REVIEW – This model is now discontinued. The Casio company has been making digital keyboards for decades and most people know that. They have sold billions of them and many people think of them as toys…but not anymore. I have never reviewed a non-piano key action digital keyboard on this piano blog before because although I own, play, and like keyboards, I do not recommend them as a good replacement for an acoustic piano. With that being said, there are people who want a keyboard for their family or for professional purposes because they are not necessarily interested in getting the “weighted piano touch experience” but do want lots of great sounds along with fun & professional feature for a low price in a reliable, solid instrument. At one time or another, I have played nearly all the home style & pro keyboards that have been out for the last 30 years including instruments from Yamaha, Casio, Roland, Kawai, Korg, General Music, Kurzweil, Ketron, and others in all price ranges.
However, a brand new low priced keyboard from Casio has really caught my attention so I thought I would do a short review on it. This new instrument is called the WK7500 and is a non-weighted quick touch 76-key keyboard (just 12 keys less than a full piano keyboard) with piano “style” keys for just $499 internet discount price. I will say that all the things this keyboard can do is not necessarily amazing because other new keyboards can do similar things…but NOT for a low price $499. Other keyboards that can do similar things (but maybe not all) would be selling for at least $1000 or more. Something else that surprises me about this model is the key movement is so quiet compared to Casio keyboards in the past and even other Casio models out now. Casio has done a great job in producing a smoother key response that is much quieter (physically) and does not feel or act like a toy. Nice improvements.
What makes this keyboard unique is because it has not only a very realistic stereo acoustic piano sound and great dynamic range with outstanding key response coming through a very powerful on-board speaker system, but because it also has the ability to record your voice from a microphone plugged in and any acoustic instrument plugged in (in stereo) along with an on-board 17-track MIDI recorder/sequencer into one full audio recording in WAV audio format which can be stored into and played back on the keyboard or in your computer…WOW!
It also has 800 very nice instrument and percussion tones, a 32-track digital mixing board with live mixing sliders, 250 rhythm-arrangement patterns, 96 setup memories, full Hammond style drawbars with 9 physical sliders for authentic jazz organ sounds along with fast & slow digital Leslie rotary speaker effects, tons of effects, a large LCD user interface displaying all the information you could want at this price range, a USB/MIDI 2.0 class compliant plug and play output (which can connect to the latest iPads, iPods, & iPhones), instrument in and outputs, SD card slot for SD storage and transfer of music compositions and setups.
This 76-key WK7500 keyboard can be used to write music, arrange music, record music compositions into an audio WAV file with full editing functions. You can also take it with you to play live performance sessions in a church, school, studio, home, retirement center, or on the go at a park, beach, etc, because it only weighs in at about 19 lbs and can use D cell batteries if no power is available. And it’s very cool looking too!
If you want more info on pianos & this keyboard, as well as lower prices than internet discounts, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864
