Casio PX-5S, Privia Quick Start Manual

QUICK START GUIDE

QUICK START GUIDE

Congratulations & Thank You for your purchase of the CASIO Privia PX-5S.
This Quick Start Guide is designed to help you get up and running doing the most
common tasks with the keyboard. A Quick Start Guide should not be looked at as a
replacement for the documentation that came with your instrument, so please also
check out both User’s Guides (Basic and Tutorial). At the end of this guide we also
list links to many helpful online resources.

INDEX

Quick Tour ............................................... 3

Selecting Sounds ..................................... 4

Changing Banks ...................................... 5

Modify Sound .......................................... 6

- Pedal Control Applications .................... 8

Stage Setting vs. Tone .............................. 8

Selecting Other Tones ............................... 9

Hex Layers ............................................. 10

Stage Setting Zones ................................ 10

- Changing Sounds Within the Layer ........ 11

Split Keyboard Setups ............................. 12

Making Your Own Split Setup .................... 12

- Choosing Tones .................................. 12

- Setting Split Point ................................ 13

Other Important Edits ...............................15

- Zone Volume ...................................... 15

- Zone Effects Amount ........................... 16

- Enabling / Disabling

Controllers per Zone ............................ 16

Saving Your Edits .................................... 17

Adding New Sounds ................................ 18

Loading USB Files .................................. 20

Record Your Playing ................................ 21

More Resources ..................................... 23

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QUICK TOUR

of the front panel

Starting on the left you have the Pitch Bend (Bender)
and the Mod (Modulation) Wheels, followed by the
Knob and Slider Controller section. Basically, these
are used to adjust sound and effects characteristics.

Next up is the Power On/Off Switch; you hold it for
a few moments to power on/off. The Volume Knob
is self-explanatory.

The next section of buttons is a rather crowded
area, with some controls that will be more important
to you than others, depending on what you’re
doing. When first starting out playing the PX-5S we
suggest you ignore this section completely. We’ll
come back to it when needed.

Crossing past the display we come to the section
labeled Stage Settings: these are the main sound
objects you’ll be selecting and playing. There are
ten numbered switches along with a Bank Button.
Ten banks of 10 “sounds” each means you have
100 Stage Settings to play and enjoy.

The other buttons all aid you in navigating through the deeper editing
modes and functions of the PX-5S, and for loading, saving and writing new
sounds and edits into memory and/or to a USB thumb drive.

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SELECTING SOUNDS

Let’s get started right away selecting and playing the
wonderful sounds in the PX-5S. Looking at the front
panel to the left of the display you see a row of buttons
labeled To n e, with the familiar names of the types of
sounds you want to play, but these aren’t the “sound
objects” that you want to use right now.

FOLLOW ALONG:

• Go to the Stage Setting buttons and press 0. This
is a wonderful acoustic piano sound - play and
enjoy.

TIP:

The PX-5S offers settings to match the response of the keyboard and sound to your touch. To try these variations press
the Sys. Setting button, then press the 8/> button in the Stage Setting area to move to the second page of parameters.

You’ll be at GENERAL; press the ENTER button to select it. Press 8/> to go to the second page of parameters, and then
press 6/v to move down to Touch.

Use the - / NO and + / YES buttons on the right side of
the panel to change it from Normal.

If you have a soft touch using Light will make it easier to
reach the full dynamic range, meaning it will be easier
to get louder.

If you play more forcefully, using Heavy will give you
more range of expression before you reach the louder
levels. Press EXIT two times when you’ve made your
final selection.

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STAGE SETTING (Press 1, 2, 3, etc.)

0-1 AiR E.Piano1 Classic “tine” electric piano

0-2 60’s Reed EP Funky “reed” electric piano

0-3 Illuminated Piano blended with some synth / bell sounds

0-4 Auto-Wah Clav Play harder / softer to change amount of Wah

DESCRIPTION

0-5 OrchGlck Timp

0-6 DistortedOrg Distorted rock organ sound

0-7 IceCastles Rich sound blending various synth elements together

0-8 Rainy Dayz

0-9 You Two?

Dynamic orchestral blend
Play hard to add tympani to the low range

Lush synth sound with a moving element within produced by the
arpeggiator (notice the Arpeggiator button on the left is lit).

An example of the complex type of performance that the PX-5S is
capable of. Hold a low note and a drumbeat starts playing (produced by
the Phrase Player). While holding the low note press another higher in
time with the drums and you’ll ad some guitars that are picking a nice
pattern (produced by the Arpeggiator).

