REVIEW – Casio AP-750 – New 2024 Digital piano | Hybrid wood keys | 8 speakers & 4 amplifiers internal sound system | $3399 internet discount price.
This model is available in matte black cabinet color only along with reflective gloss front panel – The Casio AP-750 is the new top-of-the-line Celviano model for the Casio company. Casio of Japan has been producing home digital pianos and keyboards for over 40 years, so they have been at it for a long time. The Casio digital piano company, along with Yamaha, Kawai, Roland, and Korg, are the top digital piano companies in the world.
Casio is especially known for giving you a very “big bang for the buck” in terms of a digital piano that gives you a lot of useful technology and a very good piano playing experience for a low price. When Casio first started manufacturing digital pianos many years ago, they were primarily known for digital pianos & keyboards priced under $1000 or less. This is the first time Casio has used their proprietary piano technology in this price range.
Casio is a Japanese design & manufacturing consumer electronics & music company based in Tokyo, Japan since the early 1950’s. These days they are also known for designing and building digital pianos in much higher price ranges than in the past and upwards to over over $6000. They also continue to manufacture digital pianos in the lower price ranges down to under $500.
The new AP-750 for 2024 is their latest entry into the $3000 to $3500 price range that combines an attractive home furniture cabinet with higher end digital technology that offers an impressive piano playing experience.
The AP-750 comes in one cabinet color which is matte black with a gloss black front panel that gives this model some elegance, especially when the key cover is open and the keys are showing. It’s a unique cabinet design and contemporary in appearance but yet has some traditional design to it as well. So if you like a black cabinet color, then this one would be a good choice in that way.
But obviously it’s not all about the cabinet color and design, but most importantly it’s about the piano playing experience and how authentic it will be. The AP-750 is definitely worth considering among the top brands that produce digital pianos in this price range. Casio has always been a leader in the digital piano and keyboard industry and they have had some impressive proprietary digital piano features that others have not had, and as I already mentioned, at very reasonable prices.
So what is it about the AP-750 that would make someone want to own it and play it? For me it has to be all about key action, piano sound engine (sound chip), responsive pedals, and the internal speaker system being able to get the piano sound out of the piano in a way that makes everything sound natural and not artificial. In this price range no one wants an artificial piano playing experience. People are looking for a digital piano that feels and sounds natural and the new AP-750 will be able to do that for you.
By the way, the best way to interface with and use the features in AP-750 is not necessarily from the piano control panel, but instead it is much more intuitive and user-friendly to control the sounds and features in the AP-750 using the proprietary Casio Music Space app on a digital phone or tablet. Their are big advantages in using this app to control the many functions and features of this app and without it some of what this piano does would not be as accessible.
I highly recommend the Casio Music Space app if you should decide to purchase this model and it really helps the overall playing experience you’ll get with the AP-750. I will be discussing the various features in this model by referring to the Casio Music Space app fairly often in this review along with images/screenshots of the app features so you can see what I am talking about.
KEY ACTION
Casio has this fairly new hybrid wood & resin key action for the white keys and the black keys are all plastic. This newer key action is supposed to better duplicate a more realistic piano playing experience with more stable keys, faster and quieter key action, and with good key response as the keys go up & down. Casio has this same key action in their other new Celviano AP models including the AP-550 and AP-S450.
A couple of things that I do like about this key action is that it is weighted and graded but yet is not heavy or too firm. A heavy key action can cause finger, hand, and wrist fatigue when playing for longer periods of time and there are some other brands with key actions that are known to do that. The new Casio hybrid key action in this model does feel good when the keys are moving up & down and it’s enjoyable to play.
The keys are also nicely balanced, although the keys are more compact in length. The more compact nature of these keys is so the cabinets themselves can be a bit more compact and still accommodate these more compact key actions. So does this key action feel and move just like key actions in actual grand pianos? The answer is no, although Casio does say in one of their ads that the key action is a “Hammer Action for Authentic Touch of Grand Piano.”
All of these digital piano manufacturers tend to exaggerate things in their ads and Casio is no exception. Does this hybrid key action have the “authentic touch of a grand piano”…a real, good acoustic grand piano? Nope…it does not. But good new grand pianos are easily over $15,000 each and more, so I would not expect a digital piano like this to have a key action that has an authentic touch of a grand piano.
But…is this new hybrid key action response good, is it impressive, does it play nicely, does it feel good, will pro players like it as well as beginners, and is it expressive to the touch? The answer is yes…and I like it and the vast majority of digital piano buyers out there will like it a lot too! This key action does allow you to play any type of music in a comfortable recreational way and will help you produce some great music.
Plus, most people have never played a grand piano because upright acoustic pianos are much more popular, affordable, and take up a lot less space in a home than an acoustic grand piano. Nevertheless, Casio does have a “grand piano style” long length key-action model with 100% black & white long length wooden keys that are fully balanced and a bit firmer like a grand piano. Those Casio models are called the GP-310 at $4299 and the GP-510 at $6299. So if you want to move up into that level, then Casio does have digital piano models for that purpose.
With regard to the AP-750, the keys are mechanically quieter than past key actions they have produced in this price range, so that is a good thing. The keys move good and also have the simulated synthetic ivory & ebony key-tops which reduce glare on the key tops and also help to absorb sweat from the fingers as you play. So I do like those qualities about this key action as well.
When compared to other key actions from other brands in this price range, this new Casio model with its hybrid key action of the white keys being a combination of 2/3 spruce wood & 1/3 resin, will give you a satisfying and more natural piano playing experience that you will enjoy.
It is interesting to note that on some of the other major digital piano brands, their key action includes what is known as “escapement” or “let-off” within the key action. This simulated feature is found on real acoustic grand pianos when pressing down the keys slowly.
When pressing down the keys of grand piano slowly you will feel a slight hesitation or “bump” in the key movement. You won’t get this feeling on real upright acoustic pianos and this new Casio AP-750 does not have this key action feature either. Also, if you play the keys at medium of fast velocity on a real grand piano then you don’t feel that slight hesitation at all and it is like it’s not there at all. You only get it when playing grand piano keys somewhat slowly and softly.
