CASIO MZ-X500 - 61-Key Arranger Keyboard

The MZ-X Series is the evolutionary successor to Casio’s powerful MZ-2000 Series instruments. It will jump-start your creativity with its authentic sound, intuitive Color Touch Interface, and extensive control. This new flagship keyboard will enable musicians around the world to perform, create, and inspire like never before.

Evolutionary Sound Quality

The MZ-X500 provides over 1,100 high-quality Tones, covering a global variety of instruments. No matter what type of music you want to play, the MZ-X500 delivers. Acoustic guitars include fret noise, harmonics, string slides and body slaps. Basses have smooth glissando from note to note. The new Versatile Tones provide these and other nuances, conveying incredible realism.

The Tones can be easily modified to suit your tastes, thanks to the Color Touch Interface and real-time control knobs and sliders. You can also draw on a selection of 20 different effects to fit any occasion.

Virtual Tonewheel Organ

The MZ-X500 faithfully reproduces the timeless sound of a vintage tonewheel organ. The rotary speaker is also simulated in great detail, giving you the complete vocabulary of this revered instrument. The physical sliders give you precise drawbar control, and easy onscreen buttons provide you with essential adjustments.

Hex Layer and Bass Synth

The MZ-X500 boasts Casio’s powerful Hex Layer technology, first made available on the PX-5S, PX-560, and XW-series instruments. This flexible architecture allows you layer six different sounds together in a single Tone. Each layer has its own independent key and velocity zones, plus a complete set of synthesizer parameters. It’s like six synthesizers in a single Tone. Now, multiply all that by four, because the MZ-X500 can play an astonishing four Hex Layers simultaneously, giving you control of 24 sounds at once. With Hex Layers, you can command an entire symphony orchestra, a massive polysynth, or any other sound you can imagine.

The MZ-X500’s Bass Synth uses the power of Hex Layers to deliver the fun and versatility of analog-style synthesis. These classic and evocative bass sounds can be played monophonically, with adjustable legato and portamento behavior. A library of vintage bass sounds is included to cover classic songs, and they can be easily modified using the real time controls and Color Touch Interface.

Easy Production Tools

The MZ-X Series contains a 16-track MIDI recorder with a full suite of mixing and editing features, plus powerful effect processors and USB audio recording. Select an ensemble, record a performance, then connect a mic, add some vocal effects, and record your performance as an upload-ready WAV file.

Authentic Rhythms

The MZ-X500 contains hundreds of flexible and great-sounding Rhythms, representing musical genres from around the world. Latin, Middle Eastern, European, Asian, and other global Rhythms are included, as well as a full spectrum of pop, jazz, rock, dance. These Rhythms have multiple intros, endings, and variations, and use advanced chord detection to deliver complete accompaniment ensembles that react smoothly to the way you play. They are ideal for solo performances, songwriting, or just enjoying a jam session with a virtual band of professional musicians.

Customize & Import

Patterns can be easily created and combined to form your own Rhythms, making the MZ-X500 completely expandable and customizable. If you have a vision for the perfect backing band, you can quickly generate all the performance elements you want, with extensive mixing and editing tools.

The MZ-X500 can load and play standard MIDI files, and it can even import data from an SMF into custom Rhythms. This means that instead of simply playing back a song, you can perform it and make it your own.

You can even import Rhythms from other arrangers, opening up a world of downloadable cross-platform content.

Touch, Twist, and Tap

The bold, bright 5.3-inch Color Touch Interface puts you in the driver’s seat, and makes it incredibly easy to explore and navigate the MZ-X Series. You’re always just a few touches away from any essential function, and selecting Tones and Rhythms is easier than ever. Enjoy interactive visual tools like mixers, synthesizer functions, effect controls, and more. It can even be used as an X/Y controller for the built-in effects and filters, controlling two parameters with just one touch. Onscreen text is large and easy to read from any angle, no squinting required.

The stylish “cockpit” design of the MZ-X500 is insightfully laid out, with the most important controls just where a player would need them. Along with the display, you’ll find your hands naturally gravitating to the newly designed knobs, sliders, pads, and other performance controls. Bright backlit buttons also keep you informed and in control, so you can focus on what’s most important- making music.

Store and recall your favorite settings easily with eight convenient Registration buttons. A Registration can contain Rhythm, Tone, effect, tempo, transposition, and many other settings. Organize your favorites for quick access at your next gig, and store up to twelve Banks of eight Registrations apiece for total flexibility.

Multi-Function Pads

The MZ-X500 has 16 backlit, velocity sensitive multi-function pads. Initially, you’ll find they can add new, creative, and fun elements to your music. As you explore them further, you’ll realize they can open up a new dimension to your performance and composition.

Sampling

Quicky and easily record high-quality samples from any source via the line and mic inputs, and assign them to the pads. Create a drum kit with custom percussion sounds, record your vocal harmonies, or create a soundboard of clips to trigger during your performance.

Phrase

The pads can also trigger musical phrases. You can easily create phrases yourself, or use the many included presets for many different instruments and genres. Phrases can be melodies, drum grooves, arpeggios, or accompaniment patterns. They can play back as recorded, or transpose automatically to match the chord being played. The MZ-X500’s phrases even include musical articulations, such as tremolos, glissandos, horn rises and falls, and many others, along with the capability to create your own.

Chord

You can also use the MZ-X500’s pads is to trigger chords, which can drive the MZ-X500’s accompaniment Rhythms. This can simplify a performance, freeing up your hands to play a two-handed melody, or use controllers. You can even store a complete chord progression on a single chord, giving you unprecedented live remix capability. For example, you could store a verse on one pad, a chorus on another, a bridge on another, and so on.

Each pad is individually and highly customizable. You can combine all of these (and other) functions into your own custom pad layout, triggering samples, sound effects, phrases, and Tone articulations all from one set of 16 pads.

Speakers

The MZ-X500’s bass-reflex speaker system puts out a staggering 40 watts of power, and sounds rich and clear at any level. A 4-band parametric equalizer is included to help you customize the output to suit any space, ensuring that you and your MZ-X500 will always sound your best.