I had to sell my m8 due to my eyes, they’re not even that bad but the eye strain was real.
Decided to pass on the MPC sample due to the tiny font size, and now this looks even worse…what’s with all the discrimination against people with less than perfect sight! 
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I guess it’s an issue of physical UI controls. Casio wanted to design a device of a certain size, they want physical controls on it, and unfortunately space taken up by a display is dead space for controls. Looking at the design of it, it does look like they maaaaybe could’ve squeezed a slightly larger display in there? Not by much, though.
I think the MPC sample is a lot harder to explain, though. They definitely could’ve squeezed a bigger display into the space available lol
This feels like a device that would blow up a year ago but now it feels a little too little, too late after MPC Sample.
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My eyes aren’t great and I’m doing ok with the MPC Sample because the font is so crisp. Not sure it will work for you, but might be better than you feared.
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I’m out. This thing needed to at least match a PO33
anyone find a manual yet? searched a bit on their website in japanese but no luck. would love to know the max sample time per pad?
I don’t see a manual up there. It does say max sample time of 15 minutes, but doesn’t specify per pad.
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SP404MKII lasts a lot longer than that on AA’s, and the MPC Sample is 4-5 hours.
2 hours is definitely a bit limited especially as this is clearly a ‘portable’ sampler and not a ‘couch’ sampler.
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Agree - with the Sample the font size is only tiny in a few circumstances, the core workflow requires no squinting at all.
As someone in their 40s id kindly suggest that if anyone is struggling with the screen then you might want to get your prescription checked 
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I always find this strange too. My eyesight is dogshit, and I’m certainly not young any more, but wearing my glasses I don’t have a problem with the screens on any of my devices. I think the people who do may be due a checkup
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My prescription is fine, thanks for your concern though, haha.
I think it’s more a combination of tiny fonts, and also the quality of the screens - i.e. I can read small fonts on my laptop, but on the M8 et al, it’s really uncomfortable.
Anyway, that’s me, back on topic!
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I watched a little bit of that and saw that it’s up to 15 minutes per pad for sampling. There are 80 banks of 16 pads on the device and you can have up to four of them in a project. The four banks map to the gaming buttons on the top right.
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Casio just wanted to create something kawai, instagrammy I guess 
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Yeah, in that video it really did make it sound like it was geared toward beginners and young people (ie, skipping SD storage because young people (in Japan?) prefer internal storage, auto tempo sync, etc). Looks a bit like a “my first sampler” kind of device. Maybe that explains the pricing as well. Kind of a shame because they have the history to be a real contender for lofi samplers. For me at least, Yamaha and Casio kind of dropped the ball.
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Well, as I’m vacationing in Tokyo this week, I had to see if I could find one. Picked up the floor model (the only one in stock) in the Ginza area. Haven’t had time to mess with it yet, but the long flights home will provide that.
It’s bigger than I thought it would be. And relatively light. The built in speaker is about of the quality you would expect on a device of this price. So far, though, it seems nice! Happy to support Casio diving back into the sampler world! (Now do an updated CZ-101!)
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16 tracks of sequencing already puts it waaaaaay ahead of the MPC Sample.
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This pic really puts things into perspective, thank you.
Really cool looking device and smaller than I expected.
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Finally got home and have had a few minutes with it. (Literally just about 30 minutes or so.). Has a fairly nice step sequencer that I wish the MPC Sample had. 80 preset “banks,” 14 of which are full of some loops/samples, some of which appear to be from various Casio devices, including the SK-1 drum sounds. Bitcrush, phaser, flanger, delay as global effects. Haven’t yet figured out how to load/copy sounds from one bank to another. The manual is only in Japanese, so I’m using a Google Translated version of it. Apparently there is also an accompanying app, that is either not yet available at all, or at least not available here in the US.
This will be fun to play with, in the literal sense. I don’t see it as an MPC or TE killer, but I’m happy to give Casio the nod and support for getting back into the pro/hobbiest area with this.
Size comparison here…
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