Members Anderton Posted June 12, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 12, 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. Mike, could you re-visit this? I need to find out why we're not seeing the same thing. Here's what I did... 1. Selected Tone (not Performance) 2. Selected Solo Synth 3. Chose the XW SoloSynth patch P 0-0 4. Hit a note, and tweaked K1, K2, K3, and K4. Here's what Sonar showed as being recorded - all NRPNs, not CCs: However, with a Performance, tweaking the controls were recorded as standard CC numbers, and these numbers were shown as such in the XW-P1 display. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gius.prenc Posted June 12, 2012 Members Share Posted June 12, 2012 Originally Posted by Mike Martin 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. Done: Thanks!! Regards, Giuseppe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted June 12, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 12, 2012 I was going to turn my attention to the XW-P1's "king of the engines" (well, at least in my opinion): The Solo Synth. I really was. Honest. But then I got curious about the Solo Synth's External Input option. And the Variax was sitting only a few feet away...well... My first surprise was an "Osc On" button for the external input. Now, how could there be an Osc On for an External input? Well, I turned it on, and as I played the guitar, I could transpose it in real time from the keyboard. The fidelity wasn't exactly killer, but it had a sort of uniquely strange personality. In the audio example, the guitar did a lot of tonic/flattened 7th in the beginning. Except it didn't. The guitar was playing the tonic the whole time, and I loaded a phrase into the XW-P1 that transposed the guitar down to the flatted 7th. Hey Mike - are you proud of me for finding another use for phrases? Triggering guitar patterns! It's really late, and I need to get up early tomorrow. So, I'm not going to explain exactly what I did in this audio example, but I'll tell you it involved varying amounts of triggered envelopes, DSP ring modulator processing, delay, reverb, and some drum sequence I kicked in so I could do tempo sync triggering on the envelope and delay. Fun stuff!! Normally I wouldn't post something this raw, and I'm not even scratching the surface (just touching it lightly) but hey, I figure by the time we've hit post #327 I'm among friends. This is some pretty wild stuff...and I imagine it will be a lot wilder once I figure out how to tame it. 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 Anderton However, with a Performance, tweaking the controls were recorded as standard CC numbers, and these numbers were shown as such in the XW-P1 display. Craig, I'm on the road this week and I'm currently on a plane so I didnt have a chance to test this myself yet. I certainly will admit to being wrong based on your test - Performance mode does address the issue with standard CCs while controlling the Solo Synth in the same way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members happyrat1 Posted June 12, 2012 Members Share Posted June 12, 2012 Originally Posted by Mike Martin Craig, I'm on the road this week and I'm currently on a plane so I didnt have a chance to test this myself yet. I certainly will admit to being wrong based on your test - Performance mode does address the issue with standard CCs while controlling the Solo Synth in the same way. Hi Mike, I was just wondering how the Cakewalk INS file for the XW-P1 was progressing? Any chance it'll be available for download soon? Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Smart Alec Posted June 12, 2012 Members Share Posted June 12, 2012 Originally Posted by happyrat1 Was I the only one who noticed that at a casual glance the T-Shirt reads "Casio XW Pig!" actually it reads CASIOXWP1G1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members happyrat1 Posted June 12, 2012 Members Share Posted June 12, 2012 Originally Posted by Smart Alec actually it reads CASIOXWP1G1 No habla L33TSP33K? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Korianna Posted June 14, 2012 Members Share Posted June 14, 2012 Whoohoo!! Just went to Guitar Center to pick up the P1....so excited...oh and by the way, got a $100 discount I guess from the Fathers Day sale thats still goin on! So for $400 Im happy as can be right now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted June 14, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 14, 2012 Originally Posted by Korianna Whoohoo!! Just went to Guitar Center to pick up the P1....so excited...oh and by the way, got a $100 discount I guess from the Fathers Day sale thats still goin on! So for $400 Im happy as can be right now Wow, that is a helluva deal. Enjoy your synth!! BTW, the more I play with the XW-P1, the more it's becoming clear that the multiple engine aspect is a major part of the synth, as each one is optimized for specific tasks and types of sounds. So while I was initially sort of put off that I couldn't do things like a keytracked filter on a hex layer program's output, I realized there were lots of sounds I could get with the hex layer engine that I really couldn't get in other ways. Right tool for the right job, and all that. Another aspect is that the XW-P1 has a "personality." It is unlike any other synth I've used, even though it has several elements in common. One element of its personality is the "toolset" aspect; not just the multiple engines, but also the phrase thing (which I'm really getting into), the arpeggiator, the step sequencer, drawbars, the external input...you can do a lot with this instrument. It's extremely deep, which might not be apparent at a first glance. I'm surprised no one has commented on the external input audio example, it seems like it offers some pretty radical options... