Casio WK-3000

The keyboard is straight forward to use. There are so many features, that it may take a little experimenting to get around at first, but you can always just punch the "grand piano" button.

I haven't edited the patches much, except to change some the effects, but typical functions ADSR stuff.

Manual, well, I have seen more information in my son's gameboy games. Might as well get ready to experiment.

The polyphony is 32 notes, more than enough for most of the stuff that I do.

The keyboard is typical plastic keyboard, but not bad. I had a Yamaha p80 for a while, but the weighted action was too much for my wrist.

You can expand this machine with an SD memory card, but you may not need one. There are 10 places to store downloaded wave files, and at least that many for custom patches. If you can have a computer, you can just use it for storing your patches.

It has a simple song recorder built in. This one has a modulation button, which is enough for me. It is killer on the organ leslie. For a $289 keyboard, amazing.

The piano and wind instruments (brass, sax, etc.) are very good. The strings are marginal. Voice is poor. Hopefully I can download a sample to the internal memory which is decent.

Effects are good, and plentiful, some 180 or more.

It's a casio. I figure I can throw it out the back of the car and it would still work.

I use it at church, hauling back and forth from home and practice. No problem. Light and easy to use. The piano is more expressive than the church's Kurzweil pc88

I would probably spend the extra $100 and get the wk-3500, since it has the modulation wheel, and has a set of output jacks (the 3000 does not have that, so you have to use the headphone jacks).

I hate to compare with the Yamaha, which everyone is doing. I will just say this. I had a Yamaha dgx300, which I thought had an outstanding piano. When I heard the ck-3000 at Sam's, I bought it on sight (rare for me), and put the yamaha on e-bay. There, got it out of my system.

It's fairly straight forward when it comes to playing and using the tones and rhythmns. For recording or using the synth and dsp settings you'll probable need to review the manual. All in all it's easy once you've played with it for a bit

The keys are a bit tighter and have a more realistic feel comparied to the other models. Not bad. With 32 poly it'll probable give you enough room to do what you want. The only difference between this and the 3500 is the lack of a floppy drive and the two line outs and a modulation wheel. You still get the pitch bend, all the same sounds, and the SmartMedia slot. Otherwise, why pay $70 more?

The new advanced ZPI sounds are great. The piano is really, really good. Much better than the Yamaha PSR 550 I've played for awhile. With 600 tones and the ability to add user tones, either by creating them yourself or downloading from the Casio site, it'll give you a lot to work with. The Drawbar organ is amazing, there is a row of adjustable buttons that simulate the bars of a real organ. Amazingly good sounds for the price.

Sure, Casio makes quality stuff. Had keyboards for years and still going.

Never used.

It's worth more than the price paid. Considering what you get and the quality of the product this is one of the best deals going. Why pay more for a Yamaha and get less?

7 The user interface is not exactly intuitive though it seems to have improved since the WK1800.
The presets are quite impressive with some (100) that include wave forms as well.
Editing is fairly straightforward. There is no patch editor as far as I know. The onboard editor seems to be adequate.
If this keyboard had more flexible (multi-split and multi-layering) ability it would be really incredible.

The manual is comprehensive and covers all the main features well. Some procedures require practice and careful reading of the instructions. There are only a few minor glitches or errors. One is a reference to using only 3v Smart media cards when it should refer to 3.3v cards ad it does eleswhere in the manual.

Casio provide a librarian (no editing) software application. his seems to have been written by someone as a last minute effort. It really does lack user friendly features. A pity. Hopefully they will release an improved version soon.

And why not an external editor?

The keyboard has 32 note polyphony. It feels reasonable to play though definitely not weighted. There is a touch responsive button.
It accepts Smart media cards. My 32Mb card cost $14USD anf the card reader was free after rebates. There are card readers (for use on a PC) from about $5USD Cards can be up to 128Mb though I think you can go higher if you want to.
MIDI is basic In and Out. There is an assignable footpedal too.
There is an on board Song sequencer and you can record in real time or step time. Song editing is available too.

Many of the sounds are very inmpressive. They use wave samples as well as synthesis for what Casio calls 'Advanced Tones'

I think it would work well for any type of music though perhaps not for every aspect of course.
The onboard effects are very useful and have many options to adjust.
There are 100 presets and 100 user effect storage spaces.
You can combine effects too. Examples are Wah Delay Distrotion.
There is a 4 band EQ as well.

