Casio CTK-671

Like all keyboards with many buttons, it looks daunting, however this must be the most logical layout I've ever encountered. All the buttons are at hand although I've managed to stop the drums accidentally on a number of occasions due to the very low weight response required to operate them; they almost only need to be touched to start or stop them. A data entry wheel/dial would be nice though, instead of punching in numbers usually between 0 and 127 (or sometimes 0 to 63).
The sounds esp. the pianos for this price are excellent in quality; the equalizer helps you adjust the overall tone to suit the music; I thought the latter was going to be one of those gimmicks, I was proved wrong.
Once you have put a song together with the in built sequencer the overall sound is very good with the different layers having excellent balance.
The manual for a Japanese product is clear and consise.

The keyboard feels a bit flimsy although it's very easy to use and expressive playing is a sinch, but why no pitch bend wheel?
The effects units (3 in all) have got to make this machine the best on the market; not only do you get loads to choose from but they are all top quality; the chorus's I find especially rich.
No disk drive is a bit of a downer although I suppose most people will I/F with a computer to store/retrieve patches.
The 16 custom performance settings are so easy to set up but I would prefer an option of a name rather than a number for each (Casio please take note!); these are not lost when the power is removed but beware! any song recording is, unless batteries are fitted.
The sequencer (3500 notes) and polyphony are adequate but only just, drop notes can occur esp. when the drums and auto fill-in are going full belt; quantisation is probably compramised.

I have some favorite sounds; the pionos; the elec. piano; the organ with a Leslie effect; the synth strings; and the brass trumpets. The guitars suprisingly are poor although there is a good jazz guitar. The drum sounds could be a bit punchier.
All type of music wether jazz; blues; or rock are brill' but in the 2 weeks I've had this keyboard I've produced some crazy dance/techno music as well which normally is not so easy with a home keyboard; the rhythmn tracks are so well put together they bring out the best in 8 bar rifts.
The touch sensitivity is variable although the standard is more than adequate, the synthesizer type of approach to sound tone production means that sounds vary according to velocity which makes for very expressive playing; resonance changes all the way up to self oscillation (if you hit the keys hard enough).
The built in speakers give a top quality sound; for this type of product normally the sound is even better through an external amp/speaker system but it was only just the case.

I can only hope that this Casio is as good as my FX81, 20 year old calculator which is still going strong. It's the first ever Casio keyboard I've owned.
With it being so portable and light weight I would gig this machine but only from a flight case; the plastic casing feels a little bit thin.

For this price you can't go wrong; it has all the ability of an expensive proffesional synthesiser, with superb effects, a built in sequencer, synth style editing, and a decent rhythmn section to boot.
I have Korg and Yamaha synthesisers but I haven't touched these since getting the CTK-671. I compared the Yamaha and Roland series of keyboards at more than twice the list price but none came close.
If you can cope without a pitch bend and no data entry dial then buy this one; you won't be disappointed.

It is very easy to use, even if you (like me) haven't used Casio CTK series instruments before.

The keys do not feel excellent, but they do their job. The action is a little soggy, but light and responsive. 32-note polyphony for most sounds, 16 for some. This is much more than I need. Sucky though that it has no pitchwheel. But what do you expect at this price...

Now for the effects: It has an "ADVANCED TONE" button which adds tricky effects to any sound. But that's not all! It has a "SYNTH" function with 16 parameters to customize any sound, and the DSP is capable of adding 127 fine effects to your sounds. This really surprised me for a board at THIS bargain price!

It has no expansion capabilities, except for that you can send new sounds, rythms, songs, DSP effects and registrations to it via MIDI, which can be a real advantage. (I think you can re-flash the synth's OS as well). Sad though that the software for uploading this does not work on Win2K/XP, but I'm confident casio will release an update soon.

It sends EVERYTHING it does through midi, and has a 16ch multitimbral.

The sequencer can be a bit hard to use at first. 3600 notes memory does not last for very long. Real good step recording capabilities, though.

Really good here. It gets a 9 here too.

The pianos are truly excellent. Tone 001 Gnr_PnoW with Advanced Tone on sounds truly excellent. It's a stereo piano! The rest of the sounds are good as well. It's fine here too. The onboard effects are impressive for a board at this price, and the keyboard is very hi-fi overall. I heard from certain sources that it is 20 bit (!) as well, although I have not seen this stated anywhere.

It reacts well to my playing. The aftertouch is not very good though, it tends to turn off the tone 25% from the top rather than keeping it alive all the way to the "silent" position. Otherwise it measures velocity really good.

Fine here. It gets a 9 here too.

None of my casio products have broke down, ever. I would use it on a gig without any special backup.

Never dealt with them.

The best keyboard at the <$400 range currently on the market. I have not been playing for very long, but it's very easy to use.

