Best Casio Keyboard Ever Made?

[gospelmusic4life]

I'm not sure if this question has been asked before but what's the best Casio Keyboard ever made and why? I did not see this in the search but feel free to merge it if it is a repeat.

 

I've played some older casios and now have the CTK7200. This is probably the best one I've had so far as a workstation in that price range. they reason I bought it was because it is a workstation first and also has the drawbar organ which I also use as a midi controller. I actually purchased it over a Yamaha 453 some years back because of these features and it has 64 polyphony. I was tempted to get the new ctx 5000 at one point but did not because it had no sliders. I then also thought of the mz500 in recent years.

[Chas]

That's a hard question to answer, simply because Casio has released such a huge variety and types of keyboards over many decades.

 

The semi prototype Cosmo Synthesizer could be the ultimate, simply because it's so rare and the technology developed for it spawned the CZ Phase Distortion series and FZ and SK samplers.

 

CZ 101 could be the ultimate because it was incredibly successful and put a polyphonic digital synth into the hands of the many at a price well below the competition. The CZ-1 also deserves a mention for being the ultimate development of the CZ line, with the most power and feature.

 

The FZ samplers also put 16 bit affordable sampling technology into the hands of those that could only previously dream of owning a Synclavier, Fairlight or EMU.

 

In more recent times, I'd add the MZ2000, XW-P1 and the PX-5S. All are incredibly powerful and capable. The MZ2000 was impressive for its time (and is still a great arranger/ workstation), plus it has a great velocity and after touch keybed. XW-P1 has great sonic capabilities plus so many features, making it a very flexible keyboard/ synth. It can easily be the sole sound source in a studio set up. Same applies to the PX-5S, with the added piano orientated capabilities.

 

There are many others too, including all the WK workstations, the newer CTX range are incredible sounding. The MZ500 is also a great packed with features board that can offer so much.

 

I feel that the answer to your question depends on the user and also the requirements, as Casio covers such a wide base. They've also made "best keyboard" in many different categories, making it impossible to pick just one!

[gospelmusic4life]

Chas

 

I never heard of the first Casio because I did not follow them that close years ago but the recent ones I would say are at the top of the list. I just looked at the 2000 and it looks like a keyboard I would have wanted. I was looking at mz500 and px5s about a year ago as an upgrade. I wanted to get a stage piano and also complete 61 or 73 key workstation for gigging. I'm still thinking about the mz500 although I am wondering if Casio will be coming out with another workstation like it in a few years. 

[Jokeyman123]

IMO-the PX560 and I have owned almost all the CZs when new, many other workstations and analogs going back to the earliest Sequential Circuits synths plus the first Casio SK sampling keyboards and the XW-P1. I haven't owned an MZ-X yet, but except for lack of drawbars and sampling options I'd have to go with the PX560. Just the sheer mount of raw wave samples for creating custom tones and the hex layering editing facilities alone make this the most powerful Casio I've ever owned. And the (lack of) weight is also a deciding factor. Would I be able to gig  Montage, Kronos or any other 88-key to gigs without a handtruck and roadie-because these are the only other 88 keys I've heard that sound as good as the PX560 for piano and have sequencers, editing and multis or multi layers. 

[Majek Skateboards]

Having been away for two decades it just blew me away when I walked into a store and tried out the CT-X5000 with AiX. To me, that keyboard and it’s affect on me makes that the ultimate Casio. I know there’s the MZ, but still the 5000 did it for me.

 

I then went out and got the CT-X700 and it’s far too much keyboard for me and I am thrilled.

 

All I want is this upcoming NAMM to give us a Korg Monologue type of analog synth from Casio. A second tier lead Casio synth 25 key machine would be a nice partner to my main CT-X.

[vbdx66]

Many years ago I had the fairly rare VL-10 mini-keyboard, and when I say mini, I assume it might have been the tiniest keyboard ever produced. It had only 3 sounds but was so tiny and with its sequencer, it was a great tool to compose and record a melody on-the-go. Somebody stole it from me (I think that back in the Eighties it was really hype). I wish I had this little piece of electronic genius again, I could still use it as a musical notepad.

