Korg Forums

[xmlguy]

It appears that the Casio XW-P1 is a signficant upgrade over the EMX for groovebox capability. It basically can serve to be like an R3 with an EMX inside, all in one, for a great price. It even is competitive with the Radias in multitimbre layering and synth structure. The FX arent quite as powerful as the Radias, but it is a big step up from the EMX, since it has more parts in the step sequencer and it is fully polyphonic on the hex and PCM synth parts. I plan to provide a more detailed review after I get it in my hands. I am not going to sell my EMX or R3 anytime soon. I have been easily able to reject a lot of synths that have shipped in the last few years, like the Venom, MiniAK, and Ultranova, but the XW-P1 has been the first to pose any real challenge to the R3, Radias, and EMX for my purposes. It does not have a vocoder, so there one feature it is missing, just to be fair compared to the R3.

[roblabs]

have you tried it out yet? I was over at Guitar center yesterday, and saw one. Unfortunately, they were just about closing when i got there so could only glance at it. I intend to stop by again sometime this week and have a go.

[xmlguy]

I'm waiting to buy until I can get my usual 20% off for new gear. A GC near me has one, so as soon as the Sam Ash and Best Buy get it, I'll be able to play them off each other to get my price. I normally can get 20% off from Best Buy, plus Reward Zone and in-store bonuses on top of that, by using price matches and sale prices from GC and SA. I refuse to pay more than 80% of list price, and it always works for me, one way or another. I also get a 45 day return period buying from Best Buy using my Silver reward zone membership. Since I buy at a discount, I usually can break even or make a few bucks if I decide to sell the gear within a year or two, so long as the MSRP holds steady.

[roblabs]

whoa...bestbuy sells gear?? Never seen that in there. At least, not any big names like Korg, Yamaha, etc. Maybe only in select stores...
Anyway, good strategy for discounts, xmlguy

[xmlguy]

Best Buy has music gear departments in some of their stores. A store either has the department or not. You can tell when they have a separate room for music gear with a wall of guitars, sound booths, and pro keyboards. Best Buy sells Motif XS/XF, Korg M3, Roland V-Synth GTs, workstations, synths, etc. You can find stores with the music gear department by searching on their store locator and by looking up gear through the music section of the website and finding local stores that carry the item.