AMOGH RAO
CASIO Privia PX-S series
As a gigging musician, one of
the most painful parts of pre and
post-show efforts is the burden of
transporting massive keyboards,
pianos, and equipment. The hack of
carrying multiple MIDI keyboards
around just to compensate for this
discomfort has actually been around
for quite some time in the live music
scene. It is in situations like these
that instruments like Privia really
alleviate your troubles. There is
always a long-standing debate about
finding a balance of portability and
minimalism with audio and build
quality that doesn’t sound like you
bought your instrument from a
gift shop. There have been several
attempts to realize this balance from
many brilliant companies, but few
have nailed it as accurately as CASIO
has with the new PX-S.
The PX-S really pushes the already
impossible standards of fitting a
grand piano into a tiny box, with
dimensions that are 43% smaller
than the previous generation
Privia instruments, and has the
world’s smallest body. The buttons
are all touch-controls without any
protruding nobs, making the entire
interface look like it belongs in the
future. The instrument also runs
on double-A batteries for up to four
hours, great for those impromptu
rehearsal sessions when you
forget to pack your adapter. The
hammer-action keys have been
“smart” scaled, bringing down the
dimensions of the octave range
without changing the feel of where
your fingers would fall on a grand
piano and hence maintaining the
same playing style. The keys also
have an artificial ebony and ivory
coating that makes the touch really
pleasant regardless of the weather.
With a shape and body this size,
you would expect the sound that
comes from crammed speakers and
poorly designed outlets. Fortunately,
the sound of the Privia series has
always been one of the best you can
find in a digital piano. That being
said, the S-series really takes it up
a notch. Even complex harmonic
relationships between the strings
of a piano such as sympathetic
string resonance have been
perfectly mapped into the internal
mechanisms of the digital back-end.
CASIO has taken into consideration
the actual requirements of their
customer base and stuck to a small
but significant library of sounds and
effects instead of the multitude of
samples and permutations you would
find in most digital pianos. From a
connectivity perspective, it also adds
to the standard stereo, MIDI and USB
combination with Bluetooth as well
as CASIO’s well known Chordana
Play app. The app is available on
both the Google Play Store as well
as the iOS App Store and allows you
to control every single aspect of the
piano’s features in depth, perfectly
complementing the simple and
minimalist approach to the functions
on the body of the piano.
The S-series is a no brainer for any
musician looking for portability and
ease of use but is also well suited for
beginners and players on a budget.
Their price points are vastly better
than any of their competitors for the
same quality and standard of sound.
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
55