Anyone have any experience with these new Casio digital pianos?

I was browsing through one of the music stores and and did a quick tinkle on the 330. That stopped me dead in my tracks. That's some piano sound for only $699. And I thought the keys made for a realistic piano feel, especially the bass notes. Very strong and resonant in the bass. Not to mention the weight....lighter than a slice of swiss cheese.

For $699 you can give them out as Xmas gifts. I'm seriously thinking of getting one of these for jobs where there are no pianos. But.....I still have the "Casio is only an entry level keyboard" mentality. It seems to me it might be time to recognize they're movers and shakers now.

What do you guys think?

Lucky, buy it

I have one of the older Casio PXr410s, it was the first board I bought for playing gigs. It's not bad and for playing just piano it's nice instrument. I will add imho, it can't hold a candle to that new 330 for it being used as a piano. Oh and the 410 weighed almost 37 pounds.

I sold a bunch of them, and I realized what a great price for a weighted keyboard with speakers.

So I bought one and brought it home.

Love the action, the piano sounds pretty good. It has some basic arranger functions and styles, good enough to practice with.

The on-board speakers are ok, nothing to brag about but for a practice piece its great.

Frank

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www.AudioworksCT.com

Frankie, this might not be relevant for most users of the 330, but does it have ON BASS...to put anther way, chord inversions?

Is the manual available on line?

Ian

Yes you can play fingered chords with the lowest note being the actual bass like on other good arrangers. "There are 3 different fingered modes (#3 being the bass inversion one), a casio chord single fingered mode and a full keyboard mode.
I have been showing and selling the 330 to all my pro piano customers and the response has been awsome! When I show them the dynamic range of the modern grand piano and the quick retriggering of notes on the same or adjacent keys, they are amazed. If I go over to a Yamaha P85 for example and play rapidly one key, it won't re-trigger unless you allow the key to come all the way to the top but not the PX330. It uses three sensors under each key allowing for this rapid style of play.

It's a winner!



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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

sorry, i posted twice!
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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566 www.kayesmusicscene.com

[This message has been edited by George Kaye (edited 11-22-2009).]

Thank you George, for your infornmative reply

The PX-330...definitely a winner, especially with having bass inversion and 3 sensors under each key.

Other companies only have that latter feature on more expensive pianos, although, for most beginners, two sensors is perfectly fine.

It's only when you get very quick repetitions in the music that three sensors show their distinct advantage.

You can bet Yamaha's next P** will have three sensors...ahhhh....the benefits of competition.

Did you hear rumors of a new Casio arranger with 4 variations/style, with new tone generation similar to Korg's DNC and expected in the new year?

There must be something to them.

Ian

Am wondering if you can edit the styles, such as taking out various accompaniment parts so you can have just drums, bass and maybe guitar?

Also wondering if styles from other Casio keyboards can be used?

Yes, George, following on Scott's post, is there any style editing, such as part swapping (style assembly), or basic revoicing?

Ian

Yes, the Privia PX330 has the ability to make new styles (called rhythm editing) by assembling different parts from all the 180 built in style parts. This way you can make new styles with anywhere from 1 to several parts. I experimented by taking the basic pop1 style and using it's basic drum normal beat and then I added the bass part from a country style and added one more track from the funk guitar style. Now I had a new style with just these three tracks. You can create a new styles this way for all the intro, the normal, the variation and the ending parts of a style.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

Thank you, that's terrific, George, this thing is getting better all the time.

So, it has a user style area for the edited styles, does it not? How many, approximately, and there must be a way of saving these in bulk to PC...or is there a card?

Can you load in other Casio styles?

Ian

yes, there is memory storage on an sd card that loads right in the front of the board. You can also save and load 96 registrations memories and you can have up to 400 standard midi files which can be played back directly from the card.
There are locations to store your user rhythms although I'm not sure how many.

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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

10 is the number of user rhythms you can save in the keyboard.

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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

Thanks very much George...that 330 is quite a bargain...we have a Casio dealer not far from me, and I'll make it a point to try one, and also make it a point for him to order one if there's none on the floor.

The price is remarkable...especially since you get so much, including 88 keys....being a Casio it must be light...what's the weight?

