Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards CASIO releases 4 new models

I'll end up A/B'ing them at the GC/SA in the fall and decide if I upgrade. The main thing I want to hear is how different the sounds are.

Are these the four new Casio keyboards?

I'm looking at CASIO's page for the PX-150WE HERE and it says:

"For further realism a new Damper Resonance simulator provides the rich sound of the strings when the sustain pedal is used."

Are they not talking about sympathetic resonance?

I think this may get back to what we were talking about earlier, with the two kinds of sympathetic resonance (pedal-down; pedal-up-keys-down), and like Nord, they may make just one available in the basic model and both kinds available in the more advanced models.

Perhaps Mike could chime in and clear this up.

I think of pedal sympathetic resonance as the main one, so I would expect ALL of the models that mention "sympathetic resonance" or "damper resonance" (or whatever the kids are calling it these days) in their ad copy to have some kind of simulation of that, though perhaps better done on the higher end chipboard offerings.

Key sympathetic resonance or "string resonance" is implemented much less often, and is so subtle it doesn't concern me all that much, though it is certainly nice to have.

but some models have expanded capabilities of the AiR sound source with up to 256 notes of polyphony, sympathetic resonance and cabinet simulation.

The above is from the press release and it clearly says that only some models have sympathetic resonance and the higher polyphony (just present in the higher priced models). The lower end models just get the keybed improvement, new piano sample, and AiR sound source. There is a damper resonance simulator but it is not being called sympathetic resonance in the press release or specs. All Casios in the past have had some kind of circuit that simulates open strings when the pedal is down. The Casio I have has Acoustic Resonance. It simulates off a DSP setting. The current Privias have this also--Linear Morphing.

@Dewster:
When he plays some of the upper chords, it rings out in a nice way that I haven't quite heard on my PX-330. (I didn't notice anything special in the low notes - all I meant regarding the low notes is that he held them for an appreciable amount of time)
Not sure about the heavy sustain pedal use - if/when I take another listen I'll report back.

Greg.

I'll do my best to clarify.
All new models have a new "damper resonance" simulation. It is a DRAMATICALLY better simulation than what Casio calls "acoustic resonance" in the current models. This new damper resonance simulation as the name implies can be heard when the sustain pedal is used.

The PX-850 also features a seperate effect called sympathetic resonance. To be clear, some of the information coming from Tokyo calls this "string resonance". As on a real piano this allows some notes to sympathetically vibrate the "strings" on others. As an example if you played and held a C Major chord until it nearly faded out, then played a C bass note, you'd hear that C major chord resonate a bit.

The two effects are similar but one works only when the sustain (damper) pedal is used the other is working all the time based on what is being played and which frequencies will sympathetically resonate others.

Mike, thanks very much for clearing that up!

Is the "damper resonance" adjustable by the user in any way? Often one is given a depth, or mix level adjustment, which I usually turn up because real pianos resonate all over the place.

Not on the PX-150 and PX-750. The PX-850 does have this ability. Not sure yet about the PX-350.

@Dewster: I think you're probably right that he's using the sustain pedal a lot, however I can still hear the low notes pretty clearly. (it's a far cry from a DPBSD though ;^) Usually when we complain about the demos being too busy/fast I agree, but this particular one isn't bothering me all that much. If Casio ever puts unlooped samples into a DP, I'm sure they'll make a song and dance about it, anyway. (like Roland have with their SN demo)

Greg.

Anyone know when the PX-850 is going to be available in stores in Europe?

Greetings all!

I just found a new in-depth review of the upcoming Casio Privia PX-150 & PX-350 digital pianos at the following blog:

http://azpianonews.blogspot.com/

I'm now looking forward more than ever to test-playing one of these new instruments....

Cheers,

Kevin

Thanks for the link. In the review it states that they are "due out in approx late September"

Thanks!

Kind of empty review though. Most of the info seems gleaned from press releases and other assorted data on the web. And no negative comments? I've dinked around on the PX130/330 in the past and remember many of the extra voices as being rather poorly done (severe stretching & looping IIRC). So other than maybe reading tons of his reviews and getting a sense for the usefulness of his picks, I'm not seeing much value add here.

Then I hit the end of the review and see that he's a seller. So much for writing his blog primarily for the love of music and to help my inner soul, dude's after my credit card!

He recommends every product he sells and does not recommend any product he doesn't sell, and he's really not all that transparent about what he sells. From what I'd gleaned, he sells Kawai and Casio and his "reviews" continually push people towards those. I have never seen him review a Roland or Yamaha product and recommend it. He will go so far as to say that they're nice, but for much less you can get a Casio and to contact him to find out how to get the best price. *wink*

Interesting. Though near the bottom of the page he does give a "I DO NOT recommend" to the Adagio MGDP8820. I've never seen one, but this is probably akin to shooting fish in a barrel. Throws the review police off a bit I suppose.

Your teacher probably has this bias because of the past. I always say that Roland and Yamaha have come down to the consumer (cheaper) keyboards, and Casio is coming up from those into the more pro keyboards. Casio isn't the cheap little keyboards you got when you were 5 anymore. In the songwriting world, I'm seeing more Privias at writing sessions and coffeehouses, mainly because of their reduced weight. I'm interested in seeing what these new models are like in sound and feel. The Privias were ok, but still falling behind similarly priced Yamahas in sound quality, in my opinion. But no doubt that Casio is trying to get further into the mid-level keyboards.

If one is interested only in acoustic piano simulation and will do more than 95% of playing through headphones, is there any reason to shell out the extra money for the PX-350 instead of taking the less expensive PX-150? I'm not cheap -- far from it -- but I can't tell from what's been said so far what the PX-350 would give me (that I want) that's not available on the PX-150.

Am I missing something?

Casio isn't the company it used to be. They have spent a lot of money to prop up their musical instruments division. I don't know who runs it, but it's not someone from microwave ovens making decisions about musical instruments. I believe they are aiming to deliver a competitive product for less money and increase market share. They will probably never have the image of Roland, Kawai, Korg, or Yahama but they not content to be the laughing stock of the industry either. Those days appear to be over at Casio.