Casio CTK-501

Very easy to use. Bought it used and never got a manual. The editing patches, midi and so forth... I'm sure they work fine, but come on, who is going to really do any recording with a keyboard of this quality. Maybe Raffy will use it on a kid's album.

Midi connections are there. Keyboard action is fine, but I haven't played a $3000 keyboard, I'm sure those are much better. Again, it's a cheap keyboard. You get what you pay for.

BTW, I'm going to rate this keyboard as a 'cheap keyboard.' I'm not going to rate it a '3' because everything sucks, obviously it is going to worse than a $3000 Roland, but that doesn't help anyone who's not in that market.

The piano is ok. Good enough for dinking around, which is precisely why I have this keyboard. I'm a guitar player who wanted to learn some piano chords. It has been very useful for that. The effects are mostly childish. Some of the effects (voices) I might consider on a recording, but they would be toned way, way back.

Could you gig without a backup. That's a pretty hilarious question. Yes, I think you could, unless you dropped it. If Thom Yorke's roadies drop that wierd antique piano he plays, does he have a backup? Who the hell buys two of everything?

Can you depend on it? It's cheap, it's all plastic, but yeah, you can depend on it to work when you plug it in.

Never dealt with them.

If it were stolen (that's funny as well), I would not replace it. I would most likely stalk the keyboards on ebay for a while, a long while, until I found a good deal on something that delivered a more unique sound. However, I think having a good piano sound is important regardless of what else you have on it. Unless, of course, you own mulitple keyboards and already have that covered. It's my understanding that Yamaha has a much better 'grand piano' sound. So, for buyers looking for a good imitation piano, Yamaha is a probably a better route.

simple, not challenging---a baby could use it.

very, very limited features...it sucks compared to 90% of yamaha keyboards.

sure, it reacts to my playing, but most of the instruments are quite obviously synth...works best for playing at a funeral. I'm disgusted that it doesn't have touch sensitivity, but I have no problems playing very, very fast.

NO and NO. this is honestly the crappiest synthesizer I have ever come across. I strongly advise that no one else make the mistake of gtting one of these...the inside corrodes very very easily and once it starts it spreads like a plague and breaks beyond all possible hope of repair.

no, good riddance to that worthless pile of dung that disgraces the name of synthesizers. i have played since i was thirteen and i have another disgraceful casio keyboard (luckily this one isn't half as crappy), and i hate the damn corrosion problem that inevitably happens! yeah, i wish it had been better built---especially the solders---those are more brittle than 100-yr-old china cups! Oh, and i do belive it should be called the POS-501; POS standing for PIECE OF SHIT!

This is a keyboard, not software that we are discussing. The sounds are chosen using a numeric pad or an arrow and work quite well. The ease is at the maximum of May -2005 technology.

Some sounds are multiples, most are not. I purchased this instrument for the MIDI as I play a Casio Digital Horn through the keyboard using the midi functions. It has 100 tones, many are okay some are great and some are just gimicky, but 100 is a lot to choose from. It does not have a sitar or bagpipe sound but I can live with that.

I use it with the Casio DH ( digital horn) almost exclusively, my only complaint is that it does not have the vibrado I want or a knob to adjust for a vibrado. It reacts well, no static that I can hear and my ear is very good. The bass sound are great as are the vibe sounds. The sax, clarinet and other reed sounds are flat - but I am only after an effect, and it just may be that a foot pedal could adjust for the vibrado that I am after. The Casio DH has its own vibrado built in.

Absolutely - I bought this unit on eBay from someone who had it under his bed for the past three years and it plays like a new unit despite being idle. You can drop these Casio Keyboards from a second story building or more and the unit will survive (I have never tried this, but I have dropped one or two without any problems).

The unit, purchased on eBay, came without a manual. You can buy the manual or download it from Casio for free or use your common sense and get 90% of what it can do for you. Casio rarely answers any e-mail and could not care less about your problems.

This unit cost over $300 new, I paid about $42 plu shipping. I fell into this buy as I bid all the time for modern keyboards and never win. But this time I got lucky and the eBay seller had a good record without any negatives ( I check this out forst before bidding). I wish it had more variation in tones, but I can live with this for now. Basically, I play whistles and harmonica - the Casio DH is new to me and after a unsatisfactory experience with the Yamaha WX5 - which is both expensive and not that reliable - I discovered the Casio DH and fell in love with it. It has midi features and some day soon I will attach it to the Computer using Melody Assistant and write music either through the horn or through the keyboard with ther horn attached through the midi.

The keyboard is very easy to use because of its simplicity. Everything is placed quite logically

The polyphony is 12. That seems very small when one plays instruments where each note takes 2 sounds.
It doesn't have any effects.
I haven't tried out the MIDI capabilities.
It has no on board sequencer.
The song bank is good for learning. I learnt my first major pieces from there only. Only thing is that many songs are similar sounding. Will be very useful for a learner.

The instruments aren't realistic. Some of the strings sound really good, however. A major hampering factor is the lack of touch response which stifles expression.
There are no onboard effects.

Very reliable. Have used it for 3 years with absolutely no problem.
Since there isn't any programming, I wouldn't be afraid of using it for a gig(if I chose to use it).

Went once. Wasn't much of trouble and so was fixed right away.

If it were lost or stolen, I would change my instrument for sure. I'd say, it is still quite good for a learner who isn't sure how much he or she is going to use it.
I've been playing for about 4-5 years although I wasn't very serious for the first 2 years. I don't have any other gear.
I love the strings sounds. I hate the lack of touch response. But still, I'd say that's all you'd get for the price(about US $210).
I chose this when I wasn't sure how serious I was. I was attracted by the 100 song bank. It scored over the CTK-530 of that time. I'd say, compared to the CTK-601, it is quite good for its price.
It can make music, but is quite limited.
I would recommend it only if you aren't sure how much you are going to pursue it. If you have any serious thoughts about long term progress, you shouldn't buy this.
Now, I'm trying to upgrade.