Casio XW-P1 Performance Synthesizer

[muf]

hi happyrat1, thank you for your effort to help me. I'm taking vacation for next 10 days but when I come back I try to create the XW-P1 package (performance + sequences + chain) and I post it here.

[The GreatZoltar]

Hello Mike, I'm writing from Italy and I apologize now if my English is not perfect. I hope I make myself understood. I bought a few months XW P1 to be included in my setup and I'm very glad I did. Is really powerful! But I have a problem. The Casio is used in the slave and controlled by a MIDI Roland E60. I can control all the functions I want, except the "start stop" arpeggiator that I can not start from the Roland and the change of chords arpeggiator, that I can not remotely control. I tried everything but can not find solutions. Can you help? Thank you!

[Edsa]

I´m getting into crossroads, while surfing the web looking for a nice full size, semiweighted 61-keys midi controller 4 my home studio (Novation Impulse 6 its my first option, AKAI MPK61 my 2nd); I found out ´bout this beauty, and I have to admit that the XW captured me, can´t wait next week to give it a try, wheter @GC or @Samash. This keyboard really got my attention, Now I wonder if the XW-P1; with its knob buttons and sliders, can be used as a midi master controller for my home-set, that includes mac with ableton, studio-one, protools, and a variety of libraries.

This beauty looks like a gigfully reliable keyboard. Could anyone give me a hint... i have a really small budget, and want to make a good investment, what´s best? Plz Help me and guide me... Thanks

[happyrat1]

First of all the keys are not semi weighted nor weighted at all. They are velocity sensitive with no aftertouch. That said however, they are nice solid keys with a synth action and have decent response.

Secondly, for gigging, I would have to say that while my machine never leaves my home studio, I'd have to say it's very lightweight but solid. Casio has been making portable plastic keyboards for decades and they've pretty much perfected the knack of molding a plastic chassis that can withstand a lot of abuse. My biggest worry would be knocking off a slider or a knob if this thing were to be constantly shipped from gig to gig, but if you are planning to do that you should invest in a good hard shelled case anyway.

Thirdly, as a controller I believe it can function in that respect though in my setup I have the opposite. I use a Korg TR76 as the controller and control the XW-P1 with the 7 octave keyboard.

Lastly, I have to say that for a performance keyboard, it's well designed, nicely laid out, and can produce an infinite number of phat, insane, screaming synth sounds as well as all the funky drawbar organ and hex mode and PCM sounds anyone could ask for. You'd be very hard pressed to find anything else out there that could provide as much bang for the buck.

Regards,

Gary

[Anderton]

 

Originally Posted by The GreatZoltar

Hello Mike, I'm writing from Italy and I apologize now if my English is not perfect. I hope I make myself understood. I bought a few months XW P1 to be included in my setup and I'm very glad I did. Is really powerful! But I have a problem. The Casio is used in the slave and controlled by a MIDI Roland E60. I can control all the functions I want, except the "start stop" arpeggiator that I can not start from the Roland and the change of chords arpeggiator, that I can not remotely control. I tried everything but can not find solutions. Can you help? Thank you!

 

Welcome, Zoltar! Or maybe I should say "benvento nel forum!" I'm not Mike (he's on a well-deserved vacation with his family), but I'll try to help although I don't have a Roland here for testing.

1. Push Setting, scroll down to MIDI, then press Enter.
2. Turn everything on (MIDI In, Sync Mode to slave if you want to start from the Roland, Perform, S. Seq, Phrase, Arp).
3. Exit back out.
4. Now (very important!) turn the power off to the XW-P1 then turn it back on again. This is important for the keyboard to recognize any changes you've made to the MIDI parameters.

Does it work now? I was able to get it to work by sending start and stop commands from Sonar. If you don't want something to sync, turn off whatever you don't want in Step 2.

[Anderton]

 

Originally Posted by Edsa

I´m getting into crossroads, while surfing the web looking for a nice full size, semiweighted 61-keys midi controller 4 my home studio (Novation Impulse 6 its my first option, AKAI MPK61 my 2nd); I found out ´bout this beauty, and I have to admit that the XW captured me, can´t wait next week to give it a try, wheter @GC or @Samash. This keyboard really got my attention, Now I wonder if the XW-P1; with its knob buttons and sliders, can be used as a midi master controller for my home-set, that includes mac with ableton, studio-one, protools, and a variety of libraries.