The question for that is, does it matter if this simulated “escapement/let-off” feature is not there on the Casio? In my opinion is really does not matter. Most acoustic pianos that people own for their homes in the US are upright style pianos, not grand pianos. So on an upright piano you won’t get that “escapement/let-off” feeling anyway. Plus having that key action “slight hesitation” feeling that other brands try to simulate is fine, but for me it is definitely not a “deal-breaker,” as they say.
It’s really all about the overall movement and comfort of the keys, the response and balance of the keys, and the durability of those keys when playing music on a piano. If you want something beyond that and you are looking to focus on playing mostly complex classical music at advanced playing skill levels, then there are also other models and brands to look at for more money. But for the majority of people playing music in their homes, churches, or schools, or other venues this key action in the Casio AP-750 model should be more than enough for you.
PIANO SOUND
The realism of the piano sound in any digital piano is not only dependent on the digital sampling technology and the grand piano themselves which are being sampled, but the sound is also dependent on the internal speaker system. I will be talking about the AP-750 internal speaker system later on in this review. In the case of Casio, they use stereo sound sampling (recording) technology to get their piano sounds for this model and they record the actual acoustic grand piano sound in a live pro recording studio.
The piano sounds they have in the AP-750 are mostly grand piano sounds that are taken from 3 specific grand piano brands. These piano brands include the famous Bechstein brand from Germany, the Steinway brand from New York/Germany, and the Bosendorfer brand from Vienna, Austria. So you get three different stereo grand pianos within the AP-750 and each of those grand pianos have 2 additional variations of piano sound allowing for 3 grand pianos for each of those brands. That makes a total of 9 grands pianos from those brands in the AP-750.
Beyond those main grand piano sounds there are 5 other acoustic piano sounds available to play on the AP-750 including rock, jazz, ballad, pop, and dance. So when you add up all the acoustic piano sounds in the AP-750, there are 14 acoustic piano sounds with each one giving you a different “flavor” of acoustic piano. Having 14 acoustic piano sounds for a digital piano in this price range is impressive. Normally you might find perhaps 5 or 6 acoustic piano variations in some brands or even less than that.
The main piano sounds in this model are also very dynamic and expressive. You can hear lots of “musical color” in the piano sound when pressing the keys faster or slower and harder or softer. This means there are an impressive number of organic resonances in the the main grand piano sounds that do simulate the acoustic grand piano sound very well. In some cases you may not be able to tell the difference between this AP-750 and the real thing, depending on your acoustic piano playing experience.
So why are there 3 main grand piano sound samples in this model called the Berlin, Hamburg, and Vienna? Why is there not just one grand piano sound as would be found in a real acoustic grand piano. Real pianos only have the sound they have…one sound for that one piano. But in digital pianos there can be multiple piano sounds like the AP-750.
The reason why is so you can get the musical personality and character of different grand pianos which will allow you to play different types of music more effectively. That’s why there are different acoustic pianos…they all have different tonal and sound characteristics. Some grand pianos sound better for pop music, for Latin music, for Jazz music, for country music, for different types of classical music, etc.
In the AP-750, the “Berlin”(Bechstein) piano sound has a tone that is brighter than the other 2 grand pianos and it has more musical “punch”and percussive quality as well. Therefore the Berlin grand piano sound would be a good choice for music that would sound better with those grand piano sound characteristics such as pop music, Latin, country, jazz, etc. The Berlin piano sound is also very good for many forms of classical music, especially when incorporating the sound editing features. I like the Berlin piano sound very much.
The Hamburg (European Steinway) piano sound has a sound that is less bright and a bit fuller/richer in tone (according to my ears) and really sounds great when playing many types of classical music, romantic music, and other music suited to those musical characteristics.
The Vienna (Bosendorfer) piano sound in the AP-750 has a tone that is noticeably more muted, somewhat more mellow, and even a bit compressed. In my opinion the Vienna piano sound in this AP-750 does not sound like the real thing to me. I have played many real full size Bosendorfer grand pianos from Vienna, Austria and they sound much different than the Vienna sound in the AP-750. However, there are some editing features in the AP-750 that you can use to alter and improve the Vienna piano sound (or any piano sound in the AP-750) to make it different and potentially more pleasing to the ear.
I tried those editing features in the AP-750, and for me it made a big difference in the outcome of the Vienna piano sound sample. I liked it better when I updated the sound with some of the editing features that I used. That’s one of the many useful features in the AP-750…to be able to edit and change the factory preset instrument sounds in a variety of ways.
The AP-750 has 256 notes of polyphony at maximum level. Polyphony is basically the “processing power” of the digital piano chip to play up to 256 notes of sound in stereo along with sustaining the piano sound at maximum levels as well as being able to mix/layer an additional sound on top of the piano sound. With all this going on, it takes a lot of “memory” within the piano to accommodate more complex music and playing skills.
256-note polyphony chips, if done by the factory correctly, can help your piano playing to sound more realistic, as opposed to half that amount in polyphony such as 128-note polyphony. So when it comes to polyphony piano processing power, Casio has the maximum amount that most top digital piano models have and you should be able to play any style or type of music on this model..
With regard to accessing the 3 main grand piano sounds, you can get to them very quickly from the touch sensor front panel just above the keyboard on the left side. There are 3 embedded touch senors in that panel which light up nicely so you can easily see all 3 piano names. Then you just touch any one of those embedded digital “buttons” and you get that piano sound.
These touch sensor buttons are listed in a row as “Berlin” (Bechstein), Hamburg (Steinway), and Vienna (Bosendorfer). I found that these digital buttons work well, you just need to lightly touch any of them to be activated, and they are easy to read. For people who mainly want to focus on playing and want a quick way to access the 3 main grand piano sounds, this is a creative and good way to do it.
The piano sounds on those digital buttons are named that way (Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna) because that is where those grand piano companies are located, in those 3 European cities. Typically digital piano companies cannot use the “real brand names” of the acoustic pianos unless they own those companies or are paying royalties to and/or get permission from those acoustic grand piano companies to do so. So that is why Casio is doing it that way. City names don’t have those restrictions.
When you are not using those touch senor digital buttons then those lighted piano sounds disappear after a bit of time and you don’t see them anymore. It’s like they are not there. But if you want to see those lighted sensors again you just lightly touch the front panel above the keys and the lighted piano senors come back on so you can use any of them again. That’s pretty cool because then you would never know those piano names are there after the lights fade out and the panel looks normal again at that point.
