Yes and the organ and synth sounds are great. Maby if they lower the price I will get one. Will see.

Piano's and digital piano's are top to... And orchestral strings and pads are also top...
In general all the typical sounds they use in their Digital (stage) piano's like the px5s and px560 ....

This could give the Mz-x enough body to make a break in the Western dance music scene... As well as in Asia and the middle east... So i dont know about price drops..

This is a midi file, convwrted from mz2000 to mzx500

https://soundcloud.com/bradmz/mz-x500-quartet-demo

This one, i do like....

For the record in the US at least prices for the XW-P1 never really dropped (except a few odd times here and there early in the product cycle - those are called "sales"). It's true that prices likely did drop in the UK (and presumably some other countries in the EU like Germany) just before the XW models became almost completely unavailable there. That's a more telling point than price drops and one I've never heard an adequate explanation for. But I would not be quick to assume the reason is because the product is not considered competitive. Reviews in the US have been generally positive when the price is taken into account (as it should be).

I never said I did't like the XW p1. I actually like it for the 300 Euro i paid for (was 599 Euro) but you can't compare it with the big 3. For example the Korg kross cost €649 but sound so much better. My opinion of course.

Agreed. That was quite good IMO. But didn't someone here claim the MZ-X500 had lousy string sounds? And didn't Ralph Maten poo-poo the instrument's orchestral sounds in an interview at Musikmesse?

Wow! I had to stop the videos, it's torture to my sensitive ears, a Roland G70 or a GEM WK4 sounds better, I guess my standards are to high to be satisfied.

I have several synth apps of a few dollars on my iPad that sound much better. Sorry but I really mean it.

I had some time this morning to sit with the Mz-x500 and play it for about 30 minutes... I first tried out the styles and the wind/brass/wood cattegory of sounds.... I found both lacking in quallity compared to the psr970 and pa600. Both the styles i tried as well as the solo sounds missed dynamics and sounded like Roland pre G70 and yamaha pre SA acoustic sounds..

I also found that many of the styles are the same as the styles in the Casio px560.

Other sounds like piano, dp, strings(non solo), synths, where actually much much more convincing..
Some drumsets sounded quite good in the styles while others seemed to lack any form of punch..
The B3 emulation was quite good...

I however was most dissapointed with the keybed, it felt cluncky very light and i could move kesy quite easilly from left to right.. Doing Organ slides really hurt my hands as the keys where sharp, compared to the px560 keys (material and finishing) they where clearly low end... (I think the triple sensor action of the px-5s and px560s is actually quite good, and as said many pro players seem to agree, i still have to get used to the material they are made of, however people convinced me that when you have sweaty fingers, you will never want any other keys anymore)

Then finally i went down to the hex sounds, and they are clearly the bread and butter from this instrument...sadly it lacks some dsp power to make them sound even more convincing...


Finally i tried the pads, they are truely great, and feel like most other buttons high quallity... I tried to mix some phrases with full style accompaniment, but somehow the things i tried didnt give me the feel i get when for example using "Modern Country" on korg pa4x with "Grv Drum 1" and "Grv Dance 1" and "Guitar Country" These pads (phrases) can be used to make an allready gread style even more dynamic...
The pads i tried on the Mz-x worked well with a styledrum track, but not so good with a full arranger acompaniment style..


Kudos however go to Casio for ease of operation.. And the number of tools inside the box... But the product as a whole, lacks a lot from the quallity of typical arranger content.... It will however be a tool for creative minds all over the world to create their own stuff and music.. But out of the box playing a nice Samba with a muted trumpet (which didnt even sound like a trumpet al all) will not get many oohs and aahs from the audience...

However, for people playing in a band, there is enought quallity to do some decent selfcreated backings ...Also for the youth that wants to use this as a synth workstation, there is more then enough to keep them creative. And even selfcreated arranger styles could be cool...

But playing arranger straight out of the box, is definately not its strength..