Casio HT-3000

the synth is easy once you figured out how the mode/data thing works. i did not need the manual to figure out how to change the presets. the presets sound allright by the way.

build in Chorus, with a very good and warm sound. modulation wheel, transpose.

the synth had a warm sound if you turn down the cutoff. its great for electronic music, for example ambient or 80's electro.

this thing is incredible, almost 20 years old and still working without any malfunctions. amazing.

none

this is a very good synth, for it's price. i like the sounds, my favourite is the electric piano preset, with the attack, decay, sustain and release full open, and the cutoff turned down.

Easy if you have the manual (you can get it online from casio new zealand customer support website). The 32 DCO waveform diagrams in the manual look hand-drawn and "fake" so I hooked it up to an oscilloscope to see if they were acurate. I was surprised to find that they are very accurate. The presets are OK--exact same sounds as the MT-600 keyboard but fully editable. Good VCF except there is just 1 VCF for all 8 DCO's. (Though sometimes this is can be exploited in a cool way). You can get some decent synth and moogy sounds. The piano is very bad. You can get a slightly better piano with some tinkering, particularly for the higher notes. You can get OK organs and brass. I use it only for synth and organ sounds and as a controller for a general midi tone unit (the VHS-sized Yamaha MU-15). A little secret: The casio volume pedal jack doubles as a line in and routes the external signal to the built-in speakers. So you can connect an external midi device such as a Yamaha MU-5 or MU-15, and have the external sounds play back through the casio speakers!

Polyphony: 8. Multi-timbral: 3 parts (upper, lower, bass). The bass channel has only one so-so patch and is non-editable. It is passable in a mix). Effects: just chorus, decent. Other features: modulation wheel, transpose. You can run a midi loop (out-to-in) to fatten your sounds with half the polyphony, and get a very slight phase effect. RA-100 cards are hard to find (look in Germany, Brazil or Turkey if you want one). Good action for a Casio. Interesting that on MIDI it transmits the auto-accompaniment notes. So you can turn off the accompanyment volume, but keep the drum volume, and use an external source for your accompanyment sounds (not that the patterns are that great, but still it's cool.). You can set the baseline midi channel and the midi sync. No SysEX but the sounds parameters are simple enough to track with pen and paper. For the year and price, very nice features.

The pitch bender is fixed at 2 half-notes. I wish it were adjustable like the HZ-600's. Also, on the HZ-600 you can kill the auto-shutoff but not on this model. (Though I think it disengages when playing via MIDI). No aftertouch. No velocity. Always transmits velocity 100 (not 127). Midi transmits notes, program changes (only up to #40, or #60 if you have ram card), pitch bend, modulation and sustain. So it is decent as a controller. One very cool feature: you can edit the sounds in real time while you play. So, for example, you can pick a patch, then go to edit the frequency cutoff paramater for the VCF, and while you play, you can alter the cutoff in real time with the programming wheel. Which essentially turns the programming wheel into a wah-wah pedal. You can do this with any parameter. In general, this is a good keyboard for retro and 80's sounds, and for etheral, new age, ambient, acid rock, etc. External effects can go a long way to fattening the sounds.

Sturdy keyboard. I used a soft case (bad idea) and it got bumped around a lot. My pitch-bender dislodged but I fixed it. Then the sustain jack went bad and I haven't been able to fix it. I would use it at a gig without reservation though.

No longer applicable (this model is 20 years old). But you can still get the manual online from Casio New Zealand.

I am about to upgrade to the HT-6000 which is a much more powerful synth. But the HT-3000 has been a good friend for 16 years.

manual is ok, could be a bit better though but far too late for that

plenty of features, effects are ok, might do a bit better though
modulation has to be the best
it reminds me of the yamaha dx21 which i have in many respects

not many presets but you can edit them and store them on a memory card, those of which are hard to find
the sounds are quite good considering casio, I found them to loneley sounds

very solid, not quite stage use though but better than most

this works well as a controller or on its own, nice sounds, wouldnt use the drums etc
very good effects to rival yamaha and roland
more bass would be good

i buy it in 1986 in brasil....so i dont remember how the presets sound`s.....
i dont use him

well.... when i download dream station (software) i put my ht-3000 to work again... using the midi channel, but now i download the greatest fm7 maded by native instruments.....(dx7 simulator but mush better)and its really usefull controller midi key.... that is the function how i give to the ht-3000

don't remember..., but the action key is really soft sow it`s really greate to do some fastest leads and arpegios, but with other module
the velocity stay always in 100 and no in 127 ...... y prouve it in my sound blaster card

now i dont use it to mush ....couse i have a roland controller and one yamaha an1x, but i dont want sale it, my father buy it to me in 500 dollars and now a just can sale it for 140, and i like him...
tomorrow it will be a colection peace :)

it,s a stone peace, and water resistent and every cheat resistent

i need get inglish class ....

Quite easy to use, although a manual does help when editing the patches so you can look up what parameter you are changing. Easy to access pathces and rythms.

8 Note polyphony, 3 midi channels. Keyboard action is poor, but feels rugged and reliable. No pressure sensitivity. Built in effects are virtually non-existant, except for three levels of chorus. Apparently it is possible to get expansion cards for saving patches on (RA-100's?) but they don't appear to produce these anymore :(. Midi transmits note on/off messages, modulation and pitch wheel data and sustain/volume pedal data. Onboard sequencer for chords and operations (eg changing patches, tempo etc).
One feature that I find quite useful is being able to record bass patterns and chord inversions, and the keyboard will fit your recordings around the chords you are playing.

