Casio CTK-731

You need no musical experience what so ever to get started on this keyboard. The only thing youll need to go to the manual for is probably the sequencer as it is quite complecated.

32 note polyphony which halfs each time you add a later. It includes a disk drive for saving sounds created on the built in synth. The are a few pretty poor effects but they are easy to apply. It has touch sensitive keys and bass reflex speakers. The sequencer has either real time recording, punch in recording or pattern sequencing. It has a 16 track sequencer but only if you are using it with midi. You cant record the actual keyboard sounds on the 16 track sequencer so you will have to have a sound module or synth rigged up to it to make do.

very poor. The drums and piano sounds are probably the worst but all of the sounds are just about usable. This keyboard is probably best suited for rock and techno music. as i said before the effects are really bad.

quite sturdy. could probaly only survive a month of gigging if it was really rough but i would definatly gig it. anyway, they quite cheap so you could just buy another or upgrade in it was damaged.

never used

good for a beginners keyboard but intermediate to advanced users would find it very very limiting. If you are planning on buying the keyboard you would probably be best spending your money on a Korg i3. Although if this keyboard was lost ot stolen i would probably buy another one because since it was the first keyboard i bought im very attached to it.

Casio CTK-731 has 32-tone polyphony, but not all sounds has 32-tone polyphony.When you add a layer, the polyphony is decreased to 16, or even 8!!. There are 10 built-in DSP effects-3 reverbs, chorus, tremolo, phaser, organ speaker, enhancer, flanger, loudness. Quality is quite good.You can switch it on or off by one button.Song and pattern sequencer.16 channel mixer.For every from 16 channels you can set volume, strongness of effect DSP,

Quality of sounds is not too good.CTK-731 work well for Dance, Rock, Techno.There are 8 well quality drum sets, so you can create music for other types of music.

It's very easy to use. You don't need to know anything about keyboards to start playing some music. The manuals contain all necessary stuff.

32 polyphony. When you use layering for your sounds and start playing with a preset rythm, sometimes you start hearing mute holes... really bad! The built in floppy drive allows rythms addition and saving user data. I have used it with a Yamaha tone generator with the midi interface and works fine. I don't like the sequencer... the sustain in some sounds does not work.

The sounds are bad, but for the price what can you expect? The effects allow you to change the expresiveness of the sounds but they keep being bad. The velocity sensitive keys are ok.

It's very reliable and seems well built.

have not tried it yet, but I hear they ussually don't know enough about the stuff they sell.

I used to have a Korg i5S and it had much better sounds. If this keyboard was stolen I would find something else like Roland EM-15, Yamaha PSR-2000...

This keyboard is very easy to use if you have any experience with "arranger" type instruments. The manual is not very well written, but there is almost no need for it. The sequencer has caused me to go to the manual on a few occasions, but otherwise this instrument is very intuitive.

The polyphony is 32, which is very respectable for the price of this board. The keyboard action is noticably better than the action on Yamaha PSR boards. There are only a few effects present. These effects are not very good, and their depth cannot be adjusted. To say this another way, the few effects are very easy to implement but not worth the effort. This instrument does have a floppy disk drive which is great for creating and playing back MIDI files. This drive also enables the user to add different tones and accompaniment styles to the instrument. The addition of this drive certainly adds considerably to the value of this tool. This keyboard is general MIDI compatible. It does not have aftertouch, but it does have five levels of touch sensitivity. There is a sixteen track sequencer on-board which can even quantize at several levels. This sequencer has one obvious flaw that is even acknowledged in the manual. The flaw is that the sequencer does not allow the user to utilize layers or automatic harmonies in the melody parts. This is a major drawback to what otherwise would be a decent sequencer. I have to say that the sequencers and effects on Yamaha keyboards are considerably better.

The sounds on this board are what many keyboardists expect from Casio. The preset sounds are simply not very good. This is very evident to anyone who has used, or listened to, instruments made by Korg, Roland, Yamaha, Technics, Alesis, etc.... The effects do not provide much of an improvement. The automatic accompaniments range from good to not very convincing. I have certainly heard better accompaniments on other instruments, but I have also heard much worse. Many of these accompaniments would sound excellent if the preset sound quality was higher. This board does not feature dynamic accompaniment, but the touch sensitivity does make it very playable.

The build quality is better than I have seen with Yamaha PSR keyboards. The keys feel pretty solid to me, although I am not a heavy handed player. I cannot imagine this keyboard crashing on me, although it does have one of those internal batteries that can only be replaced by a technician. I would never use this instrument while playing out, as I have much better instruments for that purpose. However, I do use this instrument frequently in my work as a public school music teacher, and I have great confidence using it in that situation.

I have never dealt with Casio, but I know that the Better Business Bureau has strongly criticized them for having inadequate customer support.

For $250, this is a great keyboard! It is portable, lightweight, sturdy, has a disk drive, is touch sensitive, fairly loud with its built-in speakers, and easy to use and adjust quickly. This is a wonderful keyboard to use on the job as a roving public school music teacher, which is the reason I purchased this board. I also own a Technics KN2000, Roland EM2000, Korg IS35, Yamaha PSR 340, 540, 740, and some other keyboards that are not arrangers. The Casio does not have the sound quality of these other boards, but at $250 I cannot expect it to. It is not studio quality, but it is good in the field.