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One request: Can you chime-in how you feel about the keybed and general piano sound in a head-to-head comparison with the Yamaha P515? (I'm considering both and the Yamaha is nowhere to be found to try out.)
Thanks!
Info2011, You're going to love the Yamaha P515. It's basically a CLP645 ($3,500) in a slab. This makes this quite a good buy. The NWX keyboard is excellent. You can smell the new wood when removing it from the box. The best sound out of this box is the CFX Grand. It just sounds professional. The P515 is also capable of 16 track recording.
When you plug in headphones, it enables the binarual CFX samples. This feature really sounds like your sitting in front of the piano. The EP sounds are OK, buy not as good as what I heard on on the new CP88. The EP Soft tone was the most useful for myself, but does not have much bell tone and dynamics. The CFX piano sample makes this worth it on its own!
I wish the P515 had more control for tone parameters and effects. This may be one area the Casio PX-S3000 excels. On the Casio, there's a stereo three band (adjustable freq) EQ that can really help out refining your patches. I just picked up the PX-S3000, so I'm still learning. I've had the P515 for about two months. I also bought the bundle. Which was another story of a hassle from the seller. Beware of these guys that offer them on Amazon only to send just the keyboard and tell you later that the L515B (black) stand is on back order.
It's hard to compare the Casio PX-S3000 to the Yamaha P515 since the Yammie is almost double the cost. The Yamaha does have a better keybed, but the PX-S3000 is still decent (just different). The NWX is Yamaha's best keybed. I believe the Yamaha does have more sustain over the Casio, but that does not mean the Casio doesn't sustain enough, it just ramps down a bit quicker from initial loudness but continues to sustain. If anything, with the PX-S3000 damper pedal down, there seems to be a lot clarity and definition (Stage Piano patch) when sustaining chords and improvising melodies. The Yamaha does have a gorgeous piano tone. I have this in my living room. I have yet to take it out to the studio and listen to it on my near field monitors, but listening on highend phones reveals its pure quality.
One thing to watch for with the P515 is the keybed manufacturing quality. There are some that have uneven key spacing. Just be aware. Also, the Yamaha is sensitive to increasing reverb and there's a hiss that can be heard on higher piano notes. I'm not sure if it's a function of internal level gain staging or a fuction of piano high frequency harmonics exaggerating the reverb. It's not an issue at normal reverb levels.
The PX-S3000 "Stage Piano" voice has a unique tone with distinct clarity which notes ring with space and woody character. The "Stage Piano" voice really sits well in a mix. I'm really enjoying the flexibility the Casio offfers with all of its sound processing ability. We should be able to craft sounds with this instrument. Once you've worked and assigned the PX-S3000 knobs, it's hard to give these up. There's so much you can do here.
I love both of these DPs for different reasons. The Casio is going to be great to take outside and sit near the pool and practice. This is my first Casio, Well short of the SK-1 I bought back in the 80s...LOL Casio has really stepped up here... I'm sold.
DaveLang sez: Beware of these guys that offer them on Amazon only to send just the keyboard and tell you later that the L515B (black) stand is on back order.
It IS on industry-wide backorder until late June. Check the other sellers, no one has it.
DaveLang sez: Beware of these guys that offer them on Amazon only to send just the keyboard and tell you later that the L515B (black) stand is on back order.
It IS on industry-wide backorder until late June. Check the other sellers, no one has it.
Yes, the stand is on backorder but I received mine about a month after I placed my order with SamAsh. I don’t know if that holds true for other orders.
The stand is three pieces of wood and takes five minutes to assemble. I haven’t bolted the keyboard to it yet because I need to get rid of an extra desk to put the P-515 in its final place. The P-515 is on a Z stand now.
The stand seems a little low to me but maybe I won’t feel that way once I attach the keyboard. It is about one inch lower than my Z stand.
Around 73 cm/28.74" for white keys and 74.5 cm/29.33" for the black keys would be a good quess. It's something like that on my old Casio Privia. Maybe a a little less.
All, Does anyone know if the PX-S3000 has amplitude sound shaping ability? I really need an amplitude envelope (ADSR) to fix the EP tones. These sound unnatural and organ like without this control. Is there any way to control the Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release for tones? With all of its DSP capability, I'm not really asking for much.