This beauty looks like a gigfully reliable keyboard. Could anyone give me a hint... i have a really small budget, and want to make a good investment, what´s best? Plz Help me and guide me... Thanks

 

happyrat1 has given you a good summary. As a master controller, as he pointed out there's no aftertouch, so whether that is important to you or not depends on how many of your patches use aftertouch.

If you want to use the XW-P1 as a control surface, when using MIDI learn with soft synths, I've found that choosing the Drawbar Organ makes it easy to use the drawbar faders for control. However, there are only nine steps of resolution. Overall, the XW-P1's is not really designed to be a control surface compared to something like the Yamaha Motif series, or controllers like the M-Audio Axiom.

I do have a piece of advice, though. A few years ago Native Instruments introduced Kore, a controller for their soft synths that has since been replaced by Maschine. It is discontinued and will not be updated, so a lot of Kore users ended up selling the controller. It's a great little general-purpose MIDI controller (I use it with Sonar). Native has updated the drivers so it will work with 64-bit systems; there's also an editor application that lets you assign your choice of MIDI controllers to the knobs. It looks pretty cool, too; I've seen them second-hand for under $100. Another good choice would be the Novation Nocturn, which I've seen new for $99.

Hope this helps

[The GreatZoltar]

 

Originally Posted by Anderton

Welcome, Zoltar! Or maybe I should say "benvento nel forum!" I'm not Mike (he's on a well-deserved vacation with his family), but I'll try to help although I don't have a Roland here for testing.

1. Push Setting, scroll down to MIDI, then press Enter.
2. Turn everything on (MIDI In, Sync Mode to slave if you want to start from the Roland, Perform, S. Seq, Phrase, Arp).
3. Exit back out.
4. Now (very important!) turn the power off to the XW-P1 then turn it back on again. This is important for the keyboard to recognize any changes you've made to the MIDI parameters.

Does it work now? I was able to get it to work by sending start and stop commands from Sonar. If you don't want something to sync, turn off whatever you don't want in Step 2.

 

Thanks for the welcome! Actually I already tried this and I think the problem is to find the midi channel used to receive commands from casio arpeggiator, which I do not know! Do not know what to try!

[Anderton]

 

Originally Posted by The GreatZoltar

Thanks for the welcome! Actually I already tried this and I think the problem is to find the midi channel used to receive commands from casio arpeggiator, which I do not know! Do not know what to try!

 

Are you trying to trigger the Casio by pressing start on the Roland, or trigger the Roland from the Casio?

[Anderton]

 

Originally Posted by The GreatZoltar

Thanks for the welcome! Actually I already tried this and I think the problem is to find the midi channel used to receive commands from casio arpeggiator, which I do not know! Do not know what to try!

 

Are you trying to trigger the Casio by pressing start on the Roland, or trigger the Roland from the Casio?

[The GreatZoltar]

 

Originally Posted by Anderton

Are you trying to trigger the Casio by pressing start on the Roland, or trigger the Roland from the Casio?

 

I tried it. With the start-stop rhythms on roland, I can start up the rhythms of the casio, but not the arpeggiator

[machtcl1]

Help!!

Mike or Craig:

I downloaded a sonar trial, ran a midi song through it to my xw-p1, messed with some settings, shut down sonar, and now I can only get audio out of my xw-p1 if the usb cable is plugged into the computer and sonar is restarted with a midi file. What the hell could I have done? As soon as I unplug the usb cable the keyboard loses output.

Thanks,

Matt

[happyrat1]

Hi Matt.

It's a bug which Mike insists doesn't exist. Running Cakewalk with the XW-P1 turns off local control.

Easy fix. Hit Settings. Choose the top option (General Settings? I think) Scroll down to Local Control (3rd option down) and turn it back on. Hit Exit a couple of times and you're good to go.

I have to do this everytime after I run the XW with Cakewalk as well.

Hope this helps...

Gary

[machtcl1]

Thanks Gary.

I just found "local control" under the general settings. I kept looking in midi settings. Thank goodness I didn't have a gig tonight... (or in the last five years!).

MIDI has sure changed since I played my Juno 106. My acoustic guitar never does this to me...

Thanks very much,

Matt

[happyrat1]

You're welcome Matt.

My experience with a half dozen keyboards over the last decade has been that EVERY manufacturer and EVERY model has its own quirks when setting up MIDI parameters to output what you want.

