The Casio is a dedicated piano and the Yamaha was a workstation, right? So I assume the major difference between the two is that the Casio has weighted keys (and more of them) and the Yamaha has more sounds (but the piano sound not as good?).
I have two keyboards, both non-weighted so I don't have the joy of playing an actual piano but I don't think it matters much at this point in my journey. I'm still working on rubbing my belly and patting my head at the same time
Not really, the models discussed are either Arrangers or digital Piano’s which have arranger features.
The Casio CDP 350 is alone in the market at its price point, a Digital 88 key Piano with plenty of onboard sounds and arranger features. Yamaha, Korg, and Roland have nothing to match it for features and the new CDP 360 has much improved polyphony which is the number of notes that can be heard at the same time
You have to go up to the Casio S3100, Korg XE20 and Yamaha DGX 670 to get 88 key digital piano’s with plenty of onboard sounds and arranger features.
There availability of a keyboard with 88 hammer action keys, plenty of onboard sounds and arranger features in a portable keyboard is limited to the models above.
There are plenty of other digital piano’s with these features but they are home/fixed venue pieces of kit primarily due to weight and cost. Clavinova series by Yamaha springs to mind as these are £2000+ in price.
The tonal quality of a specific instrument sound varies considerably and becomes either very subjective personally or very technical as to why one is acoustically spot on. There is no one sounds suits everyone, its personal. I am no fan of Yamaha but their acoustic piano sounds are imo the ones to beat, Roland, Kawai and Casio come close with Korg following behind.
It can be confusing understanding the differences in keyboard types so here goes:-
DIGITAL PIANO (entry level)
73/76/88 keys, generally hammer action.
Limited onboard sounds, typically 12, ie 4 acoustic, 4 electric, 4 strings, 4 mixed
Simple to operate
eg Yamaha P125
ARRANGER
61 keys with synth action but the odd model with 76
1000 instrument voices/sounds
auto accompaniment via Styles c200-300+
basically a one man band in a single keyboard
user songbooks and setlists which are fully customisable
eg Korg Pa700
WORKSTATION
61/76/88 keys from synth action through semi weighted to full hammer action with everything in between
2000 voices
often 12-16 layers of instrument sounds possible to create
all genres of instruments and inbuilt drum tracks
fully customisable user saved presets
the most flexible of all keyboards
eg Roland Juno DS, Kurzweil PC4, Korg Kronos
SYNTHESISER
sound generator, analogue or digital in origin
you name the sound and these can create it
desktop versions though to multiple octaves but 37 keys is typical
Eg Moog, Korg Wavestate
STAGE PIANO
a digital piano on steroids with plenty of sounds, memory, flexibility
Eg Roland RD2000
ORGAN
the name says it all, but most will have drawbars either physical or digital
eg Vox Continental
NOW THE RUB
There is a lot of overlap between the categories
MIDI KEYBOARD
no onboard sounds
connects to a computer or tablet
sounds generated are via software or apps.
