Casio CTK-631

standard

no issue with polyphony-seems fine.

Touch response is pretty dire- there only seems to be two levels to it , and touch is either 'off' or 'on'.
Sounds are too thin, to be honest. The CTK-671 is much better.

seems solid enough

never dealt with them

nice clear display, lots of toys. In built speakers are appalling and sounds are too thin and lack body. Go for the CTK-671 instead. Its a much more complete instrument

Handling is easy. The big, bright blue display says anything you want to know. The black rubber knobs in color black are hard to see without external ligthing. Entering values is very easy and professional via the great numeric block, alternative with (+) (-). Switching between rythm and sound is a little bit nerving. First success is gained very easy but deeper functionality is only accessible after some acrobatic keystrokes - but sometimes it's astounding, that they are accessible!
The synthesizer function is powerful in view of it's simple use.
The case is full-plastic but seems well designed and strong. Despite of it's internal loudspeker-sytem it is a really light-weight and easy to handle.

the 32 key polyphony is more than you will ever need to play it as a piano. The 3 stages of reverb makes the sounds more naturally. I've never heard glitching or missing tones on this Keyboard. Very impressive! If you change sounds while playing this is made neatless and unhearable. That means you hold a chord whit eg. organ and change to flute and play the flute to the still holded organ. Very professional! I've not tried MIDI until yet, but I will do so. There's MIDI IN/OUT and the board ist compatible to GM-Mode (you can change that).

The auto-accompaniment is good but the handling and flexiblity is far away from the genious from eg. Technics.
There are 2 Variations for each of the 100 Styles. Chords are shown in the display. And the styles are interesting. Greatest deficit is, that there can be not created own styles. (Greater Casios can that)

The natural sounds are very realistic and consist of Multisamples. Nothing new here (General Midi). I love that strings and the 12-string guitar!!! Very, very good. And I like the other sounds too. They are away from being cheap. The piano sounds much better than upper class e-pianos ten years ago. All sounds are warm, bright and powerfull!!! Astounding - The touch response is quite good. Never before had so much fun playing with a (low end) keyboard. Very inspirative. The synthesizer function is very musical and makes sound designing funny. The results are not really synthesizer-sounds rather than remaining natural-sounding mostly. Not bad!

If you want better sounds, you will have to pay much more money (no guarantee that it will really sound better).

I haven't tried it on stage (until yet). but I'm sure it would work for a wihle. Ther great bright display would do it's job excellent- The greatest dismiss is that it has no separate line outs but a combined earphone/output jack that mutes the internal loudspeakers. Not very professional. The external power supply jack makes not a stressable impression. Peanuts...
The internal backup battery (if there is one) seems to be empty. After disconnecting power everything is lost. Maybe batteries must be used in addition. (you can power this keyboard with batteries!!!)

While I didn't think great of CASIO - Now I'm a believer. I would buy any actual Casio-Keyboard in the upper class for this cheap price.

If your focal point is on auto-accompaniment, then you should try other keyboards like Technics, Yamaha, Roland instead. But for playing just around for fun it is more than worth the price. But for playing it "really" as a synthesizer or e-piano it is very funny and expressfull. The better you play, the better it will sound. Impressive.

Summary: Cheap is more fun for you money.

Very easy to use, no need to read the manual, just dive in and play with it for a few hours and you're golden.

This is most definately an entry level board, nothing fancy. Good features for the price though.

The sounds are cheap Casio sounds. But that's why buy have a cheap Casio!! I've been writing electronic music for about 4 years now and even as I continue to expand my synth collection, I still use this keyboard for those cheap-o synth leads that sometimes just sound *right* in a mix...

This was my first keyboard and I used it to play my first gig back in college several years ago.. haha, I remember it well. It was mostly just me and a few buddies lip-synching to our pre-recorded songs... I played the lead melodies and synth hooks on this keyboard and I remember one song -- during the quiet reflective breakdown -- I accidentally hit the rhythm button and this terrible drum loop began playing and I was singing at that point and it took me about 30 seconds to figure out where the sound was coming from! hahaha!! Anyhow, yeah, it's reliable, just be careful where your fingers are during dimly lighted shows if you use it live...