CHANGING BANKS

To choose another group of Stage Settings press the Bank button to the right of the display. It lights up, waiting for you to
press a button from the 0-9 choices. Choose a number (try 1 for now) and the display flashes, indicating you’ve chosen
the new Bank. Now you must select which location (0-9) within that new Bank you want. Press another number button
(select 0 for now) and the new Stage Setting (1-0) is selected, the display stops blinking, and the Bank button light turns off.

Go through the ten sounds in this bank (and the other Banks 2 through 9) at your leisure. When you are finished please
reselect Bank 0, location 0.

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TIP:

The Stage Settings in the PX-5S have been arranged so that each numbered
location is usually the same type of sound in each Bank, in the following way:

LOCATION TYPE OF SOUND

0 Acoustic piano-based

1 Tine electric piano-based

2 Reed electric piano-based

3 Synth sound (leads, pads, etc.)

4 Clav sound

LOCATION TYPE OF SOUND

MODIFY SOUND

using the controllers to modify the sound

5 Orchestral Sound

6 Organ-based

7 Hex Layer synths

8 Arpeggiated sound

9 Sound with moving parts/groove

Using Stage Setting 0-0 Concert Grand, let’s explore how you can use the knobs and sliders to modify sounds.
These controls are completely programmable, meaning each one can be connected to any available parameter you want/
need. They are already configured for each of the supplied sounds to do meaningful things right away. Here’s what they
do for the Concert Grand piano:

KNOBS

As is the case for many of the Stage Settings, these are set to control the EQ effect, or the tonal
characteristic of the piano. Knob 1 increases and decreases the level of bass frequencies - try it while
play low notes. Knob 2 controls the level of the middle frequencies, try it while playing just below and
above Middle C. Knob 3 select the range of the middle frequencies, so it works in conjunction with
Knob 2. Knob 4 controls the level of the higher frequencies.

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NOTE:

Notice that when you move a controller, info pops up
in the display telling you what it is changing. You may
notice that the second line of text is always saying No
Assign. This is because a knob/slider/wheel/pedal can
actually control two things at the same time if desired.
So far we haven’t encountered that. But we will!

SLIDERS

Slider 1 controls Filter Cutoff, which is another way to make a sound darker or brighter, using
the synthesis engine rather than the effects engine (EQ). Slider 2 is controlling Filter Resonance,
which is a part of the filter tonality. You won’t hear much change from it; it is more prominent on
synth sounds. Slider 3 controls the attack of the sound; as you move it up slightly the sound takes
longer to start.

The next three sliders are almost always controlling the same functions in all the Stage Settings:

• Slider 4 controls the amount of Chorus effect; bring it up to add a swirling, slightly detuned
coloration to the sound.

• Slider 5 controls the amount of Delay; bringing it up adds discrete repetitions of the notes
you play. Used very subtly it adds some spaciousness to your sound, adding more produces
stronger echoes.

• Slider 6 controls the depth of the Reverb effect, which simulates playing a sound in a physical
space, be it a room, hall, large hall, canyon and such.

We suggest you go back through the Bank 0 Stage Settings again and explore how the controls
are set up for each sound.

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PEDAL CONTROL

some cool pedal control applications

So far, your damper/sustain pedal (which should be connected to the Pedal 1 input) has been producing sustain, to help
notes to ring over after you release the keys, and to connect together smoothly. But the pedals are assignable and can do
other things. Here’s a few cool Stage Settings to explore:

STAGE

SETTING 0-6

DistortedOrg

STAGE

SETTING 1-4

Clav / PedWah1

The pedal switches the rotary speaker from spinning slow to fast. It acts as a toggle ­press it once and release it and the spinning goes faster. Press it again when you want the
spinning to slow back down.

The clav is being run through a wah-wah effect, which is a filter you open and close
manually. The pedal is doing this: hold a chord and slowly depress and then release
the pedal – you’re in control! Now play rhythmically and work the pedal in time with your
playing, or to accent notes as you like.

STAGE SETTING vs. TONE

understanding a stage set ting versus a tone

Now you’re ready to understand why we didn’t select from the Tones when first picking a sound. It is certainly possible
to do that, but the Stage Settings add extra elements to each sound that are important. All the controller settings you
experienced are created and saved within a Stage Setting. The Chorus, Delay and Reverb effects are set up within it as
well. So the best experience is had when you start with a Stage Setting that was designed for the type of sound you want
to play.

