Yamaha PSR-E433 or Casio CTK-7000

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So I just got back from spending a few hours at a local music store that had both Casio and Yamaha keyboards on display and ready to play. What I found is that I preferred the Casio CTK-7000 because it was easy to figure out how to use, I thought the sounds were very good (especially the sax and strings), and it was fun to play. I felt like I gave the Yamaha boards equal time but I wound up coming back to the 7000 at the end of my visit. I want do a little more research on the 7000 before making the purchase, but if I had to choose right now, it would be the 7000.
 
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I'm trying to decide between Casio and Yamaha feature sets in the $350 to $500 price range. I read music but have not played on keyboards for decades. The Yamaha appears to have more online resources of downloadable music and more on-board "learning" features than Casio in this range of pricing. Perhaps I haven't yet discovered all that Casio has to offer in that department. But it is clear that the Yamaha corporate website has more resources than Casio's does.

I'm particularly interested in the feature set of the Casio WK7500 compared to the Yamaha YPG535. I would have to weight Yamaha's online support and on board learning aids really highly important to overcome the very extensive feature set of either Casio's 7000 or 7500 models. If I got the Casio, I would have to be more creative with finding the sources of new downloadable material and teaching aids. But then I haven't fully committed myself to a formal learning process versus just having knock around ad libbing fun.
 
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Mozartian,
In my search for the "best" keyboard for me, l have had some of the same thoughts as you. What has swayed me closer to buying the Casio CTK-7000 was driving to a store and trying out the keyboards in person. After a couple of hours of playing with and exploring every keyboard on display less than $500, it seemed to me that the 7000 was the best value because of ease of use and extensive external connections (like audio in).

I also did explore the learning tools on all of the keyboards and very quickly decided that I didn't care for them because the size of the LCD was just to small (for me) to learn from. I have begun exploring learning tools available on a Windows computer and have discovered (thanks to this forum) a program called Piano Booster. Checkout their website and watch the videos showing the program running. There are other software choice as well which you can find using Google.

I haven't made my purchases yet (I probably will in a couple of weeks) but when I do, I'll try to post back here. Good luck and have fun searching!
 
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Thanks. Good point about the small screen sizes relied on for reading music. Since I, as many of us, will be hooking up our keyboards to a tablet or laptop anyway, a ten inch or larger high resolution screen is a lot easier to read music or "moving notes" on than the little 4" or 5" dot matrix displays on sub $1,000 keyboards.
 
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You might want to checout eMedia. They have piano and keyboard teaching software that looks pretty good to me. Check thier website or YouTube for some videos.
 
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The eMedia program looks great. Also look at this - more of a midi/learning combination tool: http://www.anvilstudio.com/indexu4.htm by Willow software. This contains a learning/teaching component for keyboards and does a bunch more. The core program is free. I downloaded it and looked around. The keyboard training modules are $19. Yes, so I see what you mean. There is no need for on-board teaching aids since the ones we are able to integrate from our computers may be much better, that is, for those hearty souls who want to tackle computer idiosyncrasies and put together the components of a learning system themselves. I'm up for it, but it will take away from practice time.:) But that's ok. I don't even own a keyboard yet.
 
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Oh, so much information, so little time and money. Thank you for the links. Still considering the 7500 with all its shortcomings which most likely won't impact my (basement) level of ability - except the "thin" or "harsh" sound of some voicings mentioned in other threads is a little bothersome.

Question: Do to 7000/7500 have multiple intro/fills/endings? If so, how many? Can they be **easily** modified? If not, which comparable brands/models do have a variety of intros/fills/endings??
 
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Yes, the 7000/7500 does have variations for the rhythm your playing to. And the buttons are very easy to reach while playing so the rhythm part for the song you are playing does NOT need 1 repeating rhythm over and over. I explored this a little bit in the store and this feature is very useable and FUN! I'm don't know if they can be modified.
 

