KX 10 Review - Castiglione Accordions

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KEYBOARD PLAYER ISSUE 346
IN-DE P T H
R E VIE W
OR L A K X10
Andrew Gilbert is s erious ly impres s ed with the wide range of s ounds
and s tyles that Orla has packed into its new Orla KX10 Portable Keyboard
IVEN that they are
generally accepted as
being the 'big three' in
the business, it's
inevitable that I get to
review more keyboards from
Yamaha, Korg and Roland than any
other makes. At the top end, though,
there have always been the Ketron
models and, at the budget end,
plenty from Casio. So it makes a
change to cover a keyboard that's
from another manufacturer entirely
and in this case it's Orla. I associate
that name with some pretty fine
home organs and digital pianos but
not really with budget keyboards so
it was a slight surprise to hear that
one was on its way down to me.
When I unpacked the Orla
KX10 it was a definite case of déjàvu, however, as the actual case is a
very close clone of that used by the
old Yamaha PSR2000. I should
know, I used to have one! Even the
music rest (a pretty decent affair for
a nice change) is the same. What is
very different, though, is the colour.
It's a bright metallic blue and very
eye-catching. I rather like the colour,
it matches my car perfectly!
The display is very big for a lowcost keyboard, as it's the same size
as the one used by the 320x240
pixel unit used in the PSR2000. This
means that it's exceptionally easy to
read, with the main data line at the
top in super large characters. There
G
are plenty of buttons surrounding
the display and a quick scan through
shows that many items that are
usually tucked away in menu
systems are right there, ready for
use. This includes all the important
things like volume controls, part
on/off, transpose, tempo etc. I like
this, as it means less buttonpushing and an easier-to-drive
instrument. There's a keypad and a
data wheel for easy entry and the
whole thing is laid out well.
The keyboard is just a touch
unusual in that it feels like the black
keys are slightly higher than normal
and that there's therefore a bit more
travel than usual in them, at least
when you compare them with other
makes. It doesn't take long to get
used to, however, and the touch
response curve can be adjusted to
suit the player or even turned off.
I'll start with a run through the
sounds, and it's déjà-vu again as the
soundset here is the same as is
used on the rather more expensive
Stage Ensemble piano that I
reviewed in issue 340, in September
2009. That's mightily impressive at
this price! Although the sound
'count' goes up to 485, the keyboard
starts with the 128-voice GM
soundset, but uses those voices
again from 129 upwards, with all the
sounds being located in their
appropriate groups. I make it a total
of 384 sounds and amongst this lot
are what I consider to be the 'native'
voices of the instrument. I still think
Orla should have followed the pack
in offering these voices first, with the
GM set as a second rank.
Anyway, that's just how it is and
I'm very happy to say that the GM
sounds are several cuts above what
you'd expect from the often lowly
GM set. These are all very useable,
starting with a piano that's a very
strong voice. All the usual GM
stalwarts are there but they are all
good sounds, voiced by Orla, from
trumpets and brass, through some
lush strings to percussion, synth
and sound effects. As I said in the
review of the Stage Ensemble, it's
refreshing to find a GM set without
any duff sounds. GM sets are
available 'off the peg' so it's to Orla's
credit that the Italian company has
come up with something of its own.
There are lots and lots of even
better sounds when you go up
above sound 129. Too many to list,
as always, but I'll pick out a few for a
special mention. Soft Electric piano,
Cool Organ (I thought that was a
Yamaha trademark), Rotor Organ
(with built in Leslie effect), Jazz
Guitar, Trombone 2 (this growls very
nicely), Circus Sax and Circus
Clarinet (both have OTT vibrato but
this particular 'liquorice stick'
actually does quite well for Acker
Bilk solos), and Country Guitar.
Then there are shed loads of pre-
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KEYBOARD PLAYER ISSUE 346
layered sounds, from Grand Piano
plus Strings, through Jazz Guitar
plus Vibes, Orchestra plus Flute
(with the orchestra coming in on
high velocity notes) to Vocal plus
Organ. All very useful combinations
and you still have the ability to layer
yet another sound on top for some
very big ensembles. I could go on,
but don't have the space!
There are very few sounds that
don't cut the mustard, with Cello
being the main offender for me.
That's way outweighed by all the
great sounds and there are some
unusual inclusions too. Woodblock
and Castanets are normal fare for
the percussion section, but here the
voices are semi-tuned. Not tuned to
a standard scale but with pitches
that go higher or lower as you run up
and down the keyboard.