Besides the 3 main grand piano sounds accessed quickly on the front touch panel, Casio also included a brighter and more mellow version from the factory for each of those 3 main grand piano sounds for a total of 9 variations of the Berlin, Hamburg, and Bosendorfer piano sounds.
You can access all 9 piano sounds that I just mentioned plus 5 additional specialty piano sounds for a total of 14 piano sounds directly from the keyboard. You can do this by pressing a function button on the piano left side control panel and then at the same time pressing a piano key with the name of the piano sound you want just above the key. That simple procedure instantly triggers any of those 14 piano sounds so that you can play them, and that procedure can also trigger any of the other non-piano sounds in this model.
Then there is the Casio Music Space app which allows you to see all the piano sounds (including the 9 main grand piano sounds) in a list on the app. You then just touch the sound you want on the app from your external device (I use iPads in my studio to do it) and you instantly have that new piano sound. Fortunately it’s fairly easy to change piano sounds right from the piano itself as I already mentioned, but it’s also really easy to select piano sounds from the app using an iPad, phone, etc. Generally speaking I prefer a tablet to display all functions of this piano. They are easier to see and use that way.
There are also ways to create new piano sounds in this model using the AP-750 piano editing and reverb features so that you can customize the factory piano sounds and make new ones depending on what you are looking for. I will talk about that a bit later.
Overall, based on how many factory acoustic piano sounds there are in this instrument and the multiple ways you can access them and also customize them, this is a very impressive digital piano. The piano sounds are lively, expressive, and full of musical color and all of this gives you unlimited piano playing experiences depending on which acoustic piano sound you choose and how you play it. Casio really did a good job with this new model when it comes to the stereo piano sounds they offer.
PEDALS
The image above is of the Casio AP-750 full size brass pedals. They come wrapped in plastic for protection and then you just take the plastic off once you get the piano assembled and ready to play. Pedals are very important for all types of pianos and there are no exceptions to that rule. Casio has full 3 size nicely shaped brass pedals and they feel good when being pressed down and coming back up, they work good, and do the job they are supposed to do.
The right side sustain/damper pedal is the most important pedal. It is primarily used to hold out and sustain the piano sound and also offers the “half-damper” effect which gives you variable sustain instead of just on/off sustain. So that is a good thing.
The middle sostenuto pedal works fine, although few piano players use that pedal. The left side soft pedal works good and is used to quickly reduce the volume of the piano notes you are playing at the time whenever you press down the soft pedal. This soft pedal just gives you more control over volume and allows a bit more expression when using it.
Some digital pianos have pedals that do not work good, or are noisy when the pedals are being used, or don’t offer variable sustain/damper pedal control. So overall, the 3 pedals on the AP-750 work good and also are attractive on the black cabinet of the AP-750. Some cabinets out there have chrome pedals on their black cabinets, but the AP-750 has brass pedals,which to me, looks very classy.
INTERNAL SPEAKER SYSTEM
The AP-750 has 40 watts of power with 4 separate amplifiers that go into a total of 8 speakers within the piano. As with nearly all digital pianos that have multiple speakers inside, those speakers are usually different sizes. This is also true for the Casio AP-750. There are 4 larger main speakers under the piano (as seen in the above image under the piano looking upwards) and smaller high frequency speakers within the piano facing towards the player. But having 8 speakers in one piano, particularly in this price range, is very unusual.
In my opinion the Casio AP-750 has a very interesting and unusual internal speaker system as compared to other brands and models of digital pianos in this price range. A few name brands and models of digital pianos out there have 40 watts of power with 2 amplifiers and 4 speakers, and some have about 60 watts of power with 2 amplifiers and 2 speakers. so those specs are fairly common and normal in this general price range for current models.
I would have also thought that with 8 internal speakers that Casio would have had a more powerful amplifier system with more total power than 40 watts. However, there is newer amplification technology out there that allows for a bigger dB level (volume sound pressure) without the need for higher wattage amps that would normally suck up power and need more electricity to drive the amps & speakers.
Casio designed a new amplification system which assigns just 10 watts of power to each of the 4 amplifiers which power the 8 speakers. So the proof of whether or not this is a good thing is how loud the piano can get along with quality sound and with how quiet it is without any or much distortion or amplification noise. I was surprised to hear a very big volume of piano sound come out of those internal speakers when I turned up the master volume a bit.
Part of reason for this higher volume for the 4 x 10 watt amplification output for a total of 40 watts has to do with a new internal design of the piano where Casio has cleverly placed acoustic sound pathways within the piano (see left image example) which are actually hollow chambers that help give more depth and resonation to the sound that just having speakers and amps alone.
In other words the interior of the piano is set up to be like a passive resonating chamber with specific sound pathways or tunnels which allow the sound to travel within the cabinet helping to get the sound out more naturally. Along with these “acoustic pathways” are the other 4 smaller speakers putting out higher frequency sounds out the front of the piano and through the top when the top lid is open.
With all this in mind, you have piano sound coming through 4 bottom speakers downward facing coming out the bottom the piano, 4 smaller speakers coming out of the inside of the piano towards the player, the acoustic pathways within the piano allowing for a fuller sound, and the opening lid which allows sound to come out of top of the piano.
No other digital piano out there has a lid that can open up like the Casio AP-750. There’s a lot going on but the bottom line is that the sound can be big and full, certainly more than loud enough if you need volume, and the sound is omni-directional in the way it comes out of the cabinet.
Also, the piano sound is loud enough even when using only 50% of the master volume. When the master volume knob is turned up to 75% ore more then you really get a lot of volume out of that internal speaker system. So when it comes to hearing this piano and wanting big volume, good tone, and lots of power, the AP-750 can do that for you.
The AP-750 piano sounds are also impressive when the piano volume control is on minimum volume. The AP-750 has a control feature called “volume sync equalizer” which when you are at a low master volume setting, will boost and make clear the appropriate amount of bass and treble frequencies if the piano sound, which is good.
Normally when volume is reduced to very low levels then you also can lose the bass response of the sound and also clarity of the higher treble frequencies in the sound. This volume sync EQ compensates for that so the quality of piano sound is still good even at lower volume levels for the piano.
