Casio WK-7500. Keep Your Eye On This.

[Etienne Rambert]

A good arranger keyboard at such a low price is a sweet deal.

 

This board would be good for a live player who needs only one board or

someone doing home recording who doesn't already have MIDI gear.

But for the part of the market I'm in - someone doing home recording

who already has gear connected via MIDI, this keyboard doesn't fill a need.

 

I assure you. I would already own one if it had a MIDI OUT.

I think the clips sound good. It's a great price.

[tgeorges]

I got this keyboard back a couple months ago. Check out my experiences with it over at synthzone: http://www.synthzone.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/318912/The_Unofficial_Casio_WK_7500_D.

I posted 3 or 4 times with my thoughts on it.

-Tom

[zzzxtreme]

its freaking $800 in malaysia

[tgeorges]

its freaking $800 in malaysia

 

 

Sheesh!! That's insanity.

[JeffLearman]

... No support for an expression medal.

I got an expression medal once. Bronze. Evidently two other guys had more expression than I did.

 

The pianos demo just reinforces what I dislike about so many keyboards: 1000 sounds and 90% of them are the same with minor adjustments in EQ and FX, and most of them suck. That said, it's might be a decent piano sound for the price (I can't tell from the simple demo).

 

The "electric grand" patch is an example of the 90% of patches that are useless and don't sound much like what they're supposed to imitate.

 

This is why specs on the number of sounds are useless. Even on the best boards, I only find a small percentage of the presets useful.

 

The Privia pianos are superb values, and good enough for pro work. Sure, there are lots of pros who wouldn't use them, just as there are lots of pros who wouldn't use any given piece of gear, for any number of reasons. (There's also a wide range of "pro work", from coffee shops to arenas.)

 

Concerning the lack of MIDI connectors: it's a dealbreaker for me. But if I were the product manager at Casio, I'd pick what they did for this keyboard, based on the intended market. My guess is that they'll sell more units by hitting a low price point than they'd gain from sales to more serious keyboard players who need MIDI connectors. (I do wonder what the incremental cost would have been, though!)

[JeffLearman]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_VL-1

I had one of those! It's the only musical instrument my parents ever gave me. (I had no idea it cost that much.) It often sat atop my CP70, or on the Juno-60 on the CP70.

I remember it had a bossanova rhythm pattern that, if I used it out of phase (like, using beat 4 as beat 1), worked great for Phase Dance, and I sequenced it to play the lead synth part at the end -- my very first sequencer!

I was disappointed to find it a decade or so later broken in the road by our house, my 6-yr-old son having played with it. Sigh!

I think I have a recording somewhere of using it on Phase Dance. Admittedly, not suitable for Carnegie Hall.

[liliththekitten]

I had one of those! It's the only musical instrument my parents ever gave me. (I had no idea it cost that much.) It often sat atop my CP70, or on the Juno-60 on the CP70. I remember it had a bossanova rhythm pattern that, if I used it out of phase (like, using beat 4 as beat 1), worked great for Phase Dance, and I sequenced it to play the lead synth part at the end -- my very first sequencer! I was disappointed to find it a decade or so later broken in the road by our house, my 6-yr-old son having played with it. Sigh! I think I have a recording somewhere of using it on Phase Dance. Admittedly, not suitable for Carnegie Hall.

 

As used by Trio, The Fall, etc. I kinda want one. There is one on Craigslist for $120. Not for that much I don't think. :/ Want a CZ next I think.

[Etienne Rambert]

 

I got this keyboard back a couple months ago. Check out my experiences with it over at synthzone: http://www.synthzone.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/318912/The_Unofficial_Casio_WK_7500_D . I posted 3 or 4 times with my thoughts on it. -Tom

 

 

From a Casio employee on that site:

 

http://www.synthzone.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/318912/The_Unofficial_Casio_WK_7500_D

 

 

A major reason you are seeing a product like the WK7500 is do to Casio USA have been hiring former Yamaha people who were product and marketing managers in the arranger and digital piano divisions. I personally know one of them very well and I was thrilled to see him show up at Casio. It brings a wealth of knowledge to Casio's arranger division...

 

 

Good for Casio for hiring quality people & for giving us an alternative to Yamaha DGX boards.

Now if they could just give it a MIDI Out, I'd buy one.

[AnotherScott]

 

From a Casio employee on that site: "A major reason you are seeing a product like the WK7500 is do to Casio USA have been hiring former Yamaha people who were product and marketing managers in the arranger and digital piano divisions. I personally know one of them very well and I was thrilled to see him show up at Casio. It brings a wealth of knowledge to Casio's arranger division..." Good for Casio for hiring quality people & for giving us an alternative to Yamaha DGX boards. Now if they could just give it a MIDI Out, I'd buy one.

