Casio WK7500 Piano tone sounds out of tune...

[JimPlaysKeys]

I own the WK7500 keyboard and for the most part I love it. In fact, I like the drawbar organ so much that I now leave my Hammond XK2 at home and use the Casio on gigs. I run it through a Neo Ventilator Leslie simulator and the sound is amazing!

But my issue is with the stereo piano sound. The sound itself is respectable, but I've noticed one thing that is quite a nuisance to me. When you play D2 and D3 together it sounds out of tune! These are the only two notes that I've noticed this with, but it's enough for me to NOT use this keyboard for the piano sound.

Has anyone else noticed this? Is there a way to tweak the tone to get rid of this?

Thanks!

 

[The Y_man]

Which piano sound (out of several stereo piano?)


The Y-man

 

[JimPlaysKeys]

It's the first piano sound in the tone bank.

 

[happyrat1]

Have you checked to make sure your modulation wheel is set at zero?

 

[JimPlaysKeys]

The modulation wheel is at zero. As I mentioned it's just those two specific notes.

 

[CowboyNQ]

Might help the Casio experts here (I ain't one of them lol) if you are able to record this rogue sound and post it here?

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Might help the Casio experts here (I ain't one of them lol) if you are able to record this rogue sound and post it here?

I'm no Casio expert, but I was going to suggest the same thing-- record the D2 note by itself, then the D3 note by itself, then the D2 and D3 notes played together. I could look at the recordings and check the frequencies to see if one of them is off. Not sure what could be done about it if it does happen to be the case.

Is it just that one tone, and just those two notes? I know you already said that it is, but that seems kind of odd-- unless one of those two keys was slightly out of tune on the grand piano that Casio was using to record the sound wave samples. Anyway, it might help for comparison purposes if you could also record the D2 and D3 notes using one of the other acoustic piano tones.

 

[JimPlaysKeys]

It's just the stereo piano, no other tone. I'll try to make a recording of it and post it here. I will add this: I went to Guitar Center and played the WK7500 and the WK6500 on display and BOTH of them had the same issue with the same tones and same notes. WEIRD!!

 

[happyrat1]

Well strictly from a physics point of view D3 is exactly double the frequency of D2 and thus constitutes the first harmonic of D2. The mixed waveforms may be having some sort of weird aliasing effect which Casio did not address in their software.

I don't own a WK-7500 but I do own an XW-P1 and an oscilloscope. I'll take a look at mine later and see if I can duplicate the issue and spot any weird waveform artifacts.

Gary

 

[CowboyNQ]

You could use the advanced technique I employed when the C1 key on my ancient Yamaha broke - just don't use it.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

If it sounds the same on other Casio keyboards, I'd guess it's something to do with the sampled sound waves.

A couple of thoughts:

(1) What happens if you shift the keyboard up or down an octave or two? Do the D2 and D3 notes (the MIDI notes, not the physical keys-- e.g., the D3 and D4 keys if you've shifted down 1 octave) still have the out-of-tune sound?

(2) What happens if you transpose the keyboard up or down a number of semitones? Do the D2 and D3 notes (triggered by the appropriate keys of course-- e.g., by the C2 and C3 keys if you've transposed down 2 semitones) still have the out-of-tune sound?

Edit: I think that should have been the E2 and E3 keys if transposed down 2 semitones-- or C2 and C3 if transposed up 2 semitones.

 

[happyrat1]

BTW, if you want the informed opinions of other WK owners and Casio Factory reps I'd suggest popping over to this forum and posing your question to the experts.

http://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/forum/17-wk-75007600-ctk-70007200/

 

[JimPlaysKeys]

Happyrat1,

I also posted my issue on the Casio forums. I've received very little help there. I've gotten more replies and suggestions here.

 

[JimPlaysKeys]

You could use the advanced technique I employed when the C1 key on my ancient Yamaha broke - just don't use it.

LOL! I love the suggestion! Not so sure that's an option, though.

 

[JimPlaysKeys]

If it sounds the same on other Casio keyboards, I'd guess it's something to do with the sampled sound waves.

A couple of thoughts:

(1) What happens if you shift the keyboard up or down an octave or two? Do the D2 and D3 notes (the MIDI notes, not the physical keys-- e.g., the D3 and D4 keys if you've shifted down 1 octave) still have the out-of-tune sound?

(2) What happens if you transpose the keyboard up or down a number of semitones? Do the D2 and D3 notes (triggered by the appropriate keys of course-- e.g., by the C2 and C3 keys if you've transposed down 2 semitones) still have the out-of-tune sound?

Edit: I think that should have been the E2 and E3 keys if transposed down 2 semitones-- or C2 and C3 if transposed up 2 semitones.

I haven't tried shifting the octave up or down or transposing a few semitones either way. I'll give that a shot and let you know what I find.

Thanks!

 

[The Y_man]

Sorry - been busy and also forgot to try this on my own keyboard when I actually got in front of my keys!

Will try to remember tonight.....

The Y-man

 

[happyrat1]

The issue apparently does not affect the XW-P1, at least not so my ears could detect.

 

[The Y_man]

Just tried it out on CTK-7000 (same sound engine) - sounds ok to me (on speaker and headphone)


The Y-man