Casiotone CT-S1000V and CT-S500 arranger keyboards

[D. Gauss]

22 minutes ago, Mike Martin said:

  if you press -/+ simultaneously that returns you to piano. 

 

Thank you!

[Biggles]

Can Admin change the title of this thread.  The CT S models are NOT Arrangers, the CTX are, as are the Korg Pa range and the Yamaha SX and E ranges.

 

To be an Arranger a keyboard has to have accompaniment mode, not just drum rhythms, where backing is triggered mainly by left hand chords and there are a host of Styles associated with the keyboard such that there are various into, variation, fill, and endings.

 

CT S has none of these.

 

See a Korg Pa5X for a real state of the art arranger.

 

Come on Casio you can up your game and makeva quality Arranger.

[D. Gauss]

Two questions.

 

1- Despite it having wet/dry parameters,  it always sounds to me like the rotary effect is never full 100%.  There seems to be an uneffected tone in the center and a much lower leslie tone undeneath left and right.  This is even with dry to zero and wet 100.  Any one else hear/confirm this?  Compared to adding chorus, the difference is huge.

 

2-Reverb.  Picking organ tone 88 JJ Organ for example. How do I adjust the sys fx reverb send level?  Under sys Effects, there are no parameters to adjust.

[pjd]

Not sitting in front of the board right now, but here’s my method for adjusting reverb level. I temporarily assign a knob, usually K3, to reverb level. Then I adjust the Lower, Upper1 and Upper2 reverb levels. There are buttons for selecting the Lower, Upper1 or Upper2 level. Then I assign K3 (or whatever) back to what it was. 

 

For non-organ tones, K3 is usually modulation — easy to remember. For organ with rotary DSP assigned, I think it usually is set to Brake, but I could be wrong.

 

Yeah, it’s kind of clunky, but I’m used to menu clunkiness ALA Roland, Yamaha, etc.  🙂 Pretty much is why user registrations are essential. After all the pushing and twisting, one does NOT want to do it again.

 

Hope this helps — pj

[D. Gauss]

1 hour ago, pjd said:

here’s my method for adjusting reverb level. I temporarily assign a knob, usually K3, to reverb level. Then I adjust the Lower, Upper1 and Upper2 reverb levels. There are buttons for selecting the Lower, Upper1 or Upper2 level. Then I assign K3 (or whatever) back to what it was. 

<>

Yeah, it’s kind of clunky, but I’m used to menu clunkiness ALA Roland, Yamaha, etc.  🙂 Pretty much is why user registrations are essential. After all the pushing and twisting, one does NOT want to do it again.

 

yeah, after MUCH trial and MUCH error, that's what i was eventually doing, but thinking "my god this a totally messed up, time-consuming way to do this."  Thanks again, Casio.

[pjd]

21 hours ago, Biggles said:

Can Admin change the title of this thread.  The CT S models are NOT Arrangers, the CTX are, as are the Korg Pa range and the Yamaha SX and E ranges.

 

To be an Arranger a keyboard has to have accompaniment mode, not just drum rhythms, where backing is triggered mainly by left hand chords and there are a host of Styles associated with the keyboard such that there are various into, variation, fill, and endings.

 

Sorry, gotta disagree. The subject is the CT-S1000V and CT-S500 (not the CT S series in general). Both models have auto-accompaniment where in the keyboard follows the chord in the left hand, has two variations, fill-ins, intros and endings. Compared to the CTX, these models are "arranger lite", similar to the Yamaha E series. Casio calls auto-accompaniment patterns "rhythms" where other manufacturers use the term "styles."

 

All the best -- pj

 

[D. Gauss]

On 7/8/2022 at 7:40 PM, D. Gauss said:

1- Despite it having wet/dry parameters,  it always sounds to me like the rotary effect is never full 100%.  There seems to be an uneffected tone in the center and a much lower leslie tone undeneath left and right.  This is even with dry to zero and wet 100.  Any one else hear/confirm this?  Compared to adding chorus, the difference is huge.

Anybody else hear this?

[D. Gauss]

Local on/off? Midi Ctrl? How to save with registration?