 

 

That does help explain things... one of the unfortunate things about the DGX boards is, you guessed it, no MIDI ports. Though at least with Yamaha, that could be seen as a defensive market segmentation move to help prevent low end models from cannibalizing sales of more fully featured models. Since Casio has no more fully featured models, though, the potential customer who wants a MIDI port is instead pushed to look outside the Casio line.

[danuniversal]

Bump, because I am curious.

[workstation M.I]

I hope to have the first of a series of videos up in the next week. I'll like here when it is up.

 

 

Are the videos up yet? And where?

 

Two questions.

 

1. Is the AHL soundsource for the WK 7500 the same as the WK-500 or has it been improved?

 

2. Does the WK 7500 really only have TWO levels of touch sensitivity instead of the usual 127?

 

Thanks again!

[DJ RAZZ]

This board is on my short list.

[13ghostsofscoobydoo]

Bump, because I am curious.

 

 

I did a little snooping around and for North America they only have U.S. and Canada listed. They have Brazil and Latin America listed but that didn't result in anything with Mexico. I checked out your tunes on reverbnation though. Pretty cool stuff! Nice work. I guess you could try going to some of the endless stores in centro and asking around, but from what I found online (not much) I am not sure it would result in Casios...

[DJ RAZZ]

The great thing about this board is it win--win for every one. Good enough to gig, darn good arranger in the right hands, {trust me I have heard performed by one of the best}, decent workstation, cheap, and no panic if and when it breaks. The only thing that I don't like about it is the live user interface. Like many arrangers it looks a bit cluttered and hard to set up a simple user bank. I am sure it can be done with ease, I just haven't spent the time in the store trying to yet.

[Mike Martin]

Mike - nice to see Casio is contributing here. For what it is worth could Casio kindly post the video tutorials (or at least all the links to them) on the Casio support website? That and either a full set of the German language tutorials (with voice over) or preferably Australian or US videos would be wonderful. I like my WK-7500, but there is a lot I'd like to learn more about and sorry ... I hate reading that manual

Here is the pattern sequencing tutorial.

-Mike Martin
Casio America, Inc.

[Mike Martin]

Are the videos up yet? And where? Two questions. 1. Is the AHL soundsource for the WK 7500 the same as the WK-500 or has it been improved? 2. Does the WK 7500 really only have TWO levels of touch sensitivity instead of the usual 127? Thanks again!

 

 

Video just posted above.

1. Yes this is a new engine compared to the WK-500 and allows tone editing and insert effects which the WK-500 did not have.

2. It provides a full range of velocity sensitivity (1-128 / 0-127) and includes 2 velocity curves and one setting that is not touch sensitive at all.

 

-Mike Martin

Casio America, Inc.

[DJ RAZZ]

I got the Casio about 2 weeks ago and have been both setting it up for live performance and band practicing with it. It sounds fantastic after some editing. The Casio's acoustic piano is better than my Roland Juno GI's which ultimately free's up the Juno to perform more synth, organ, and secondary sound duties.

[Basementmusic]

Hey Razz,

 

...and other wk-7500 owners.

 

How are the other sounds like brass, woodwinds, strings etc.? How does the quality of the acoustic instruments compare to your Juno Gi or other keyboards you have/had?

 

Thanks!

[Synthaholic]

I played one for the first time today, for around 40 minutes, at Center Stage, in Augusta. I thought it sounded very good, especially the electric pianos. The acoustic guitars were a bit weak, but the 'guitar body slap' on the lowest octave is pretty cool to incorporate into your playing.

 

The keyboard/keybed itself sucks. I could never imagine using one live, just as a slave. That is, if it had MIDI connectors.

 

 

It is super lightweight, and the built-in speakers sound decent.

 

The organ is impressive, especially the Leslie. But when you use the drawbars, the sound doesn't ease in, it abruptly switches on in mid draw of the bar... I couldn't get them to volume up smoothly.

[DJ RAZZ]

Hey Razz, ...and other wk-7500 owners. How are the other sounds like brass, woodwinds, strings etc.? How does the quality of the acoustic instruments compare to your Juno Gi or other keyboards you have/had? Thanks!

 

 

My Favorite sounds are the acoustic pianos and organs. The synths pads, think "Vanhalen Jump" are pretty good. I am also enjoying the Rhodes and brass sounds. These 4 or 5 sounds that are good enough for our cover band and very close to the Roland. Some of the Casio's sounds are better and visa versa. The Casio strings sound thin to me and only sound good when in an arrangement being done on the keyboard. I have to MIDI the Roland and Casio together for live piano/strings.

 

Now any board that I own, I will spend time editing and getting the sounds as close to what I already have as I can. This allows me to use both boards on the same things live, while also having the convenience of 2 keyboards for faster patch switching; So my taste may be bias.

 

Just so you know, the Casio is just a stop over until I can finally get my hands on a KURZ PC3 something. Next year I keep telling myself. But the Casio is working very well as a stand in, so hats off to the board and the company. ?