PX-5S

QUICK START
christopher.stanbury@btopenworld.com
PX-5S Quick Start Guide

Tutorial 1 - Exploring Stage Settings

Stage Settings are Casio’s name for performance memories. These are used to quickly recall your favourite sound
combinations during a performance.

The PX-5S has 100 Stage Settings, organised in groups of 10 (called Banks). In each of the 10 Banks, there are 10
memory spaces (called Settings). These memories already have great sound combinations, but you can overwrite
these settings if you wish and save your changes to USB stick.

To choose a Stage Setting, you must enter the Bank number first, followed by the Setting number. These numbers
are entered using the numbered buttons to the right of the LCD display (shown in red below).

Stage Setting
Buttons

We’re going to choose a Stage Setting called Air E.Piano1. The Stage Setting number is 0-1.
This means Bank number 0, Setting number 1.

To choose Stage Setting 0-1 (AiR E.Piano1):

1. Press and release the BANK button.

2. Press the 0 button. This chooses Bank 0.
3. Press the 1 button. This chooses Setting 1.
4. The LCD display will show 0-1 AiR E.Piano1.
5. Play the keyboard. You should hear an Electric Piano sound.

Using the same procedure, try the following Stage Settings:

Location! ! ! ! Sound Combination

Bank 0, Setting 0! ! ! Concert Grand Piano

Bank 1, Setting 0! ! ! Piano and Synth Pad
Bank 3, Setting 0! ! ! Piano and Strings

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Tutorial 2 – Knobs and Sliders

The PX-5S has 4 Rotary Knobs (marked K 1-4) and 6 sliders (marked S1-6) which can be used to control the
sound of the instrument as you play.

Knobs

Sliders

In most Stage Settings, the four rotary knobs are set to control a 4-band equaliser.

K1 – Low Gain
K2 – Mid1 Gain
K3 – Mid2 Gain
K4 – High Gain

For this tutorial, select Stage Setting 0-0 (Concert Grand) e.g Bank 0, Preset 0.

1. After selecting Stage Setting 0-0, play the keys and listen to the sound of the piano.
2. Rotate Knob K4 clockwise. The LCD screen will show “EQ High Gain”. You can change the amount of
High Gain from a value of -12 to +12.
3. When you have rotated K4 fully clockwise, play the keyboard again and listen to the change in sound.
It should have become noticeably brighter.
4. By rotating K4 fully counter clockwise, the High Gain will be set to -12, giving a more mellow sound.

The Rotary Knobs can also be assigned to control other sound characteristics. As an example, select Stage
Setting 7-7 (PolySynth) and try the following:

K1 – Layer Detune - adds more pitch variation to the sound.

K2 – Adjusts the Portamento time.
K3 – Adjusts the Attack rate of the sound.
K4 – Adjusts the Release Rate of the sound.

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Tutorial 2 – Knobs and Sliders (continued)

The PX-5S has 6 sliders (marked S1 to S6). These can alter various sound parameters, making changes easy
and intuitive whilst playing. Essentially, the sliders act like faders on a mixing desk.

For this tutorial, select Stage Setting 3-0, which is a piano and string layer sound (shown on screen in
shortened form as ‘PnoStr Layer’).

1. Once you have selected this Stage Setting, play the keyboard and listen to the sound.
2. Whilst holding some notes down, move Slider S1 up to its highest position. You should hear the volume
of the strings layer increase. Move S1 to its lowest position and the volume of the strings will decrease.
3. With Slider S1 at its highest position, move S3 to its lowest position. Now when you play, you’ll hear
that this changes the attack of the strings, making them respond immediately. Now move S3 two thirds
up and the compare the difference, the strings now fade in gently.
4. Now with S1 fully down, make sure that S6 is also fully down. You should hear a dry piano sound.
Then, push S6 up to its highest setting and hear a full, reverberant effect when playing the keyboard.

Another great Stage Setting to use is 0-7, ‘IceCastles’.

When you have selected this Stage Setting, hold down a chord and use all the sliders to mix the different
elements of the multi-layered sound in and out in realtime.

Try Stage Setting 7-6, ‘5Draw Organ’. This Stage Setting emulates a drawbar organ although with only 5
drawbars instead of the usual 9. Sliders S1 to S5 control the organ tones whilst S6 controls the reverb.

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Tutorial 3 – Pedals
Pedals can be used to perform a variety of functions on the PX-5S. These include:

Sustain – Used for piano type sounds. This behaves in the same way as a traditional piano sustain pedal.

Organ Rotary Speaker – Changes the speed of the rotary speaker simulation between Slow and Fast.

Wah-Wah – Adds a Wah Wah effect to sounds. Particularly good for Clavinet and Guitar sounds.

