Hi Everyone!

First:

Tom,

Congrats! I am still not a Grandma! I am too young! hehe

Dan, congrats on the being a new store owner! Good for you! Still have my PSR you sold me and very happy with it.

AJ,Tom,Denny,Squeak and Uncle Dave,

I have to say that this new Casio is nothing at all like the older model WK-1800. So far, I have found that the software that you download from their website,
http://www.music.casio.com/e/data_ex2/

is pretty darn good. I had no problems downloading and transfering the data to the keyboard. The entire keyboard can be accessed with this software. I have not tried all of the options yet but there is 2MB of flash memory and a memory bar on the software so you know how much memory you have used. You can create your own sounds in wave format and use them as tones in the keyboard as well. I have not created one yet but it looks very simple to do. There is so much you can do with the Music Data Management Software 2.0 that it would be best to read the manual that you can download from the link above. The entire keyboard settings can be changed from this software.

Now for the SmartMedia card. All of the keyboard settings can be saved into the smartmedia card. The slot takes up to 128mb of data. I believe you can also save your songs as midi SMF0 with this card. I am not sure yet. This was a big reason I got rid of the MZ2000. It would not let you save your accomp data to a midi track in SMF0 format. It used a proprietory format. I will let you know if it allows for this soon. I believe it does.

Squeak, I see no information in the recording tracks section about loop recording. However, thats not to say it does not. Casio manuals are not ever complete.

The breathy alto sax tone. Oh my, they took it right from the MZ! Yep, its there. I love that sound. It has many many more tones that I believe are from the MZ. Only bad thing is that the keyboard is 32 note polyphony and I believe that many of the styles would be fuller if there were more.

The feel of the keyboard is great! I use it mainly to control the PSR 2000 but now there are so many features on it that I will use. For $399 I can not see how they did all this for that price. Its a very nice board and not what you would expect from Casio. I am happy with it and would recommend this board to anyone who is techno minded and wants to be creative.

The speaker system is also improved and it has a real volume knob! No sliders! Also, the drawbar organ function is similar to the Mz. They put an exit button near the screen so you can get out of submenus easier. They also have curser pads. The DSP is very extensive. The synth functions are also very extensive (I do not use these if I can help it LOL)

The styles are a bit more modern than other keyboards and different from the PSR which is a plus for me. I like having different styles to pick and choose from. You can also make a rythm pattern from a midi file.

My final conclusion I will not give as I know as I learn to use the board it will have those oh so familar limitations. But, for the price? I am not and will not complain. I will keep you all updated.

Take care,

-Linda

P.S. The WK-1800 is up on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2573889673

Linda
congratulations, you have a good kb.

It seems new Casio WK3000 and WK3500 are now the best buy for the money (not more Yamaha or Roland).

Casio can make a good kb with so much things (2 Mb, smart media card, importing of sounds, 76 keys, not bad key feel...), and only 399$!!!. Why Yamaha and others can't?

Yamaha, listen and see!
Technics, Casio... use smart card in their kbs, and better key feel. Why Yamaha don't?

I hope you will do the same, if not...

If CASIO has 4 variations like PSR2000/2100 then this baby will sell like hotcakes. Also a similar user interface with big screen (no need for color). This kybd is far better the previous WK series. Without the floppy is less than $300 Wow !

Hi Linda

Thanks for your mini-review. I must say, for that unbelievably low price, I am tempted to get one myself. I think it would be great fun to see what this Casio can do!

Tom G.

Hi All,
I just saved a recorded song from memory to the 128 SmartMedia card in SMF0 format. This makes my day!! YEAH CASIO!! A real hard drive to work with too. I think this is the first Casio keyboard I have ever used that actually saves its internal recorded songs in SMF0 format!

-Linda

I'm still in love with my Yamaha PSR2000, but was a Casio fan in the past. Can you really compare this Casio at $399 to a $1000 Yamaha?? I'm naturally skeptical.........How's the sound quality? How many variations on the styles? Online resources?
I might have to check this out!

Rattley,
I have a PSR2000 sitting above the Casio WK3500. Yes, the sounds on the Casio are as good and some are better then the PSR2000. I love them both!

-Linda

Linda,
Where can I get a downloadable manual for the 3000/3500? I can't seem to find them anywhere. I looked on Casio's Site, but all I found was a manual for something relating to midi..