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kbeaumont Posted June 14, 2012 Members Share Posted June 14, 2012 Looks like our ever industrious Mike Martin uploaded some new sounds with documentation. He announced it at http://xwsynth.wordpress.com/Way cool! He also has some great tutorials there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gneissnfunky Posted June 15, 2012 Members Share Posted June 15, 2012 First, thanks for the awesome sounds...What makes Vangelis sound so freaking good?....Well that brings me to my next point, by exploring the EDITs of that sound it helped a noob like me to synth understand what goes into creating unique sounds...I predicted it had something something to do with attack and release (under TotalFilter), but was surprised to see doubled up sounds, how a little detuning goes a long way and how the LFO is integral in shaping the sound...very cool learning experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Korianna Posted June 15, 2012 Members Share Posted June 15, 2012 Originally Posted by gneissnfunky First, thanks for the awesome sounds... The ModWheel Bnd is freaky kewl! I dont have an SD card yet but the data manager software was easy to use, just drag and drop, me likey it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mike Martin Posted June 15, 2012 Members Share Posted June 15, 2012 Originally Posted by gneissnfunky First, thanks for the awesome sounds...What makes Vangelis sound so freaking good?....Well that brings me to my next point, by exploring the EDITs of that sound it helped a noob like me to synth understand what goes into creating unique sounds...I predicted it had something something to do with attack and release (under TotalFilter), but was surprised to see doubled up sounds, how a little detuning goes a long way and how the LFO is integral in shaping the sound...very cool learning experience. You're welcome. I thought that Vangelis preset would be a challenge for the XW but in the end I think it did it with a lot of authenticity. Most of the factory presets are rather.....aggressive, while this is something that is much more melodic. The key as you discovered is using the Filter envelope and adjusting the time of that envelope with a combination of velocity and the modwheel. For me, this preset is proof that we haven't begun to explore the range of sounds that the XW can make. So some of these preset like Modwheel Bnd were created to show the depth and capability of the XW's engine. We'll get many more done. Some of my favorite things I'm doing now with XW involves Performances, along with user phrases and arpeggios. The reason these aren't included in this bank is because it requires a lot more documentation. In order for a Performance to work all of its dependent elements (tones, arpeggios, sequences and phrases) will need to be loaded into a specific location. We could do an "ALL FILE" but that would erase any other user presets and sequences you may have made. So my challenge is to deliver these things so that everyone be be able to use them. So my plan is to use the user locations in reverse order...starting at the end of each user bank, expecting that you may already have things in the first user locations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted June 15, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 15, 2012 Hey Mike, great job on the patches. I have a few I'll be uploading. Given the response to your patches, I'll include notes about how I got the sound, and why I programmed it the way I did. To those following this thread, make sure you check out the link in post #334, there's lots of great info there. In particular, pay attention to the entry on workflow and saving your work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted June 15, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 15, 2012 And one more thing...Mike, your dedication to the instrument and this thread is something all of us greatly appreciate. I kind of wish you weren't always one step ahead of me , but then again, you got involved a little bit before I did On the other hand, I think I'm ahead of you in terms of creating alien guitar sounds using the XW-P1! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted June 16, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 16, 2012 I wanted to do an electric piano sound with expressiveness that used techniques beyond just increasing velocity, so check out this patch. It has a few interesting techniques. The main layers are EP Lead-8 to give the piano sound, and GM Jazz Gt to round it off a bit. Both respond to the full velocity range (0-127). The rest of the layers use velocity switching so that they come into play as you increase dynamics. The GM SlapBs2-1 kicks in when the velocity hits 86, but there's a twist; the bass sound is transposed up an octave. I've found that sampled basses can add very interesting attack characteristics when transposed up an octave, as it shortens the attack while raising the pitch. At velocities 91 or over, the GM Crystal-1 sound will play. The tuning on this is offset by a