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TIP:

Suggested Stage Settings to use for exploring each type of Tone:

TONE SUGGESTED STAGE SETTING

Acoustic piano, acoustic string / winds / brass 0-0 Concert Grand

Electric pianos 0-1 AiR E.Piano1

Organs 0-6 DistortedOrg

Clav 0-4 AutoWahClav1

Electric guitar 0-0 Concert Grand

Synth / Hex Layers 3-7 EpicHexSynth

SELECTING OTHER TONES

Once you’ve selected a Stage Setting for the type of instrument you want to play, it’s easy to try out other Tones.

• Select Stage Setting 0-0 Concert Grand again. The bottom half of the display shows TONE PNO : P : 00
GrPnoConcert. The PIANO button is lit in the row of buttons to the left of the display.

• To try other piano sounds use the + / YES button on the far right of the panel to advance through the choices. Use
the - / NO to move backwards through the list, and press them both at the same time to return to the original Tone.

• You don’t have to stay within the PIANO Tone group; you can select any of the other categories and scroll through
them. But unlike when we tried out the Stage Settings earlier, the controllers may not be assigned to the types of
parameters you want control over. So you can have limited success selecting your sound from the Tone section if
you start from the right Stage Setting.

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HEX LAYERS

a special type of sound

Many of the sounds you will be using are called Tones - they are the basic type of sound in the PX-5S. But the most
powerful engine in this instrument is called a Hex Layer. Like the name implies, a Hex Layer is made up of six sound
elements. Each of these elements is a complete synth “voice” unto itself, and can be programmed to create massive synth
blends, layered or splits sounds and so much more.

To explore the different types of sound made using this powerful engine, select Stage Setting 3-7 EpicHexSynth. Sliders
1 - 6 control the level of each of the Hex Layers so you can isolate them and explore the sound. Each layer has a different
waveform, filter setting and much more.

To go further exploring the onboard Hex Layer sounds, press both the -/NO and +/ Y E S buttons on the far right of the
front panel at the same time. This will bring you back to the first Hex Layer sound, as you can see in the lower half of the
display (P : 000 PX HexTone00). Try it out and from here use the +/ Y ES button to scroll through the many Hex Layer
sound available. The name will not always tell you a lot, but you’ll hear an incredibly wide variety of sounds made using
this powerful engine.

STAGE SETTING ZONES

A Stage Setting is more than just a Tone/Hex Layer with well-chosen controller assignments and effects settings. It can be
used to combine up to four Tones in various ways; layered on top of each other, split so they appear side by side across
chosen key ranges and more. Each Tone used is placed into a Zone.

When you call up any Stage Setting the bottom right of the display shows Z1 : ON, meaning you are listening to a Tone
assigned to Zone 1. To see what is assigned to Zone 2 you use the button on the bottom row to the left of the display
labeled Zone/Part/Step/Track +.

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• On Stage Setting 0-0 ConcertGrand when
you press the + button you see a Tone called
ConcertStrgs on Z2, but it is off. To turn it on, press
both the + and - Zone/Part/Step/Track buttons
at the same time. Now you hear piano and strings
at the same time. Press both buttons again to turn
off a Zone.

• Press the + button two times to go past Zone 3
(which has an acoustic bass assigned) and go to
Zone 4, which uses the AiR E. Piano1. Press both
the + and - buttons and you’ll turn it on as well.

CHANGING SOUNDS
WITHIN THE LAYER

You can easily select different Tones for each Zone. Simply select the zone using the + and - Zone/Part/Step/Track
buttons to the left of the display, and then use the -/NO and +/ Y E S buttons on the far right of the front panel to scroll
through the Tones.

If you want to choose a different category, or family of sounds, select it from the Tone buttons to the left of the display, and
then scroll through those new sounds using the -/NO and +/YES buttons.

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SPLIT KEYBOARD

split keyboard setups

A common need is to have two (or more) sounds arranged
on the keyboard in a split key range, the usual example
being a type of bass on the lower range, and a chordal
sound on the upper. The PX-5S can easily do this with a
Stage Setting by defining low and high note ranges for
each Zone. Bank 6 features a number of these left hand
bass splits, including:

6-0 Piano / A.Bass

6-1 F.Bass / E.Pno

6-6 ABas / JazzOrg

Another common application is to have a chordal sound
in the lower range and a solo lead sound in the upper.
Check out these Stage Settings:

9-1 TinEP / SynLdx

9-2 60’s EP / Hrns

MAKE YOUR OWN
SPLIT SETUP

If you are playing in a band/church/etc. it is likely you’ll need to make your own split keyboard setups. We recommend you
start by selecting an existing Stage Setting. Look in Bank 6 for the type of split you need (i.e. left hand bass, or chord and
solo sound).