[gospelmusic4life]

19 hours ago, vbdx66 said:

Many years ago I had the fairly rare VL-10 mini-keyboard, and when I say 

Look interesting from what I see on YouTube. They could do something retro with upgraded sounds. 

[CYBERYOGI =CO=Windler]

The Casio VL-10 contains the same hardware like VL-1 (only lacking an envelope follower to smoothen stair steps). I have completely dismantled and modified mine to unlock all VL-1 features as a didactic experiment to find out why Casio didn't.

I had to install additional SMD transistors and a tiny inductor (hard to find) to make the (too quiet) VL-Tone sound output play loud enough (I refused to add modern amp ICs not existing when it was made). I had to add lots of thin enamelled wires to make parts fit, and particularly 3 tiny 4-step slide switches and 3.5mm output jack were hard to fit inside at all, but I got it to run and it still uses only the energy of a CR2032 button cell to play all VL-1 sounds (slightly harsh) with recognizable timbre. I am quite sure this hardware could be even powered by a couple of potato or lemon batteries and so constitutes the least energy-hungry classic synth ever made.

I also examined my VL-80, which is based on the same CPU and can be modded into a mode with ADSR instead of vibrato switch. (I will likely install a switch to enable this, if I really live long enough.) The rest of VL-1 modes is incompatible with its keyboard layout, because sharps need to be selected by a shift button instead of black keys, those don't exist in the calculator-shaped VL-80.

[Majek Skateboards]

11 hours ago, CYBERYOGI =CO=Windler said:

The Casio VL-10 contains the same hardware like VL-1 (only lacking an envelope follower to smoothen stair steps). I have completely dismantled and modified mine to unlock all VL-1 features as a didactic experiment to find out why Casio didn't.

I had to install additional SMD transistors and a tiny inductor (hard to find) to make the (too quiet) VL-Tone sound output play loud enough (I refused to add modern amp ICs not existing when it was made). I had to add lots of thin enamelled wires to make parts fit, and particularly 3 tiny 4-step slide switches and 3.5mm output jack were hard to fit inside at all, but I got it to run and it still uses only the energy of a CR2032 button cell to play all VL-1 sounds (slightly harsh) with recognizable timbre. I am quite sure this hardware could be even powered by a couple of potato or lemon batteries and so constitutes the least energy-hungry classic synth ever made.

I also examined my VL-80, which is based on the same CPU and can be modded into a mode with ADSR instead of vibrato switch. (I will likely install a switch to enable this, if I really live long enough.) The rest of VL-1 modes is incompatible with its keyboard layout, because sharps need to be selected by a shift button instead of black keys, those don't exist in the calculator-shaped VL-80.

I wish I had you here to mod my stuff.
 

1) make my Roland JU reissue (which is likely my next purchase and because Wavestate is too pricey) stand alone module to be wireless. The companion keyboard is too small and limited.

 

2) mod monophonic units into polyphony as an option (many would want this)

 

3) build a warmer yet punchier Stratocaster bridge pickup sound with some sort of electronics as a simple third party add on similar to an orange drop capacitor 

[Chas]

2 hours ago, Majek Skateboards said:

I wish I had you here to mod my stuff.
 

1) make my Roland JU reissue (which is likely my next purchase and because Wavestate is too pricey) stand alone module to be wireless. The companion keyboard is too small and limited.

 

2) mod monophonic units into polyphony as an option (many would want this)

 

3) build a warmer yet punchier Stratocaster bridge pickup sound with some sort of electronics as a simple third party add on similar to an orange drop capacitor 

 

 

Question 1: 

 

I believe that MIDI over Bluetooth is (or is going to be) a thing. That will enable wireless control over your JU. BTW, if you are talking about the Boutique JU, note that its sliders do not transmit CC and it is only four voice polyphonic. 

 

Question 2: 

 

Modding monophonic units to have polyphony is nigh on impossible unless they already have hidden hardware polyphonic capabilities. The work around would be to chain multiple individual units together if there was a way to get them all to understand the same keyboard and had a way of sharing/ distributing voices. This could be done using a custom programmed Arduino controller for example. Check out the YouTube channel "Look Mum No Computer" where Sam has built a "Gameboy Mega Machine" synthesizer, using individual Gameboys as individual oscillators, then controlling them to behave like a polyphonic synthesizer. It's fascinating to watch.