Compared to my Korg however, the Casio's menus are pretty simple.

BTW, if you haven't already, make sure your firmware is up to date on your XW. Current firmware is 1.10. There's an explanation on the XW-P1 update page on how to tell if you have the latest version or not.

http://support.casio.com/download.ph...d=008&pid=1160

Gary

[Anderton]

 

Originally Posted by happyrat1

Hi Matt.

It's a bug which Mike insists doesn't exist. Running Cakewalk with the XW-P1 turns off local control.

Easy fix. Hit Settings. Choose the top option (General Settings? I think) Scroll down to Local Control (3rd option down) and turn it back on. Hit Exit a couple of times and you're good to go.

I have to do this everytime after I run the XW with Cakewalk as well.

Hope this helps...

Gary

 

Dr. Rat is right, it happens when you open or exit Sonar. I think this may be a Sonar bug regarding how it releases its MIDI driver, and I'll notify Cakewalk.

There's another way to re-enable local control that I think takes a couple less button pushes. Just don't ask me why this works, as I have no idea

1. Press Setting and Write at the same time to select the demo song.

2. Hit Enter.

3. As soon as it starts playing, hit Exit.

4. Hit Exit again.

Local control is now back on. File under "go figure."

[happyrat1]

Gee Craig... Thanks for the promotion... "DOCTOR" Rat?!?! Momma would be so proud...

Incidentally, if this is a cakewalk/sonar only bug, then it goes back a LOOOOOONG way, cause the version I'm running is Home Studio 9.01!!!

Good news though on the Linux front. With recent updates in Wine the Casio Patch Editor now works swimmingly under Linux. Patches load and save without quibble. Hell it may be robust enough to do a firmware update these days, though I wouldn't bet the farm on it. I'll keep dual booting to Windows 7 whenever I do any firmware stuff

So, while bringing it up, anyone out there have any funky new patches to share? Not that I'm running out crazy squeaks and squawks and permutations of same, but it would be fun to hear some of the stuff others out there are doing with their XW's...

[Anderton]

And speaking of arpeggiators...

Really, the only elements will still need to review are the Arpeggiator and the Performance. You probably know what an arpeggiator is on a synth, but as usual, the XW-P1 does it in its own Casio-like way. In this particular case, it’s probably more flexible, programmable, and also, more complex that what you’ve encountered before.

There are 100 preset and 100 user arpeggios (sound familiar?). There are also two other control options, Hold and Sync. Hold holds down whatever keys you’ve played until you play at least one more key, which releases whatever was held. Sync causes the step sequencer to start and stop along with the arpeggiator.

There are also two types of arpeggiations, Step and Variation. Step is the more traditional type, while Variation does things like guitar strikes but also, some of the variations sound step-like so I’m not all that sure what the main difference is . Maybe Mike can fill us in when he gets back from vacation.

In any event, all the presets can be edited and when you go to edit them, it’s obvious which is which: You can’t edit the steps with the Variation-based arpeggios, only the parameters that affect the arpeggio as a whole—step size, note length, groove (swing), velocity, etc.

Step editing turns the display into a piano roll-type editor with 16 steps, with the major difference compared to a standard piano view is that parameter values are offset from what you see. Again, this function takes advantage of the XW-P1’s capabilities; for example, you can use the step sequencer’s switches to turn steps on and off, and various switches provide other editing controls. In addition to being able to specify where notes will play within the arpeggio, the coolest feature is that you can also specify polyphony from 2 to 5 simultaneous notes for individual steps.

Based on the above, the arpeggio isn’t so much about creating patterns from scratch, but finding something close to what you want, and editing it as desired. The inclusion of phrases, the step sequencer, and the arpeggiator underlines the XW-P1’s live performance orientation—set it up right, and you can keep people entertained just by hitting a few keys

[Anderton]

Before proceeding...the Cakewalk auto-local control may be a feature, not a bug. I was testing out the MIDI/controller aspects of the XW-P1. When I opened Sonar Local Control was turned off, so I turned it on. But then, as soon as I created a MIDI track, there was "double triggering" from the XW-P1 step sequencer due to the notes being triggered internally, and also being triggered by Sonar's MIDI output (which was echoing data from the MIDI input).

I think the assumption is that if you're using a synthesizer with Sonar, you'll be playing MIDI from the keyboard into Sonar, and driving the sound engine from Sonar's MIDI out. That way there's no double triggering, and also, you don't have to change anything when going from record to playback in Sonar.