Is the main piano sound as good as the P-85's, in your educated opinion? Decays nice and long?

I've always been impressed with Casio's knack of giving a terrific "bang for the buck".

I just might buy one for using along with my PSR-S910.

I appreciate the information...thanks again.

Ian

Ian the decay is not as long as the Yamahas, and the piano, whilst good, does have the usual mid-keyboard "honkies", although nowhere near as noticeable as on earlier Privias, in my view. Bottom end is sweet, as are the top 8-12 notes as well.

What is bad is the screen printing. It is woefully inadequate to read under anything but bright light. If you place the Privia under another keyboard, it becomes pretty much impossible.

The user accesses buttons from memory rather than sight.

Styles can be assembled and editied but remember it is a very small dot matrix screen so there are several button pushes to get through.

Speakers are awful. I run this through a pair of Opera Live 405's and it sounds HEAPS better than the onboard speakers. They really are for practice only. Same with the headphones, the Privia sounds great through headphones too. Its just the speaker system Casio have used.

Over the next few days I will be hooking it up to a Motif ES Rack, and porting out the style data using a specifically created multi, so I imagone that when Yamaha guitars basses and drums are used instead I suspect it will really come alive.

Keybed is quite a deal stiffer than previous Privias I have played. I am not sure yet whether to call it as a "too heavy" key action. I want some time to get used to it first.

But as a guide, after playing it the first time for about half an hour my left wrist was aching a little..Perhaps its just my old bones though, so I want a bit more time to make a final decision.

Dennis

Thanks very much Dennis...as comprehensive a report as one could hope for.

Most low end digital pianos suffer in the mid-range...I was surprised the inexpensive Yamaha P-85 wasn't too bad in the middle...of course, it has none of the extra features of the Privia, and that's where the latter will score a lot of points.

That's a great idea, putting the accompaniment out through the Motif...so the Privia must have dedicated midi ports...oui?

I'll have to try the keybed out...the P-85's was a bit on the light side, but I liked it that way...older fingers, plus, it worked well with sounds other than piano.

Screen printing? That's the lettering around the buttons and sliders, eh. Never had to worry about that on the P-85 with so few buttons.

I like a long decay on piano sounds (the CP-300 I had here was really nice for that) and the short decay may be a deal breaker, although I'll have to try the action triggering the S910's piano first...I could also send out the Casio's accompaniment to the S910....maybe; if I can get the midi channels lined up.

Thanks again for your candid review...they're the best kind.

Ian

[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 11-22-2009).]

Ian, yes it has midi in/out ports and the accomp data can be sent out via them. So when I get around to doing it I will post a note here.

The Yammies have a pretty good and easy to operate MIDI control section so I don't think you would have any issues.

That would be a good idea too, hooking the Privia to the s910. For a start the speakers would be better ...

The advantage of the Privia I guess is it is so narrow front to back it can be used JUST as a keybed for the upper keyboard without losing too much in the way of access to the top.

You know what I mean, when you have to go reaching for buttons etc!!

It's only 11" front to back, so yeah pretty shallow.

Dennis

Just wanted to add, that once past the pianos(about 3) and the Ep's (2) the rest of the sounds are really average GM stuff really.

Personally I would not use them for anything.

The audio in jacks might come in handy, they seem quiet enough.

But really at this price, and with this quality of keybed, (and I suppose 5 really useable pianos), its pretty decent. I mean what other fully wieghted keyboard can one just tuck under their arm and then just toodle off!!

Dennis

Does any one know if you are swapping styles parts on the 330 do they have to be the same length and same time signature?

