For PX-5S owners that play live only

[aronnelson]

Try this.

Take an electric piano sound that uses very little EQ on the low and mids.

Set the Low Frequency to 250Hz and set Mid1 Frequency to 400Hz.

Use the 2nd knob to cut some of the Mid1 Frequency (it's set to Mid1 by default on most stage settings) and use the 1st Knob to add back some of the low end (boost a little) if it loses some when cutting the Mid1 frequency.

I think you will find that the mids of the PX-5S start sounding like most of your other keyboards.

It cleaned up the midrange mud of my PX-5S a lot. Will have to try it on the gig tomorrow but it sounds promising. At least the frequency range started matching my Kronos a lot more - especially for the electric pianos which seem to have that noticeable bump around middle C.

The midrange bump I am talking about is heard here: (56 secs in)

[ElmerJFudd]

Scooping mids sounds great solo. Gives you low end bass and high end sparkle and clears up the honkiness in the middle if you mail the frequency range that's causing it.

 

But the danger is when you go to play with band is you disappear in the mix, can't hear yourself and the guitars and horns just eat you alive.

[miden]

That's a really interesting video Aron...thx for posting it.

[aronnelson]

Yeah the midrange problem I am hearing is that left hand voicings are muddy live. I don't get that with any of my other keyboards. I hope this will fix the problem - will know shortly. It seems promising. It doesn't seem to thin out the keyboard that much - rather it sounds more like my Kronos EP- which I am hoping means that it will sound similar live.

I did a similar EQ match with my Juno G (with SRX piano board) to my S90ES with really great results.

 

When I think back, my Rhodes Mark 1 probably WAS very muddy in the mids as well - so I'm not picking on the PX - it's probably accurate. But I have been conditioned for years with Yamaha/Roland/Korg so I need to make it closer in terms of the mids around middle C.

[DulceLabs.com]

Yes thanks for posting.

 

One interesting thing about the PX-5S many may not know:

If you were to move a knob or slider that adjusts something like the filter cut-off and press WRITE it WILL NOT SAVE with the stage setting -- it's a real-time control only and you would need to go into the edit menu to adjust the cutoff if you want it to save.

 

But if the knob is assigned to master EQ and you press WRITE IT WILL SAVE to the stage setting. This is very useful when you are doing a sound check at a gig so you can customize the sound for a new room, house PA, etc.

[Kenny.]

My problem isn't with the way the mids sound in the PX's Rhodes. It's the attack, which is epecially prevalent in the C5 octave. The Steve Weingart Rhodes definitely improves this (so if you haven't checked it outcheck out "SW Rhodes"), but I think this is one of the main areas the PX-5S has room to improve.

[aronnelson]

Kenny, I know about that attack - like you said, not all of the samples have it. Although it can be irritating, I know that some Rhodes have that. The reality is unless you had a killer Rhodes, they were not that good.

I never did have a good one, and the Mark 1 I have had all sorts of irritating attack etc... and I am sure the mids were murky, especially with the small stone phaser I used.

I have used the SW Rhodes but ironically it doesn't really bark like a real Rhodes. The Dave Weiser rhodes are more like the real thing.

[Kenny.]

Honestly, I've never had that issue with any other keyboard Rhodes soundall of the Kurz's, Roland's, etc. I've owned have had a better attack in the actual sample. That said, the action Casio's using to drive it is one of my favorites.

[aronnelson]

Have you owned a Rhodes before? I think we got used to idealized versions of Rhodes over the years. I did play a good one recently but it had been worked on a lot.

[aronnelson]

OK, the midrange "mod" works. On the surface it seems like you are losing a lot of midrange but you are not. What is happening is that you are smoothing out the "boosted" midrange of the PX-5S. It made a huge difference for me. Everything sounded so much better.... With knob 2 set to 400Hz midrange, I was able to dial in a few settings that really worked. I know some people don't like the piano in the PX-5S but it was working tonight. It cut right through and had a great tone. The piano worked for both solo and with the band so I am happy with this sound.

I like it so much I'm going to use it in a concert tomorrow night. The EQ'd sounds are working. Will know for sure when I use this keyboard in an even larger band setting.

 

For almost all the sounds, I have a layered pad I can bring in as well as synth brass.

None of these sounds are the stock sounds, but it's working so far.

This was the first gig, I didn't miss my S90ES piano and that's saying a lot.

[mate stubb]

Having all those assignable sliders and knobs was a brilliant move. It really ups the PX's game.

[aronnelson]

So with the piano and EP sounds OK, now I move on to strings..... If I can get decent live strings - that will be the final sound I need. Will be checking the casio music forum today.

[miden]

Good luck with that Aron. My experience with the PX was that after the pianos and EP's and perhaps organs, the quality of the rest fell away dramatically!

 

With most (imho) about the equal of most GM instruments, albeit with the ability to edit layers and other stuff to "fattem them up a bit", but still having basic GM instrument samples at the heart.

[aronnelson]

I found a stage setting called Kate's String. I think it will work pretty darn good for live. Will see.

[Kenny.]

You may also want to look into Dave Weiser's sounds. He created a set of string sounds that I find to be a VAST improvement over the stock ones.

[aronnelson]

Thanks Kenny. I listened to them but I guess I was looking for that "generic" string sound that the Kate's string has. I'm not really asking for much out of the keyboard - just need a few basic workable sounds. I know it will never make incredible organ sounds so I'm not even going there. Will probably program a few electric pianos with wah (even then that is difficult to do with sustain pedal enabled). Maybe a few generic analog sounds and call it a day.

 

On this original topic, I saw a video where someone was using the stock rhodes sound and he was playing jazz. The left hand voicings were so muddy! He could have used some of that 400Hz cut.