Casio announced today unveiled the Privia PRO PX-5S, a stage piano specially designed to give musicians more expressivity in live performances. The new Casio Privia PRO PX-5S stage piano features 340 preset sounds covering a wide variety of instruments, including grand piano tones that can be played with the nuanced tonal variations and sustained reverberations of real pianos. The Privia PRO PX-5S features polyphony of up to 256 notes and 340 preset sounds, enabling live performance of a broad range of musical genres. Equipped with six sliders, four knobs and two wheels, operations can be performed intuitively while playing live. Control over volume and various parameters is possible using an attached foot pedal, and the Stage Setting function enables performance setups to be independently assigned for up to four designated keyboard zones.
The Casio Privia PRO PX-5S is the world’s first battery-powered stage piano, which, together with its slim and lightweight 11.1-kilogram design, make it a useful instrument for active musicians playing in a wide array of settings, from the stage to the street. The Casio Digital Signal Processor is onboard to apply effects like phaser, flanger, wah, tremolo, and rotary simulation to four tones at once in up to four designated keyboard zones. Players can also create their own sounds by independently adjusting EQ frequencies. The Privia PRO PX-5S comes with the original Tri-sensor Scaled Hammer Action Keyboard II, which reproduces the distinct attack timing of acoustic and electric pianos.
Press Release:
Casio Releases Stage Piano Featuring
High-Quality Sounds and More Expressivity
The World’s First Battery-Powered Stage Piano,* with a Highly Portable
Design Weighing only 11.1 Kilograms
January 25, 2013
TOKYO, January 25, 2013 – Casio Computer Co., Ltd., announced today the release of the Privia® PRO PX-5S, a stage piano specially designed to give musicians more expressivity in live performances. This new model features 340 preset sounds covering a wide variety of instruments, including grand piano tones that can be played with the nuanced tonal variations and sustained reverberations of real pianos.
*According to research conducted by Casio, this is the first battery-powered piano designed for live performance and fitted with 88 keys, as of January 25, 2013.
Casio electronic musical instruments have received favorable reviews from a variety of sources, with the Privia PX-850 digital piano winning an award in the Personal Electronics category at the 2013 International CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards held in the United States, and the XW-G1 and XW-P1 synthesizers taking the Best in Show award at the 2012 NAMM Show, also held in the U.S.
Now with the new Privia® PRO PX-5S, Casio has further evolved its highly acclaimed Multi-dimensional Morphing AiR* Sound Source featured in the PX-850 to realize a wide range of high-quality sounds. Moreover, the highly acclaimed functions and operability of the Casio XW-G1 and XW-P1 synthesizers have been combined in this new model to realize a next-generation stage piano offering performers even greater power of expression. The Privia PRO PX-5S is also the world’s first battery-powered stage piano, which, together with its slim and lightweight 11.1-kilogram design, make it a useful instrument for active musicians playing in a wide array of settings, from the stage to the street.
* Acoustic and intelligent Resonator
The Privia PRO PX-5S features polyphony of up to 256 notes and 340 preset sounds, enabling live performance of a broad range of musical genres. The wide array of preset sounds allow performers to reproduce the nuanced tonal variations and lingering reverberations of grand pianos, smoothly recreate distinct electric piano sounds from the warm tones of softly played notes to the edgy tones of firmly struck keys, and even capture a “clavi” tonal character when the finger leaves the key. As many as six sounds can be layered using the company’s original Hex Layer function. All together, these features provide performers with countless options to achieve a high level of expressiveness on stage.
Casio has paid the utmost attention to designing the Privia PRO PX-5S with the operability expected of a stage piano. Equipped with six sliders, four knobs and two wheels, operations can be performed intuitively while playing live. Control over volume and various parameters is possible using an attached foot pedal, and the Stage Setting function enables performance setups to be independently assigned for up to four designated keyboard zones. The Privia PRO PX-5S includes popular functions featured on the XW-G1 and XW-P1 synthesizers, such as Phrase Sequencer for calling up musical phrases during performances, and Arpeggio for automatically playing arpeggios just by pressing the keys. Furthermore, the sounds and settings of external electronic musical instruments connected via the MIDI port can be controlled by the Privia PRO PX-5S, enabling it to be used as a master keyboard onstage.
The Casio Digital Signal Processor is onboard to apply effects like phaser, flanger, wah, tremolo, and rotary simulation to four tones at once in up to four designated keyboard zones. Players can also create their own sounds by independently adjusting EQ frequencies and envelope generator parameters such as attack and release, as well as the cutoff and resonance of the filters.
The Privia PRO PX-5S comes with the original Tri-sensor Scaled Hammer Action Keyboard II, which reproduces the distinct attack timing of acoustic and electric pianos. Casio has also equipped the new model with High-Resolution Velocity, which can capture the force of a keystroke spanning 16,256 gradations, and Hammer Response, which reproduces the attack of the notes on a grand piano in each register of the keyboard.
