Synth Site | Casio | CTK 530

CTK 530 At a Glance
	Released: 1996 \| Specifications Read reviews Casio News(39) Streaming Video (9)

Tom Armitage writes:

We bought this for a keyboard to practice on with headphones. At £200, what sold it was the decent piano sounds, and a good MIDI set up. The manual is confusing on MIDI; I know enough to tell you that you can transmit Program Changes on all channels to it. The keyboard is a quite nice touch sensitive one. No pitchwheel, but it responds to aftertouch and pitch bend externally. No FX either. Warm Pad, Pianos are nice. 'Hammond Style' organs are bearable. Sound called 'BRASS' is total crap. Strings are poor, but some nice wind noises; single percussion kit is good enough. Some of the sounds fall in to the 'so bad they're good' category; by oversampling or screwing them up you could make some good stuff! It's a good keyboard to learn MIDI off, and you can create some passable music. It's big brother, the CTK-630 is now £150 from Turnkey. Cheap, good little plank, even if not a true synth. There are 1 or 2 sounds that make it worth keeping even after (if) I upgrade. I know it's only a home keyboard, but it is worth it. Try and get one s/hand! Good fun, if a little naff.

Comments About the Sounds:
OK home-keyboard type sounds. For £200, the grand piano is v.good. It's only got 64 sounds - like a cut down version of General MIDI

(Thanks to Tom Armitage for this info.)

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