fifth, and it's transposed up two octaves so it adds a high frequency harmonic that fills out the sound. At velocities 108 or over, the GM Fantasy-1 plays and at velocities of 115 and above, the Nylon Gt-1 plays. This sound is transposed up two octaves, so at really high velocities, it doesn't sound at all like a guitar but adds a bit more aggressiveness to the attack. I've attached the program (it's a zip file, so you'll need to unzip it), and also, a short audio example of playing at different velocity levels. The program is called "Valleys" because I worked on David Arkenstone's "Valley in the Clouds" CD - I still love that CD after all these years, and one of his favorite sounds (it was new back then !!) was a DX7 electric piano sound. This program updates that basic sound, and plays one of the riffs from the title track. This program shows that not only can the XW-P1 play some sweet, wavetable-meets-FM sounds, but is can also fit in with pretty, more ambient musical styles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members deanmass Posted June 16, 2012 Members Share Posted June 16, 2012 For what it is worth, and Craig I actully tried to message you with the EXACT analogy (DPM3) ....The Casio is a huge surprise and while I was going to return it, Mikes' responses and some time, I am SO glad I didn't. This and the Venom are two of the coolest, weird, fun kb's I have had in years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted June 16, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 16, 2012 Originally Posted by deanmass For what it is worth, and Craig I actully tried to message you with the EXACT analogy (DPM3) ....The Casio is a huge surprise and while I was going to return it, Mikes' responses and some time, I am SO glad I did. This and the Venom are two of the coolest, weird, fun kb's I have had in years. We are SO on the same page with this...the Casio is "not another synth" or "not another ROMpler" and therein lies the strength, but also, the reason why its coolness is not apparent at first glance. I will say I think the editor is a crucial element of enjoying the synth, it makes it so much easier to see the architecture and "grok" how to use it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members happyrat1 Posted June 17, 2012 Members Share Posted June 17, 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). Hi Mike, Has anyone been working on the Cakewalk INS file lately? Any chance we'll see one soon or not? Anyone else out there created one yet? Since I don't like to do live bank and program changes on the fly in my sequences since they are a pain in the ass to edit out or change during revisions, I am DESPERATE to find this file soon. I mean the Vangelis and Keith Emerson sounds are cool and all that but unless I can program them into the sequencer software I'm using with a full range of recognized controllers and banks and patches they're totally useless to me as nothing more than noise experiments. Is there an INS file on its way or not? Or should I just stop asking about it and spend a month or two writing my own INS file? Regards, Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted June 19, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 19, 2012 Let’s do a deep dive into the Solo Synth engine. In several ways this is the most sophisticated of the engines, although it’s monophonic (a la Minimoog). However, this voice has four “oscillators”—two traditional synth types, and two PCM waveforms. I’ve detached the tabs from first synth oscillator block and arranged them in a line. The Wave drop-down menu to the upper right chooses from a wide variety of synth waveforms. This oscillator block also allows for legato and portamento, and you can turn the oscillator on or off. The pitch, lowpass filter, and amp sections have nine-stage rate/level envelopes (vintage Casio!), along with envelope depth, depth parameters for the two LFOs, and key follow. The pitch tab has additional pitch and detune parameters, the filter includes cutoff and velocity sensitivity; the filter’s Gain drop-down menu chooses the lowpass slope (3, 6, 12, or 18dB/octave). The amp tab has a volume parameter and velocity sensitivity. All three envelopes can be synched to tempo. The Etc block sets pulse width and pulse width modulation from the two LFOs. However a pulse waveform must be selected for this to be relevant; you can’t change the duty of, for example, a sine or square wave. The second synth oscillator block is identical, but with a hard sync button in the Etc tab. The PCM oscillator blocks have the same modules as the synth blocks, although there’s no Etc tab as pulse width modulation doesn’t apply to PCM tones. The choice of waveforms is the same as what you can choose for a PCM tone. For single note lines (e.g., trumpet, sax, solo violin, etc.) using the Solo Synth engine lets you add more expressiveness and options than with the PCM Tone engine. As already mentioned, the Ext(ernal) Input block surprised me by having the same pitch, filter, and amp modules as the Synth and PCM Tone blocks, and letting you transpose the external input by using the keyboard to control pitch shifting. However, the pitch block doesn’t have a drop-down menu for waveforms (of course; the external input provides the waveform) although it still has legato and portamento controls. The Noise block has the same filter and amp modules, and a drop-down menu where you can choose noise types. Legato is an option, but not portamento. The LFO tab brings up two multi-waveforms LFOs that can also sync to tempo, and offer rate, depth, delay, rise (fade in) time, and modulation depth. The depth control provides a fixed amount of master modulation but as noted earlier, the Synth and PCM blocks allow tailoring this amount individually for each module. T-Filter is a master filter that applies to the sum of all blocks that generate tones, including the External block. This is similar to the other filter modules with two major exceptions: you can choose lowpass, highpass, or bandpass modes (although you don’t have a choice of slopes; it sounds like 24dB/octave, but I’m sure Mike can correct me if I’m wrong) and there’s also—tra la!