Connect a sustain pedal to the Pedal 1 connector on the rear of the instrument and try the following Stage
Settings. Each setting gives a good demonstration of what can be achieved.

Stage Setting Pedal Effect

0-0 Sustain with Damper Noise*

When you press the sustain pedal, it is possible to just hear the sound of piano string
dampers being lifted.
0-6 Organ Rotary Speaker Control

Hold a chord down and then tap the sustain pedal. You should hear the rotary speaker effect
change from slow to fast.
1-4 Wah-Wah pedal with Clavinet

Play some notes on the keyboard first, then play again whilst pressing the sustain pedal. You
should hear the Wah Wah effect when the pedal is pressed.

*Damper noise is one of the mechanical noises that is often heard when playing an acoustic piano. It’s
simulated on the PX-5S for extra realism, but can be turned off if required. See Tutorial 5.

Tutorial 4 – Zones, Phrase Sequencer and Arpeggiator

To give you a taste of how the PX-5S can be used to create advanced realtime performances, select Stage
Setting 4-9, ‘P-Xperience’.

This Stage Setting is a great example of how the Phrase Sequencer can be used to play a drum track in
combination with the Arpeggiator. You’ll also find that the keyboard is split into two different sound areas or
‘zones’ (the PX-5S can be split up into 4 different zones, each zone having a different sound).

1. With your left hand, hold down the E flat key to the left of the CASIO logo, in the middle of the instrument.
2. With your right hand, improvise a melody using the black notes to the right of the CASIO logo.

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Tutorial 5 – Menu Navigation
This tutorial introduces you to the menu system on the PX-5S.

As mentioned in Tutorial 3, the PX-5S piano sound includes the mechanical noise of string dampers, which you would
normally hear on an acoustic piano when you press the sustain pedal.

Damper noise can be turned off if required. This tutorial shows you how to use the menus and the LCD screen to do this.

1. Select Stage Setting 0-0.

2. Press the SYSTEM button, located on the lower left side of the button panel (close to the master volume). Look at
the LCD display and notice the list of different options, with a large black dot next to the option that is currently
selected (“Chorus Edit”).

Dot showing Page Number

current selection

There are actually more options available than you can see on the LCD display. The other options are on a following
second page. The numbers on the top right of the display indicate which page you are currently looking at. In the picture
above, the display indicates page number “1/2”, meaning page 1 of 2.

Cursor Keys

Next, find the cursor keys. They are the lower half of the Stage Settings keys, located on the right side of the button panel:

3. Press the cursor down button until you have moved on to page 2 of the menu.
4. Press the cursor down button again until the black dot on the LCD display is next to the Damper Noise option.
5. Press and hold the minus key (found on the top right of the button panel) until the Damper Noise value is 0.
6. Press the EXIT button.

When you press the sustain pedal, you’ll now find that the sustain function still works, but there is no damper noise.

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Tutorial 6 - Layering Sounds Together

In this tutorial, you’ll see how to set the PX-5S to play more than one sound at a time.

We’re going to add a String sound to the Electric Piano found in Stage Setting 0-2. To do this, we need to activate a second
sound area (called a Zone) which will be layered over the current sound. You can have up to 4 layers of sound (4 zones) at
once on the PX-5S.

1. Select Stage Setting 0-1 (AiR E.Piano1).

2. The LCD display should look like the picture below. Notice that there is an indicator towards the right of the the screen
(underneath the horizontal line) that says Z1:ON. This means that the first sound area, Zone 1, is switched on and will
be heard when the keyboard is played. This indicator is called the Zone Indicator.

Zone Indicator

3. Find the Plus (+) and Minus (-) keys to the left of the LCD screen, next to the Tempo button. These are called the Zone
Select buttons.
4. Press the Plus button once.
5. The display will change to the view like the one below. Notice that the Zone Indicator now says Z2:OFF. This means that
the Zone 2 sound is currently switched off and will not be heard when the keyboard is played.

Zone Indicator now

shows Zone 2
6. We now need to tell the PX-5S what sound we want for Zone 2, and then switch Zone 2 on.
7. On the upper left hand side of the button panel, you’ll see the Tone Select buttons marked Piano, E.Piano, Organ etc.
Press the button marked HEX TONE.
8. To find the Concert Strings tone, press the Plus button (marked + / YES) on the upper right hand side of the panel.
Remember, these are not the same set of plus and minus buttons that set the keyboard Zone!
9. Keep pressing the + / YES button until the Tone name reads ConcertStrgs. You should see the following display:

Tone name changes

to ConcertStrgs

10. The Zone 2 sound is now set to Concert Strings, but it won’t be heard yet because Zone 2 isn’t switched on. To do this,
press both the Zone + and Zone - buttons (on the left hand side of the screen) together. The screen will now show
Z2:ON and you should hear Piano and Strings when you play the keyboard.