[Anderton]

Now let’s look at the Performance. This actually crosses over into MIDI control with Zones, but for now, we’ll concentrate on the part that makes sounds; we’ll cover the master controller elements next.

Again, the Editor software tells the story quite concisely, although the front-panel editing is quite accessible.

There are four zones that allow for splits and layers. The first Zone can contain a Solo Synth or Hex Layer patch, while the remaining three Zones can have PCM Melody or Drum Tones. This is admittedly inflexible, but it's the way the architecture works.

The upper part of the screen shot shows the available parameters: Key range, fine tune, up and down bend ranges, reverb and chorus send, whether DSP is applied to the Zone, pan, volume, octave shift, and transpose.

There are also enable buttons for the four control knobs, phrase, arpeggiator, mod wheel, bend, and pedal. The advantage of individual enables for each zone is that you can apply bending to, for example, only a zone on the right side of the keyboard where you play leads, while not applying bend to a zone on the left side that plays bass. Being able to choose which Zone is affected by the four control knobs is cool, but it’s even better that the knobs are enabled for Zones individually, not as a group.

[Anderton]

These are tabs in the Performance section, but although in many cases they relate to performances, they relate primarily to master controller functionality. Of course all of these parameters are available from the XW-P1's front panel, but it's easier to show Editor screen shots than take multiple photos of the front panel display.

The Zone tab was added in the 1.10 firmware version to add greater master keyboard capabilities. Enabling Mixer sends out the Zone’s mixer value when choosing a performance; enabling bank and program does the same thing for sending bank and program data.

The Controller tab is where you can assign continuously controllers to the four knobs, choose the pedal mode (hold, sostenuto, soft, step sequencer start/stop, or phrase start/stop), and keyboard “touch” (velocity) parameters. The choices are light, normal, and off (which I would suggest calling “fixed”), with a parameter to determine the velocity that’s transmitted in fixed—I mean, off—mode.

The Sequencers tab affects Performances and Tones—whatever’s selected. The screen is fairly self-explanatory, but note that you can call up step sequences, arpeggios, and phrases all in one place—this is very convenient compared to calling these up from the front panel.

The Effect tab has the parameters for the onboard reverb and chorus that can be accessed by the various patches. The chorus also has a useful “send to reverb” parameter. The Master EQ only has four bands, but you can choose three different Low values (200/400/800Hz), eight Mid 1 values (between 1 and 5kHz), eight Mid 2 values (also between 1 and 5kHz), and three High values (6/8/10kHz).

The final tab, MIDI, determines how parts relate to MIDI. This is all about using the XW-P1 as part of a system, in particular a computer-based setup, where you’re either using the XW-P1 as a sequencer/MIDI data generator to drive a DAW, or conversely, using a DAW’s MIDI capabilities to drive the XW-P1.

GenOut enables driving the internal sound generators from the step sequencer, keyboard, etc. So for example, you could have the step sequencer drive an external tone module only, but not the internal sounds.

And speaking of driving external outs, the parameters in the ExtOut section let you choose the MIDI output channel for each part, as well as whether the data is transmitted over USB or the MIDI out. One way you might use this would be to assign the individual drum parts created by the step sequencer to the same channel, and drive an external module or soft synth.

Finally, the ExtIn parameter chooses the MIDI channel that feeds an XW-P1 part.

[happyrat1]

 

Originally Posted by Anderton

Before proceeding...the Cakewalk auto-local control may be a feature, not a bug. I was testing out the MIDI/controller aspects of the XW-P1. When I opened Sonar Local Control was turned off, so I turned it on. But then, as soon as I created a MIDI track, there was "double triggering" from the XW-P1 step sequencer due to the notes being triggered internally, and also being triggered by Sonar's MIDI output (which was echoing data from the MIDI input).

I think the assumption is that if you're using a synthesizer with Sonar, you'll be playing MIDI from the keyboard into Sonar, and driving the sound engine from Sonar's MIDI out. That way there's no double triggering, and also, you don't have to change anything when going from record to playback in Sonar.

 

That sounds like a very plausible theory. I believe the architecture of the XW-P1 also plays some part in it though. I say this because when I use my Korg TR76 with Cakewalk, it refuses to talk to the computer at all unless the TR is set to Sequencer Mode. Also, occasionally, but not always, the keyboard exits unresponsive when I shut down Cakewalk, however, rebooting the TR reinitializes the keyboard.