Never had to deal with 'em...

Again, this was my first keyboard, I got it about 4 years ago, and it is most certainly *NOT* a professional board (this coming from an amatuer even!)... Now I have a Roland XP-60, a Korg Wavestation, an Emu Mo' Phatt, a Nord Modular, A Yamaha DX-21 & TX81z, and a few others synths... Even as I continue to expand my gear collection, I still use this for those terrible sounding leads that, for whatever reason, just *FIT* into the mix sometimes... If you want a workhorse synth, get an XP-60 or a Triton or a Kurzweil K2k or something.. This keyboard does about what you'd expect from a ~$200 Casio.

This keyboard is really easy to use, and the edit patcher allows you to fix mistakes if you make any whilst recording.

This keyboard has a 6 track recording facility. this means that you can record one tack, and then another to play along with your first track, and so on...for 6 tracks. Great if yoou like to compose music.
It has a MIDI output if you would like to make MIDI files on your PC.

The sounds are pretty realistic. i used to play with this model in a band, but to be honest, it can make a professional band sound a bit cheap

good reliability. I have used it at several gigs but have had to amplify. the speakers are loud, but not loud enough

Dunno, i have broken the output at the back that allows you to use a pedal. i use a pedal. instead of going to the great effort of trying to contact them, i am buying a new keyboard...a better one...a Yamaha......sorry Casio.

well, to be honest, it is a really good keyboard, ideal for someone who likes music and likes to have fun, but i don't think it's proffessional enough for a decent band. I would buy another keyboard

Well i bought it used so i didn't get a manual.

Yes it has MIDI and tons of other stuff like touch response and lot's of tones and rythms that you can choose from.

For the most part the instraments are realistic and they are easy to use because the list if right there in front of you on the keyboard and all you do is look at what the number is and than punch in the number and than play on the keyboard and you have whatever sound you chose.It works well for all types of music but mostly dance i would say.The onboard effects are quite good. Yes it reacts to your playing. It reacts to velocity and aftertouch the way you would expect it to.

Yes if i had to buy this again i would. It is a very reliable keyboard.

N/A

If it was lost or stolen and i didn't have any hope that it was coming back than i would buy it again and it is definetly worth every cent that i paid. I have been playing the piano on and off for about 10 years now. I love it all.

For a first Keyboard this one is not too bad, Before I started using Cakewalk and Recording session 4, I Got quite a bit of use out of the on-Board sequencer, I dont know about the patch editing, the GM sounds are not bad at all for the price, the piano and strings sound good as do the wave forms. There are 6 pads on the face for drum sounds and as they are programable their a pain to use so I dont bother. And I thought the manuel was a lot like reading lattin.

The only effects it has is a reverb setting which has a button right on the face. No slots for expansion. Its 61 keys are touch senstive and it has a midi in\out\ no thru and it diddnt come with a wall wort which I found agravating. the sequencer is verry easy to use but it only remembers the recording when you turn the unit off for some of the time, and it has a pitch wheel(which is why I baught it)

Most of the instrament tones are quite realistic for the price of the board, but the synth tones are lacking in crunch, they sound quite flat in comparison to higher end boards, I really baught it for the wrong reason it is probably best suited for the panio student and dosent do much for the home studio, but when playing it it reacts well to your playing there is quite a lot of range to the velocity of the keys

I havent taken it out much but so far so good, I wouldnt call it road worthy

couldnt tell ya

Its worth what I paid for it, If lost Id get a QS series. This has been great to teach me about how MIDI works, Ive only been playing keyboards for about 6 months, and Ive been a drummer for 12 years so its a adjustment. I really like the ease of use, and the VID-SCREEN tells you everything thats going on, I wish it was more programmable, It helps in makeing music its what Ive got and its a great starter, and its probably the closest thing youll get to a pro synth for under 300$