Casio XW-G1

It's not unfair to say that in the past, the name Casio hasn't figured highly in discussions about must have, hi-tech music making gear. However, it's clear the company is now intent on making a bit of a statement with its two new synths, the XW-P1 and the XW-G1. The former is very much a player's instrument with a vast range of synth, organ and rhythm sounds, and handy features such as 'hex', which allow the layering of up to six sounds. However, the XW-G1 is a slightly different beast, aimed at what might be diplomatically termed the 'DJ' market. With its amazing new features, the XW-G1 will add some grunt and inspiration to the DJ and dance music setting.

It's essentially a six-oscillator synthesiser with the capacity to record phrases and samples. It looks great and two things initially struck me - how light it was and how 'generous' it is with 61 keys. These are weighted just a little so they're much more fun to play than the usual 'springy' kind of synth keyboard. I also immediately noticed the non-slip area on the top right, which would be ideal for an iPod, or similar such device.

The main controls are divided into what are essentially three main areas. The left deals with the editability of tones, with four assignable knobs, and nine sliders. Three parameter program button options on the left allow the sliders to be used for different sound editing functions. It also doubles as the event editor for the sequencer function and is laid out in a way reminiscent of classic Roland kit synonymous with techno. I could speculate that Casio may have felt this was a kind of genre standard.  The right-hand section deals with navigating around the preset sounds and user banks. It's the middle that will interest the dance music fraternity greatly however. This area has the main volume knob as well as controls for the three main functions - performance mode, tone editing mode and the step sequencer. In performance mode the keyboard can be divided into four and there are 100 user and 100 preset tones, available plus the capacity to play prerecorded sequences and phrases. Tone editing allows the user to generate new tones, while the 16-step sequencer consists of nine note parts and four control parts. Five of these are for drums, one for bass, two for solo instruments and one for chords; however there's still plenty of scope to create phrases for jamming, or augmenting a performance. Additionally, there's the sampling capability, with up to 19 seconds per sample available. Used intelligently this is the kind of firepower that'll make you look good.

It has all the expected ins and outs on the back panel, but one handy feature is the option to run other devices through its processing engines. The XW-G1 is in essence a production workstation. It's generally laid out in a functional manner, and features the sorts of capabilities that'll appeal to DJs who want to take their performance up a notch – the preset sounds are very 'club' and there are plenty of rhythm kits and so forth. It's probably not intended to be a standalone piece of kit and shouldn't be judged as such. What it can do is provide a considerable presence to DJ and live electronic music performance, and its sequencing/sampling capability allows complex phrases to be stored and played with one key stroke.