I was able to play the Casio WK-7500 at GC today and from my standpoint it's a winner... to an extent. Lot's of features for the price and at $499.99 it's a huge bargain in my opinion. The Stereo Piano 01 is actually quite decent and much more suitable than some of the 'other brand' mid-range arrangers out there and definitely better than my former PSR 2000 AC piano.

There are 100 Organ sounds to use in conjunction with the Drawbar Organ function and 50 are already factory preset. You can press a button to speed up or slow down the leslie simulation plus a Perc button along with an extra button right next to it that gives an added effect. There is a modulation button right above the Pitch/Bend wheel. When you press and hold the button a modulation effect occurs and when you release the button modulation stops. I'm not as yet sure if you can control some (or any) of the buttons or functions using a foot pedal. The User Manual should clear that up needless to say. But with only "one" Pedal input I kind of doubt whether you can control other things besides sustain though.

You can record up to 13 minutes of your playing in real-time at the push of a button and then save it to an SD card. The headphone jack is located on the back panel which I would have rather preferred it on the front. Oh well. But as for the sounds some of them are actually quite good for a $500 dollar keyboard. As I said the main Piano sound is quite good and a few other Piano sounds are decent as well for an entry level keyboard. Some of the EP's are quite good also. Many of the Organs, especially the Drawbar function-linked Organs, are very good too in my opinion. If you play mainly Organ in a Church etc. you can easily get by with the Organ sounds in the WK-7500 in my opinion. In fact, the Organ sounds alone are worth the price of admission if you ask me. Some of the String sounds are pretty good as well. Accordions are okay but the Harmonicas don't cut it in my opinion. Acoustic Guitars are so-so, in my opinion, but a couple of the Electic and Distortion guitars are pretty decent - for the price. Brass leaves something to be desired but you're only paying a small pittance for the keyboard itself so don't expect miracles in every category needless to say right? The Drum Kits have improved over previous models in my opinion. The actual keyboard "action" is quite acceptable too in my opinion. I would rate the action as better than the PSR 900 series and actually pretty similar to the T4 FSX action. 76 keys and under 20 lbs. is a bonus as well. You can easily carry it under one arm and as George Kaye mentioned you can even use batteries instead of AC power if you want to. The LCD is larger than a lot of high-end keyboards on the market which is rather nice for such an inexpensive keyboard. The Auto Accompaniment arranger feature(s) are not real sophisticated though but again what do you expect for $500 bucks? There's only a few categories of Styles available but the one's I played sounded pretty decent to my ears. And I've got good ears. That is to say, no hearing defects per se i.e. I'm not hard of hearing like perhaps many of our senior members might have encountered in their ascendance to old age. Yeah... I'm talking to you Fran. lol Just kidding of course.

For a newbie just learning to play an arranger keyboard I would highly recommend the Casio WK-7500 as a solid training keyboard. For more experienced players looking for an inexpensive option for playing some really decent Organ sounds in a very light portable package I would highly recommend it to you as well. And as I stated previously many of the other bread n' butter sounds are above average also for this price range. And with a very large amount of features packed into this very inexpensive and highly portable keyboard I can't say enough of what a good deal this Casio WK-7500 is turning out to be. Casio will likely sell a boat load of them, especially to young people and students just starting out. Kudos to Casio. They seem to keep introducing consistently better keyboard product advancements into the marketplace as time goes by and at remarkably meager price points.

64 note polyphony is a little bit of a letdown but I wouldn't doubt it if their next model has 128 note polyphony like some of their inexpensive Privia's already have. Keep 'em coming Casio!

All the best,
Mike

Nice Review Mike, especially while just trying it out on a visit to GC. Now if they would only carry Yamaha arrangers.

Mike, I'm glad you got to try one out. You and I pretty much agree about the sounds and the bang for the buck. You probably didn't even get to experience the pattern recording and the extensive editing capabilities using the 17 track sequencer which just makes a keyboard with this many features only $499.00 a great bargain in todays market.

Hi Larry. The two Guitar Centers in my area carry some Yamaha arrangers. I noticed yesterday they had a PSR S900 on the floor. You're right though in that they don't carry the Tyros in stock any longer. They probably don't want to scare customers away with its astronomically high price tag which after having seen it they might quite possibly either faint or keel over from a heart attack right there on the spot, which could theoretically get GC into a lot of hot water or even sued. So they made it a special order item only. If people want to faint or croak let them do it while ordering on the phone or while ordering from the GC website and not in the store right? LOL hahahahahaha WHEW! Nothing better than a good laugh in the morning. Thanks Yamaha!

Hi George. No, I didn't get to try the pattern recording nor delve into the 17 track sequencer but what was really interesting was that shortly after I got there and was plugging my Sony MDR-7509HD headphones into the back of the WK-7500 a guy walks up and introduces himself and to my amazement it was a Casio Rep who asked if I had any questions about the keyboard. He must have made a special trip just for WK-7500 and CTK-7000 launches and he just happened to be there when I got there. I told him I had already read up on the WK-7500 and knew quite a bit about it already, thanks in large part to your detailed and informative review(s) George. In fact, I would highly recommend anyone considering the WK-7500 to go through George Kaye's Music Scene because of the priceless additional benefits people will receive after the sale which you just can't get from the big box stores obviously. The fact that a Casio Rep was there at the store was an anomaly to say the least, and in fact, was the first Rep I have ever personally encountered while at GC from any keyboard manufacturer. He also seemed to be a little hesitant and unsure of himself while trying to explain the features and functions on the WK-7500 keyboard too. Although he could have been with the company for only a short time. Anyway, there you have it. The WK-7500 is turning out to be a real barn burner. Again, kudos to Casio. I wouldn't be surprised if within the next 10 years Casio rules the roost in the area of cutting edge technology arrangers and/or digital pianos that could trump the competition not only in features but by hugely undercutting the competition in price as well. Like they're currently doing by the way. With the low low prices they already offer that is.

All the best,
Mike

Speaking of the pattern recording, Mr Kaye,is this *true* pattern recording, as in MMT-8 style?