At the recent Frankfurt Musikmesse, Casio introduced 3 arranger keyboards that may be of interest to some readers. They all use the ZPI sound source technology that was used in the MZ-2000 and with their expanded
feature set, look like they could potentially dominate the low to mid-end arranger keyboard market. Would love to
see someone out there give Yamaha a run for their money!

Casio Wk-3500 Specifications:

76 keys with touch response (initial/after)

ZPI Sound Source (Zygotech Polynomial Interpolation with Stereo Sampling)

32 note polyphony (max.)

790 tones (566 normal Presets, which include 300 Advanced tones, 128 GM, 72 Various,
16 Drum sets, 50 Drawbar organs) + 224 programmable user Presets (which include 4 Drumsets and 100 user

Drawbar organs)

Split and Layer

Modulation Wheel

Piano Setting key (direct switching to piano mode with Stereo Piano sound)

232 digital effects (100 DSP + 16 Reverb + 16 Chorus +100 user)

Equalizer (10 levels, 4 volumes)

Auto Harmonize

Full Chord

140 rhythm patterns (includes 16 user + 20 Piano)

Auto-accompaniment (Intro/Ending 1 + 2, Variation/Fill 1 + 2, Synchro/Fill)

One Touch Presets

Registration Memory (4 x 8 banks)

Expanded Flash ROM (Wave, SMF, tone settings, Auto-accompaniment patterns, DSP, Songs, One Touch

Presets, Registrations, etc)

Data Expansion via Internet

Floppy Disk Drive

SmartMedia Slot (that offers SMF Directplay and storage of other settings; up to128MB capacity; for example, a

64MB card offers access to over 250 MIDI files

3 Demosongs

Synthesizer (Built-in synthesizer capabilities for sound creation)

Song sequencer (5 Songs, 6 Tracks, real-time recording, step recording, quantization and Punch-in, 10,000 notes

max.)

Mixer Function

LCD display (blue backlit)

On-Screen Help

General MIDI

Connections (Headphone/audio output, pedal input, MIDI in/out with allocatable function)

2-Way Bass-reflex Speaker System (12 cm x 2.5 cm x 2, 2 x 6 W)

Power Supply (Mains or 6 batteries)

Size in mm (1223 x 423 x 160)

Weight (approx. 10 kg)

List Price: 699 Euros

Availability: September, 2003

The WK-3000 has virtually the same specs without the floppy drive and will be available in July for a list price of 549

Euros.

The CTK-691 is based on the current CTK-671, but has increased the number of tones to 790 (same as WK-3500),

more DSP fx, a larger sized Flash Rom with SMF DirectPlay, drawbar Organ settings, blue backlit LCD, etc...

Basically the same specs of the WK-3500, with just 61 keys, no Smartmedia and no Floppy Drive (and still no pitch

-bend or modulation wheels). Its list price will be 329 Euros and it will be available in July.