I can't believe they are offering as much as they are for the price.
DonM

DonM,which keyboard are you talking about?

The Casio WK3700. I purchased a used 3000 a couple weeks ago, just to fool around with. Great piano and organs. Now they have improved the line and haven't raised the prices.
These are not supposed to be high-end keyboards, and I wouldn't expect it to replace my Ketron SD1, but for the money, they are great.
DonM

Actually,I'm hoping that the 3700 is great beyond "...for the money.."

I am really,really hoping that the biggest mistake Casio made with this board was the omission of just 2 more sequencer tracks...

If only they carried 4 variation styles on from the MZ-2000.....
You could transfer new styles from PSRs, PAs and Rolands easily, without having to decide which variations to ditch.
That would be a deal maker for the Casio, even with say $100-150 more in the price.
I paid about 550 Euros in 1994 for a CTK-750, that was 1.5 times my monthly salary of the time. I still play it almost every night, even though the sounds are horribly outdated now.
I am waiting for a WK with 4 variations. :-)
Theodore

Yeah it would be nice to have 4 variations. The 6 tracks don't really bother me too much, but of course more is always better. I think the board greatly needs the ability to record user styles. Just the ability to loop and overdub drum/bass/chord/pad parts would be great. That would then open up the other 6 tracks for solo work.

However, given that Casio has increased the number of sounds and styles (and improved the sound quality), and added more user sample memory without jacking the price is more than enough for this model. With those additions they could have easily jacked the price another $100.00 The 3700 will be sitting in my home before Thanksgiving I'll probably keep my 3500 for a midi controller or just an extra board.

Squeak

How do you think the WK3500/3700 compares with Yamaha's DGX-305 for a performance AK? Both 76 keys, same price, other similarities.

Glenn

Honestly I think in many areas the WK is above the DGX-305. Especially the newer WK-3700. The DGX does not have voice editing, no modulation wheel, (crappy pithbend wheel), distortion guitar and bass sounds don't even compare to the WK.

The newer WK's have new piano samples (which I think are as good if not better than the DGX. The WK is also going to give you a better speaker system with more bass and crisper highs (because the WK's tweeters are better)

Plus the WK will let you load in new samples. Using the included software you can convert samples to the Casio format and use in the WK. Oddly enough I use my WK's sampler memory to trigger (live railroad sounds for my model train layout)

If I'm correct (not sure off hand), but I think the WK's going to give you more song editing control (after the recording is completed).

Overall I think the WK's more bang for the buck. Sure Yammie has those signature voices, but the preset voices on the DGX (in my opinion) are well below the WK-3500/3700. This I think is also because the WK's effects are (MILES) ahead of the DGX.

I got to play the DGX-305 about a week ago while out of town, and like before I was not impressed. The only sound on the board that made my mouth water was the "sweet saprano" sax. Gotta give it to Yamaha because they really NAILED that one.

The store I played the DGX in also had a WK-3500 sitting right next to it, so I and the sales rep were doing a side by side comparison. Man, I'm telling you the distortion guitars and bass quitars on the DGX are a joke! You can't do any serious pitchbend work because the quality of the wheel is quite poor. The piano's were up in the air. I think after dropping the reverb down a bit on the WK-3500 it faired VERY well against the DGX.

If you can try both models out for yourself. Hopefully you can find a store that has both


Squeak

Thanks for the rundown, Squeak.

Glenn