So overall, as name brand digital pianos go in this price range. Casio certainly has done an impressive job in designing and creating an internal speaker system that puts out the power and volume that is necessary and at a good quality level without sucking up much electric power.
INSTRUMENT SOUNDS
As with pretty much all digital pianos, the AP-750 has additional non-acoustic piano and instrument sounds. There are 15 total non-acoustic piano instruments in the AP-750 including strings, organs, harpsichord, electric pianos, etc. There are no brass, woodwind, or other orchestra instruments and also there are no guitars, synths, or drums. The instruments this model does have are good and should cover all the musical bases for most people who want to primarily focus on the “piano playing experience.”
I personally like using other instrument sounds that digital piano have and in the Casio AP-750 you can also use those extra instrument sounds to mix together with each other doing 2 at a time, or mixing with an acoustic piano sound using one instrument tone such as strings mixed with a acoustic piano tone such as the Hamburg grand piano sample. It’s a great way to enhance the piano playing experience and the extra sounds helps fill things in as well.
Beyond that, you can also “split” 2 sounds at the same time which includes a bass sound on the left hand and your choice of any right hand sound such as an acoustic piano sound on the right hand. You can also do a layer/mixed combination at the same time as playing a split sound setup with the bass sound for the left hand. So there are many possible instrument sound combinations and possibilities with the AP-750.
Finally, this Casio model also has many “sound effects” such as reverb, stereo chorus, and other effects that bring out some of the instrument sounds and add more realism to them. The “effects” is a very useful feature and I personally use them to make my playing experience more authentic. I will talk more about the “effects” of this piano later on.
So when it comes to other instrument sounds that the AP-750 can do, I personally think it has enough of them for most people. If, for some reason, you need a lot more non-piano instrument sounds than what this AP-750 furniture cabinet model has to offer, then this piano is not for you. There would be other choices from other brands for that purpose, should that be important to you.
USER INTERFACE CONTROL PANELS
The AP-750 has very unique user interface controls as compared to all the other brands in this price range. That is because it has 2 different control panels on the piano and they both have lighted touch-senor embedded digital buttons . There are no physical buttons on the AP-750 to control the features and functions.
One of the control panels is located on the left side of the keyboard in a vertical rectangular area that lights up when you power up the piano. You can access and trigger 6 functions including a grand piano sound, function control, recording & playback feature, 3D sound mode, and digital metronome. So this control panel has the basic essentials so that you can access them quickly. The lighted controls can fade out or shut off so that you don’t have to see them (the lights) all the time.
The other control panel is just above the keys towards the left side of the keyboard and that panel can be accessed by just touching it and then 4 lighted digital buttons appear. You can then select from the 3 main grand piano sounds in the AP-750 along with the digital metronome. Having these 2 different lighted digital control panels just gives you different ways to access different features within the piano.
As I mentioned earlier, you can also access many features and functions from the keyboard itself with a variety of features that are accessed by touching the “function” button on the left side rectangular control panel while touch a specific key on the keyboard that has the name of the sound or function just above it. There are also functions that you access from touching the function button and simultaneously touching a specific key on the keyboard to trigger that function.
Again, the most intuitive way of controlling functions and features on the AP-750 and bypassing both digital control panels is to use the proprietary Casio Music Space app on your iOS or Android tablet and controlling all the features from there. Typically that’s the way I would do it most of the time…but not always. I will talk more about this impressive app in detail later on.
One important thing about having digital embedded touch-sensor buttons within 2 panels is that when those touch lights are off, you don’t see any physical buttons on the AP-750 which makes it look clean, streamlined, and more like a real acoustic piano. Even the on/off power button for the piano is on the front left side of the piano and also lights up. But when the power is off then you don’t see that power button.
The lighted embedded touch buttons seem to work well, are easy to use, and they look good too. There are some people who prefer more conventional hardware buttons for a digital piano user interface along with a built-in display screen to more easily see the actual functions and features directly from that display screen. There is some benefit to that but then that can also make the digital piano look more “digital” and less like a real acoustic piano. So it just depends on what is important to you.
TOUCH SENSITIVITY SETTINGS
As with all digital pianos, the AP-750 has other functions and features that can be useful when it comes to playing music. In the AP-750 you can change the “key touch” so that when you press down on a key to get a piano or instrument sound, you can alter the response of that sound depending on how much force from your fingers is necessary to press down on the keys. Then you can get that instrument sound to respond to your “touch.” See “key-touch” chart above.
Altering the touch response setting (aka: touch velocity curve) can be useful if you don’t have much strength in your fingers to press down the keys or if you are “heavy handed” and use too much force to press down the keys. The touch response feature does not physically alter the keys or the weight of the keys. What it does is change how quickly the sound will response to the force of your fingers. This can be a useful feature and some digital pianos do it much better than others and the AP-750 does a good job in this way.
On the AP-750 there are 5 levels of key touch sensitivity from light to heavy and in-between, as well as “normal,” so you can pretty much find what you want. Occasionally I use this feature depending on the type of music I am playing. However, when changing the key touch sensitivity it does change the piano sound character a bit because of the response of the piano sound tone to the touch changes, and this is true of all digital pianos that have touch curve settings.
REVERB, CHORUS, AND BRILLIANCE SETTINGS
Most digital pianos have a special effects section called “Reverb.” This feature adds some depth and echo to the instrument sound you have on which can enhance the overall sound you are hearing. Without using a reverb setting the piano sound or other instrument sounds can seem like they are dry and lacking in room ambience. When playing a piano in different types of rooms or buildings, the natural characteristics and structure of that room can add some ambience to the sound you hear when you talk or play an instrument.
The larger the room and the higher the ceilings, the more space there is in that room to fill up with sound. There are also natural “delays” when the sound is bouncing around in different size rooms such as someone’s living room, bedroom, a school auditorium, a church auditorium, a concert hall, a club venue, etc. It would be like talking inside a big cave or canyon and you get this extra echo or reverb resonating sound,
The AP-750 Reverb & Hall Simulator section gives you a variety of settings that help simulate the overall ambience of a piano sound you might get if playing a real acoustic piano in different types and sizes of rooms or buildings. There are an impressive 17 total different types of reverb choices in the AP-750 which include a variety of halls, stadiums, clubs, rooms, stages, and other places where an acoustic piano might be played.
