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
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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.