Demo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSGEcOy2GP8&feature=player_embedded

Casio website info:
http://www.priviapiano.com/products/PX-330/

Manual: http://support.casio.com/manualfile.php?rgn=1&cid=008009141

I would like to add a few quotes and observations about the sound and fell of the PX330.
Keyboard Magazine gave the 330 a marvelous review this month and I agree with their conclusions.
First, regarding the built in 8watt speakers. I have the PX130 only playing through it's own speakers and I have the PX330 going through a pair of powered Roland near field monitors. There is no comparison that the piano voice shines through the more powerful quallity monitors. Here is what Keyboard Magazine's Richard Leiter writes:
"What's going to make Privia a household name is that it sounds and feels like a grand piano. In fact, you don't really hear how strong the main piano sound is until you run it through something bigger than the built-in speakers. Don't get me wrong- they're terrific, but 8 watts is still only 8 watts. Within 20 minutes of getting the PX-330 into my studio, I'd played it through my Tannoy and T)A speakers,plus the Barbetta and Gallien-Krueger amps I use on gigs, and I can confidently assert that the piano sound rivals many digital stage pianos regardless of weight or price. IN FACT, IT MAY WORK AGAINST CASIO THAT THEIR PRODUCT IS SO LIGHT AND AFFORDABLE, BECAUSE SOME CUSTOMERS EXPECT "PRO" KEYBOARDS TO COST AND WEIGH MORE------BUT HAVING READ THIS REVIEW, YOU'LL KNOW BETTER."
I do think that many of our members can't even imagine that a Casio product could be this good.
As to the comment about the feel of the keys feeling a bit to "hard" i would suggest you read the following:
"The graded, hammer-action keyboard feels sluggish if you play with the sound off, BUT ABSOLUTELY SURE-FINGERED AND NATURAL WHEN YOU TURN IT ON. It powers up at the medium(2) touch sensitivity setting, but I backed it off to a lighter touch (1)and it danced!"

As to the sound sounding not as great in the middle of the keyboard I have had some of the best piano players in LA stop by and play the PX330 and all have been impressed. Keyboard Magazine's reviewer states:
"It seems like every digital piano has its specially named process for delivering the goods. Casio's "Linear Morphing System" seems to create very smooth and natural velocity transitions among the gobs of samples that they use in the piano sound. At the end of the day, the PX-330 delivers the acoustic piano from top to bottom".

The backlit screen is easy to read I think in all lighting conditions but the printing on the actual keyboard is light grey on black and this is not easy to see. For a musician gigging with this model it would be a good idea to make up to 96 registration memories of things you will want to play before hand so you wouldn't have to search for them during a gig.

My opinion of this keyboard is it is a tremendous value for $699. It is not trying to compete with a high end arranger or even a high end digital piano which has better buttons and controls. However it is the best sounding piano available for under $1000.00 and has the advantage over most of a decent GM bank for playing back standard midi files, a pitchbender, stereo inputs and outputs and even a 16 track sequencer.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

This Casio piano is definitely worth checking out...lots of cool features (especially style assembly, and ON BASS fingering), a great piano sound, good action...I wonder just how good the styles are, or is that hoping for too much?

There's no 330 at my local dealer....rats!

First off George you say the "best piano players" were imnpressed, but with what? You did not actually specifically mention what they thought of the mid-section???

The GM bank is basic, not decent in my view.

Sure you can pre-set registrations, BUT what happens if you need to make a quick change at some point. It works okay if you carry a torch so you can actually even see the buttons, let alone the writing.

I really do not pay much attention to either magazine reviewers, or store owners (no offence) but really, they have a serious conflict of interest.

I understand that anything you say you have to put your spin on it to make it sound a bit better. You are after all having to sell them so why on earth would you make overt criticisms.

I think for the money it is a reasonable keyboard, and as for the "weight" if you re-read my post I said I had not made up my mind about it as yet, but it did feel heavy. And really, whether the keyboard is on or off, makes no difference to how heavy the keys feel. Sheesh what other spin can be applied.

I just give an honest opinion of how I rate the instrument. This is as bad as Lionstracs. Somebody gives an honest assessment and then so much spin comes back I get dizzy.

Is this Privia good value - Yes
Does it have a good action - Yes
Does it's main Piano sound good - Yes
Does the Gm bank sound good - No
Are the EP's good - No
Are the styles good - Yes and No (bearing in mind they are using a poor GM bank)
Is the backlit screen easy to see - Yes
Is the backlit screen easy to use - NO!!
Are the button names easy to see - No

This is a budget keyboard and as such has several "cut-corners".

I am guessing that Casio spent the R+D on the main piano sample and the keybed. The rest is pretty much standard Casio.

The main sample whilst good, has way to short a length on the main sample body. The tail is quite long, but the point is, the main body fades to the tail way too early in my view.