CHOOSING TONES

Refer back to Changing Sounds Within the Layer for how to select sounds for each zone.

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NOTE:

The Hex Layer section has many types of sounds, not only synth sounds, so be sure to explore there for alternate keyboard,
orchestral and other sound types.

SETTING THE
SPLIT POINT

Select Stage Setting 6-0 Piano/A.Bass. Play the keys; you’ll notice that the piano only goes down to the F below Middle
C. We can see that the piano is on Zone 1 (look at the bottom of the display), so this means that the bottom note of Zone1
is F, and the top note of Zone2 is E.

• Press Edit, then Enter to select Stage Setting for
editing.

• Press Enter to select Zone Edit, then Enter again to
select Mixer Edit.

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• Press 8/> to get to Page 2/6; you’ll see that Z1 Key
Range Low is indeed F, specifically F3. Press -/No
five times to lower that note to C3.

• Play the keyboard and hear that the piano now goes
down to C, but the bass is still in the way. No
problem - we’re on it!

• Press + Zone/Part/Step/Track to select Zone 2:
you see that the Key Range High is still set to E3.

• Press 6/v once to select that parameter.

SHORTCUT:

• Press the NUMKEY button on the right side of the
front panel. Then touch the note you want to set it to,
which is the B below C3 (it’s just below the FF label
on the front panel). The display will now show B2
as the selected entry. Yes - you can use this trick to
choose notes for key ranges right from the keyboard

- cool!

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OTHER EDITS

other important edits

Here’s where to find other useful parameters (all within Edit->Stage Setting):

TIP:

While on any edit page, you can use Knob 1 to scroll down and up through the parameters in the list, instead of 6/v
(down), 7/ (up), and 8/> (next page). When you’re on the parameter you want to change you can use Knob 2 to choose
a value, instead of using the -/No and +/Yes buttons on the far right of the panel.

v

ZONE VOLUME

• Select Mixer Edit. You’ll see that there are a total of six pages of parameters (1/6 at the top of the display).

• Press 8/> twice to get to Page 3/6, and then 6/v once to select Volume.

• Use the + Zone/Part/Step/Track button to move to Zone 2 and adjust to taste.

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ZONE EFFECTS AMOUNT

effects amount for each zone

Each Zone can use more or less of the main effects (Chorus, Delay and Reverb).

• Select Mixer Edit. Press 8/> until you get to Page 5/6.

• You’ll see Chorus Send and below it Delay Send. Reverb Send is found on the last page of parameters (Page 6/6).
Adjust the send amount for each Zone (use the +/- Zone/Part/Step/Track buttons) for each of these three System
Effects.

ENABLING / DISABLING
CONTROLLERS PER ZONE

You may want only one side of a split to respond to the sustain pedal, Pitch Bend, or one of the knobs/sliders.

• Press Exit to move back out of Mixer Edit, and press
then 6/v once to move to Controller Edit. Press Enter.

• Press 6/v∨ (or use Knob 1!) to scroll through the
various controllers. Press Enter to select the one
you want.

• It can be set to Enable or Disable per Zone. Use the

-/No and +/Ye s buttons to the far right of the panel
(or Knob 2!) to set it, and then use the +/- Zone/
Part/Step/Track buttons to choose the other Zone
to set as desired.

• Press Exit and then scroll to other controllers to set
as needed.

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SAVING YOUR EDITS

If you are just tweaking an existing Stage Setting to taste press Write (middle of the bottom three buttons to the far right of
the panel), followed by Enter, and then confirm the action by pressing +/Yes.

But if this is a new Stage Setting you need to consider two things:

1

Where will you save it to?

Before you start editing we suggest you go through all the Stage Settings and make notes
of which ones you don’t need. Those locations will be where you can store your new
sounds.

2

What to call it?

With these ideas in mind you can now save your work.

• Press Write. The upper right of the screen shows
a Stage Setting location. Use the -/No and +/ Ye s
buttons to choose the location to overwrite with this
new sound. Knob 2 can be used to move through
them faster.

• Press 6/v once to move the cursor into the name
field. The first character of the current name will
be underlined.

You should rename it so you will recognize it later.

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TIP:

The fastest way to choose characters is to use Knob 2. You can also use it to get close to the right character and then use
the -/No and +/ Ye s buttons to step up or down to the exact one needed.

• Use the 8/> button to move to the next character
and continue naming.