 

For the life of me can't figure out how to do this.  Here's what i want/need:

 

Meat and potatos sounds in a single registration bank. 4 buttons all next to each. 1 click to easily switch between all. Can do a whole gig with no brain involved.

 

Registration slot 1= stage piano

Registration slot 2=whurly

Registration slot 3=Casio organ (in case ipad goes south)

Registration slot 4= local off and/or mid ctrl mode to trigger Hammond B3x from an ipad

 

No matter what i do i can't save a registration with local off that doesn't affect every thing else globally. Nor can i select midi ctrl mode and save that as a registration.  Again affects everything globally.  Either one would be fine IF i could save as registration.   I guess i'll try a patch with a volume of 0. Not ideal.

[pjd]

Possibly the four MY SETUP slots might do the trick. MY SETUP stores more parameters than a registration. I have one MY SETUP slot for my gig-related settings, doing everything else through registrations.

 

Since you need four slots that need to mess with MIDI-related settings, MY SETUP maybe the way to go. The user guide lists the things saved in MY SETUP and registration. Mike would know more about the MIDI-related stuff and if local control specifically is stored. 

 

You probably thought of this... If local control isn't stored, maybe set the local tone levels to zero?

 

Just some thoughts -- pj

 

[D. Gauss]

32 minutes ago, pjd said:

Possibly the four MY SETUP slots might do the trick. MY SETUP stores more parameters than a registration. I have one MY SETUP slot for my gig-related settings, doing everything else through registrations.

 

Since you need four slots that need to mess with MIDI-related settings, MY SETUP maybe the way to go. The user guide lists the things saved in MY SETUP and registration. Mike would know more about the MIDI-related stuff and if local control specifically is stored. 

 

You probably thought of this... If local control isn't stored, maybe set the local tone levels to zero?

 

Just some thoughts -- pj

 

Only thing is the mysetups are hard to switch between during mid-song. Yes,  i did do the local levels vol to zero. not ideal, but it kinda works.

[Mike Martin]

3 hours ago, pjd said:

Mike would know more about the MIDI-related stuff and if local control specifically is stored. 

 

You probably thought of this... If local control isn't stored, maybe set the local tone levels to zero?

 

I don't think so but I'll confirm tonight when I have some time. I wouldn't use tone level in case that is sent via MIDI. I'd do something like a DSP edit and set the output volume to zero.

[D. Gauss]

anybody?

[Mike Martin]

25 minutes ago, D. Gauss said:

anybody?

No the separate MIDI Controller Mode can't be saved as a registration. Using the method I described above would likely work best. 

[Frenetos]

On 7/8/2022 at 9:45 PM, Biggles said:

Can Admin change the title of this thread.  The CT S models are NOT Arrangers, the CTX are, as are the Korg Pa range and the Yamaha SX and E ranges.

 

To be an Arranger a keyboard has to have accompaniment mode, not just drum rhythms, where backing is triggered mainly by left hand chords and there are a host of Styles associated with the keyboard such that there are various into, variation, fill, and endings.

 

CT S has none of these.

 

Both CT-S500 and CT-S1000V are (simple) arrangers.
• They have accompaniment mode.

• They have 1 intro, 2 variations, 1 fill (that changes depending on when you press it) and 1 ending.

They have 243 in-built rythms (more can be loaded), and each one has it´s own accompaniment style.
So yes, they are great exactly for what you say, for playing left hand chords and right hand melodies.

[Frenetos]

MYSETUP / REGISTRATION savable settings comparative table

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Just to help decide which one to use in each case.

 

MY SETUP, REGISTRATION comparative.pdf

[Frenetos]

REGISTRATIONS notebooks

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1) A little A5 table (ready to print in A4)  for writing down the REGISTRATIONS (really hope this is fixed in the future!!!):
2) Same thing but for creating a smaller notebook in A6.

Registrations notebook (A5).pdf Registrations notebook (A6).pdf

[Frenetos]

REAPER .reabank files (standard) for CT-S500

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For REAPER (a fantastic DAW) users, here you have a couple of .reabank files for the CASIO CT-S500.

