I have only fooled around with keyboards and such but find it very entertaining to play with. My friend has a Yamaha DGX 202 and I think its a very good keyboard for the price range of $300. Do you guys suggest any other keyboards besides this model for a newbie that is looking forward to grow upon on? The keyboard has to be around $200 and has room for me to grow on. Questions and suggestions are gladly welcomed

Bigfoot

If you can at all do it get the Casio WK3500 Keyboard for $200 more. It is priced at $399 retail and it would be well worth the extra money to get it. It has many good features plus you would get Smart Media capability too. The sounds are decent, it has onboard speakers that are pretty good, and it has an internal Sequencer. It has 76 Keys, is fairly light weight and it would be good enough to "grow on" that's for sure. Once you get better in your playing you could turn around and sell it and then get yourself an even better Keyboard eventually.

Best regards,
Mike

I agree that the Casio is a pretty good value, but Yamaha will have a better REsale value. The 202 is every bit as good as the 3500 and is $100 cheaper. The media card storage and usb gives the Casio a slight edge in the pc world, but in the musical world, I prefer the Yamaha. Then, there's the $100 issue as well. Play them both and see which one lights your fire.

I've briefly played the Casio ( I think the 3500) at Sam's club and it sounded like a toy music box to me. Am I missing something? Guys, there's more to an arranger than the piano sound for most players I think.

In any event I'll go play the Casio again when I get a chance.

No Boo... you didn't miss anything...
say it like it is baby!!!

Donny,

It's just the way it's supposed to be I guess with arrangers as with anything else. If everyone liked what I like, all they would make is Chevy AWD Astro Vans. They are perfect. Plenty of power, 4 wheel drive, not too big not too small, holds a bunch of equipment that's easy to get in and out at the gig, great vision because it sits higher then cars and a million more reasons. My brother in law drove one over 300,000 miles he liked it so much in his janitorial business.

Are you getting close to dumping one of your Barbettas before I buy the little green monster again? Oh, oh! I almost forgot I'd have to carry a mixer around anyway for reverb etc. See! no matter how great they sound they are short one feature for me to consider them perfect for me. Yet, they are perfect for you.

Just like this reasoning! For me the i30 is perfect because it has the best sequencer of all. I can sequence a tune with the i30 now before most people can get ther computers booted-up. Ha! Ha!

Boo

The I30 is the reason you still need effects, mixer, etc. Most of the new ones have all that built in.
DonM

Don can't live without the sequencer. The styles make my jazz stuff sound great on my Buescher Tenor.

And the sequencing is easy as falling off a log. Sequence 8 bars copy and paste them for the second and last 8 bars, change the turn around before the bridge and copy and paste over and over add the ending whenever.

I can't sacrifice that for a keyboard with a mic input. The sequencer is more important for my sax playing.

We'll all be dead before an arranger comes with everything we all need. They could do it now but they are too greedy. Just like the computer people. They want you to upgrade every 6 months. They think everybody is as rich as they are.
Boo

I sell both the Yamaha and Casio keybaords. The Casio CTK691 is the same keyboard as the WK3000 except it has only 61 keys instead of 76, no smart media card slot and no pitch bend or mod wheel. It sells for $199.00, the WK3000 is $299.00 and the WK3500 (adds floppy drive, stereo outputs and a modulation wheel) sells for $399.00. All models include a stand and an AC adapter. Although all the sounds on the Yamaha are good, I really like the acoustic piano, trumpet and sax sounds better on the Casio. I've had to edit out alot of the Reverb and store the sounds in user area, but this is very easy to do. The styles are good on both keyboards, but there are more exciting styles in the Casio, with the exception of the ride cym. being a bit less realistic, although it is very acceptable to most. What don't you get from Casio.......good tech support. Here's an example. It says in the owners manual that you can use the metronome while playing the piano for practice purposes. However, the manual doesn't tell you how to turn it on and after hours of reading and trying everything I called Casio and found out that the same person giving customer support for all their electronic products also does the keyboards. She didn't even know what a metronome was. I was put on hold and finally she returned and said she would have to research this and would call me back. Amazingly, she called me back about 20 minutes later and said someone else told her it explained how to use the metronome on page 46 of the manual. I said to wait a second while I looked up page 46 and all that was there was that you could use the syncro start function to start the style and you would see the metronome flashing in the screen. I explained that this was not using the metronome. I wanted to hear a click and be able to practice to it. She would do more research and call me back. It hasn't happend yet! This is a difference with Casio and other keyboard manufactures. They should have dedicated tech support people for keyboards only. By the way, I spoke to my Ca. rep today and we both agree that there is no way to turn on the metronome but we've emailed Casio and suggested that they record some styles with just a click, put it on their internet site and allow people to load these into their Wk keyboards and then use these user styles as a metronome. They thanked us for our input! Why didn't they think of this? I still like these 3 new keybaords alot. The designers are smarter then the distributor here in the USA at least!
George Kaye
kaye's music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566

I was a big fan of the MZ 2000 ( casio's flagship arranger from a few years ago ). It had some very good sounds, ( killer organs, electric guitars, and the best alto sax sound I've ever heard on any synth prior to getting the VL acoustic plug in for my Motif ) some not so good ones ( pianos, ep's, non synth bass sounds ), and a very detailed synth edit engine with lot's of good raw samples to work with ( I always thought casio's synth lines from the past were pretty good ). I found many of the styles to be weak on the 2000 though.

The 3500 and 3000 supposedly use the same synthesis engine ( called ZPI - Casio's propietary synth engine ). I spent some quality time with the 3000, hoping to try a 3500 when it became available. My thought was to purchase the 3500, use it as a 76 key controller for my Motif ES6, and get the bonus of having some of the better sounds from the MZ2000.

If the 3500 is similar to the 3000, this probably isn't going to happen. I was unimpressed by the overall soundset, and find that it doesn't sound the same as it was on the MZ2000. I didn't expect to find the same synth edit capabilities on such an inexpensive board, but I thought the basic sounds would remind me of the MZ2000. They didn't. I thought many of the styles were weaker than those from the MZ, and the while the key feel was decent compared to the PSR line, I want better in a controller.

This is VERY subjective of course, and George hear's something different than I do. Neither of us is right or wrong. It's just a matter of personal preference. To make a miore fair evaluation, I need to try it again at least one more time before I make a final decision.

AJ