Squeak

Linda,
A great review! Thank you very much. I would like to give my opinion of this keyboard now that I've had the WK3000 in my store for a few days.
First, I really thought I would not give Casio a second chance because of my past experiences with the company. Last week, however, a former sales rep from a different keyboard company came in to see me and he has become the Casio independent rep here in California. He brought in a WK3000 for me to try. I had seen one at a local Costco retail chain several weeks ago and it was not plugged into electrical so I didn't get to hear it. Looking at it, it didn't seem very different from the WK1800 except I thought it looked less confusing in it's button layout(I was right because after trying it I realized it is much easier to use than previous models). After I was shown around the board by my rep, I decided to try out all the sounds and styles. First I was impressed with the feel of the keys and the sound from the speakers. Loud and full of bass! The piano sounded really good but I didn't like all the reverb. I quickly realized I could turn off the DSP button and now I had the dry acoustic piano. It sounded really good and when I then discovered I could re-program the reverb effect and store it in a user location (600 and up) I was very impressed with the piano sound. I thought the electric pianos were very good but not as many choices as the Yamaha's have. The sax and brass samples are really good. The flute is very breathy. The drawbar organs with fast and slow leslie variations assigned to the mod button or wheel are great. Keyboard magazine stated that they rivaled the Roland VK7 and I have to agree. The acoustic bass and electric basses were good and so were the guitars but don't try to compare these with the PSR2100. If you are comparing them to the Yamaha DGX202 which sells for the same price as the WK3000 then the Casio does a better job in most sounds. The Piano will compete with the PSR2100 and so will the Organs but I like the Yamaha sounds better in the higher priced keyboards. But this is still saying a lot for the Casio, especially when you realize how inexpensive it is!
The styles left me with mixed feelings. The styles are generally very good and they've even done a nice job of using acoustic guitars being strummed in some of the styles, but in some variations, the ride cymbal and crash cymbal sounds could be improved. I think the Yamaha styles in their PSR2100 and Tyros of course have more authentic sounds and variations, but for $300.00 Casio has done a fine job. One thing I wish casio would have done is to show you on the screen or using lights above their buttons which variation you are playing. You can't know if you're using variation 1 or variation 2.
One thing I would like to mention is that on the WK3000, and I believe the WK3500 as well (I don't have these yet), there is no user style programming. You can download styles from the casio website and according to Linda you can make styles from Midifiles (I haven't found this yet, but perhaps this is something you can do at the Casio website but not in the keyboard) but you can't make user styles in the keyboard which is something the Yamaha PSR550 and up can do. The sequencer is a 6 track song sequencer which allows you to record the accomp and right hand on track one (however you can't record a layer sound if you choose a layered sound only the first sound will be recorded) and you can add 5 more melody tracks after the first track. One thing I noticed is if you record on track 2 first, there is no metronome function so if you want to go in and record your style on track 1 next, you won't be able to sync the rhythm unless you are outstanding at watching the swinging metronome figure on the screen (pretty hard to do, I actually tried it!).
I also want to mention to bluedbird that Yamaha does make a keyboard with a smart media card. It is the PSRK1 entertainment keyboard with Karaoke features, a mic and smart media for storage of songs you create and you download from the internet.
Keyboard magazine states that this keyboard rivals many keyboards up to $1000.00. If you need a 76 key keyboard with very good sounds, decent styles (however I like the Yamaha's better in products like the PSR2100 and I do realize the price is a lot more than the Casio) pretty good recording....by the way, there is no loop recording mode. You can record in real time, step time, you can even edit the note pitch and velocity, but the recording is linear not loop.......then this keyboard is a winner! After Casio came out with the WK1800, Yamaha reavaluated their PSRGX76 and came out with the DGX202. I'm sure after Yamaha sees the WK3000/3500 their engineers will be busy creating their next keyboard to rival this board. In the meantime, I'm excited to see this new board, I've ordered dozens of them for the holidays and as long as I have a good new Casio rep (the company never answers phone calls when I call and I get no customer support from them) I agree with all that this is a major player in the entry level and even for the advanced player keyboard.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California

George,

Thanks for your detailed review as well.

Do you know where the manual can be downloaded? I think that will give everyone a better picture of what the keyboard can do. I could only find a midi implementation chart.

Thanks,

-Linda

It's obvious Casio can compete with any of the arrangers IF and WHEN it wants to. The problem with Casio IMHO is that they choose to stay on the lower end of the market and capture the _Mart crowd. Actually, I've heard some pretty tempting sounds come out of those boards. Good for Casio and good for us if they've decided to kick it up a notch - bam!

I'm going to take a look and listen to a 3500 tomorrow. God, I'm getting like Uncle Dave.

Cheers,

Gary

Gary,
Carefull Gary, the full size keys and great feel might turn you off from your PSR2100.