Regular readers will know that I
often like to play around with sounds
and styles, putting them into places
they weren't expected to go. Those
wood blocks can be used as
hooves, so the Donkey Serenade
was trotted out (literally!) and the
castanets, when played lower than
usual on the keyboard, gives a great
tap dancing sound that matches up
nicely with the Soft Shoe style. Orla
has been very clever and there are
sounds on here that I instantly
recognise as being dead ringers for
Yamaha and Ketron voicings, often
from much more expensive
instruments.
Layering sounds is simple, as
pressing both volume buttons
together will toggle a section on or
off. Balance? Er, I just mentioned
the volume buttons. As well as
having Right 1 and Right 2 sections,
there's also a Left voice and this
works when the styles are running. I
wasn't expecting that at this price
point. Any downsides? None on the
voicing really, but there are only two
DSP units on board, for the
mandatory chorus and reverb. A
third DSP unit would have added to
the guitars, for example, making
them even better than they already
are.
In the Stage Ensemble's
review, I heaped a lot of praise on
the styles. As with the voices, Orla
hasn't just gone for a pale copy of
what others may offer, or 'standard'
styles. No, every single one is
unique to Orla and the company has
done a great job with them, given
the limitations of a small instrument.
It has a total of 260, which is a very
good number of styles for a midrange instrument, and you will be
able to download extra styles from
Orla in the near future.
If I may recap from my review of
the Stage Ensemble (as this section
is identical in every respect), Orla
has concentrated on the styles
regarded as mainstream, rather
than going for the diversity of
regional or 'world' styles
increasingly found on rivals'
products these days. Yes, there are
some 'world' styles, but not that
many so instead you get multiples of
the styles that Orla thinks you'll use
over and over again. For example,
there are no less than five very
useable 6/8 styles, six foxtrots, five
quicksteps, five tangos and five
rhumbas! Add on 19 Country and
Western styles of all types from
traditional swings and shuffles, to
bluegrass and lots of line dancing
patterns. Then come all manner of
disco styles that from YMCA (I still
wonder how they get away with the
intro for this on as it is so like the
original) to Dancing Queen
(complete with the famous opening
piano glissando), The Love Boat
and Dallas, not to mention the
Saturday Night Fever variants.
For the 'MOR' player (and that's
where this product is perhaps
largely aimed) there are lots of good
swing and big band stylings from
Basie and Miller to Nelson Riddle.
The easy listening Jazz styles are
great and there are some very laidback bossa nova and other Latin
stylings. I said last time that the first
KEYBOARD PLAYER ISSUE 346
All in all, this keyboard packs
a heck of a lot in for its price
three tangos are for (as good
e x a m p l e s ) B l u e Ta n g o , L a
Cumparsita and Jealousy, and then
there's a cracking Habanera and an
Argentine Tango as well! If you try
out the several country waltzes,
you'll hear styles that are perfect for
country classics like Old Shep, Four
in the Morning and Tennessee
Waltz. The fast C&W waltz for
Lucille seems to have been left out,
though!
I headed straight for one of the
more unusual styles right away to
make sure that they hadn't changed
it! It's called Talisman, and is a
gently swaying guitar-based Latin
combo. It just happens to fit an old
favourite tune of mine called
Corazon, from Cliff Michelmore's
Personal Cinema, and I've never
come across any other style that
worked right for it. There aren't
many classical or pseudo-classical
styles here, but you do get a couple
of baroque patterns. One is very
much in the style of Handel and the
second is a little more modern, just
right for the theme from Brideshead
Revisited.
I'll quote myself from the Stage
Ensemble review here, as I think I
summed it up then. “All in all, these
styles are a breath of fresh air. It's
inevitable that I get to review the
products from the bigger brands an
awful lot of the time, so I come
across the same Yamaha styles in
several Yamaha products, with the
same thing applying to Roland, Korg
etc. These are totally different, and I
don't think there's a single style in
here that's a clone from any other
brands. Ten out of ten for this!” The
same goes for the KX10, but
perhaps even more so, given that
the price is rather lower.
The only problem I could find in
the accompaniment section is that if
a style is stopped but the
accompaniment is turned on,
playing a chord produces no sound
at all. Most keyboards will produce a
bass note (that will fade, of course)
plus the 'pad' voice from the style,
whatever that may be (usually
strings or synth). I use this a lot
when teaching as it lets students
work through a tricky chord change
or section without having to keep up.
