A few years ago I had heard from a 'Casio guy' that a number of the techs and developers from technics had been hired by Casio ... perhaps this is the result ...



I still have my technics turntable that I purchased in 1973 for my component stereo system ... it still works !!!

Casio conducting live streaming KB demos from NAAM including new MZ board.

http://www.casiomusicgear.com/resource/namm2016/index.html

The manual was posted today at Casio's international site.

I'm sure the sound engine is better than what was available in 2001. Keyboards from the other brands have evolved along similar lines. But does this really give us a better ARRANGER? It seems that the core engine (which permits a user to compose styles, and specify how they react to played notes in real time) is missing a few customizable settings compared to its predecessor. (Look at the MZ-2000 manual, pages E-113 and E-160 for example.) The sequencer resolution is decreased, and some potentially useful features (such as Roland style compatibility) are missing entirely.

Frankly I'm a little disappointed. I was hoping for a full port with all features preserved intact. Instead, this appears to be a beefed-up WK-7600 with four variations per style and some added features. At least it has sync stop and MIDI jacks. We'll call that progress!

I think you misread some of the features... its ways more advanced in almost any way then the 2000..

THe only thing missing is articulations... with many of us playing acoustic instruments a lot, to me its a must to have articulations and legato playing like the DNC on Korg, Roland Super Naturall acoustic, or the SA1 voices on Tyros and PSR keyboards..

Not having this, puts it at half a mile distance to its competitors for me..

I just got home from the NAMM zoo. That many musicians in one place is always an experience, like the photo Kerry took of the guy below "Everything Else Is Just Waiting" . But I made a point of finding the Casio booth to see the MZ-X. I spent about 5 minutes on it trying out styles and voices. I had just been to the Korg stand and they still have the Korg PA4X at NAMM and I hadn't played it before and I was impressed with its sound quality. Some very nice voices. Now the MZ-X sign said MSRP was $1000. Briefly here are my impressions of the MZ-X and Casio public relations.

I attend NAMM because Synth Zone allows me to receive a Media badge meaning I am press and will publicize products.

I made a point of going to the Casio booth which had very few visitors when I arrived. I saw they had the MZ-X which is all I was interested in seeing because of reading about it here. I played around a bit with it testing voices and styles. Then I was interrupted by Mike Martin ( who is a very good Casio demo musician I have seen before ) saying "Sorry I want to use this to demo something to someone else". Mike may be a good musician but his public relations is lacking. He didn't bother to see my badge said I was press. Also dumb is that Casio releasing a new product would only have one of them at NAMM. So I didn't get as much time on the MZ-X as I wanted. Here are my impressions ( and please appreciate any negativity is not at all due to my experience with Casio PR ).

The semi weighted action is better than many cheaper Yamaha arrangers. It still isn't stunning but maybe if the sounds it triggered were more dynamic I would mark it higher. But the sound triggered tends to influence the perception of the feel of the action.

The styles and sounds are far inferior to cheaper Yamaha arrangers. I have an aging PSR-550 which is so much more musical than the MZ-X. The sounds on the MZ-X just don't have an organic quality and sound synthetic which isn't appealing. I really wanted to like the MZ-X because I like a lot about Casio's contribution to keyboards over the years, but I just couldn't find much to like about the MZ-X. I sure wouldn't fork out $1000 for it. Even at half that I think I would pass. Yamaha and Korg sure won't need to worry about competition from Casio.

Maybe if I had been allowed to use the keyboard for another 5 minutes my impression may have changed. We will never know. The MZ-X is nowhere near the class of the Korg PA4X I had played just 10 minutes before.

You said it yourself. Five minutes with a pre-production model isn't enough time to give it a fair shake. And who else has compared it to a PA4X?? Casio hasn't AFAIK. The PA4X-61 is around $3,800. It's in another league entirely. That's like comparing a Huyundai Sonata to a Jaguar XJ.

thanx for the review Nigel...I am not surprised at all with this Casio release,...people wanna believe it's not a Toy when they see the name CASIO..
they might sell alot in the big box stores like Costco, Bj's, Sams, Toys R US, etc, to kids and beginners,....

I think Casio possibly made a mistake here with showing the MZ-X at NAMM. From the info I've seen it appears that the prototypes are nowhere near production level yet. It looks like Casio is rushing the prototypes to NAMM just to show the feature list (a mistake IMO). I think we are going to have to wait for demos of the production models. Had a friend attending NAMM email me this morning. Said it looks like the sounds and styles aren't finished in terms of effects settings, and the styles don't appear to have finished mixer/effects levels complete either. So..., looks like any quality demos will have to come later. Surprised Casio actually rushed a model. With the prices they are going to sell for Casio IMO is going to have a hard time justifying that with the prototypes.

Demo

Here is another YouTube link. There are a few. What I find interesting about this arranger is the versatility of the touch pads. In this video it chow cases a small bit of that where pads can be used to trigger chords (which the arranger follows) and even a chord sequencer. So in essence it has a form of chord sequencing. Interesting stuff.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CVfTQhv7TRU
Jim