In this way the AP_750 simulates those places so that you can experience that more natural piano sound depending on what you want the song you’re playing to sound like. I like using these different reverb & Hall Simulator settings just to change up the piano sound I am using to be a bit different and perhaps more like playing in certain types of venues or rooms. The reverb settings work for all of the piano sounds in the AP-750 so that you can add to your piano playing experience no matter which piano sound you have selected.
The different reverb & Hall Simulator settings and depth levels can really make a big difference and you will likely enjoy what you hear. If you don’t want to use the reverb choices then you can simply not use it or shut it off…very simple. You also have a separate digital control for how much “reverb” you want on any given instrument sound so you can increase or decrease the amount of that reverb ambience that you’re getting…and it’s pretty cool, actually. I like it.
There are 2 other effects settings worth mentioning that you can use to enhance and alter the other instrument sounds as well. One of them is called “Chorus.” Chorus is a type of ambient stereo sound that is normally applied to non-acoustic piano sounds such as electric pianos, harpsichords, organs, and other tones to give them a more authentic tonal reproduction. There are different types of “stereo chorus” settings depending on the sound you want to achieve.
I tend to use the Chorus settings when playing vintage electric piano sounds such as the simulated Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer electric piano, or Yamaha DX7 digital piano keyboard sounds. This Chorus feature is actually very good and does help to give more life to the instrument sounds you are using for your music. Casio has had “chorus” special effects in prior digital piano models but they were actually no very good. In the AP-750 these special Chorus effects are much better, much more authentic, and I was happy to see that Casio had made some nice improvements in this way.
One other notable special effect in the AP-750 is the “Brilliance” control. This effect is useful if you want to add or subtract the amount of higher end frequencies that has been applied to your piano and instrument sounds. It’s especially useful if your ears are telling you that you like a particular piano sound from the AP-750 but you wish it was just likely brighter or slightly more mellow and softer.
You can then adjust the “Brilliance” of that factory setting and customize your piano/instrument sounds to your liking and to your ears so it is more in line to what you like. You can also increase or decrease the amount of the Brilliance effect that you get on your piano/instrument sound. It’s just another good way to easily customize the piano sound you are hearing.
One other thing about the reverb section. It’s really best to access and control it using the Casio Music Space app on your external device where you can easily see and use those reverbs in a very intuitive way, regardless of your experience with this feature. You cannot mess it up and you can always return to the original factory setting with the touch of a virtual button on the app from your external device (I like to use iPad to do this).
OTHER FUNCTIONS & FEATURES IN THE CASIO AP-750
The Casio AP-750 has many other functions and features worth mentioning. One of them could be classified as a special effect but it is exclusive to creating a simulated 3D sound effect to the internal speaker system. Most effects will work for both the sound coming through the piano speaker system and through headphones for private practice. The Casio 3D effect, which is called the “Sound Mode,” only works when playing the AP-750 through it’s own speaker system.
It digitally changes the sound of the speaker system so that it seems to re-position the sound in more of a 3 dimensional way and spreads the sound outward with a surround sound effect to make that sound seem even more realistic. At the same time it adds a lot of brightness/ higher frequencies and clarity to the overall sound. You can use this “Sound Mode” speaker effect at the same time as the reverb effects or you can automatically have the Sound Mode feature shut off the reverb effects. It just depends on what you like.
Other digital features include the transpose/key change function to quickly change the key your song is in and modulate to any key that you choose up or down by 1/2 steps. Many digital pianos have this feature and it can be very useful if you do not how to play in many “keys” and are normally limited to easier keys such as C, F, and/or G.
But you can more easily control the key transposer by using the Casio Music Space app and simply going to the “transpose feature” and using the +/- digital touch buttons and then quickly changing the key your in of the song you are playing.
The AP-750 also has an “octave shift” feature that allows you to play a note and immediately move it up one or two entire octaves or to move the note down one or two entire octaves. This feature is useful if you prefer your piano or instrument sound to come out a lot higher or a lot lower than normal. It would be like playing middle C on a piano and having the piano sound be heard like it is a higher C note or even the next C note up the keyboard.
Maybe if you played the middle C note then it would sound like you had actually played the C note one octave lower or even 2 octaves lower so the sound would be lower even though you were playing it normally. This can be useful especially when you are mixing/layering 2 instrument sounds together at the same time.
A good useful example of using this octave shift feature would taking taking an acoustic grand piano sound and layering/mixing it with a string symphony sound. The piano sound will sound normal on the keys when playing it. But when combining the piano and other instruments like strings, the string sounds might sound better in a higher octave as they might be in an actual orchestra.
Another feature that many new name brand digital pianos have these days is called “duet” on this model. This special mode is primarily used with there are 2 people who want to play or practice the exact same song or music at the same time on the keyboard. It’s especially useful when an actual piano teacher plays the practice song on one side of the keys and the student plays the song on the other side of they keys…either left side or right side keys.
This feature essentially (digitally) turns the 88-key piano into two 44-note keyboards. You play the practice on one of those 44-key zones and someone else plays the same song on the other 44-note zones. Although the lower 44-note zone would normally have much lower octaves, you can digitally raise the lower octave to sound like the higher octave of the right side keys. It all makes sense when you are using it.
A really useful additional feature in the AP-750 that is accessed from the Casio Music Space app is the digital mixer. This “mixer” allows you to efficiently and intuitively change the volume of different sounds, features, and sections of the piano. Getting a good “volume mix” so that one section or sound isn’t too loud or too soft is very important. Many digital pianos do not have a good volume mixer, especially one that is accessed visually through an app for a tablet or phone device.
But with the AP-750 you get access to this very impressive digital mixer from the touch screen of your external device. It controls instrument volumes, Bluetooth wireless audio volumes, and other digital levels so that you can balance your sounds the way that you would like to. I like this feature very much, it is easy to access and to use, and just makes your music sound a lot more balanced when you use it.
SCENES
Casio has a function called “Scenes” which can be very important when using the various functions, features, and instrument sounds in thwAP-750. Here’s why the “Scenes” can be very useful to you. It typically takes a bit of time and experimentation when trying out the various things that this piano does.
If you select a transpose key change, maybe layer two different instrument sounds together, make an octave adjustment, add some reverb and other effects to a piano sound, and alter or change other aspects of this piano, then it would be helpful to save all those things at one time so you don’t have to recreate that combination of features from the beginning again, especially if you liked what you had set up and put together.