Okay, you can just switch a left voice
on but it's not quite the same without
the bass note too.
You can, of course, store your
settings in Registration Memories,
and you have five banks of four
memories for instant recall of
sounds. And you can then transfer
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KEYBOARD PLAYER ISSUE 346
multiple groups of all 20 settings to a
USB stick that plugs neatly into the
front of the keyboard, so storage is
limited only by the size of the USB
stick. Registration files are tiny, so
'almost limitless' would be a good
description.
The MIDI recorder is a breeze to
use and offers a Quick Record
mode that just captures what you
play with the style and right hand.
You then have the option to overdub
extra tracks if you wish. There is no
internal RAM for this, and songs are
automatically stored to the USB
stick.
At this price point, there's one
feature that I didn't expect to see
and that's a volume pedal socket.
From Grade 4 to 5 keyboard exams
onwards, a volume pedal is really
essential if you're going to do what
the music says, and that usually
entails a switch up to a fairly high
level instrument. To find it here is
impressive and the keyboard will
work with most volume pedals on
the market as it lets you set the
maximum and minimum points
individually, once you've plugged in
your own pedal.
There is also a socket for a
sustain pedal, but Orla makes a
special double pedal unit and I'd
budget for this as it's a great
accessory. The function of each
pedal can be assigned, and typically
you might have sustain on one and
Fill-Ins on the other.
Something else I definitely
wasn't expecting was the option to
plug in a MIDI pedalboard. It goes
straight into the MIDI In port and with
a few button pushes it will
automatically access a preset
organ/bass guitar sound, complete
with built-in pedal sustain.
The audio system on the KX10
is loud for an instrument of this price,
though there's nothing in the book to
say how many watts are being
delivered. It's also very clean and
clear, and Orla has used the 'soft
cone' speaker technology from its
range of home organs.
I've mentioned the front
mounted USB 'A' socket for the
memory stick, and around at the
back there are the sockets for the
pedals, a stereo line output pair and
the MIDI ports. I'd have ideally liked
a USB 'B' socket for connection to a
PC, but a USB-MIDI adaptor will let
you connect the KX10 up as a
controller keyboard and sound
source for a DAW or notation
package, and data transfer between
PC and keyboard can be done with
the USB stick.
All in all, this keyboard packs a
heck of a lot in for its price. You get
sounds and styles that are simply
different to the opposition and you
get plenty of both. It's a frill-free
instrument and by that I simply
mean that it does what it needs to do
(very well) and doesn't have lots of
features that would be rarely, if ever,
used by most of its target market.
This also makes it very simple to use
and that means an owner's manual
with just 49 pages, 13 of which are
lists of sounds, styles and drumkits!
Deciding on that second
keyboard is often an important step.
When you (or the children) want to
move on from that entry-level
instrument, the mid-range
keyboards come into their own, as
not everyone will want to shift up to
the high-end models. This Orla
o ff e r i n g m a y n o t h a v e t h e
'household name' of its rivals but it is
most definitely worth your firm
consideration.
OR L A K X10
S PE C CHE CK
Keyboard: 61 Standard Keys with Touch Sensitivity
Voices: 485 Sounds
Polyphony: (Max.) 64 notes
Sound Sections:
Right 1, Right 2, Left, Bass
Styles: 260 Styles, Start/Stop, Fill In 1, Fill In 2, Auto
Start, Key Start, Intro Ending, Tempo, Tap Tempo
Overall Presets:
260 Auto Set Up, 20 Panel
Memories
Style Features: Fingered, Single Finger, Pianist,
Acc. Volume
Effects: Reverb, Chorus
Demo Songs: 26 Demos
Controls: Numeric Keypads, Master Volume,
On/Off, Transpose Pitch, Pitch Bend, Modulation,
Touch Sens. On/Off
USB Disk Recording:
Multi Track Recording,
Standard Midi File Compatible, USB Disk Features
Amplification: 2x15 watts, Bass Reflex
Connections: USB Flash Disk, Headphone, Midi
In/Out, Double Pedal, Volume Pedal, Stereo Line
Out, 12V Adapter
Optional Accessories: Volume Pedal, Double
Pedal, Midi Bass Pedalboard
Dimensions: (W x D x H) 99 x 39 x 15 cm
(approx.)
Weight: 13 kg