Be on the look out for new keyboards and home digital piano's from Casio !

I was told that the new keyboards are nice improvements over previos models .

I'll let you know !


WK3000 + WK3500 respectively ,

Dano

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Too bad they are not making an upgrade to the MZ-2000. (MZ-3000) I recently played on at a guitar center and with some minor improvements to sounds and styles it could compete with the PSR-2100. One thing they could have done to make it better than the PSR line would be to use zip disks, or compact storage instead of floppys.

I agree... An upgrade to the MZ-2000 would have been great. When you played one did you use the EQ settings? Right out of the box the MZ's default EQ settings do not do the sounds any justice. Once you activate the EQ it sounds so much better..

Squeak

The WK3000 and the WK3500 have the MZ technology, so the sounds will be of this caliber but with 76 keys, smart media slots and on the 3500 you also get a disk drive these keyboards should do well at a street price between $300.00 and $400.00 dolars. Although they are not the MZ2000 replacements, they represent a huge bang for the buck advancement for Casio. I've seen pictures and I have a brochure in my store for a couple of months now. I'm amazed they can give you so much for so little.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

Yes, I went through all the features on the board-spent about 30 minutes looking. Guitar Center had the display model for $679-for that price it was worth it compared to $399 for the wk-1800.

Yes, i agree with George Kaye. I just got the board like one week ago and i already create(confinger) 7 tone already, and i'm very happy with it.

I agree with the assessment that Casio can give a lot for too little money. Casio knows how to take a complex electronic expensive design and produce it for very low prices with very high masses. What is missing with Casio is the art aspect. But eventually, they will be able to add all electronic features to their keyboard and still maintain low prices. This is good news to all keyboardists in that Casio will always push technology to lower prices.

If they find a way to make quality styles and sounds, they can threaten to dominate the medium and low-level arranger market.

My $.02

Supercars03,
What model did you purchase? Please give us a quick review.
Starkeeper

How does it compare to psr2000 sounds ? - forget the features, we know that psr2000 has way more features (vocal harmonizer, etc, etc).

I thought psr2000 has good sax sounds, decent brass and many other good sounds. The CASIO WK1800 sounds were mostly much more inferior and I HATE the piano sounds on it. Are these much better than WK1800 series ?

My review is very simple. I bought the wk3000 because instead of spending 100 more for just some more feature that i don't neeed and also i can just save my data to a smartmedia card and no need for floppe disk. The wk3000 was very nice. IT's sounds fine. the sax are the best of the keyboard, and don't forget they have a organ mode that you can create/present lots of organ sounds. The piano are ok. This board is load with so much sound almost 600 of them. The cool thing about the sound of this keyboard is that when up hit the key really hard you get a sounds that's different when you play it normal, which is more real to the intruments. I still don't think that ZPI sounds a lot more better than Yamaha AWM sounds but it still good and you get about 300 of those. The drums on this board are excellent. OVerall the reason why i bought this board because it has so many more feature thatn YAmaha at this price range. This board sound genterator(ZPI) is one of casio's best sound, it is by far sounds so much better than the wk1800/1630. Also, what i like about this board is that the speaker are great. like 6W per side. soooooooo much better than yamahas'. ONe of this keyboard cool feature is that you can hook it up to your computer and go to casio music's website and download new tone and pattern to the keyboard to enjoy. I really enjoyg is keyboard i made like 10 sound and 3 organs sounds already. THis board is load with feature and things, And it's only 300!! I hope that you'll sonsider this keyboard if you're looking for a $300 or less keyboard.

The zpi saxes were the best sounds of the MZ2000, and the velo alto sax is the best sax patch I've ever heard on any board period ( for my tastes of course ) . I rememeber the pianos as being somewhat weak and I did not care for the drums of the MZ as much as I do those on the PSR / PA80 series boards.

I remember liking one or two of the organ sounds and the distorted guitars a lot too on the MZ, and the patch editing power it had. If the sounds on the 3000 are similar to the ones from the MZ, there will be some good ones. I just never liked the styles much and some of the other sounds weren't to my liking either. Casio packed a ton of features in it though.

AJ

I have to agree with AJ.. The ZPI saxes were really good.. I too felt the velo sax on the MZ was one of the best I've ever heard. The pianos weren't too bad either, and were much better than the traditional Casio. The drums weren't as crisp as they could have been... It did have better kits for dance and techno... Yamaha needes to update those kits on the PSR line.... The MZ did have good voice editing. Even better voice editing than the PSR2000/2100.. That's because you can edit everything too from velocity curves, and so on.. Plus you can have 4 elements per voice. I'd like to try the new 3000/3500... I'm sure radio shack will be getting their version of the 3000 in stock soon.....

Squeak

hey supercars, how's the sequencer on that Casio?
played it in the store recently and was very surprised by the stock sounds: they're better than usable. looked like only a 6-trk sequencer but I didn't dive into it at all.

thanks for the insights...

i think that the sequencer are fine. you can either real-time record or step record. Both are find but i don't use them to play a song really i just use it to record little here and there. To make a song the only way to do it is on a cumputer programe were you can make change and the tempos right and other stuff. Angain i think that there sequencer are ok not the best. The step record are ok if you want to make a real song in right tempo. But the real-time record is just fun.

Casio are getting there slowly, their voices are definitely improving but still lack the character, warmth and feel of yamaha. most of all though they need to hire some international style programmers, as so far all the presets have a rather oriental tin box feel. Subtlety is not the word! I did for a short while own a WK1200 and enjoyed it, great value for money, but other than a few synth sounds I found the voices thin. Styles though were dreadful, though I am sure things have come a long way since then.......... But I still love my Casio VL1 !!!!

Simon


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I agree with svpworld 100% although i think that only Yamaha's AWM sound are a little warmer and better than the wk-3000. However, i don't think that Yamha's GM sounds better than the casio ZPi sounds.