The Y_man

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Oh, so much information, so little time and money. Thank you for the links. Still considering the 7500 with all its shortco

Question: Do to 7000/7500 have multiple intro/fills/endings? If so, how many? Can they be **easily** modified? If not, which comparable brands/models do have a variety of intros/fills/endings??

For every rhythm (pattern/style) 1 x intro, 1 x normal, 1 x normal fill, 1 x variation, 1 x variation fill, 1 x ending

This is pretty standard for the yamaha's and comparable keyboards.

Modifiying them is (for me anyway) a pain.

I find the Casio's difference between "normal" and "variation" and very great, and the fill in's not very dramatic compared to my old Yamaha.

Also, my old yamaha had discrete buttons for fill-in's - the Casio does not.

So it is hard to trigger the fill in for the variation without being "in" the variation (hard to explain in words - you'll get it if you try to trigger the 2nd fill in while playing the main rhythm.


The Y-man
 
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For every rhythm (pattern/style) 1 x intro, 1 x normal, 1 x normal fill, 1 x variation, 1 x variation fill, 1 x ending

This is pretty standard for the yamaha's and comparable keyboards.

Modifiying them is (for me anyway) a pain.

I find the Casio's difference between "normal" and "variation" and very great, and the fill in's not very dramatic compared to my old Yamaha.

Also, my old yamaha had discrete buttons for fill-in's - the Casio does not.

So it is hard to trigger the fill in for the variation without being "in" the variation (hard to explain in words - you'll get it if you try to trigger the 2nd fill in while playing the main rhythm.


The Y-man
 
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I think I heard it described as having to trigger the change within a micro second or else the rhythm skips a half beat or so.
 
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So today I traveled to another store and spent some time with a WK-6500 (this store did not have a CTK-7000 on display. I really like having 76 keys vs. 61 on the 7000. I think for me, having those extra keys will matter.

I also played with the 16 channel sequencer and was able to figure out how to record different sounds on different tracks. Lots of fun and nearly endless possibilities there. I'm not sure if you can punch into and out of an already recorded track to make changes. If you can, I didn't see how during my visit.

I started playing with the on board mixer but couldn't figure out how to do much.

I think I'll download the user's manual for the 7500 (the 7600 does not seem to available in the US) and see what else I can learn.

So now I think I am leaning toward the 6500 or 7500. My birthday is in April so I'll be deciding on my present very soon.
 
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So today I traveled to another store and spent some time with a WK-6500 (this store did not have a CTK-7000 on display. I really like having 76 keys vs. 61 on the 7000. I think for me, having those extra keys will matter.

I also played with the 16 channel sequencer and was able to figure out how to record different sounds on different tracks. Lots of fun and nearly endless possibilities there. I'm not sure if you can punch into and out of an already recorded track to make changes. If you can, I didn't see how during my visit.

I started playing with the on board mixer but couldn't figure out how to do much.

I think I'll download the user's manual for the 7500 (the 7600 does not seem to available in the US) and see what else I can learn.

So now I think I am leaning toward the 6500 or 7500. My birthday is in April so I'll be deciding on my present very soon.

Ah heck, go for the 7500 - you'll love the drawbars and the direct access to organ voicing changes they allow. I think they also do double duty for inputting changes to create custom voicings for non organ sounds, though not on the fly.

I'm expecting my 7500 to arrive next week - a week before my birthday.
 

The Y_man

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I also played with the 16 channel sequencer and was able to figure out how to record different sounds on different tracks. Lots of fun and nearly endless possibilities there. I'm not sure if you can punch into and out of an already recorded track to make changes. If you can, I didn't see how during my visit.

I started playing with the on board mixer but couldn't figure out how to do much.

I think I'll download the user's manual for the 7500 (the 7600 does not seem to available in the US) and see what else I can learn.
.

Manual at
http://support.casio.com/pdf/008/Web_CTK6000_WK6500E1B.pdf

Can seem to step edit events: P E-81 but not P/I P/O (I use Anvilstudio for my sequencing on a PC, but this has its' own issues)

Mixer - page E-39


The Y-man
 

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