me. I know I dont have the knowledge or experience to compare it to anything else, but maybe thats a good thing. I have yet to come across anything negative about the keyboard itself other than the name thats on it, but Im guessing its no different than guys who only drive Chevy's or Ford's lol. Im learning alot in this forum and I cant wait to explore the G1 and see wat kinda noise I can come up with. I figure for $600 I can amuse myself for awhile and who knows, maybe I might be able to put sumthin together worth listening to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted June 11, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 Originally Posted by Anderton Frankly I'm not much into "canned" playback-type features, but maybe I should be! I'll try working some phrases into what I do, and see if I can use them to advantage. Okay, so I'm quoting myself but I decided to try out the phrase capabilities. My goal was to create a sample-and-hold effect for the filter when in Solo Synth mode (the only mode in which S&H would be relevant). I succeeded, but ran into a couple of fine points along the way. I started by trying to figure out what the controllers were for the Filter and Resonance performance controls, so I twiddled Knobs 1 and 2 while recording the results into Sonar. This revealed the NRPNs for these knobs. I then re-arranged that data to create the sample-and-hold effect, with a varying cutoff and relatively high, constant resonance setting. Long story short...that didn't work. What DOES work is much simpler. As it turned out, Casio uses 74 and 71 for filter cutoff and resonance respectively (the "standard" MIDI controllers). So, here are the steps to convert the MIDI sequence into a phrase. 1. Create the sequence in a DAW, and play it back into the XW-P1 to "proof" it. When you have it the way you like, then export it as a MIDI file. I called in SANDH.mid. 2. The Phrase has to be converted from MIDI into a Casio-world .ZPH file, so open the Casio Data Editor (a/k/a an XW-P1 owner's best friend). 3. Click on Preferences to access the phrase converter options. This chooses which channel will be converted into a phrase if the MIDI sequence has multiple channels happening, as well as some choices of where the phrase will start and end. You can also choose which events are to be converted. 4. Next, you go to the editor's Transfer page. Drag the MIDI file into the PC User Data Files area (Sonar can export MIDI files by dragging them to the desktop, so I just dragged from the desktop into the editor), then drag the file from there to the User phrase where you want to store it. The conversion process occurs when you drag it into the XW-P1. 5. I renamed it in the synth, with the new name showing up in the editor, then dragged the finished .ZPH phrase file into the PC User Data Files area so that I could copy it and attach it to this post - now, you too can have a Sample & Hold phrase (I did have to ZIP it because .ZPH is not a file type that VBulletin understands). So this is what the editor looked like when I was done. Note that the K knobs do different things in different patches. For example, in a guitar PCM sound, the K2 knob typically controls attack time. So if you wanted to control attack time, you'd look up the standard MIDI controller number for attack time, which is 73. This info is also available in the MIDI implementation manual you can download from the Casio web site, although it gives the controller numbers in hex. Fortunately, there are plenty of hex to decimal calculators on the web. So what happens when you use this phrase in a non-Solo Synth patch? Remember that with Hex Layer and PCM "melody" patches, you can vary the filter but the filter value that exists when you press down the keys remains for as long as the keys are held down; IOW you can't sweep the filter and have the cutoff change during a sustained note, as you can in Solo Synth mode. So, the sample-and-hold does have a somewhat interesting effect in that when you hit a key, the note acquires the cutoff happening at that moment. This added some subtle differences to timbres that was actually kind of cool with some patches. So...I did figure out a fun thing to do with phrases, because Mike mentioned you can record phrases that are just controllers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mike Martin Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 Originally Posted by Anderton I started by trying to figure out what the controllers were for the Filter and Resonance performance controls, so I twiddled Knobs 1 and 2 while recording the results into Sonar. This revealed the NRPNs for these knobs. I then re-arranged that data to create the sample-and-hold effect, with a varying cutoff and relatively high, constant resonance setting. Craig, A quick clarification, the data the knobs transmits is determined by the mode that you're in. For example if you're in a Solo Synth tone, Knob 1 will send MIDI CC#74 (Cutoff). In Performance Mode, the knobs can be assigned to just about any MIDI Continuous Controller number you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted June 11, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 Originally Posted by Mike Martin Craig, A quick clarification, the data the knobs transmits is determined by the mode that you're in. For example if you're in a Solo Synth tone, Knob 1 will send MIDI CC#74 (Cutoff). In Performance Mode, the knobs can be assigned to just about any MIDI Continuous Controller number you want. Hmm...that's not what I saw in Sonar in Solo Synth mode; when I turned the knobs, Sonar recorded NRPNs. I'll see if they send continuous controllers in Performance mode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mike Martin Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 The SLIDERS will transmit NRPNs in SoloSynth or HexLayer modes. In Drawbar Organ mode the sliders transmit regular MIDI CCs. The only time the knobs should transmit NRPNs is in a Performance (such as a blank User Performance) where these have not been assigned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gius.prenc Posted June 11, 2012 Members Share Posted June 11, 2012 Hi;I really enjoyed Mike' workshop: thanks again!!I have a question: towards the end of the workshop (about 1:13:00), it is explained that the parts of the step sequence can be run through the Solo Synth engine, using the Mixer function. However, I was not able to reproduce this behavior.Is it possible to have more details on this?Thanks.Regards,Giuseppe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gneissnfunky Posted June 12, 2012 Members Share Posted June 12, 2012 S&H rips! Tx, Craig. While researching S&H, an article mentioned other "less obvious modifiers" such as frequency-shifter and slew generator (or is that just portamento). Any famous songs which use these particular "modifiers"? Could you create a .zph of these effects? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gneissnfunky Posted June 12, 2012 Members Share Posted June 12, 2012 Is there a friendly wager between Mike "The Jersey Devil" and Craig "La King" on the Stanley Cups Finals? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mike Martin Posted June 12, 2012 Members Share Posted June 12, 2012 Originally Posted by gius.prenc Hi; I really enjoyed Mike' workshop: thanks again!! I have a question: towards the end of the workshop (about 1:13:00), it is explained that the parts of the step sequence can be run through the Solo Synth engine, using the Mixer function. However, I was not able to reproduce this behavior. Is it possible to have more details on this? Thanks. Regards, Giuseppe. Giuseppe, The secret lies in the MIXER. While in a Step Sequencer, press the MIXER button. Scroll down past the volume and pan for each track and you'll find a DSP ON/OFF switch. If DSP is set to ON that part is also routed through the FILTER of the SoloSynth tone that you have running on Part 1. You can do this for each Part or just use the Part - button until you find the ALL page of the mixer and now you can set all tracks to go through the Filter and FX of the SoloSynth patch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted June 12, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 12, 2012 Originally Posted by gneissnfunky Is there a friendly wager between Mike "The Jersey Devil" and Craig "La King" on the Stanley Cups Finals? I'm not from LA...and I like a good hockey game, but they're not real big on hockey in New Mexico Glad you liked the S&H effect! As to a Frequency Shifter, the effect is pretty similar to Ring Modulation, which is available in the XW-P1 DSP. A slew generator isn't an audio effect, but is used more for control voltages to slow down transients...so it's not really applicable here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gneissnfunky Posted June 12, 2012 Members Share Posted June 12, 2012 Thanks for the clarification Craig "The Vortex Kokopelli"...I'm learning so much more than just the XW-P1 in this forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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