George,
Excellent review. My favorite voices are acoustic piano, organs, breathy sax and flute. I also would like a 76 key keybaord. Will have to check out this new Casio.
Starkeeper

Hmmm, I guess I may go play one now. This really COULD be the answer for me for a 76 key controller that might have a few other features or sounds that I would want to use as well.. I remember the drawbar organs from the Mz and that sound alone practically sold me on the board, but also the alto sax had been the best I'd ever used on any board until I got my acoustic modeling plug in for the Motif. Thanks for the reviews Linda and George.

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 11-18-2003).]

There are some audio demos at Musicans Friend: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sear...010219500#sound
Is the difference between the WK3000 & WK3500 the disc drive only? ($100.00 more for a disk drive ) I really like having a disc drive.
Starkeeper

[This message has been edited by Starkeeper (edited 11-18-2003).]

[This message has been edited by Starkeeper (edited 11-18-2003).]

The organs on the demo are awesome, I'm not sure about the pianos.
Your opions on the demo.
Starkeeper

StarKeeper,

No, there is a modulation wheel and audio r and L jacks and the disk drive on the WK3500.

Also, I bought the WK3500 with the disk drive as the smartmedia card needs to have all its files in a folder call Casio_MD or the keyboard software does not read the files. Floppy I can keep them organized better. However, I like that fact there is more space available to save files. Still working with it all.

The piano sounds are the some of the best I have heard. I especially like the piano styles.

-Linda

Is there a line in jack on the WK-3500? If you can't make styles with loop recording, it would be nice if the board had a line in jack so you could midi sync a drum machine to it, and run it through the onboard speakers.. I know the MZ-2000 had this option..

Squeak

Squeak,

Repeat after me: $399!!! $399!! LOL...

No there is no line in jack...[[sigh]]

-Linda

Here's a link to a WK-3000 User page in New Zealand with a link to the manual (originally provided by me):
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~edmin/

Hope this helps (By the way, the WK-3000 is being sold by Costco stores)!

Michael

So....Gary,

How did you like the Casio WK-3500?

Looked at the 3000, and pretty much agree with just about everything that George Key posted. It's not in the same league with the 2000/2100, but for the amount of money, especially for someone that's not out there entertaining, it's a great board. The piano sounds were Ok, but just OK, even with a bit of tuning. They didn't have the depth of the Yamaha higher priced models. The guitar and sax sounds, at least to my aging ears, were not even close. As for styles, they were kinda' busy, but some were quite good and very dancable. Overall, for a low end board, I would have to rate it quite high, much higher than some similar priced boards from other manufacturers.

Thanks for the post Linda,

Gary

It was nice to see the manual. So it appears they dropped the user style recording, and replaced that with 16 slots to import styles.

Squeak

Just had a listen to the demos.. Man after listening to the first one I'd say it has MZ-2000 all over it. That board sounds just like the MZ.. Ohhh how I miss those MZ saxes. When I do buy a new keyboard if I find a mint condition MZ for sale, I'd buy that one over the PSR-1000/1100 any day. The MZ even has the edge on the 1100 as far as I'm concerned... Never wanted to sell that board, but do to space limitations I had to... Casio did one hell of a job with the organs on the 300/3500.. I can't believe they put drawbars on a keyboard for less than $400 Even though it doesn't record styles, you can still midi sync a drum machine to it. My only complaint is that Casio could have a done a little better job with the drums. I don't know, maybe it's me, but I always felt the toms left a bit to be desired..

Squeak

I wonder how the new Roland's (EXR-3, EXR-5) will fare against these new Casios? They are in the same price range. I bet Roland never expected competition coming from Casio.
Starkeeper

Hi all, I'm new here. I just tried the WK-3000, 3500 and 691 Casios out... they sound incredible! I currently have a Yamaha P-150 which is a great 88 key weighted keyboard but which is not multitimbral, so one of the new Casios at sub $400 seems like a no brainer. However I have a question or two (some, perhaps silly) that maybe someone can help me with.

1. I've narrowed my choice down to the wk3500 and the ctk-691, solely because the modulation button on the 3000 seems like a real bummer. My biggest question is, is there some way I could route pitch bend and modulation wheel midi data to the 691 using my Yamaha, which of course has two wheels? I use a Midi sequencer on my PC and have a Creamware Pulsar sound card. THere must be some way I could configure this, so I could still use that sweet Rotary on the 691 (because if you can't turn it on and off, what a shame!). If I could do this somehow, the lack of PW and MW on the 691 wouldn't hurt so much. And I could save 200 bucks. Anyone?

