Ok, I've just finished unboxing my new CDP-200R piano / arranger.

Pros:
Piano action is actually quite good. Compared to my Yamaha P-250 I have next to it they keys are slightly heavier and slippery on the Casio. I'm guessing that is because it's new. It seems to be the same keys that all these stage pianos use. A big plus!

Piano sound is quite descent, not a multi velocity layered multi sampled masterpiece, but much better than say a stock GM or XG module.

GM sounds are ok, reminds of my old SC-88 or JV-1080 that I used to own.

Drumkits were far better than I expected.

Many of the styles are quite usable - nothing fancy with lot's of bells and whistles. But they will get you through a wedding party quite nicely.

It is extremely light weight.

It comes with a stand, a pedal and a power supply - which is not always the case these days... Ok, the pedal is a flimsy plastic one - but hey it's free right?

It is small, easy to transport

Big bright and very readable display, with all the information you need. Including a visual representation of the keyboard and which notes you are playing - both in notation and keyboard form - now that is just fun!

Price - cost me $900 with good sturdy bag (in our bloated market here in Norway - that's about $300 less than a Yamaha P-85)

Cons:
On board speakers are seriously lacking bottom end. Sounds like a pair of 2W PC speakers from Wallmart. If you try this board out, these speakers do not do the sounds justice at all.

Mic input doesn't seem to be usable. It has got a horrible effect on it, and sounds murky and totally without any top end. I'll try different microphones - just to test it out later. No phantom power - but didn't expect that either.

A bit hard to see the buttons in the dark, you have to know where they are at. I understand now why they started making silver keyboards...

Some styles are just silly....

Music Database feature is cool, but it was not intuitive how you might edit it - but I'll dig into that later.

No way to control effects - that I have found

Sustain is not long enough. On slow songs you can acutally hold the pedal down and change chords, without having them bleed into eachother - this is my biggest let down of this thing. But I have actually seen this problem on many other models. But possibly this might be fixable through some kind of setting somewhere. I think I will need to check the manual on this.

Clearly this board is not aimed for the professional user, and is made for the home student or hobbyist. But it is quite good at many things, and it will certainly do as a stage piano and drum machine.

DocZ

Try checking behind that preposition .

Just joshing you. Actually my Norwegian grammar isn't all that hot, either (or my English ).



chas

Thank you for pointing out my error, but could you please explain what was wrong with my syntax? That way I might learn what was wrong.

Now I'm left to wonder.

Was it wrong to end a sentance on a preposition?

Was it the wrong preposition to use in that setting?



DocZ

Ok, I recorded some samples.. nothing fancy, just me thrashing on the keys. I decided to hit record on my H4N while playing. Just to see (or hear ) how the thing sounds for the people listening to it.

So here are a couple of examples.

I actually love the sound of two of the electric pianos! They are better than any other board I have ever tried. The smokey sound of the EP in the blues clip is amazing. You should hear it through my big PA rig, that thing oozes vintage style! E-piano1 is so like my dad's old Whurly it's scary. And that slightly driven 60's E-piano is smoky, raspy and growls if you dig in - just like if you run an mk1 through a tube amp. In the EP section, this piano sadly outperform my Clavia, P250, M50 and my old PSR-3000.

http://espen.sandelarsen.com/musikk/docz%20bluesy.mp3

http://espen.sandelarsen.com/musikk/me%20and%20my%20swing.mp3

Pay not attention to my crappy playing. I kinda forgot about it being recorded. It is just me goofing around.

DocZ

Yes. But again, I was just pulling your chain. Your English is better than most (primary) English speakers on this board (including me).

chas

Thank you Chas.

I understand that you were teasing me. But I am also a very keen learner, and I never let a learning moment pass me by.



DocZ

Good. Then you'll also want to check the spelling of the word 'sentence'.



chas

PS: I'm a lousy speller also. I once spent $100.00 to spend the night in a WAREhouse .

Very nice playing DocZ. Now I understand why women lay their breats on your keyboards

What are breats???

Thanks so much for the review doc that sums things up very accurately.

Thanks

I like the clever guitar programming on the jazz style. It actually sounds pretty good. And they have also cleverly low-pass filtered out most of the top end of the bass. Making it harder to make out it's shortcomings, again this is clever and make the style sound pretty good. It seems like some of the styles have received a lot of attention and production work to really get the most out of each sound. But some styles are just silly and cannot not be used for anything other than making a joke.

I did manage to find a way to control the Reverb and Chorus on the sounds. That made it sound even better.

It is like taking a step back 20 years in sound quality, but feature wise this thing has a lot to offer. I love the 3.5mm jack input. That is really usable. And it plays midi-files through an SD card slot, that is one of it's best features.

DocZ

probably they made you pay more because you were being annoying.

Why do I get the feeling that you didn't get the joke.

chas