 

 

(BTW, this is the same guy that built a Furby Organ! I love his channel!)

 

 

Question 3:

 

Build a warmer/ punchier drop in Strat bridge pick-up - plenty of existing options already exist. There are stacked single coil and double "blade" pick-ups available that get close to a humbucker sound. They are also switchable between single and double coil allowing you to have the best of both worlds.

 

There are also drop in active guitar circuits available that add a powered pre-amp boost/ drive to the output. They often come with pick ups already wired to a loom, meaning that they are almost drop in replacements.

 

Plus loads of alternative pick-ups available that have hotter outputs and/ or different magnets. The sky's the limit!

[Majek Skateboards]

Thanks!!

 

The JU at $399 being two full synths is such a great price that I won’t worry about its known limitations. Sure the $799 Korg Wavestate or the $1099 MD-X500 all do way more with more sounds but it’s hard to beat $399.

 

on monophonic units, many have done well with just that anyway so I will live with at least one machine like that.

 

I have pictured Fender simply putting in more turns into all Fender strats on the bridge pup like the current MIM Jimmy Vaughan signature strat does.

 

The weakness of the strat is that the bridge pickup is too thin sounding compared to the other two.

[CYBERYOGI =CO=Windler]

Majek Skateboards wrote:
I wish I had you here to mod my stuff.

Even if you would pay me for the about 200h it took to mod (and understand) the VL-10 (it functions only by 95% anyway) I would not want to do that. May be my eyes are unsuited now to work with SMD anyway.

1) make my Roland JU reissue (which is likely my next purchase and because Wavestate is too pricey) stand alone module to be wireless.

You could have requested me as well to sniff a bucket of industrial glue. Pulsed microwaves are brain destroying technology that I never will use or install anywhere. That is to say, the first thing I do with every hardware I get into my hands is ripping out the wifi card or minimum put a metal dummy plug on the internal antenna cable jack and disable it in BIOS. - Castrate to survive!

And modding monophonic into polyphonic is 100% impossible with analogue and 99.5% impossible with digital instruments. You could ask as well to install 256 strings on your violin to replace an orchestra.

[Majek Skateboards]

11 hours ago, CYBERYOGI =CO=Windler said:

Even if you would pay me for the about 200h it took to mod (and understand) the VL-10 (it functions only by 95% anyway) I would not want to do that. May be my eyes are unsuited now to work with SMD anyway.
 

You could have requested me as well to sniff a bucket of industrial glue. Pulsed microwaves are brain destroying technology that I never will use or install anywhere. That is to say, the first thing I do with every hardware I get into my hands is ripping out the wifi card or minimum put a metal dummy plug on the internal antenna cable jack and disable it in BIOS. - Castrate to survive!

And modding monophonic into polyphonic is 100% impossible with analogue and 99.5% impossible with digital instruments. You could ask as well to install 256 strings on your violin to replace an orchestra.

Really I know it’s quite hard but I am impressed with your skills. 
 

I so do not personally have hardware skills!!
 

I was on the software side of gadgets with Microsoft networks and Cisco routers back in the day and I got washed out of the hardware PhD program at University of California. 
 

The challenge was huge in the late 1990s-early 2000s at the time and a few companies wanted to do the impossible which was make faster routers and switches, and offer them to companies at unheard of low price points in a distribution chain that had to be quadrupled in its speed. Pay for hardware techies was amazing then so many people flooded the programs and hardware router engineers were being trained closest to my house.

 

They wanted people exactly like you in the program who could modify stuff electronically and in return the school gave you a very low cost dual MS-PhD in return subsidized by a few companies like MS in Mountain View, Juniper, and Cisco.

 

So in the first day of class like most this level of techies near San Jose, the instructor doesn’t speak English and starts scribbling Nash on the board and these kids (mostly from areas outside the USA where STEM is still important) are eating it up. Ok, lol, I never returned to class. I was one of the dumb Americans there!!

 

I am sure there was a Dave Smith type in that crowd who probably went on to work on electronic musical instruments. LOL!

