Pros and Cons
In recent years, Casio has enhanced the functionality of its digital pianos and some keyboards with a mobile app. Casio Music Space has officially been the recommended software since the spring of 2012, combining the functions of the two previous Chordana Play apps.
The apps “Chordana Play for Piano” and “Chordana Play for Keyboards” for Android/iOS were valuable additions to pianos or keyboards without a display, benefiting beginners in particular. The manufacturer recommended these according to the type of instrument.
Whether piano or keyboard, by now you only need one app, Casio Music Space. As it contains all the menus and functions of the two Chordana apps, Casio plans on discontinuing the predecessors. Music Space, also a free app, offers players additional convenience and benefits for their instrument.
Compatible digital pianos include the 2022 Privia PX-S and CDP-S, their predecessors, and the Privia PX-770/870 and Celviano AP-270/470 pianos. For keyboards, the app supports all current instruments of the Casiotone CT-S series, as well as the two illuminated keyboards LK-S250/S450.
There are two ways to connect to the app, depending on your instrument. You always connect the instrument to the tablet or smartphone running the app via USB. However, less expensive models require a cable connection for this. Opposing that, the WU-BT10 Bluetooth adapter by Casio is available for devices with a USB-to-Device port. It costs about 70 Euros and allows you to wirelessly connect your instrument to your mobile device. In fact, the Privia PX-S1100 and S3100 portable pianos even include this adapter as an accessory.
Alone makes Casio Music Space a great asset for players of a compatible portable or home piano. It allows you to use your mobile device as a remote control for various on-board functions of Casio pianos. This is definitely more convenient than using the control panels of the pianos themselves. While the menu is only available for pianos, it anyway contains functions unavailable on CT-S keyboards.
Here you can adjust details of the grand piano sound, such as string resonance and damper resonance, if supported by the piano. This is in addition to the usual sound switching and layer sound creation functions. You can also quickly access the “Duet” function or a different touch response curve.
This remote function is especially useful for the Casio CDP-S350/S360 and Privia PX-S3000/S3100. For example, it quickly lets you create complete registrations with splits, layers, effects, and rhythms (auto accompaniment styles). The registrations appear in the app as a bank of four, in the same order as they appear on these pianos. Once you have created four registrations on your mobile device, you can load them into a bank on the piano.
Finally, the MIDI playback and recording functions also fall into this remote area. There is also a “Piano Roll” menu for the built-in MIDI practice songs.
The Music Player menu in Music Space also allows you to select and play music on your mobile device through the internal speakers of the connected keyboard or piano. In addition, the app can also play audio songs at a slower tempo or transpose them to a different key to help you practice. You can even mark and loop parts of the song to practice a specific part of the song.
The “Live Concert Simulator” lets you hear and play with an audience atmosphere. Several live atmospheres, such as “Stadium,” “Jazz Club,” or “Classical Hall,” are available: At the beginning, middle, and end of a song playback, you hear applause and audience reactions as you would in the corresponding location. Alternatively, background atmospheres such as “Beach” or “Rain” are available.
In the audio player, you can select songs not only from your mobile device but also from the “Concert Play” section of the app: Play excerpts from classical piano concertos, or just the orchestral accompaniment if you want to play the piano part yourself.
All in all, the Live Concert Simulator remains a nice gimmick. However, the audience reaction suffers a bit from the fact that the same one-shot voice samples are used over and over again.
The name is probably meant to remind you of the self-playing “electric” pianos that receive their control information from a piano roll: In the “Piano Roll” menu of the Music Space, the player can expect a song display similar to keyboard editors in recording programs. A virtual keyboard at the bottom displays the keys you need to press.
It is designed to help you practice a variety of etudes, classical piano pieces, and other songs, all included in the app in MIDI format – even if you cannot read music. Piano Roll is available separately for the left and right-hand parts, in the tempo and the key of your choice. The menu is taken from the old “Chordana Play for Piano” app.
However, if you switch to the “Keyboard” section at the top of the menu, you find yourself in the “Chordana Play for Keyboards” menu. This section offers even more powerful practice functions: In addition to the piano roll, you can also display the notes. You can also access the “Step Lesson” function, which, for example, waits in step 2 of the song playback if you have made a mistake. While the “Keyboard” section offers more flexible lesson functions, it unfortunately only allows you to study 50 two-handed songs. The “Piano” section, on the other hand, contains more than 300 pieces and etudes.
You can follow the notes in the separate “Score Viewer” menu during playback, but this does not indicate the current position in the score. The Score Viewer also contains the scores for the Concert Play audio arrangements. However, if you want to listen to the audio from the Viewer while playing along with sheet music, you will not be able to access the Live Concert Simulator. Hopefully, Casio will merge these features of the app in the future.
The free official Casio app is a great bonus for players of Casio CDP or Privia PX-S pianos and compatible Celviano pianos. It makes the instrument more comfortable to use and provides plenty of motivation to practice. This also applies to users of Casiotone keyboards: Casio Music Space combines virtually all the features of the two independent Chordana Play apps. And Music Space will also be Casio’s unified platform for future upgrades and feature enhancements. For example, Casio could improve the “Piano Roll” menu, where users would like to see unified lesson functions for all songs.
Pros and Cons
Henrik Bruns
The free official Casio app is a great bonus for players of Casio CDP or Privia PX-S pianos and compatible Celviano pianos. It makes the instrument more comfortable to use and provides plenty of motivation to practice.
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