The Rock piano is quite useable, probably as it is more punchy, and bright and a shorter sample does not matter as much.

The Electric Pianos, are, really, not very useable. A couple would get by in a mix, but not solo.

The basses are very average as are the guitars.

What MAY be interesting is it has a sort of chord sequencer that is called "Music Preset". There are about 300 factory ones, and they even have the chord progs to existing songs as well as the standard chord progressions you would hear in blues pop R+B, rock Jazz tunes.
A user can program their own, and I am yet to fully experiment with this, but as I said in my OP, when hooked up with the Motif ES Rack, it might work okay.

Dennis

Look, I don't want to get into one of these things I've been seing here too much the past couple of years. I've been around here for years and years. Most of you know my reputation as a dealer and a person. What I read posted here I felt was not representing what I see as a great value for so little. We all have our opinions but I thought that perhaps the people here who have tried out the Privia at their local music store or best buy type store did not give it the attention a reviewer from Keyboard Magazine or what I, a music store owner have been able to do.
Dennis,I do think all of our opinions are well received at the Synthzone but I just wanted to make sure that this new model is given careful consideration because even though I own a music store, I consider this an extemely big bang for the buck.
I do believe that over the years although many of my posts about new products have been positive when I've reviewed them, there have been products I've been less than enthusiastic about as well.
Any more questions I'll be happy to answer if I can.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

How many parts in the styles?

The Yammies have 8 parts...RHY1 RHY2 BASS CHD1 CHD2 PAD PHR1 PHR2.

Ian

Rhythm patterns are made of up to eight parts. They are:
drums, percussion, bass, chord1,2,3,4,5.

The parameters to edit per part are:
Rhythm select: drum variation
Tone Select
Part on/off
Volume level
pan
reverb level
chorus level



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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

Yeah fair enough George. Please also understand NONE of what I posted was personal in any way shape or form. I knwo you are one of the few reputable sellers out there along with Frank, so please do nto take my comments as a "calling you out" type of thing.

I totally agree it is very good for the price point.

I jsut need to decide if I want to keep it JUST as a solo piano/weighted keybed or maybe look to a dedicated controller like the KX8...As I said when I finally get time (next day or so) to set the ES up with it I will post back.

Dennis

Remember the transpose issue with the KX8, Dennis...it has no dedicated buttons, and you must transpose the slave unit.

Thanks for the info on the Casio...it seems a good bang for the buck, and it has a pitch bend wheel, something the P85 I was using, does not have.

Ian

Thanks Ian, I did not know that. Or if I did I forgot . Definately a deal breaker for me as I do have sit-in singers from time to time, and whilst I CAN transpose in my head, it takes all the fun away from playing

Too much multi-tasking for me!!

Dennis

The Keyboard Mag review http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/casio-privia-px-330/October-2009/101537

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.

Posting demos of some of the styles would be terrific...just the intros, main variations, and endings...playing the same chord throughout would be fine.

I won't get to try one of these things for about 2 weeks, so anything further about how it sounds would be much appreciated, if it is no trouble.

Ian

I was just checking on the piano forums, and Piano World has had about 8 reports of keyboard problems with the Casio PX-330.

Ian

And some for the DGX series as well

The keybed was/is perfect on mine

I have sold it though. Even when the low price is taken into consideration, it was still too much money for a weighted keybed and one piano patch. As good as both were.

Dennis

I'm not going to bother with the Casio either...the DGX has only two variations per style, and although I prefer the latter's weighted keybed, I'd rather use a more basic controller with the S910.

I may get another P-85....had to sell the one on my sample account, as we were sold out.

The Yamaha CP-300 was the best controller/piano I ever used...kind of expensive, and very heavy( over 60 lbs) but an incredible action, pitch and mod wheels, and excellent midi capabilities.

Great for studio work, for sure, or a more permanent install...a bit heavy for one guy to be moving, especially with the added weight of a road case.

Still, I'm off for the winter, so I think I'll get Yamaha to send me one to use at least till the spring.

I can use some of that $699 I'll save to buy a pair of snakeskin boots, like the ones Gary was talking about in another thread.

Ian