Has Casio improved the key-bed over some of there lower end "big box store" keyboards.

I can`t remember what model it was that I play at BB , but the key were way bad , very sloppy , and not evenly spaced.

I have read on another thread that the buttons are rubber , and there are some other ill effects , but most important to me would be the keys.

Thanks ,

Gary

Their lower end pianos have had issues with uneven key spacing, and even some wobble.

I haven't tried the WK-7500 yet...looks interesting...certainly a great price and lots of cool features.

Gary, what are you playing these days?

I'm no longer using "rubber" buttons (although I kind of liked them) as I've bought myself a Tyros4...in spite of finances being stretched a bit, I couldn't resist it's many charms. seriously, I haven't been this enamored with a top line arranger since my PSR-8000.

Are you considering a Casio?

What about the new Korg PA3X?

Ian

Hi Ian ,

I`m still playing the old Hammond , it`s not that great and it`s not a tone-wheel , but it works.

I would like another arranger , just not something to big.

The Tyros 3 that I had was good , but the repetitive sounds and styles never used , just wasn`t for me.

Either a simple arranger like a Prelude or a piano like the FP-7f is what I have mostly been thinking about.

There is still the "what - will - Yamaha - do " for there next PSR to think of as well.

Must have a good key fell and built-in speakers.

Take care

Gary

Hi Riceroni9(from Glenrose,Tx) I just tried one today at the Guitar Center in Dallas (off Central Expressway 75)

For an arranger, I wasn't impressed at all. Sure it's cheap but it sounds and feels cheap. I'm sure in the hands of a keyboard wizard it well sound good, but I need all the help I can get!

Hi Montunoman:

Thanks for letting me know. I'll try to find a good excuse to get over that way soon. I'm curious about the sound. Do you think it was the speakers or did the Sytles/Rhythms not meet your expectations? Sometimes, because of the environment, such as a crowded showroom floor, speakers don't sound very good.

Since I never use my speakers (I use only earphones) when I record, that won't be a factor for me. I "tweak" each style to match the melody and genre I'm working on at the time... so that will be the area of most interest to me. I'm not much of a piano player and so the feel of the keys is also not an important factor as it would be for these pro players who perform on their arrangers nightly.

Thanks for responding.

Dave Rice

http://www.ShowCaseYourMusic.com/DaveRice/

It could very well have been the speakers/enviroment. However it just didn't do it for me. I could not find brass or sax sounds that I liked, big band or latin styles didn't inspire me to play. I much prefer the sound my $220 Yamaha E413.

Any of the Casio's I've played only had good Piano & Organ sounds...the rest were so so .... let's face it for $500.00 what do you really expect?...The Piano is their out of the box or store demo seller to the uninformed. But there is definitly a niche for entry level players starting out at this price range.

Hello, all.

I'm new to this forum and joined to discuss the wk-7500.

I'm a keyboard player, and have a couple pro keyboards (Korg DW-8000, Roland D-20) and a Fender Rhodes. About 10 years ago I purchased a Yamaha PSR-540, which I really have loved. The sounds are pretty good, although thin through a PA, and the realtime performance aspect (with styles, etc) are great. I became interested in the WK-7500 after seeing it in my local music store. What drew me to it was the organ drawbars. To get such a feature on ANY keyboard would involve an investment of at least $1500 (low end Hammond or Nord). So when I saw a pricetag of $399 for the 61 and $499 for the 76-key I was interested.

I was able to find a guy selling the 76-key wk-7500 on eBay, in like-new condition, and got it for $360, which is quite a bargain. I've had it now for just under a week, and here are my impressions (comparisions to Yamaha inevitable)

Pro:
- Drawbar organ controls really are a great feature. Ability to select the harmonics, leslie speed, and drawbar settings on-the-fly is great

- Decent sounds. Great pianos and organs, nice wurlitzer. Good analog synth voices.

- Ability to modify tones is great. Can't do this on my Yamaha. I can take a basic synth tone, tweak the attack and decay, add some chorus to fatten it up and boy, does it sound good. ALMOST as good as my Korg.

- Ability to modify DSP settings is great. Again, not able to do this on my Yamaha. I can change the slow and fast rotation speed, ramp up, etc. on the Leslie, the chorus depth and feedback. Anything you need to change on an effect is pretty much available.

- Ability to assign the slow/fast button to other params, such as pan or tremolo rate is a great feature.

- Keys are nicer than the organ-style keys on the Yamaha when playing piano and EP sounds.

- Yamaha doesn't have a Mono out 1/4" but this keyboard has both a left/right with one a Mono.

- Sequencer is as full-featured as on the Yamaha (which has a 16 track sequencer built in)

Cons:

- The fast Leslie effect is a bit better than on the yamaha, but isn't nowhere near as realistic as on the more expensive clonewheel keyboards

- Chorus or DSP - but not both. I'd love to have a chorused rhodes sound with auto-pan.

- LFO allows sine or triangle wave, but not square wave. Sample and Hold would have been nice. But this is nit-picking probably.

- Casio dropped the ball on the sliders. I can't assign things to them for realtime control. Would have been nice to be able to assign tone parameter to them (like delay time, or attack). C'mon Casio - you've got all those hardware do-hickies on the board - put them to use.

- More than 3 levels on the organ drawbars would have been better, plus they are not smooth at all. It doesn't sound very nice when you change drawbars while holding down notes.

- No realtime control of volume on the split or layer voice. I'd like to be able to have a layered voice (like a pad) with a piano, and be able to vary the volume of the pad in realtime as I play. Can't do this.

- No MIDI ports, meaning no MIDI out, meaning this keyboard cannot be used a controller for my other keyboards.

- Rhodes sounds are not my favorite. They sound too compressed or something. I'm trying to tweak them to get something that sounds good, but so far have not gotten anything satisfying yet.

- In general, the EP sounds seem to be too short - they don't sustain as long as I would expect them to. But that may just be me.

- The mixer is a mess. Way too complex to just mix tracks. It would be better to have a mode switch that puts those sliders in dedicated track-mix mode or something. Again, a realtime mix for the basic board setup (Upper A/B, Lower, Rythm) would be enormously useful.

- This may be a Casio vs. Yamaha thing, but when playing in accompanyment mode, hitting the Variation button does not do a fill leading into the variation. In addition, the transition from Primary to Variation can be abrupt if you don't hit the button at the "right" time during the measure.

- In general, the accompanyments are not as good as the Styles on the Yamaha. Sure, I can edit them, but the canned ones should have been better. The difference between Primary and Variation is just way too subtle. I also miss having the Yamaha "one-touch" where I can add in more instruments to the background band.

Overall, I'm pleased with this keyboard, although it would be hard to tell based on all the "cons" listed. If I were to be able to add tone and DSP editting,organ drawbars, and piano-style keys to the Yamaha, that would make an ideal "fun" keyboard to me. And for the price I got this for, it was a steal. If I wanted to sell it, I could probably get my money back (and perhaps more). But I typically don't sell old gear - it just accumulates.

-Tom

Thanks Tom:

That's an impressive list of pros and cons. I still have not put my hands on one of these interesting "boards" but it's on my current "bucket list." (LOL!)

With gasoline prices nearing $4 buck per gallon, I'm having to plan my excursions to do multiple events or tasks.

Thanks again, Tom.

Best Regards,

Dave Rice

http://www.ShowCaseYourMusic.com/DaveRice/

Welcome to the forum, Tom, and thanks for the great review.

Ian