That’s so sad. Rhodes demos sound awful but I guess if they could be “fixed†Casio would have fixed them. I guess the memory is just really constrained. To me it sounds like it was a really tight project, like 16MB for the entire piano. But you can purchase a tiny Yamaha Reface CP with gorgeous Rhodes and hook it to the Casio. Which is something I myself consider.
That’s so sad. Rhodes demos sound awful but I guess if they could be “fixed†Casio would have fixed them. I guess the memory is just really constrained. To me it sounds like it was a really tight project, like 16MB for the entire piano. But you can purchase a tiny Yamaha Reface CP with gorgeous Rhodes and hook it to the Casio. Which is something I myself consider.
LOL, I’m sure it’s a lot more than 16MB for the entire piano samples. You made that up right? 😀 I actually like the PX-S3000 samples more than Keyscape which is over 80GB. Keyscape has no sympathetic responses and their C7 sample tends to sound sterile. Keyscape has big and long samples, but that doesn’t guarantee authentic sound.
Hooking up other gear for a Rhodes tone is certainly not my plan. I bought this for the piano tones which sound great. As I mentioned before, I’m a fan of the Studio Piano sample in the PX-S3000. There’s so much clarity across the board. Even the low register doesn’t cloud up like a lot of piano samples.
Hopefully someone will chime in for a solution on the EP tones. I’m looking for a Jeff Lorber type Rhodes tone without connecting to my Yamaha outboard gear. Please check out these Lorber tones for reference. If someone gets close, please upload the file: https://youtu.be/AtEN-slvd-I
You can get a nice clean tone Rhodes by stripping away the heavy Phase Shifter and Tremolo DSP applied to EP 1 by using the following edit settings:
Select "004:Elec.Piano 1" from the [TONE]E.PIANOS section.
To defeat the Phaser and Tremolo: Change the [CTRL]DSP to 006:Stereo3BndEQ
Save as a Registration.
To edit bit further:
Increase its EQ3 Gain to +6 to get a pronounced tine.
Change the [CTRL]KNOB to 03:Up 1 Cho/Rev
Change the Reverb Sound Effect to Room 2
Adjust to taste the Chorus Level with Knob 1. Adjust to taste the Reverb Level with Knob 2.
Save as a Registration.
Find 660 of Harry's solo piano arrangements for educational purposes and jazz tutorials at https://www.patreon.com/HarryLikas Harry was the Technical Editor of Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book" and helped develop "The Jazz Piano Book."
That’s so sad. Rhodes demos sound awful but I guess if they could be “fixed†Casio would have fixed them. I guess the memory is just really constrained. To me it sounds like it was a really tight project, like 16MB for the entire piano. But you can purchase a tiny Yamaha Reface CP with gorgeous Rhodes and hook it to the Casio. Which is something I myself consider.
LOL, I’m sure it’s a lot more than 16MB for the entire piano samples. You made that up right? 😀
Not at all! The Rhodes samples in the Nord library are 8MB each (the S-versions) And they sound so much better than the Casio. So I’m guessing the Rhodes samples in the Casio are what 1-2MB? Pretty much realistic. And the the rest would of course be for the piano. But let’s say 16MB might have been an underestimation. The total ROM size could be under 100MB for sure. I’d personally bet on a stack of beers it’s under 64MB. I’ve heard Yamaha P90 had a ROM size of 30MB and it’s more convincing to my ears. Also the Casio uses resonance modeling so they could save on damper down samples.
Does anyone know if the PX-S3000 has amplitude sound shaping ability? I really need an amplitude envelope (ADSR) to fix the EP tones. These sound unnatural and organ like without this control. Is there any way to control the Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release for tones? With all of its DSP capability, I'm not really asking for much.
DSPs are for effects. Regardless, I believe you have to go to the PX560 for that kind of editing. Presumably at some point they will have a higher end version of the 3000, but for now, you can't get Casio's newest action and piano sound in a higher end model with things like advanced editing functions.
Originally Posted by CyberGene
you can purchase a tiny Yamaha Reface CP with gorgeous Rhodes and hook it to the Casio.
You can't directly connect the two, because the 3000 lacks a standard 5-pin MIDI port (something else the PX560 has). If you have an iOS device, that has some nice EPs available, and can connect easily. Still, the 3000 doesn't have a lot of MIDI controller functionality, so there would be some additional considerations if you want to be able to quickly switch to different external sounds, or between internal and external sounds, or split/layer internal and external sounds.