I compared it to several roland/yamaha keyboards in the similiar price range. None of them were as good nor had the same amount of good features and excellent sounds.

As a proverbial one handed amateur i am using midinotate 3.1 and GM midi patches it sounds great and is the nearest thing to plug an play you'll get

32 Note plophony does more than I need to. the Internet music system supplied by Casio is basi but allows you to save your work from the 6 track seqencer. One downside is tha it forgets all settings when powered off (nless you have batteries in it which can be a big pain. Samples are great, Keys are a bit noisy (but what dow you expect fo this price) the onboard sequencer is simplicity itself and evan a one handed player like myself can bash out some good tunes using the sequencer to store the rhythm and chord sequences.

BEst keaybaord for its price currently on the market. Sound good enough to gig with. Tried out yamaham offering in similar poce range and they simply di not have the same level of features.

If you've used recent Casio CTK series instruments, you'll be comfortable operating the 671 in no time. It has many new and enhanced features as JG points out, but they're all intuitive and easy to access and play with.

The 671 is a 32 note polyphonic board. The action isn't its best feature - it's a bit clackety but light and responsive. The effects are very impressive indeed at this price point. You get a dedicated reverb/delay with 15 great-sounding algorithms; a dedicated chorus/phaser/flanger with 15 algorithms; a dedicated DSP with TONS of excellent FX - leslies, excellent distortions and amp sims, ring mod,etc; and a dedicated EQ with 10 presets. EVERY effect is programmable, with many parameters you'd never expect to tweak at this price level.

The keys are velocity sensitive and the CTK responds to aftertouch via MIDI. The sequencer is the standard Casio 2-song 6-track deal.

Some samples are truly excellent, world-class quality. The pianos are exceptionally good, both the acoustics and electrics. And surprise surprise - check out Tone 001 Gr.Pno_W and take off ALL the effects and guess what... it's a STEREO piano and it's sweet!!! Add some light reverb and it will compete with ANY piano sample on just about any other board at any price. Guitars are vastly improved over previous Casios, and the distortions make them sound very realistic. Drag though that the pitch wheel fell off somewhere in the design process, a sad cost-cutting measure indeed.

Synth sounds range from good to excellent. The excellent resonant filters are programmable but will break up rather than self-oscillate at the highest resonance settings. They react very nicely to velocity.

Amazing organ sounds in the 671, and they're complemented by the excellent rotary effect. You can change it's speed in real time, and it speeds up and slows down like the real thing.

It's a Casio, so I'm confident it will be reliable over the long haul. And yes, it's the first Casio portable I would gig with because it just sounds fantastic. My Trinity, PC88 etc can stay in the studio where they belong!

Don't know - never needed support

It's the best investment you can make in a new keyboard this year.

This is a great portable keyboard with an awesome sound set and plenty of nice features. I was pleasantly surprised that such a cool board is available at such a low price. It is highly portable and will keep you practicing for hours on end.

It has 32 note polyphony, synth action keyboard, a 2 song sequencer, full MIDI capability and incredible built in effects. I mean it. This thing is loaded with effects that allow you to adjust things like reverd reflections, high pass filters, resonance, and much more. It even has a 4 band EQ! In this department in runs circles around everything available in its price range. Hands down. I am giving it a 10 here too. Keep in mind that I am rating it from a price vs. performance stand point. But even then it has tremendous features.

I base all my keyboard purchases on the acoustic piano sound. If the piano doesn't sound good than I won't even consider the keyboard at all. The sound set on the CTK-671 surprised me. The pianos sound great! So do the rest of the sounds. The sound engine is derived form their flagship model called the MZ-2000. The CTK-671 and the MZ-2000 have a different, much better sound engine than the rest of the Casios. I repeat, you have not heard the new Casio sounds unless you hear the CTK-671 or the MZ-2000. The other models do not sound as good.

Plus there is a DSP function, tons of effects, EQ and user space to save your own sounds. This surprised me for such an inexpensive board. For the price it gets a 10. When compared to other much more expensive keyboards it gets an 8.

I was in the market for a portable because I found myself on the move alot and not practicing that much. But I didn't want to spend alot of money. I compared the CTK-671 to all of the PSR keyboards in its price range and liked it the best. Plus the silver and black color scheme looks much better than those cheesy other keyboards with bright multiple colored buttons. In fact, if the CTK-671 didn't exist, I wouldn't have bought anything. I currently own an Ensoniq MR-76, an Alesis QS 6.1, a Roland JV-1080 and tons of outboard gear on a Mac based Cubase system. I have to turn everything on just to practice! So I was looking for a portable, fun, inexpensive, goo sounding keyboard to rehearse and hash out ideas on. I found it.