Ian, please tell us what you know or heard about it. Sounds pretty interesting.

Well Trident, rumors are rumors, but they generally contain some or a lot of truth...where there's smoke there's fire, so to speak.

Water cooler talk has Casio bringing out a new arranger, or arranger/piano, that will fit in price around (or slightly above) an MOTL arranger from other companies, but offer features that rival the TOTL models.

Think of it...Yamaha has no arranger product to slot in between the S910 and Tyros3...there is a big difference in the price of those arrangers, is there not?

Roland presently has no arrangers above the GW-8/Prelude.

Rumor has it, that this new Casio arranger will have an all new tone generator with sounds similar to Korg's DNC and Yamaha's Mega/SA.

Style parts will have four variations, and finally, a mod wheel will join the pitch wheel.

It is supposed to be introduced in the new year...but, who knows?

Again, I stress these are rumors, and they mostly seem to be going around amongst those in the business, like clinicians, product specialists, and a few dealers....that's why I asked George if he has heard anything....obviously, he has not.

I hope they are just rumors.

Ian

I hope they are not rumors. Casio has provided some "good enough" "semi pro" arrangers in the past, accompanied with relatively low cost. Some even had a mod wheel.

What they lacked were the 4 variations per style, (thus denying the user of the vast amount of Yamaha Roland and Korg styles on the internet) and also other "pro" features.

They certainly have to be very good and agressive at the price , because offering something along the lines of the S910 and costing as much as an S910 won't get them very far.

Competition is good for the consumer.

I agree, Trident...I was only kidding...hence the smiley. Competition benefits everyone, especially us players.

I've used Casio CZ/VZ synthesizers and FZ samplers in the past, and I've learned they are quite capable of making a competitive product in the professional market.

I'd love to have another keyboard to compliment my S910...I thought of a Prelude, but so far, no on-board style editing.

Casio certainly have the marketing clout and resources to pull something like this off...just look at the Privia piano as discussed in this thread...a lot of instrument for the money.

Ian

Just to get in my 2 cents on the PX-330. I purchased one a couple of weeks ago and I'm extremely happy with the action and Piano sounds. All other sounds seem to be less than what one would want to use other than for practice. The weight of 25-26 lbs is excellent and the inputs make it easy to add a harmonizer, mp3, etc.

Let me just say that if it had just the piano sounds and 88 weighted action, to me it would be worth the 699. price tag.

Just my opinion.

Ed

Just a quirk I have found. The fills, when in arranger mode, only work when you are already within the variation.

IE, if you push the variation 2 button, it jumps straight into variation 2. If you push it again you THEN get the fill bar..Strange.

Perhaps you need to push the variation you're on, again, to get a fill, and then press the next Variation.

George...have you tried this?

I won't get my hands on one for a week or so...they're on order.

Ian

My Casio from 1994 works like that. Probably most if not all of them. You are at Var1, press Var1 again, you get the fill (next remaining beats) and then you can continue in var1 or press Var2 to jump to Var2 after the Var1 fill ends.

The only way to get the Var2 fill while playing Var 1 (orr opposite) is to press the Var2 button 2 times in quick succession. That way it instantly goes to Var 2 and the second press triggers the Var2 fill, then again press Var1 to return to it after the Var2 fill ends. Drawback is that you almost always get glitches, some Vars have different instruments assigned and the rpogram changes may introduce weird effects. Also with only 2 Vars in each style, the differences of the Vars are usually big enough to be instantly noticeable. unlike Yamaha 4 vars where the change from few instruments to more is more gradual each Var.

Yes I found that after experimenting. Thought I would try that after experiencing Korgs double push feature.

And yes, it does not work very well, becasue as you say the result is quite unpredictable, not to mention difficult to even get the dbl press in, when playing "busy" passages.

Plus I found its a timing thing with teh dbl push. Too quick and it does not work at all

You have to push once then sort wait a fraction of a second and push again. I suspect rather than a deliberate OS function as it is on the Korgs, this happens (the dbl push) quite by accident on the Casio.

As another poster said, its probabyl more a digital piano, with a good keybed. The arranger stuff is purely for fun at home.

I do not think it could be seriously used at a gig. Apart from just a piano I mean.

Shame really as there are some other really clever things. Like changing the chord recognition for example is so cool. AND quick!! No mulitple screens, just hold the arranger button slightly longer and it jusmps straight to the chord recognition section (5 choices) simply select one, and it goes straight to it, no glitches, it works with the style running. No mulitple menu pages to go through, it remembers your last setting, even if a style is changed, until you change it.

Of course you cna also set it up in a registration too.

But I found it useful for when I was in vocal backing mode to use it as full keyboard, and then when jumping into a solo to drop into one of the split keyboard modes, and then back again.

Dennis

Dennis,
if you can or have the time, please post some samples of the styles that you like, so we can get a taste of what it sounds like. They have only one rhythm demo in the privia site.