I can't believe it's been nearly a year since I posted here.

Since then, I've been able to try out the latest Casio - the XW-P1 - at my local music store. I only mention it here because some of its features line up with some of the "Cons" I have with my WK-7500. I'm very tempted to sell the WK and get the XW-P1 because of this.

Casio really did it right with Performance features on the XW-P1. I've listed just a small few below that directly address those shortcomings of the WK-7500.

1 - Hex mode - this pretty much uses the sliders in a way that the WK-7500 needs to. You can do real-time mixing of up to six PCM tones (one can be drawbar organ). This is huge.

2 - Assignable knobs give you the ability to assign 4 knobs to control pretty much anything, including volume of course, in Performance mode (the mode that gives splits/layers of up to 4 tones (again, one tone cane be organ drawbar or solo synth tone).

3 - all 8 levels for organ drawbars, rather than the 3 on the WK-7500. You can't hear the discrete level changes. This is a huge step up.

4 - Performance set-up (similar to Roland Fantom) allows for up to 4 tones in a split/layer, overlapping if you want, with velocity switching. This is a very, very versatile feature. The "Split" and "Layer" on the WK-7500 are nice and quick for realtime use, but not as versatile. I've wished for velocity switching on the WK-7500 - the XW-P1 delivers it.

5 - Real MIDI ports!!!

Some other observations after playing this unit in a band setting for the past year:

- I love the onboard speakers, even when the floor monitors drown out their sound. The feedback provides vibration through my hands, very similar to what I'd get with an acoustic piano. There's just something different about feeling the sound of an electronic instrument that a rig with no onboard speakers can provide.

- The acoustic piano sound is superb, and sounds great in a band setting

- After editing a sound, when you try to Write that sound, the unit always seems to select the first user location(K-1) rather than the next available, unused location. The problem is that all user locations are already used when you get the unit from the factory. It would be nice to be able to erase all user locations - or somehow identify them as unused. I have to keep track of them externally so I don't overwrite existing user locations.

- Every time you power off the keyboard, the EXT/MIC input section resets - things like chorus send, reverb, level, etc. I usually have my Fender Rhodes output going to the EXT INPUT jack. Whenever I power up, I always have to go in and remove the excessive reverb. Maybe I'm missing a way to save this parameter so I don't have to keep doing this.

So will I sell (or mothball) my WK-7500 and save up to get the $499 XW-P1? I'm thinking about it, that's for sure. I'd give up a lot of "fun" features on the WK-7500 (auto-accompaniment, built-in speakers, etc.) but I'd gain a pretty capable keyboard. I know for sure of one tune where I could put several features of the XW-P1 to use (Florence and the machine "No Light") - Hex mode, realtime mixing, phrase sequencer to trigger a harp run.