[CYBERYOGI =CO=Windler]

I am no good programmer. Beside example stuff done at the university I never finished coding anything in assembly or other low level language. I am just an autist idiot thinking in circles and spirals rather than straight forward. E.g. I have a "Bit 90" homecomputer with built-in Colecovision cart slot that refused to accept actual Colecovision joysticks in some games. In 1990th I found out that a digital signal on a pin needed to be delayed to prevent collision of the keypad data with those multiplexed from the internal keyboard of the machine, but instead of making a digital delay (shiftregister or what ever) I soldered a big inductor into the line, that undoubtly distorted the pulse waveform very badly but solved the problem well enough to make that game cartridge run properly. Or for connecting a PC diskette drive to Amiga, I needed both a DiskChange and Ready pulse, but the drive could generate only one of them (selected by a jumper), so I soldered the internal LED to the Ready pin (inverted through a transistor?) and the thing worked. At the moment my Trinitron CRT of my big SGI monitor is turning bad. It arcs inside the CRT when cold (loose or deformed contact, causing bright red flashes and emergency shutdown), so I designed a warmup timer from NE555 (not a microcontroller) that preheats the CRT heater while it simulates a bad capacitor in the PSU and so makes the monitor controller mainboard wait 30s before turning highvoltage on. The monitor still does not like cold air and often refuses to start, but at least turns on and can be used (I am now typing on it).

That's the type of hacking I did in various devices.

[Majek Skateboards]

8 hours ago, CYBERYOGI =CO=Windler said:

I am no good programmer. Beside example stuff done at the university I never finished coding anything in assembly or other low level language. I am just an autist idiot thinking in circles and spirals rather than straight forward. E.g. I have a "Bit 90" homecomputer with built-in Colecovision cart slot that refused to accept actual Colecovision joysticks in some games. In 1990th I found out that a digital signal on a pin needed to be delayed to prevent collision of the keypad data with those multiplexed from the internal keyboard of the machine, but instead of making a digital delay (shiftregister or what ever) I soldered a big inductor into the line, that undoubtly distorted the pulse waveform very badly but solved the problem well enough to make that game cartridge run properly. Or for connecting a PC diskette drive to Amiga, I needed both a DiskChange and Ready pulse, but the drive could generate only one of them (selected by a jumper), so I soldered the internal LED to the Ready pin (inverted through a transistor?) and the thing worked. At the moment my Trinitron CRT of my big SGI monitor is turning bad. It arcs inside the CRT when cold (loose or deformed contact, causing bright red flashes and emergency shutdown), so I designed a warmup timer from NE555 (not a microcontroller) that preheats the CRT heater while it simulates a bad capacitor in the PSU and so makes the monitor controller mainboard wait 30s before turning highvoltage on. The monitor still does not like cold air and often refuses to start, but at least turns on and can be used (I am now typing on it).

That's the type of hacking I did in various devices.

That is so cool but way beyond my understanding. But people like you change the world!!

 

My roommate in school was not a primary software guy, either,  but would do similar hardware things and really researched things that many others never thought of.

 

I truly thought maybe his ideas would never be seen but eventually they put him in charge of small research team at Toshiba and they turned a thousand dollar solid state drive with almost no storage into super affordable thumb drives. It paid off, his curiosity, but that took decades to the point where now you get those flash drives for free now on keychains.

 

My neighbor lady, on the other hand was all software and not a hardware type. She was a key person in taking artist conception drawings, like Lara Croft, and making them into moving figures on the computer that would do justice to the artists and creators.

 

But being near San Jose, it’s almost impossible not to run into somebody not involved with the PC, iPhone, Android, computer games, wired homes, routers, WiFi, or anything techie. It takes tens of thousands of people in each sector and each and every one plays surprisingly important roles. My college alum cofounded SGI and the other techie lady across the street is VP of Adobe.

 

But then growing up here you get surprised when you run into somebody from a similar one industry town and you hear about almost any town in Texas where football is big and literally every high school has NFL or big college alums. It’s stunning. Or you see somebody from Watkins Glen, NY and everybody is connected in some way to car racing.