2. Are the speakers on the 3500 better/stronger than the 691?

3. How useful is that disk drive, really?

4. Does the lack of two output jacks (L and R) on the 691 really matter, given that the one it has is Stereo?

5. Are there any other glaring features that make the 691 inferior? From what I understand, the only diffrences are: 61 keys, has only one output jack, no disc drive, no PB and MW, no dedicated drawbar buttons. But the sounds, the memory capabilities, and everything else are identical. Right?

Alright, thanks in advance!

The CTK-691 doesn't have a Smartmedia card slot and the speaker system is only half as powerful as the WK-3000 & 3500 models (3 watts per side instead of 6). For an additional 100.00 I think the WK-3000 is well worth the extra expenditure. Especially with all the extra data that Casio has made available for download, it would be great to be able to store it all on a Smartmedia card, along with a bunch of MIDI files. The onboard Flash memory is only about 1.5MB.

Hope this helps!

Michael

Thanks. Can anyone give advice about the other questions, particularly #1?

Impressive piano for Casio. INFACT! I think it sounded better than what KORG has!

Hi all!
I've just purchased a 3500 and am learning the board. I'm hoping you folks can flatten the learning curve for me a bit! First, some background info.. I play in a cover band, variety to heavy rock..and I'm the left hand bass player. I've used a Yamaha PSR 730 for a few years, and its a great board to use on stage. Other players come up to check out the board, and are astounded at the sounds it's capable of (bass patches in particular) when hooked into a pro rig (I use a Yorkville RB 400 bass amp). I think the sounds on the new Casio are even better! They blow away my k2000 Kurzweil and GeneralMusic Equinox right out of the box...leslie fx on the org patches are amazing for this price. Anyway, what I really need help with is this.. Does anyone out there know how to assign actual lettered names to the registration voices (instead of just bank numbers)? My yamaha lets me name each registration setup, and that's the MOST important thing on stage for finding the setups for songs in a hurry. Please tell me this board does this....or at least a workaround using ext media storage or something.
I must admit, I've alway snickered at the idea of a real Csio board, old CZ/FZ and VZ synths notwithstanding. But, I heard this one and had to try it..never could pass up a good deal. Still, I felt a little....well, dirty at the checkout register. Weird, huh?

By the way, how does this board hold up to abuse :-) ? My 730 has soaked up 2 pints of Guiness in the past year and made it through both gigs! Gave me premature gray hairs, though....

Mark

I don't own a WK3500 but I would think your question[s] would be addressed in the Manual or possibly on the Casio Support site. Btw,
your PSR 730 might have lasted through a couple pints of Guiness but don't expect your Casio to do the same thing. I agree with you though that the WK3500 is a great little Keyboard for the money and it even has 76 Keys!

Best regards,
Mike

I demoed the Casio WK3500 last night and this is my $0.02 worth:
The acc. piano is good but a little bright for my taste. The organs are very good and lots of them, but I think it is mainly because of the excellent leslie simm. The sax's (not sex's) were good but not mind blowing. The strings are unuseable as well as the flute voice.
The styles were busy and many had wild synth leads in them, that are inappropriate,IMO, for POP or ballad styles. This style is great for house and trance, but I don't even like it for rock. It's probably something that a youth would like, and I'm not a youth. They key feel was very good.
Would I sell my PSR550 to get a Casio? No. The PSR550 has better styles, the sweet voices, and more support. The Casio has great value for the money and is a direct competitor to the PSR550. This may influence Yamaha to improve their organ voices (especially the DSP), include more user slots for styles (only 3 versus 16 on the Casio), possibly include an SD slot and improve the key feel. Should prove promising for the next PSR560 or PSR600.
P.S. There is no way this is a competitor to the PSR2100.
Starkeeper

[This message has been edited by Starkeeper (edited 01-09-2004).]

[This message has been edited by Starkeeper (edited 01-09-2004).]

I got the chance to spend a little time with the 3000 again. Nice sounds for the price, and a lot of them do remind me of the MZ2000, which makes them ok.

For me, the appeal of the MZ2k was not so much about the acoustic soundset, although there were a few very good ones sprinkled in ( sax and drawbars ). I liked it mainly because of the synth sounds and editing parameters. Even with XG edit, I couldn't come close to what the MZ could do on the PSR740 when I had both. Good analog emulations are pretty hard to do when one is using a digital board with samples, but the MZ really gave a good effort at it.

I didn't go very deep into the 3000, but I'm pretty sure it's patch editing features would be limited. Still, not a bad board at all for the money.

AJ