Okay all, if you haven't seen this yet... it totally justifies the $200 price difference between the 1000 and 3000. Glad I waited for the PX-S3000 to ship. Mike Martin also addresses many of the questions and concerns voiced here on this forum:
Can one summarize that in a few sentences. It’s ridiculous to have to watch through a 1+ hour video to be able to understand something that no doubt can be put in only a few written points.
Okay all, if you haven't seen this yet... it totally justifies the $200 price difference between the 1000 and 3000. Glad I waited for the PX-S3000 to ship. :
Sure, the same reasoning applies to the previous px-160 and px-360 and ctx models.
Maybe the action will be a surprise for this price, but that needs to be tested. Apart from that, several of the features demonstrated by Mike Martin were already available on the 360 and ctx. A serious refresh of the 5s/560 would be another story, but I am not sure will continue to develop the privia “pro†range.
Can one summarize that in a few sentences. It’s ridiculous to have to watch through a 1+ hour video to be able to understand something that no doubt can be put in only a few written points.
- new chassis and new speakers - all new 2 sensor action, but claimed to be better than a 3 sensor action - action is quieter - combines the AiX sound engine from the ctx with a revised version of the AiR sound engine from the Privia. The latter is used for the acoustic pianos. Acoustic piano settings seem quite similar to the older 360/560 - dsp/filter settings seems quite similar to the 360/560/ctx, but with more presets - support the Casio app
To me, these seem to be a refresh of the privia range with nicer/cleaner chassis in a very compact format. Since I used a 560 for some years, I have seen nothing radically new. Maybe the sound and action was improved, but that is not possible to judge from a video. The 360 was a good entry level dp (apart from the noisy action). The S3000 seems to be a suitable replacement.
Can one summarize that in a few sentences. It’s ridiculous to have to watch through a 1+ hour video to be able to understand something that no doubt can be put in only a few written points.
- new chassis and new speakers - all new 2 sensor action, but claimed to be better than a 3 sensor action - action is quieter - combines the AiX sound engine from the ctx with a revised version of the AiR sound engine from the Privia. The latter is used for the acoustic pianos. Acoustic piano settings seem quite similar to the older 360/560 - dsp/filter settings seems quite similar to the 360/560/ctx, but with more presets - support the Casio app
To me, these seem to be a refresh of the privia range with nicer/cleaner chassis in a very compact format. Since I used a 560 for some years, I have seen nothing radically new. Maybe the sound and action was improved, but that is not possible to judge from a video. The 360 was a good entry level dp (apart from the noisy action). The S3000 seems to be a suitable replacement.
Thanks!
How about S3000 vs S1000? DoogansDad alluded the 3000 is worth it over the 1000 but is there anything besides added sounds, a screen and a pitch band & modulation knobs?
Can one summarize that in a few sentences. It’s ridiculous to have to watch through a 1+ hour video to be able to understand something that no doubt can be put in only a few written points.
- new chassis and new speakers - all new 2 sensor action, but claimed to be better than a 3 sensor action - action is quieter - combines the AiX sound engine from the ctx with a revised version of the AiR sound engine from the Privia. The latter is used for the acoustic pianos. Acoustic piano settings seem quite similar to the older 360/560 - dsp/filter settings seems quite similar to the 360/560/ctx, but with more presets - support the Casio app
To me, these seem to be a refresh of the privia range with nicer/cleaner chassis in a very compact format. Since I used a 560 for some years, I have seen nothing radically new. Maybe the sound and action was improved, but that is not possible to judge from a video. The 360 was a good entry level dp (apart from the noisy action). The S3000 seems to be a suitable replacement.
Thanks!
How about S3000 vs S1000? DoogansDad alluded the 3000 is worth it over the 1000 but is there anything besides added sounds, a screen and a pitch band & modulation knobs?
The video is only about the s3000. The 1000 and 3000 have the same chassis, action and sound engine, but the entry model has no screen and has several sounds and settings disabled/unavailable . So, basically the differences are what you mention, and I suspect the s1000 will not support editing many of the parameters/settings (like the older 160). The s3000 actually takes some features from the px-560/5s (knobs, wheels, ability to edit parameters). In comparison, the 360 had less features than the s3000.