Then again, to make things even weirder, though I haven't yet experimented with every possible permutation, in my current setup, when I select a Casio track in a composition the Casio keyboard remains unresponsive. What in fact happens is when I switch tracks in the Cakewalk Sequencer, my TR keyboard acts as controller for either/or keyboard. I haven't messed around with this much as of yet simply because I prefer having a 6-1/3 octave XW than a 5 octave keyboard. All of the XW's front panel controls still work as expected though. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say Cakewalk, at least my version, balks at having more than one input controller at a time.

Also, one other point about the arpeggiator that seems to be so obvious many overlook it, however to get to the selection and edit menus for the arpeggiator, if you want to use a specific arpeggio rather than the default, you have to press and hold the arpeggiator button until the menu appears. It's brilliantly simple to apply but not very intuitive if you are trying to figure out how to get into that menu.

[RedEyeC]

As someone who owns Roland, Yamaha, and Korg synths, I was very reluctant to buy a Casio when a trusted musician friend recommended one. I bought the CTK-6000 (at about 1/10 the price of my Roland Fantom X6 - tweaked the sound parameters - hooked it up to 2 Bose L1 systems in church - and it sounded like I was playing a Steinway and Sons grand piano!! Incredible sound for CHEAP$$$.

[happyrat1]

 

Originally Posted by Anderton

Before proceeding...the Cakewalk auto-local control may be a feature, not a bug. I was testing out the MIDI/controller aspects of the XW-P1. When I opened Sonar Local Control was turned off, so I turned it on. But then, as soon as I created a MIDI track, there was "double triggering" from the XW-P1 step sequencer due to the notes being triggered internally, and also being triggered by Sonar's MIDI output (which was echoing data from the MIDI input).

I think the assumption is that if you're using a synthesizer with Sonar, you'll be playing MIDI from the keyboard into Sonar, and driving the sound engine from Sonar's MIDI out. That way there's no double triggering, and also, you don't have to change anything when going from record to playback in Sonar.

 

Sorry to flog a dead horse here Craig, but you should in fact alert Cakewalk that it is a bug. I managed to get the XW working with another sequencer I use, Rosegarden, and it not only restores control on exit but also allows full control while running the program. The sequencer in question is an open source program called Rosegarden in case anyone wants to try it. It's primarily used in Linux but Windows binaries are available as well. If anyone has any questions about using it or configuring it for the XW-P1 just mention it and I'll try and point you to a few instructional videos and resources.

Regards,

Gary

[muf]

 

Originally Posted by happyrat1

Muf >>> So what you're saying is you change patterns every measure? I'd really like to hear what you're playing to get that kind of result.

Most popular music these days is anywhere between 4 to 8 to 12 to 16 bars of the same rhythm followed by another 4 to 8 bars of whatever chorus followed by yet another stanza by yet another chorus or twice again.

Any chance you could post one of your tunes here to give us an idea of what you're talking about?

 

hi happyrat1, I've attached xw-p1 package file (you have to change the extension from .zip to .zpk) and mp3.

It is quite a simple song Electricity from early 80's from band O.M.D., but I've used 99 steps in chain and I had to shorten some parts.

You can watch the original version here

The question is if I could do it in some better or more effective way or I should better use external sequencer (which I'm planning to use anyway). But I'd like to be able to play as many songs as possible without computer.

Let me know if the package file is OK. I have no idea how could I test it.

[ATTACH]347969[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]347970[/ATTACH]

[happyrat1]

OK. I think the problem here is that you are trying to use the Step Sequencer as a full blown MIDI sequencer. It was never really designed to do that. It was designed as something more like an intelligent Rhythm Ace or Drum Sequencer. ie. It's meant to provide programmable accompaniment for live performances.

From what I saw in the MP3 , the xylophone and organ parts could be programmed into the arpeggiator or phrase recorder if you wanted to automate those and they'd automatically follow your chord and key changes during a live performance.

The step sequencer would be used to automate and chain the bassline and percussion only.

Otherwise, if you are looking to record an entire performance, then you're pretty much stuck with using a tablet or a netbook or some sort of computer to record the whole thing verbatim.

At least that's my understanding of the reasoning and design behind the step sequencer. It's not a full blown multitrack MIDI sequencer. Perhaps Craig or Mike could set us both straight on this once they return from vacation?

Regards,

Gary