A Scene in this AP-750 is otherwise known as a “registration” where it memorizes your custom setups and saves it in a digital memory slot for recall later on. There are 10 memories for 10 separate Scenes which is like the piano taking a digital photo of the custom setup you did an storing it so you can instantly bring up that custom setting again without starting over and trying to duplicate it. This is a great feature to have, especially if you like to customize things a bit on the piano or you are playing “live” somewhere and need a quick instant recall of your favorite sound setups.
Since there are 10 Scene memories for storage, that is generally enough for most people when it comes to putting together sound layers, adding reverb, changing the key (if necessary), etc and wanting to recall them right away when playing music on the AP-750. It’s just a nice convenient way to play music with sounds you like to do but don’t want to recreate them…you just select the Scene for instant recall.
Casio has also designed 10 “factory Scene setups” that tries to recreate and simulate certain types of classical music or well known classical music composers and their music that would sound a certain way depending on the type of music and the grand piano that is was played on. For instance, there is a simulation of Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart, Baroque music, Concert Music, etc so that this type of music would sound more natural when you use these factory “scene setting” when trying to play that type of music.
In other words, using the 10 factory Scene presets allows your classical music to sound more authentic so that you do not have to figure out how to set up the AP-750 yourself to sound that way. The 10 factory preset classical Scene registration memories do the work for you. All you have to do is select one of them and play…that’s it. If you like it…great. If you want to choose another one then you just do that.
It’s much easier and quicker to use this cool Scene feature for your own custom setups and also using the factory setups from the color touchscreen of a tablet such as an iPad. Then you can instantly get visual access to these 20 total Scenes and use them when you think it is appropriate and will help you and your music sounding more realistic. I think this is a great feature to have and many digital pianos do not have it at all…but the AP-750 does.
RECORDING/PLAYBACK FEATURES & INSTANT RE-PLAYER
Most all of the new top digital pianos have the ability to record your songs and play them back. Some of the recording features can be used to help in learning how to play the piano and some recording and playback features are great to create and/or compose your own music and then save it within the piano or on USB thumb-drive for later playback. Some pianos have very basic recording and playback features and some digital pianos have more extensive digital recording such as the AP-750.
The AP-750 has a good amount of different recording & playback ability utilizing audio wav file recording and playback as well as MP3 audio and 2-track left and right hand MIDI recording and playback, all of which can be saved to a USB thumb-drive inserted into the piano USB device input port. This is a very handy feature so that you can build up a library of songs that you can play along with or save your recordings for later playback for educational purposes.
Audio recording & playback is a 1-track song and can be taken off the piano and also played on any audio or MP3 player. The 2-track MIDI recorder is generally used to help you learn the left and right hand piano parts for a variety of lesson songs or just to learn music that you like. Being able to play the left or right hand parts separately and record them separately is very helpful to students.
As a long time piano instructor, I like when a student can play and record their own right or left hand part and then play that part back while playing and recording the other hand “live.” In other words you’re able to play along with your self and the other part you already recorded so you can hear that part play back and then play the other hand along with it.
It’s like a teacher saying that they will play the right hand while you play the left hand, or vice-versa. It’s a very good, audible way to learn a long and get a better idea of the rhythm and timing of the song as well when you can play and listen to both parts yourself and then save those recorded songs on a USB thumb-drive for later song playback. It works good and I like this feature.
The Casio AP-750 also has a specialized proprietary recording-playback feature for educational and practice purposes called “Instant Re-Player.” This feature is to help people focus on learning how to play music better as well as specific music you might be working on.
The way this Instant Re-Player operates is to record your playing without you needing to set up and activate the digital recorder in the piano. So when you are playing a song, piece of music, etc, if you want to instantly hear what you did play back to you, you just press the start-play digital button and the song you just played instantly plays back to you exactly how you played it.
The piano is always “recording what you are “playing” until you stop. It does not record any external sounds such as voices or people talking/singing. As an example, maybe you didn’t set up the recorder or you had a musical idea that you started to play and then later wish you had recorded it. Well that’s no problem on the AP-750 because it is always in an “instant record mode” so that you won’t have missed out on recording something that you were just playing and was important to you. You can playback and save that instant recording as well.
Another fascinating aspect of this Re-Player is that you can listen back to just “parts” of you song/music if you want to practice that specific part (certain measures) and not the entire song. You can actually set where the Re-Player starts your song and ends it as far as which measures you want to hear played back. You can actually set up multiple play-back cues (marks) starting from various points in that song that you choose and ending at various points in the song that you also choose.
In this way you can just practice and play those specific parts as they are playing back to you because maybe you don’t need to practice the whole song/piece of music but just certain parts of it where you need the extra practice time. The Re-Player can help you in that way. You can also “loop” a piece of the song so that it plays certain measures that you set and it keeps Re-Playing those measures (parts) over and over in a loop.
You can set the playback tempo of your parts and also the amount of time you want it to do an Instant Re-Play so that you can slow it down to better hear and learn those parts and play against them “live” with the piano. So when it comes to educational practice purposed, this exclusive feature in the AP-750 is very useful and can help a student or someone who needs to practice a song, a way to incorporate digital technology to help with those learning purposes which can help make you a better player.
ACTIVE VISUAL INFORMATION BAR
The AP-750 has a very unique, exclusive feature which is also available in 2 lower Casio AP models) which is a “lighted” active information bar and this bar is seen in the front panel above the keys when music is being played. The Visual Information Bar displays various lighting patterns according to the beat of the metronome, the touch strength (velocity) when playing the keyboard, and the depth to which the damper pedal is pressed.
It’s a very cool feature to watch and use, and at first I thought it might be “gimmicky” and maybe would not be useful. However I changed my mind because after I used it for awhile I saw that it actually could be helpful to piano students who learn in a more visual way, as many students do. That’s really the point of the Visual Information Bar, to give the student a more visual way to understand how they are doing with regard to timing and touch when practicing a song.
There are specific settings for this Visual Info Bar (VIB) that you can access through the Casio Music Space app and visually use these settings from the color touch screen of your external device such as an Android or iOS phone or tablet. I prefer an iPad (tablet) because the screen is larger than a phone and because iOS apps provide more music and music educational content which is important to me.