[CYBERYOGI =CO=Windler]

I am rather a tinker than good programmer; I often solve problems mechanically (connect 2 switches by a pull string) or with a couple of simple analogue parts (resistors, diodes) instead of writing code. I failed to finish university, not least because I have mild dyscalculia. I.e. despite I am clearly interested in math (even math theory), I completely messed up algebraic equations (forgetting terms or moving in circles) instead of systematically solving, because I confuse or forget parts of a formula in between.

And that is to say, I have much more the mindedness of a Brownie than of a company worker - not of a hash brownie, but of that domestic helper ghost/Heinzelmännchen creature that invisibly works every night in the background but considers paid jobs exploitation and wears torn old clothes (me somewhat too - fashion is a disease of mankind made for planned obsolescence). Labour for quarterly figures destroys the planet. Enlightenment made me joint the uni and made me leave it again when I saw the direction computer science was turning into.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownie_(folklore)

I have more sympathy for a Ted Kaczynski (Unabomber) than a Suckerberg or Larry Page. No, I will never drop bombs (causing sufferance ruins karma), but I am always waiting that the next wannabe Elon Musk will launch a homemade giant XXL Kassam rocket made from scrap parts into space, that releases enough shrapnel to start the Kessler effect to make all satellites of the orbits collide with each others to finally free the mankind from the always-online disease.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_effect

The age of filterbubble-born hate and Cambridge Analytica's forged Trump election has turned internet into a nightmare. Down with devices built for total surveillance and pulsed microwaves! Once the internet was created to turn this world into a global village. Internet Of Things makes a Dementia Village of it.

Id + IoT = IdIoT

It's time to eradicate the noughties and start over again.

[XW-Addict]

2 hours ago, CYBERYOGI =CO=Windler said:

I am rather a tinker than good programmer; I often solve problems mechanically (connect 2 switches by a pull string) or with a couple of simple analogue parts (resistors, diodes) instead of writing code. I failed to finish university, not least because I have mild dyscalculia. I.e. despite I am clearly interested in math (even math theory), I completely messed up algebraic equations (forgetting terms or moving in circles) instead of systematically solving, because I confuse or forget parts of a formula in between.

And that is to say, I have much more the mindedness of a Brownie than of a company worker - not of a hash brownie, but of that domestic helper ghost/Heinzelmännchen creature that invisibly works every night in the background but considers paid jobs exploitation and wears torn old clothes (me somewhat too - fashion is a disease of mankind made for planned obsolescence). Labour for quarterly figures destroys the planet. Enlightenment made me joint the uni and made me leave it again when I saw the direction computer science was turning into.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownie_(folklore)

I have more sympathy for a Ted Kaczynski (Unabomber) than a Suckerberg or Larry Page. No, I will never drop bombs (causing sufferance ruins karma), but I am always waiting that the next wannabe Elon Musk will launch a homemade giant XXL Kassam rocket made from scrap parts into space, that releases enough shrapnel to start the Kessler effect to make all satellites of the orbits collide with each others to finally free the mankind from the always-online disease.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_effect

The age of filterbubble-born hate and Cambridge Analytica's forged Trump election has turned internet into a nightmare. Down with devices built for total surveillance and pulsed microwaves! Once the internet was created to turn this world into a global village. Internet Of Things makes a Dementia Village of it.

Id + IoT = IdIoT

It's time to eradicate the noughties and start over again.

Gawd don't be so hard on yourself it might not seem to you that way but you're a very knowledgeable person and even remembers former electronic and component stuff 

That is "GOLD" you know how valuable that kind of information is a lot. You know what really idiotic people throwing away their old electronic magazine from the seventies and 

eighties I say that because the approach to building things still the same as now only the terms to name new things change as well the behavior of electronic things. 

 

You know I hear people talking about the fear of an A.I winter and that means development into this subject comes at a halt for a significant long time the reason that happens

there an dead end and no change in direction for significant improvements. It actually happens with electronic but a bit in reverse because there so many way's to do the things in programmable logic and with software library covering whatever one needs from filters to bucket logic , modulators you name it. Much is done in FPGA which is actually putting 

software in logic block as a program but the best part is if a developer sees it as software into electronic they will not see the benefits of electronic circuit that can do something 

software can't. 