• When finished, press Enter, and then +/Yes to
confirm your action.

ADDING NEW SOUNDS

Since the initial release of the PX-5S Casio and many users have created new sounds and Stage Settings. As of the writing
of this guide there are over 100 new sounds with more coming every week!

The sounds are hosted on the web at www.casiomusicforums.com. Sign up as a new member so you can gain access
to all the files.

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Select the red DOWNLOADS tab and select PX5S from the choices on the right side. You’ll end up here:

From here you can select and download sounds to your computer. There are two types of sound files that can be saved/
loaded: Tones and Stage Settings.

• A Stage Setting is the complete sound (up to four zones) with effects and all the controller settings. Those file names
end in .ZPF

• A To n e is a single sound, which can be added to any Stage Setting. Often you will find people creating cool Stage
Settings, and then also saving the main sound as a Tone so you can add it to your own splits, layers etc. A Tone file
ends in .ZTN, and a Hex Layer ends in .ZLT.

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Once you have downloaded files to your computer you copy them onto a USB thumb drive to load into your PX5S. You
need to create a folder on the drive called MUSICDAT and store your sounds in there. That is the only way the PX5S will
“see” the files. Note: If you format the USB drive on your PX5S it will create folder for you.

TIP:

The file system used for the stick limits the file name to only 8 characters, so it can be confusing to know which sound is
which if the first characters are not named uniquely. You can rename the files on your computer before copying them onto
the stick to avoid this issue.

LOADING USB FILES

• Insert the USB thumb drive into the slot on the right
side of the front panel.

• Press and hold the Audio Recorder/ Media button.

• The Media screen will appear presenting choices
for what to do with the stick. Select Load from the
options and press Enter.

• Select the type of file you want to load (Tone or
Stage Setting) from the choices and press Enter.

• Now you can scroll through the files on your stick to
choose which one to load (using the -/No
and +/Ye s buttons or Knob 2).

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• When decided press the 6/v button to select the
number field below the file name. This is the Tone/
Stage Setting memory location it will be loaded
into).

• Press Enter to load.

RECORD YOUR PLAYING

One of the cool extra features of the PX-5S is the ability to record your playing as an audio file. All you need is a USB stick/
thumb drive. Here’s how:

• Insert the thumb drive into the slot on the right side
of the front panel.

• Press the Audio Recorder/Media button once
(don’t hold it), the screen will briefly show
“Mounting Media”. Wait until that is complete
before proceeding.

• The screen will show Audio Select at the top,
and will display any previously recorded “Takes”
if available.

NOTE:

A “Take” is simply an audio recording.

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• Press the Audio Recorder/Media button again.
The button will start blinking and the screen will
show “Audio Standby”. Notice that the Record
button on the left of the display is also flashing.
It’s saying, “use me!”

• When you’re ready to start recording press the
Record button and off you go. The screen will
show “Audio Recording” and a timer will count the
time as you go.

• Press Record again to stop the recording process.
The display will go back to the Audio Select screen
and show your new “Take” number. To play it, press
Start/Stop on the left of the display.

NOTE:

Your recording will capture everything that happens from the keyboard, including the results of moving controllers, the use
of the Arpeggiator or Phrase Player, even changing sounds as you go along. Even cooler, if you connect a microphone or
other instrument to the Audio/Line Inputs you can record your singing, other MIDI gear and other players!

Audio is recorded as industry-standard 16-bit, 44.1kHz WAV files, which can easily be transferred to your computer, and
used/edited/shared with anyone you wish. Conversely, the PX5S can play back any audio files you have on the thumb drive
that are in this format. Note that the file MUST be named TAKEXX where the XX stands for any number between 00-99. So
you’ll need to rename your audio/songs before loading them onto your thumb drive.

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MORE RESOURCES

There are a number of online resources to get more info, sounds, and help from other PX-5S owners.

WEBSITE DESCRIPTION

http://sc3900.wix.com/px-5s

www.casiomusicforums.com

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Casio.Px5s/

https://soundcloud.com/casio-px-5s

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jerry Kovarsky, author of the book “Keyboard for Dummies” is a regular columnist for
Keyboard magazine, Electronic Musician and longtime product management guru with
Casio, Korg, and other companies who have been instrumental in bringing keyboard
technology into people’s homes and onto stages and studios around the world.

The best “portal” to all things PX-5S

More sounds and a forum for talking with other owners

The Facebook user ground for the PX-5S

Audio demos of the PX-5S

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www.casiomusicgear.com