The effects go well beyond normal 'home keyboard' territory. They can really add zest and chage a basic sound.

Casio are making available wave smles (some are 500kb or more) for downloading. I have not had a chance to play these yet.

Not a bad feature for a $299 keyboard. I think these are in some Casio format so perhaps you cannot simply import your own samples. If so, why not Casio?

No problems so far.

Probably would buy another as there is nothing close to this at this price. I've ben playing for 28 years. I own a Yamaha AN1x and a Kawai K5 (sadly defunct due to dead keys). I also use softsynths and Acid Pro 4.

I started out with the Casio wk-1630, and was very happy with it, for use with my home computer. So when the WK-3000 came out... I wanted to check it out. I found mine at a Sam's Club, played with it there... and decided I really needed it! The Organ settings are really excellent...a wide range of organ types. Neat features include the ability to make 'tones' (instrument sounds) from wave samples. Also, the ability to take a midi file, and turn it (with some effort) into a rhythm, is a really neat feature. It has a total of 790 tones, 32 note polyphony (maximum...some tones take more power to create.... lessening the total notes that can sound at one time. I bought a 'Smart media' card to use with the keyboard..... but found that if I am hooked up to the computer (most of the time in my case)...the Smartmedia card isn't really needed. Probably the most versitile part of the keyboard is the 'DSP' effect. You can customize the tones with over 150 effects....really great effects! Like most manuals....Casio's leaves a lot of 'blank spaces' in the 'how to do....' information. So prepare for a big learning curve to get a handle on all the 'tricks'. I'm just starting in this part.

The keyboard is typical 'organ feel' keys. there is touch sensitive settings, with 32 note polyphony...76 keys. The DSP effects are easy to use (once you find out that they use the channel buttons to control the effects .....when in the effects mode). It works great with the computer....making my collection of midi files sound awesome!

With all the effects.... the instrument sounds and feel are very much in your control to shape. There is a wide range of rhythms (with the ability to load in sound packages from the Casio web site) I downloaded all the things available from the web site... including the 'loading/ editing software'....all free. There is a Techno pack, Chinese, Latin, and Arabic.....so it is expandable to fit any style.

I just got it.... so don't know

Don't know.... we do have a good user forum, so I'll rate it from that experience.

The wk 1630 is easier to 'master'.... but the wk 3000 is several steps up in capabilities. I've have keyboards for probably 10 years... and this one (of course) is my favorite. I miss some of the wk 1630 features (like free session), and I am going to try and capture some of the 1630 rhythms to add into the user area of the wk 3000.

I haven't bought this keyboard yet but i'm sure it's going to be like all their keyboard very easy to use.

There are tons of feature on this board. so many i don't even want to list them. They even have a synthensizer too. plus many more.

The sound on this board are just great. Pack with over 700 sounds it's a crazy little board. And the sound are better than ever because of the new Casio ZPI sound genterator. THe intrument sounds are very good. Althought i think that Yamaha AWM sound are still a little (just a little) better than Casio ZPI sounds but Casio are giving like 300 ZPI sounds and Yamaha only give you about 200 max. Heck, i think that Casio sounds are much better because of the heavy watt that its speaker and produce. Yamaha speaker are just cheap and are not good while with this board you can fill the sound to about a good size room.

The yamaha when you trun the vol to max it sounds like when you trun Casio vol at 1/4 of the way. MAn i love Casio Speakers. They are great. If you want to make music and puch the sound to the addiance this is great.

One more thing, this might sound a little crazy but the keys on the board feels so much better than yamaha psr 292 or dgx 202. IT's good beacuse it goes down farther, that might not matter to you much it doesn't feel like a piano if it's goes down so little.

i think that this keyboard will last for years as with my other Casio.

Never need too.

This keyboard is great. So many function that you can only get at a much higher price board. The speaker and function are just amzing. Yamaha's keyboard around this price are just not up with this board, THis thing kill the Yamaha so bad with the price, function and speakers. I think that this keyboard will be good with pros and are wounderful for begener. I know that this is the board you will want to go with and be very happy after you bought it and have no secound thought. If you are still jugging between a YAmaha or a Casio in this price rang i wish that you'll choosese this board because i went out and research on many board on this price rang and nothing came close.