Casio WK-7500 76-Key Keyboard

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Keyboard:

This is my first 'workstation type' keyboard and I am very impressed with it. The sound is great and the rhythms and accompaniments are wonderful. It's going to be a lot of fun learning all the features of this instrument. You can't beat it for the price. As usual, the user manual could be improved.

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Keyboard:

I will use this keyboard for recording and small gigs. The piano sounds are very good, the organs with the drawbars make this a unique product, the keys are very quiet, drum machine is excellent, great effects/mixer, etc. A bonus feature is the mic input. I hooked up a decent mic and was amazed at how good it sounded! This feature will be very useful when playing in small rooms for informal events.

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Keyboard:

i use it for open mike nights or anytime i want a good sound and no moving my heavy stuff. the piano isn't quite as good as my yamaha, but it's close. the organ isn;t as good as my hammond, bot it;s serviceable. the casio is one tenth the weight of my other 2 boards and less than one fifth the price. and it is a breeze to carry. no embarrassment in a band setting. it sounds good

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Keyboard:

This is my first keyboard. I've been exploring the features over the past few weeks and I haven't covered half of the functions. There are many quality samples and variations of piano available. I'm glad I spent the extra cash to get this keyboard that I can grow into. I also bought a M-AUDIO sustain pedal that supports reverse polarity, so you don't need to buy the "Casio" pedal. I'm giving this keyboard five stars because it lived up to what the other reviewer's reported and for me, more than what I expected. The power supply (2 parts) is embedded in the styrofoam so you'll need to remove everything from the box and look around.

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Keyboard:

For the price, if you are on a budget, you cannot go wrong with this workstation. I am amazed that I can get something in this price range that sounds this good, feels this good, is so intuitive and has so much capability. It is simple and easy to learn and does so much. It is by no means a top of the line product, but at $1000 cheaper, it has about 90% of the functionality and is a fully capable tool for producing pro-quality music. At this price point though, there are draw backs. For one, it is cheap plastic. It seems solid enough, but is very light and obviously does not have the hefty inner frame I am used to from the more expensive name brand instruments. Another is that they did cut cornes with the keys. They feel better to me than most spongy synths, but the keys are 1/2 inch shorter than normal keys and if you are an experience player, you will notice the difference with much playing. If you a novice, this will probably make no difference to you. The sounds are top quality and with the built in effects you have everything you need to perfect them to your liking. I could go on and on about all the things I like about this keyboard. Casio has come a long way with this one.

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Keyboard:

I have been a guitarist for 35 years and took up keyboards a year ago. I must say, this keyboard is more than I expected! The features very good and the sound is up there too. The Draw Bar Organ is the best. The pianos are top shelf also.I really can`t say anything negative about it. So many sounds and features! The best bang for the buck out there.

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Keyboard:

The Casio WK7500 Keyboard provides everything advertised (and more). Using it now for enjoyment, will be doing some recordings to be used in our church services very soon. Some reviews say "very easy to use". I have found that some of the features require a lot of study and hit-and-miss practice. Instructions could have been made simpler - something along the line of "WK-7500 Instructions for Dummies". Overall, a lot of Keyboard for the price. B&H price, service, speed, etc. AAA-1. Glad I found you!!

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Keyboard:

I am a pianist and organist playing predominantly jazz when I perform, but I include European art music ("classical") and various pop repertoire when playing for my own edification and when teaching. I bought the WK-7500 to use for the occasional gig where I need more variety than either the piano or organ, and for experimental playing at home. I am currently not using it as an arranger, although I might find some use for that capability in the future. The 76-note keyboard is exactly the right compromise between a full range and easy portability.

This is a replacement for a Casio WK-3800, an earlier, but similar instrument, which developed a problem in the main board that would have cost nearly the price of the instrument to repair. So instruments in this price range should be regarded as disposable. Nevertheless, after one bad experience I felt it was worth a chance on another instrument, as I have found electronic products to be generally reliable if well-cared for. I assumed the WK-7500 would prove to be similar, with improvements, and this is generally true, but there have also been a few features deleted from the earlier model.

In general the timbres on the instrument are really quite good – especially when played through full-range external amplification, but the percussion sounds – piano, electric piano, vibraphone, harpsichord, celesta, etc. are a bit short in their decay, making a "singing" tone a challenge to achieve. The internal speakers are not bad, but are understandably a bit limited on the bottom end. I believe the WK-3800 was somewhat better in this respect although the difference may have been the use of the equalizer to boost the bass – a feature which has been omitted on this model.

As a pianist, I find the "piano" voices generally useless due to lack of the resonance which is the piano's dominant feature (not so different from most other keyboards on the market). I could use them for special effect, but not for all-around playing. Nevertheless, it is a notable achievement that the "Stereo Piano" actually distributes the tones from bass to treble across the stereo sound field in a very satisfying manner. Too bad other voices don't do the same. The electric piano voices, on the other hand are very nice, and useful – attractive tone, good attack, and nice timbre change in response to keyboard attack. I find myself using the keyboard split a good deal. If I select the split point appropriately for each tune (easy to do) I can play both bass and a chord tone or two with the left hand while completing the texture with the right hand for a believable ensemble sound.

I find the selectable temperaments to be a real attraction. Although I tune my own instruments (those that can be tuned) and could tune any temperament of my choosing, the time invested in changing from one to another is usually prohibitive. But now, with the turn of dial I can play Bach or Scarlatti in a Werckmeister or Kirnberger III tuning, and then quickly return to equal temperament for jazz. I am sure the other available tunings will prove useful in time.

The keyboard itself is nothing to rave about – essentially the most basic action design possible. The plastic of the key itself becomes the spring that returns the key after depression. But I didn't have unrealistic expectations and have found it easy to adapt to. Perhaps the main drawback is that the action is so light that very soft playing is a bit difficult to control.

Casio has done a nice job of making nearly all of the functions easier to use than the earlier model. The sliders for drawbar/mixer functions are a big improvement over the tiny pushbuttons on the WK-3800, the dial for selecting tones and changing parameters is a welcome addition, and the layout generally makes good sense, although some of the buttons (and the dial) are a little small. The substitution of a small pushbutton for the modulation wheel of the earlier instrument is an awkward choice.

The manual is not entirely accurate, however. In particular, it indicates a procedure for naming user-modified tones that is not actually available. Also, not mentioned in the manual is that to use the organ section effectively it is necessary to insert a volume pedal between the keyboard and an external amplifier. Of course, both the pedal and the amplifier should be two-channel/stereo – for the rotary effect to sound as it should. Too bad they didn't include a loop so you could use the internal amplifier and speakers this way.

I could name, as other reviewers have, features that I wish had been included, but any, and especially all of them, would undoubtedly have added to the price, and put this keyboard in a price range than would no longer be so attractive. As it is, a good musician, working around known limitations, can get a lot of music for the money out of this instrument.

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Keyboard:

I'm fairly new at keyboards, but the sound is outstanding. Synth sounds are out of this world. Built in speakers sound great. For the price, it can't be beat. I've only had this unit, for 3 days, & love it.

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Keyboard:

Nothing under $1500 touches this new Casio workstation keyboard. You need to hear it to believe it. The features are outstanding.Read the reviews in Keyboard Player (March 2011)and Keyboard Magazine (June 2011) both gave outstanding reviews and Keyboard Mag gave it a 'total buy' they said to get something better would bring you into the $2000+ range.

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Keyboard:

It's pretty easy to learn/use
It sounds great
It has tons of options
It can not record one track on top of another