They may also work for the CT-S1000V, but I am not sure about it.

These are the files with bank and program information that have to be loaded in the ReaControlMIDI plugin to have easier access to the keyboard soundbank.

 

CASIO CT-S500 (LSB 0).reabank

     Has all the LSB values set to 0. According to the manual, this means "the chorus, delay, and reverb types don´t change to match the tone".

 

CASIO CT-S500 (LSB 64).reabank

     Has all the LSB values set to 64, so, use this one if you want that "the chorus, delay, and reverb types change to match the tone".

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

(These ones are "standard", this is, with programs ordered by bank number, quite cumbersome to use, but I have also prepared a couple or "tricked" ones (see next post), much much easier to use. Have a look at the files themselves for more information).

 

 

CASIO CT-S500 (LSB 0).reabank CASIO CT-S500 (LSB 64).reabank

[Frenetos]

REAPER .reabank files ("tricked") for CT-S500

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A .reabank file can have many bank entries of the same bank, so, in order to avoid shuffling the programs, I have created one bank entry for each program (for each tone). This way, it is much easier to select programs, for the list is in the same order as on the manual and the keyboard itself. You can even see the categories as they are on the keyboard.

 

Have a look at the files themselves for more information.

 

CASIO CT-S500 (LSB 0) (tricked).reabank

     Has all the LSB values set to 0. According to the manual, this means "the chorus, delay, and reverb types don´t change to match the tone".

 

CASIO CT-S500 (LSB 64) (tricked).reabank

     Has all the LSB values set to 64, so, use this one if you want that "the chorus, delay, and reverb types change to match the tone".

 

 

 

CASIO CT-S500 (LSB 0) (tricked).reabank CASIO CT-S500 (LSB 64) (tricked).reabank

[Frenetos]

(I have posted this also in CASIO Music Forums)

 

I have been using my new CASIO CT-S500 for a few months now and I would like to share my impressions.
Basically, I love it and I am very happy with it. It is great for having fun learning and playing this and that.
I like very much the fact than both the keybed and the rubber buttons are absolutely quiet, no noisy at all. Also, the feeling and response of the keybed are quite good.

 

Here some features I would like to see implemented on a future "CT-S600"? 🙂 :

 

Hardware:

 

• Headphones jack on the front-left panel, not in the back.

• USB audio interface, so that it is easy to transfer audio to and from the computer.

• USB type B connector (or similar) instead of microUSB, which is extremely weak and very very prone to fail.

• MIC entry, with the possibility of recording the audio at the same time than the playing (it is so much fun singing while playing!!).
Maybe even the possibility of applying a few simple effects to the mic audio (some delay, reverb, compression, etc.)

Firmware:

 

• The possibility of renaming the registrations. It´s a real pity one has to keep a notebook beside the piano to know which of the 64 registrations is which.

• An easy way of exporting the recorded songs to wav files. This would be great for sharing ideas, etc. Right now the only way of taking the sound out of the device is via R L (or headphones) socket, which implies connecting cables, adjusting software, etc.

• Better touch (velocity) curves. I am accustomed to playing a digital piano (ROLAND FP-90) and I find even the HEAVY touch mode quite light. Would be great to include a more detailed way of choosing the touch response. For instance, my digital piano has 100 values from soft to heavy. Also put the heavier level much heavier than currently is.

• User arpeggios. The possibility of programming (even if it is at a very simple level) and saving user arpegios.

• To my taste, intros and endings are far too long and convoluted. Would prefer some simpler ones.

• I would increase much more the SYS FX reverb. Even the more intense values (specially CHURCH and CATHEDRAL) are barely noticeable.

• Also, when using the keyboard as a MIDI controller, it would have been nice to have the possibility of using those 5 multifunction magic buttons as a Transport Bar. Maybe including an option in the "MIDI CTRL" menu. They would fit perfectly well for:

 

     Play/Pause

     Stop

     Rewind/Go to the beginning (long press)

     Forward/Goto the end (long press)

     Record/Stop recording

 

Or, at least, that those buttons send some kind of MIDI signal (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) that then could be "rerouted" in a DAW. For instance, In REAPER it is easy to assign any function, including the transport bar ones, to any button (but only if they send some kind of message, of course).