As a student or even as a piano teacher, you’re supposed to observe the lighted bar in motion as the piano is being played. The lighting patterns when you play the piano or listen to recorded music play on the piano will help you visually see what your music is actually doing and what your fingers (and pedals) are actually doing when it comes to your timid and touch. The lighted Information Bar keeps track of the speed/tempo at which you are playing your music and also the force you are using to play the keys, as well as the damper pedal.
The lighted active moving Info Bar lets you see what that all looks like so you can visually understand it as well as hear it as you would normally do. As a piano student or someone just practicing a piece of music, you normally have to listen to what you are doing and maybe watch your fingers a bit, but there is no good way to actually see your music translated into a moving lighted visual pattern that tells you through those patterns whether you are playing the piece too fast, too slow, too hard with too much finger force, or whether you pressed the damper-sustain pedal correctly.
To learn how to “keep a beat” and play with “feeling and rhythm,” a digital metronome is very useful in doing that. Whether that metronome metronome is being heard doing a 4/4 time, 3/4 time, 2/4 time, 6/8 time, or whatever rhythm pattern it’s trying to do, that audible metronome can be very important in your “counting and playing” when it comes to the timing of a song.
The Visual light Bar also moves to the metronome beat, so not only can you hear that metronome sound keeping the beat, but you can also see that metronome rhythm displayed in the light bar and that light bar will move exactly to that beat so you can visually know if you are “on track” or not. The Light Bar will also move in time with audio wav file songs that you can play pre-recorded songs through the piano and see the beat of that song and also play along with it. That’s pretty cool.
So if you take advantage of this unique Casio feature that no other digital piano brand has, it will help you to be more sensitive to what you are playing and how you are playing it. Will everybody want to use this Visual Info Bar…probably not. Just like all digital features in various digital pianos, not everyone will need or care to use them. But…for people who also like to learn or observe in a “visual way,” regardless of your age, the Information Bar Display System can help you in a number of ways, and I like it.
HARDWARE & BLUETOOTH CONNECTIVITY
The AP-750 does have some hardware connectivity such as two 1/4″ stereo headphone jacks and two 1/4″ audio output jacks to connect to external amplification. It also has two USB ports with one for output to external device such as computer, tablet etc, and the other USB port is an input of a thumb-drive for loading and saving recorded MIDI or audio songs as well as for saving some of the digital settings on the AP-750.
The Bluetooth wireless connectivity consists of being able to wirelessley stream music from an external device such as phone or tablet into the AP-750 speaker system so that you can hear your music come out of the piano and also play along “live” with it. It’s a good way to learn and play along with your favorite music from your music library.
This piano also has Bluetooth wireless MIDI connection so that you can wirelessley connect the piano itself to your external device to use various music related apps on your device for piano lessons, piano instruction, musical games, etc. This type of connectivity can be useful but you can also do it through a wired USB connection using a USB cable connected to your external device.
The AP-750 does not have actual audio input ports or other types of connectors or ports and it does not have USB audio streaming. But for most people, what it does have is usually enough to suit most people’s needs when connecting to or from outside digital sources.
CASIO MUSIC SPACE APP
Many name brand digital pianos have their own proprietary apps to use with some of their digital pianos. Using an app like that can help you navigate and use the features and functions of the digital piano in a more intuitive way. Casio has created a special app for their pianos called “Casio Music Space” and this very impressive “remote control” app is important in being able to use the big variety of features in the AP-750 in a much more user-friendly way.
In fact, that’s the way I mainly navigate the AP-750 with regard to all the many features and functions that it has. I might use the manual controls on the piano to select instrument sounds or do basic recording, but everything else that this piano does including all the things I already mentioned in this review, I access and control those functions through this very intuitive Casio Music Space app from the color touch screen of my iPad.
You can use your Android or iOS phone or tablet to control the piano from the Casio app. If you do not have access to one of those external devices then you can control most of the features and functions of the piano from the manual controls, but you’ll need to refer to the owners manual to find out what key on the keyboard to press while simultaneously pressing the function button on the digital interface on the left side of the keyboard.
When you want to select an instrument sound then you go to the instrument sound list on the app and simply touch that sound and then you instantly get that instrument sound on the AP-750. If you want to layer/mix or split 2 to 3 instrument sounds, then you do that on the app.
If you want to add special effects such as reverb, chorus, or brilliance then you access those features from the app and it’s very quick and easy to do. If you want to transpose your music to a different key then you do that from the app and it’s quick and easy to do.
Another thing about the Casio Music Space app is the fact that it lets you do fun musical things that are not on the AP-750. In other words you can add to your playing enjoyment in some very creative ways when using this app as you play music.
The Casio Music Space app has piano song “games” called Piano Rolls that let you visually “see” the music with streaming lines that drop down from the musical characters to the keys on the app that you are supposed to play on the piano. It’s an educational tool that helps in “ear training,” rhythm, and timing in ways that can give students some extra help in learning a variety of music in ways that may be more appealing to them than always doing the “serious” stuff.
You really need to see these educational song features live on the AP-750 as they are playing to get a better understanding of what I am talking about. It’s fun and engaging regardless of your age and everyone can have a good time with it.
Another exclusive feature of this app is that it can reproduce environmental nature sound effects and also live concert hall audience participation. Imagine yourself on a beach with ocean waves being heard in the background and maybe some seagulls making a bit of noise. Or maybe you’re near a river or stream and hear the water traveling down the stream with perhaps some insects in the background,
That’s just a sample of some of the environmental sounds effects this Casio app can produce and you are in control of those sounds being able to activate them, add to the sounds, control the volume and then play your music while the sound in the background are being heard. It’s really does sound good and adds an additional element of fun and relaxation to playing music on the AP-750…at least it did for me when I tried it out.
The other part of these background sound effects is the audience participation which includes clapping,talking, whistling, and other noises an audience might have when attending a concert in a concert hall, stadium, etc. When you are playing your music then the audience will clap during or at the end of your performance as well as be excited to hear you start your “concert” with “live” background voices you might hear at a concert before the musicians start to play.