—resonance. This is the filter that gets brought out to the K1 and K2 performance controls for these patches. V-Ctrl is where it gets really interesting, as this provides all the cool modulation options via matrix modulation with eight source/destination options. The destination options are pretty much anything within a Solo Synth program, while you can see from the screen shot that you have several instrument controls (velocity, key number, aftertouch, etc.) but what you can’t see is that you have all continuous controllers from 000 to 097, which means that bringing in external control signals from your a footpedal, external control surface, or whatever can provide additional modulation options. (FYI – the screen shot shows two drop-down menus simultaneously through the miracle of cut and paste with Paint—Casio has not figure out out to make a single mouse control two drop-down menus simultaneously.) After all that, the Common tab isn’t a big deal—overall program volume, and Reverb Send. Of course, as with other sounds you can add DSP; for the Solo Synth, you have a choice of Auto Pan, Distortion, Flanger, Chorus, Delay, and Ring Modulator along with associated parameters. Soooo...that’s what the Solo Synth engine is all about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members electrochrisso Posted June 19, 2012 Members Share Posted June 19, 2012 I have been monitoring the availability and price for the XW-P1 in Australia, and it seems not to be hardly available, and the only one I found on the web quoted a price of $768. No point in getting one shipped over from the US as the postage is over $200, no warranty, and an AC adaptor problems. Anyone know why the price tag is so expensive here, perhaps import duties (can't seem to find a price on that one), or maybe Australia hosts too many rip off business peoples. I can be sure to say that Casio will not sell many units here until the price drops to $500, this will happen, but probably not for a year or more, then I will get mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mike Martin Posted June 19, 2012 Members Share Posted June 19, 2012 Originally Posted by happyrat1 Hi Mike, Has anyone been working on the Cakewalk INS file lately? Any chance we'll see one soon or not? Anyone else out there created one yet? Since I don't like to do live bank and program changes on the fly in my sequences since they are a pain in the ass to edit out or change during revisions, I am DESPERATE to find this file soon. I mean the Vangelis and Keith Emerson sounds are cool and all that but unless I can program them into the sequencer software I'm using with a full range of recognized controllers and banks and patches they're totally useless to me as nothing more than noise experiments. Is there an INS file on its way or not? Or should I just stop asking about it and spend a month or two writing my own INS file? Regards, Gary Gary, I have been waiting on an "unprotected" version of the PDF that has the patch names so I wouldn't have to type out the names of all 600 presets manually. I just received this so I hope to get this done for you in the next day or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members happyrat1 Posted June 19, 2012 Members Share Posted June 19, 2012 Originally Posted by Mike Martin Gary, I have been waiting on an "unprotected" version of the PDF that has the patch names so I wouldn't have to type out the names of all 600 presets manually. I just received this so I hope to get this done for you in the next day or two. That's terrific news Mike! I eagerly await your progeny with bated breath Incidentally, I noticed when I first received my XW-P1 there was no sign of a serial number on it. Not even a sticker. Considering even a $50 DVD player usually has at least a serial number sticker on it I'm somewhat surprised that Casio sold a $500 piece of hardware with no serial number to track in case of theft? Or am I missing a serial sticker squirrelled away somewhere in the chassis? I admit I never opened the battery compartment so I guess it could be squirrelled away inside there. Regards, Gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mike Martin Posted June 19, 2012 Members Share Posted June 19, 2012 Originally Posted by happyrat1 I admit I never opened the battery compartment so I guess it could be squirrelled away inside there. That is where you will find it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mike Martin Posted June 21, 2012 Members Share Posted June 21, 2012 I'm backtracking a bit because Craig has already covered the Pattern Sequencer, but here is a video I just finished on this feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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