 

All that said, once again, I am very happy with the product.

Keep the good work 😄.

Many thanks!!!

🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹

[Frenetos]

To the administrators ( @Mike Martin, I suppose??).

 

Can we expect firmware updates on CT-S500 in a (I guess more far than near) future?

Does CASIO usually do this or is it something they just don´t consider?

(I mean, there could be good reasons for leaving the keyboards as they are, meaning not adding new capabilities, etc. Even so, it would be great to see implemented —why not dreaming?— the features I have expressed above in my "wishing list" 😀).

[AnotherScott]

Somehow I missed this thread when I was looking for a place to post my CT-S500 eval yesterday. But for anyone following here, I've posted at https://forums.musicplayer.com/topic/184422-casio-ct-s500-thoughts/

 

and also there's a big eval of the CT-S1000V going on at https://forums.musicplayer.com/topic/184347-team-test-casio-ct-s1000v-arranger-keyboard-with-aix-vocal-synthesis/

 

 

 

 

[Frenetos]

Editable (docx) registration table for putting it on top of right speaker.
(Improved version).

 

Registrations table (9,5 x 16) 02.docx

[RandyFF]

@ Frenetos

Nice upgrade wish list!  With Mike Martin around, I’ll bet this is forwarded to the Casio mothership.

 

If you’ve got this board be sure to check out what AS wrote in his separate thread, he talks about a lot of capability I wouldn’t have know existed for changing patches, for example.

 

[RandyFF]

I wrote this the other day as part of the thread AS started and realized it belongs in this thread instead:

 

I have a Casio CT-X5000, the one with 30 watts of loud speaker power, and a surprising number of capabilities for a $500 board. My main axe is the ES920, and while I love it, I miss having more than 2 sounds to play with.  I’d like a 2d board with built-in speakers for synth/organ duties, couch/bed playing, as well as having an inexpensive board for playing at jams/parties.

 

The CT-X5000 has a 4/10 keybed, lousy action for piano and most sounds, which is what makes me want to sell it: very clacky, imprecise and shallow throw. Any board I’ve got needs to be at least decent for playing piano.  

 

Went thru the usual obsession while researching possible boards to get after selling the CT-X5000.  Here are my conclusions:

————————

 

The list: 

- Yamaha EW425: new sounds and improved sound chip! //// 76 keys! //// Keybed feels pretty decent for piano //// Microphone! //// Audio/MIDI interface built-in //// $50 buys me rechargeable D cells/charger! //// 2 pre-defined mod knobs

 

- Korg EK-50L: most user friendly UI I’ve ever seen //// 3 sounds for the Upper voices //// Speakers that are said to be more refined and louder than the 24watt EW425 and CT-S500 //// possibly the best keybed for piano of these 3 //// it’s about half the price at Thomanns, even with $83 in shipping to CA, I’d still be ahead by $135-185

 

- Casio CT-S500: the ultimate couch/bed board //// better sounds than the CT-X5000 //// reputed good keybed for piano //// 3 mod knobs! 

 

You get the idea.  The EW425 rose to the top, and that’s on order from GC, but then it occurred to me- the Casio as couch/bed/keytar board might get played more than the other 2 on this list, esp given my desire to learn Camelot and use my iPad more extensively, esp with its 3 mod knobs.  So I ordered one from Amazon, due in a few days! 

[Frenetos]

Classic, but practical 🙂

[luka3rd]

Title of the topic is misleading.... These are not "arranger keyboards", Casio never said it, and surely they are not.

[Alejandro santos]

Do u know if u can connect this keyboard to a computer? , it works with Windows 10? , 

[Mike Martin]

On 2/17/2024 at 1:00 AM, Alejandro santos said:

Do u know if u can connect this keyboard to a computer? , it works with Windows 10? , 

Yes. No drivers needed. I’d recommend installing the latest firmware for DAW use.