OK - here are some additional thoughts on the WK-7500. Mixing pro and con so they are somewhat random.


Sounds:

- Great variety of quality piano sounds
- Why no good caliope sound?
- The EP sounds die out way too soon.
- I don't like the jazz guitar, english horn, or steel drum sounds
- Great breathy sax sounds
- Great pads and synth lead sounds
- I'm not impressed with the drum kits, mainly kick drums. And even though it sounds kind of fake, there is a vibra-slap!

Features:

- I would have paid extra (not sure how much extra) for a numeric keypad.
- Ditto for MIDI ports. I find I'd love to control my Korg EX-8000 or DW-8000 with this wonderful keyboard, but I can't. So if you are looking to use this keyboard as a controller for other synths, look elsewhere (unless I'm missing something).
- Even though the organ drawbars have only 3 levels, I still love them. They are the single best feature of this keyboard, IMO.
- Being able to tweak a sound to make it more to my liking is a GREAT feature. I can then save it to a user patch.
- Also, I've hooked this up to a laptop and run the data storage application. So I can save/load settings. This I can tell will be handy in saving a setup for specific gigs, etc.
- I love the fact that I can hold a sustained chord, switch sounds, and the sustained chord does not cut off. I know that many EXPENSIVE pro keyboards don't work like that. Not sure what the reasons are, but I love being able to sustain a sound, call up a new one, and it all sounds seemless.
- Including an arpeggiator is nice, but I have yet to find a setting that will just play back what I play into it, in the same sequence. Maybe I just haven't fooled with it enough.
- For as full-featured as the sequencer is, I'd love to see it do pattern sequencing, so I can compose the verse, the chorus, and the bridge of a song, repeat sections, etc. - instead of start to finish all one monolithic sequence.

Auto-accompanyment:

- Overall, the rhythms seem kind of boring
- Why no sync stop mode?
- Casio needs to fix the fill-ins - pushing the fill-in button more often than not interrupts the accompanyment. It's like there's a "hit" right when you push the button, so if you push it at the wrong time in the measure, it just sounds wrong
- The play-along feature, Music Preset, which does a canned chord-progression accompanyment, is a lot of fun. Not sure where it would be useful - maybe an impromptu jam session? But it's fun.
- Combining Harmonize with Arpeggiator makes no sense to me. I would think those would be used in two completely different contexts. It makes realtime finding of a good harmonize setting very difficult, since there's no numeric keypad to go directly to a setting.

Overall, I'm still glad I got this keyboard, especially for the price. The true test (for me at least) would be using it for a gig. After that happens, I will probably post another followup.

-Tom