 

So don't beat yourself up with the knowledge you got it doesn't matter if one can do good programming, when you can do the same with electronic circuits it just the benefits of 

development all together. I'm blown with what you know of certain chip and eagerly google for more to find out about this stuff I love it so keep it coming even if it looks plain to 

you its gold to some of us.  

 

 

[Jokeyman123]

Einstein said-never stop asking questions. And he also said "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution." This why I love creating music-one is only limited by imagination, not strictly by logic.  There still is no IC chip as complex and capable as one human being. the only reason computers can seem intelligent-is that we are capable of creating them that way. Our imaginations have always been the key to new understandings-that and mistakes! My limitations can pull me forward, if I can see myself beyond myself! Just prattling on.....its early AM here maybe too early!

[Majek Skateboards]

I know that software, hardware, repair, and mods are all different skills but amazing when put in the context of keyboards.

[Jokeyman123]

This is true-a modern music keyboard/workstation such as my Px560-and so many others, is truly a technological laboratory of all those things in one box-inconceivable when I started playing way back in the 60s-1960s, not 1860s! I've mentioned somewhere here-the Generalmusic workstations now extinct-were designed by a team of musicians and engineers-some of whom were based at MIT! It's in my manual for the Equinox, and why I've kept that thing for over 15 years now and it still plays. Yes there are other keys now that can do what it does, but it took a long time for many others to catch up. the closest Casios are the MZ-X500 and my PX560.

[XW-Addict]

9 hours ago, Jokeyman123 said:

Einstein said-never stop asking questions. And he also said "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution." This why I love creating music-one is only limited by imagination, not strictly by logic.  There still is no IC chip as complex and capable as one human being. the only reason computers can seem intelligent-is that we are capable of creating them that way. Our imaginations have always been the key to new understandings-that and mistakes! My limitations can pull me forward, if I can see myself beyond myself! Just prattling on.....its early AM here maybe too early!

Potato , patato but I feel you on that imagination is a crucial part, But also technique and how to apply that solid knowledge is built up through the years and honestly you're knowledge also like that and heck for some reason people like this seem to flock over here at casiomusicforum sharing their accumulated insight.  Oh boy i feel like that song rambling man right now 🤣🤣🤣

[CYBERYOGI =CO=Windler]

Well, I obviously was reborn with the soul of a Brownie. I am writing on various complex hard sci-fi and fantasy movie scripts (trying hard to stay technically plausible) but not even manage to finish that, because I fail to imagine or remember names and properties of personas because I rather think in historical sequences of incidents rather than individuals causing them. (I grew up with Star-Trek, not the modern illogical zombie and vampire crap solely designed to place cliffhangers for wasting time and selling more ads while brutalizing the youth. The TV series "LOST" really cured me from expecting anything reasonable in long modern TV series. I neither have subscribed to any movie streaming service nor have cracked cards or keys in my Dreambox DM8000 (running at a 37cm PAL CRT) - it still only receives those about 80 free and national TV channels broadcast by the local cable TV service.)

People often fear about A.I. starting a "rebellion of machines". IMO it is already there! But not as spectacular as in "Terminator", and not because programs have become conscious. But filterbubble algorithms were undoubtedly designed to increase profit by recommending similar things over and over again. So the way they now produce hate by throwing the straw out of all the people's heads onto one big stack until it self-combusts and sets democracy on fire is exactly that! And it is the pulsed microwaves of smartphones those make people's brains even more vulnerable against the stupidity spread by it 24/7.

Buy radioactive toothpaste now for a radiant smile! That is to say, mobile radio is the radium of our time. Once upon a time radium was the hyped hitech craze built and mixed into everything (from children toys to soda water) to make things luminous and healthier and better in any way (websearch: "radium girls") until people discovered that their jaws rotted off from smoking those precious radioactive radium cigars. Nowadays exactly the same thing is happening with the such fashionable modern pulsed microwave products. People put smartphones under their bed pillow instructed by a special app to record their sleep phases (microwaving their brain while sending data to be processed through the cloud) until the overheating battery will finally set the bed ablaze. You can buy now toddler toys containing wifi or a smartphone compartment. And who on Earth needs a bluetooth toothbrush!? Between this insanity and radium toothpaste is absolutely no difference.