More than 1000 new sounds, 5.3-inch color touchscreen (like the PX-560 piano), hundreds of accompaniments, Flash Sample memory, virtual tone wheel organs, and a remarkably powerful 40 watt speaker system. As you can see there are 16 pads that will likely be velocity sensitive. The keys will be velocity sensitive including aftertouch most likely. The big question is will it have 256 note polyphony like the PX-560? I certainly hope so since I believe it would increase overall sales of the MZ-X and thus enriching Casio's own bottom line so they can continue to invest in the R&D necessary for future cutting edge products. And thereby compete directly with the Big Three i.e. Korg, Roland and Yamaha for additional marketshare and the consumer dollars that go along with it. If Casio continues to gain ground in cutting edge technologies they could eventually surpass the Big Three in terms of product quality and consumer loyalty. I admit that's a big challenge because Yamaha has essentially dominated much of the market for many years. Roland seems to be focusing on lower-priced products targeting the general public as opposed to actual musicians and that is I think because they lost a lot of money and also some customers during the last economic recession. Korg is a smaller company with a loyal following but they have also experienced a bunch of quality control issues that affect many of their products including the Kronos and even the new Pa4x. If Casio "strikes the right tone" with quality made products at very competitive prices Casio could soon dominate the musical instrument market which is to say keyboards in general. And kudos to Casio if they can pull it off. Increased competition is a win/win situation because it leads to lower prices and better products. Those who snooze lose as they say and therefore it keeps all of the competitors on their toes looking for new ways to improve their products and subsequently consumers are the benefactors of the increased competition. But you guys already knew that.

NAMM should be very interesting this time around. The MZ-X looks very promising and of course the Montage will likely steal the show.

All the best,

Mike

I like the Blue color but that's about it so far,....kinda looks like an older GEM Genesys unit,.....screen is too small in this day and age but at least it's tilted up....we'll see soon at NAMM.

I love the blue one. I hope it has the Hex Layer mode then I will certainly buy one. About the screen at least it is a touch screen you can't say that from Yamaha psr series.

The screen and interface are the same as on the px-560 privia... It works like a dream... Its pure functionallity, the way a touchintrface should work...

You should take some time and try and play one in a local music shop.

In no way is the MzX for my needs, ...
and those box keys I really don't like. But I'm interested in hearing and seeing what it can do..

I was at Sam Ash looking at pianos last week. I ended up playing the Yamaha and the.......Casio Privia PX860.

They're both great pianos, but the Yamaha is HEAVY and more COSTLY. It also has a very sweet, mellow sound that I'm wondering if you'd get tired of it fast.

The Casio on the other hand won in all areas hands down. I'm also a professional pianist. It was a dream to play. Every generation of Casio pianos is noticeably better the the one before it.

And get this. The sound was strong, powerful. I looked down to see what they were playing it through and there was nothing there on the floor. I was playing with the internal speakers on. Well, you could hear that piano out in the parking lot.

I'm not saying it's the best piano on the market, but, for the money, it's a winner in my book.

I'm glad this MZ-X got posted here. I'm so impressed with the 860 that I might just wait to hear it before I purchase anything.

Mark

I know a little bit about the MZ-X. there will be 2 models :
MZ-X300 and MZ-X500. Both have 128 note polyphony.
These products are to compete with the Yamaha PSRS770 keyboard. There will be more intro's, endings and variations. I was told that the quality of the drum kits and styles have been totally upgraded. I hope so! The instrument voices will have a type of articulation but I haven't heard this until I get to NAMM to know how the sounds compare to the Yamaha super articulation The MZ300 will have 4 sample pads and the 500 will have 16. Pads can be used for:
Sample Triggering
Drums
Effects, Instrument Articulations (Guitar Harmonic, Trumpet Fall…etc)
The sound development for the MZ-series has been a gigantic undertaking with the creating of new sounds and DSP effects to support them
Basses and Guitars:
Multiple acoustics, nylon string, steel string guitars, jazz guitars, even ukuleles.
Multiple Electric guitars including a variety of pickup positions
Many articulations: Harmonics, mutes, ghost notes, slides, fret noises and more
New Electric and acoustic basses
Drums: 3-8 velocity splits for some sounds for incredible realism and dynamics
Wind Instruments
Soprano / Alto / Tenor Sax
Clarinets
Monophonic mode for melodic playing
Electric Organs: Vox, Farfisa…
Accordion: Scandalli, Hohnor, Excelsior and more
New Drawbar Organ Mode with new Rotary Speaker Effects
Synths, Pads, Monophonic leads and basses
World Sounds and Percussion: For Latin, Indonesian and Indian Markets
The two MZ models will also have SAMPLE MEMORY for adding additional instruments.

George Kaye, thanks for the info.

George, does it have real MIDI jacks? How about Sync stop (or a way to turn arranger "memory" off so that the style section goes silent when you release the keys.) So far none of the reissued Casios have this. Thanks for the update!

thanks George...

great info..

Only one downfall so far, that being 128 polyphony where the Casio engine in all piano's is 256 by default...

Looks however like Casio made huge progress..