Using the WK-7500 live

I used the WK-7500 in a live band situation this morning (church band) so I thought I'd post some thoughts on how it did.

The short of it is that it did great. Typically I use a Roland Fantom X7, so I may make some comparisons to that board (which costs considerably more of course than the Casio). For this set, we did 5 tunes. Prior to the rehearsal earlier in the week I set up 6 registrations that I figured would cover these tunes (they did). So when it came time to play I would be ready.

Pro:

- The sound was great. I used layers (Stereo Grand/Warm Pad, Stereo Grand/80s Strings) and they really had a great, full sound. Thick, yet not muddy. The contrast between the "Warm Pad" and "80s Strings" was enough to cover both the softer and louder sections. Something that I probably will do is create several variations on "Warm Pad" just by tweaking the filter resonance, saving them as user patches, then saving those in piano/pad layers in registrations.

- The output from the L/Mono through the PA was excellent. Band complemented the keyboard on its sound.

- Being able to switch from one Registration to another while the previous sound was still audible was very handy. I could transtion from verse (soft) to chorus (louder) with no interruption in audio output. This is something that the Fantom cannot do.

- Onboard metronome helped us set the tempos.

- Onboard speakers also served as additional monitor sound (we were in a small room without the Aviom system, so this came in handy)

- Great feel to the keyboard, especially when playing piano sounds. The Fantom X7 has synth-style keys, and although the WK-7500's keys are not weighted, their feel is much less springy than a synth. And 76 keys is the only way to go, if you can afford it over the 61-key version.

- This thing is light! I just tucked it under my arm and carried it around. Very gig-friendly. The Fantom probably weighs upwards of 30 pounds - ugh.

Con:

- Perhaps I need to tweak things, but it was not easy to play really soft on the piano sound. I maybe should mess with the Touch sensitivity or some other parameter.

- A couple times I wanted to have the metronome flash the tempo rather than hear it. Short of digging into the menus and muting the metronome, I wish there was a quick way to turn its audio on and off. I ended up just turning the volume down when I needed to mute it.

- I know I'm greedy for functionality, but again - it would be so useful to allow realtime tweaking to sounds using the sliders. This is something the Fantom X7 can do (assignable knobs to tweak things realime). One small addition in particular would make using this board in a live situation so much more effective - the ability to modify the mix on a layered sound (the Upper 2) without muting the others (Lower, Upper 1). That is, allow the mixing sliders to act like a REAL mixer. Casio - can you update the firmware to allow this? What a feature this would be!! I'd love to be able to mix in more of a layered pad without changing the registration - just slide a slider.

This was just one gig, and it really didn't challenge the WK-7500 too much, but I was pleased with its ability to do the job well. Given its great performance, and portability, I won't hesitate using it again.

-Tom