All this just add elements of realism to make it sound as if you are playing “live” somewhere or that you are outdoors playing your music in natural organic surrounding producing some entertaining ambience to your music. I personally liked using these features from the Casio Music Space app and it was fun. Would I do this all the time? Definitely not. But it is enjoyable once in a while, especially for kids and it can motivate you to want to play music more often on the AP-750, and that’s always a good thing.
Just when you thought I was done with the Casio Music Space app, I have a couple more things to mention that this app can do that the AP-750 cannot do on its own. You can important songs to the app from your MP3 audio music library that resides in your device and then those songs will play from the app and be heard through the AP-750 internal sound system. Not only that, you can manipulate those songs in many ways such as slowing that song down and playing along with it live so that you can learn to play that song at a slower speed.
Also with regard to those imported songs, you can transpose the key of the song for vocal singing purposes and you can also mute or reduce the volume of the “center track” of that song, which is usually the vocal track and then sing the melody yourself or play the melody so that you can hear your part without that track being heard very loud from the song. In other words, it gives you a chance to be the “vocalist or the player” within the actual song and being able to learn it at the same time.
This Casio Music Space app does other things as well which I won’t go into right now. But the fact is that you can easily and visually control the features and functions of the AP-750 along with accessing and using new musical interactive features that make it a lot more enjoyable to play your music along with getting educational benefit from it as well. Gotta give Casio “5 Stars” for their impressive interactive app which is free in the app store of your device. Definitely download and use it if you decide to purchase this piano.
CABINET & FACTORY WARRANTY
The new 2024 Casio AP-750 is the top-of-the-line model for their Celviano series. It’s the 1st major change in digital technology, key action, sound system, and cabinetry in many years for this company. The attractive cabinet design, layout, and construction are also unique and it’s cabinet measurements are approx 55″ wide x 37″ high x 17″ deep. These measurements are relatively compact given the nature of this cabinet design. The fully assembled weight of this the AP-750 is about 118 lbs which is also relatively light for its size…and is a good thing.
The cabinet color is a matte black with simulated textured black wood-grain in the finish so it looks more natural because of that. The interior space under the raised lid is a red felt material whitvh is a nice contrast to the black exterior cabinet color in my opinion. Also, the front panel is a reflective glossy material that looks very “classy” in my opinion and gives this cabinet an “edge” over other brands in that way. I do like the cabinet design (along with it’s front support legs) and color and it looks fairly elegant as digital pianos go.
Another nice aspect of the cabinet is its sliding key cover that covers up the keys when not in use. Many digital pianos have key covers, but this one in the AP-750 has a unique “breaking system” built-in which slows down the key cover as you are getting to the end of pulling it out and about to close it. This breaking system slows down the cover near the end as it is coming out and then the cover gently closes the rest of the way over the keys. That little extra detail in the piano key cover lid is also impressive and just another thing I noticed that no other digital piano in this price range has.
I also like the fact that the music desk/rack that supports the sheet music and books is extra large as compared to some other digital piano brands & models and it can support more music and larger/taller music books, which is quite helpful. Aside from that, this models has built-in brass adjustable sheet music & page holders so that you music can more securely stay in place when resting against the music desk.
However, the one downside to the cabinet is this Casio model is that it is not available in any other cabinet color other than black. So if you don’t like or do not want black, then this piano may not be for you. Other digital piano brands in this price range also offer matter rosewood and white cabinet colors, but not Casio in this model.
However, Casio has a Celviano model just below this one called the AP-550 which sells for $2999 and it comes in black, rosewood, or white and is also very attractive. So if you need a different color other than black and you want a Casio digital piano, then you may want to consider the Casio AP-550 which has many, but not all the features of the AP-750.
Unlike other brands and models of digital pianos out there that come with a bench, none of them have a “height-adjustable” bench like the AP-750. Normally you would get a standard height bench with digital pianos in this general price range. But Casio offers a very nice upgraded matching height-adjustable padded bench that will work especially well for younger children and vertically challenged adults.
Casio America offers a factory warranty of 5-years parts & labor with in-home service, should the piano ever need it. One really good thing about Casio as well as a few of the other top digital pianos companies is their products are normally very reliable and generally do not need repairs. Casio digital pianos are designed in Japan by Casio design engineers and Casio has been building well known electronic products since the mid 1950’s so they have had a lot of experience with many consumer and music products.
FINAL THOUGHTS
In the $3000 to $3500 price range for new digital pianos in a matte black furniture cabinet, with regard to the top digital piano companies, Kawai has 2 models, Yamaha has one model, Roland has no models, Korg has no models, and Casio has this new AP-750. There are other price ranges with higher and lower priced digital pianos but this price range is actually very popular.
Our impression of the new Casio AP-750, after having played and examined it for many hours, is that it is very competitive with the other major brands, and in fact surpasses them in many ways when it comes to a combination of the piano playing realism, the digital educational features, the additional “bells & whistles,” the cabinet design and appearance, and the very impressive Casio Music Space app.
This model has 8 speakers and 4 amplifiers and a top lid that can prop up for additional sound and omnidirectional sound positioning which is beyond any other digital piano in this price range. It also takes less electric power to operate it as compared to some of the other brands. It has 3 very popular acoustic grand piano sounds with 2 variations each for a total of 9 main grand piano sounds, as I had mentioned earlier.
The piano kooks very streamlined and classy given that all the buttons are digitally embedded and light up when in use and then all the lights go out when you turn off the power. Even the main lighted power button is on the right front of the piano so it is easy to see if the power is on or off. In fact, that power button goes from white light to blue light if the Bluetooth wireless feature is on so that you can visually see that it is working.
All these feature details along with the Music Space app make this piano a very impressive new model and Casio is known for producing reliable digital products (digital pianos, keyboards, consumer electronics) that can last a long time. There certainly are other top brands worth looking at in a price range under $3500, but none of them look like this new Casio model, none of them operate like this Casio AP-750, none of them have Steinway or Bechstein grand piano samples, and none of them have a top lid that can open up for more sound and better sound positioning.
We definitely recommend this Casio model for all the things it has that we have talked about in this review. There are a few additional features/functions that I might prefer to have beyond what this new Casio model can do….but that’s normal for me to want more! Nevertheless, I do like it quite a bit and if it sounds like it fits your musical and furniture cabinet needs in this price range, then we recommend that you purchase the Casio AP-750 because we believe you will enjoy it very much.
