I received my first shipment today of these two 88 key workstations.
First, the WK-8000 you will be happy to know is the same exact keybaord as the WK3800 but with 88 semi weighted keys, a wooden stand and the sustain pedal. The price is $649 list with a MAP price of $499.00.
The action is really interesting. Even though it is not a weighted action like the other Privias, when you play it, you think it's weighted. It has something to do with the way they "loaded" the keys and I keep going to a weighted action and then back to the WK-8000 and although it feels different, it feels more like a weighted action then like a non weighted action. In comparision, the Yamaha 525 feels more like a non weighted keyboard, such as a PSR3000 but not the Casio. I hope I'm explaining this well.
The sounds are quite good, especially in this price range. If there is one area that could use improvement, and I've said this about the who WK series, is the cymbal sounds. The styles sound good and Casio has done a great job with intros and endings, but the drum sounds could be improved.
The 8000 has the hammond draw bar organ selections with a great leslie effect which can be controlled with the modulation wheel for slow vs ramped up fast leslie simulation. The addition of an sd card slot, stereo outputs and 88 keys make this a winner at $499.00.
The Privia PX-575R is the replacement for last years PX-555. The big difference is now they are using the "ZPI" sound engine which has the 3 layer samples for the acoustic piano and the really good brass, horns and the virtual drawbar organ. The keyboard looks much more "pro" than the old model and they did away with the lyrics on the screen when playing smf files but still give you a mic input for singers.
The price is the same as last years model:
$1099 list and $799.00 map with wooden stand and pedal. This is a good competitor for Yamaha's YPG625. The Casio is not as deep from front to back and adds a programable synthesizer, virtual drawbar organ, an SD card slot rather than the USB device slot (both do the job well, more registration memories and for playback of smf files you have 16 tracks where you can edit everything on the keyboard including voices, volumes, octaves, effects, etc. The Yamaha doesn't provide any of this editing on it's keyboard, you must do it in your computer.



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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

George,glad to hear you're so stoked about the new stuff!

Not to hijack this topic,but have you heard anything about the E-50/60/80 reaching our shores anytime soon?

Thanks!

Roland is hoping to have them out by the end of the year. Some modifications had to made electronically to pass US regulations. That is all I know.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com

Probably by X-Mas according to other info I've heard.
And THIS close to Winter NAMM '07.

Hmmmmm......(?)

e-50 now at the end of the year?? That does it, I'm buying used gear.

zuki

George: I looked at Casio's site. They do NOT list midi in/out ports for the 575 so you can't use this as a controller for anything. Is that correct?

[This message has been edited by RobertG (edited 09-16-2006).]

The new Casio keyboards and the new yamaha keyboards do not have midi ports. They have a USB host port which works like a midi interface when used with a computer. If you use a audiio/midi interface, such as the edirol or cakewalk products, you can also drive other midi modules or keybaords this way. I have complained to all these companies about their eliminating midi ports but their response is that most buying these lower priced products use them at home and at most with USB being the more important port.


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George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566
www.kayesmusicscene.com