The sounds are very 80's digital. If you want 80's digital sounds, this keyboard can generate them! I use it mainly for producing slow, ambient sounds and recreating older synths. For its age and its price, it can create some quite good sounds. Don't even think about using it to recreate analogue/acoustic sounds. By putting it through some effects processing, you can really improve the sound. The keyboard is very static, it doesn't really create sounds with expressive dynamics. I find it good for acid/psychadelic rock stuff.

This thing is about 15 years old (maybe a bit older). Never had a probem with it (I purchased it second hand about 4 years ago). I would trust it at any gig.

Only time I have ever had anything to do with them was when I tried to get a manual. They sent one out within a week.

I wouldn't buy this keyboard as my sole keyboard. It isn't capable of producing a wide range of sounds. But if you want to create a sound that sounds synthesised, then this keyboard does the job well. Many newer keyboards can't create the same type of sound, and it seems more and more modern music (apart from pop!) are going for that lo-fi sound. I like the way you can change the sound whilst you are playing just by turning a knob - it almost makes it like using an analogue synth. It wouldn't have a place in every studio though. I wish you could have the LFO affect the VCF instead of just the VCO, and it would be nice if it had some onboard effects, as some heavy duty effects processing really increases this keyboards potential. For what was available at the same price in the used market at the time (porta-tones, Radio Shack keyboards) I think I got a good bargain.

Very easy to use! I disagree with some of the ratings here about editing the patches--they're not that hard to edit once you've learned how. You get to the point where you don't even think about it--you run the wheel and hit the button. I learned it back in the 80s, packed the thing away in the 1990s, unpacked it a few weeks ago and had no trouble editing the patches.

Keyboard action is basic non-sensitive / organ type. Expansion cards exist for storing patches. Has MIDI In, Out, and Thru. Has chord arrangement sequencer. Very advanced for its time and price range. Easy 12 half step transposition with the data wheel. Modulation and pitch bend wheels.

This synth works really well for early 80s DX7 / DX100 style stuff. Its presets are kind of metalic sounding, but with a few minutes of patch manipulation you can get some good brass sounds and some decent reeds. Some of the drum sounds are pretty good, but the snare leaves a little to be desired. The snare reminds me of "Revenge of the Nerds" when the nerds do their little rap.

This thing is indestructible. I've dropped it off its stand, accidentally crunched it in the trunk of my car, and spilled beer in the keyboard at a gig. It still looks great and plays like it always did. No sticking keys, no missing buttons. Its sound has become somewhat dated (athough some of that early digital stuff is starting to make a comeback), but as a basic controller, it can't be beat for reliability. This thing and cockroaches are probably the only things that will survive in the event of nuclear disaster.

Never had to have it repaired. Since it's aged, Casio no longer supports it, but as I mentioned in the Reliability category, it's indestructible.

Overall, this was a great synth for its day. It still has a place as a basic controller as the keyboard action is good. It's great also for someone setting up a home studio on a budget. Great vintage sound, ability to sequence drum and chord progressions. I've kept mine around with my Roland XP80 (what a contrast, huh?) because I can't get some of those 1980s top 40 sounds out of the Roland.

Pretty easy to use, unless you want to actually edit a sound, and boy do they need editing.

Key action sucks, deranged cards for expansion that dont exist, and some sort of wacky "arranger" style sequencer.

Cheesey beeps and boops. A mid -eights type synth with sounds that in no way resembe the actual instrument.

I have dropped it many times ( some by accident and some not )and the damn thing wont die. I sometimes rig it in my set up so that i can use the wheel to change sounds rapidly via midi to another instrument.

Casio would like to forget they made it. A costumer rep didnt even know what it was or that they made cards for it.

Unless you need a tremendous paper weight dont get it, even if its for free.

I've had the damn thing since it came out (80's) it was my first "real" keyboard and I guess, still is the only one. I can't really rate the thing because if I'm not mistaken, the HT-3000 was "pre DX7" so you can't really compare it to the technology of today. But, its fun (and lets face it, easy as hell to use) to tinker around and create sounds- none will really be studio quality unless you're trying to revive the 80's bubble-gum rock. What really has me pissed, is that in the 12 or so years I've had it, I have YET to find those freakin' RA-100 cards for it! Do they even EXIST??!!

61 non sentitive keyboard with "arranger". Sounds metallic. Editing patches cannot be done without the manual and is really bad. Fortunately, a data wheel is there but the little screen shows nothing (2 numbers only : parameter number, value). Not possible through MIDI. Manual is clear and in 5 to 6 languages.

Polyphony : 8 Multitimbral : 4 (upper, lower, bass, drums) One chorus (three values !) A RAM data card can save some settings (sounds, patterns) MIDI : pitch bend, mod. wheel.

Only one realistic instrument : church organ. All the others sound synthy and metallic. Onboard effects : very bad Completely static. No velocity, no aftertouch.

Have it for several years now and bought it used. No problem till now. But I would not use it as single keyboard for gigs.

No opinion.

At that time, it was a good price (for the buyer and the re-seller). I love it's metallic and synthy sound. But I cannot control it through MIDI. I hate it's metallic, synthy sound (when I first hear my Sound Canvas) and all his "even-refused-by-earlier-nintendo-game-designer" arranger patterns. It seems to be like CasioTone series (the ones for the kids). Since it's my only keyboard. Yes, it helps me a lot. It helped me realize my first music pieces and it is still much fun. I inserted this synth database submission to be complete and for fun. You found it, can afford it ... Don't buy it !