Jake Johnson
03-10-2002, 11:51 PM
Having just bought my 11 year-old son one of these, and at the risk of losing any credibility I may have on this forum, I want to ask if anyone has listened to the Casio CTK-671. (Its samples sound better than my old Micropiano in the middle and upper octaves.)
After playing a very few notes, you will realize that the samples are too brief. (Trying to tweak the sound wth the synth functions, you\'ll find that there is no way to increase the sustain.) But if you play in only the octaves above middle C, the (reverb heavy) sound is surprisingly good. (The loop starts very early and is clearly audible in the bass after 5 seconds, but the samples are very good.)
If you layer two piano sounds (the stereo grand and the wide piano) and increase the release of the envelope for one of the layers, the sound is still better.
Clearly, the sound couldn\'t be confused with a Gigasampler instrument\'s sound. But for a $189 keyboard, the sound is incredible. (Far better than the consumer Yamahas, which fade to a sine wave after three seconds).
I\'m posting this impression because this keyboard makes me wonder where we\'ll be in a year or so. Someone at Casio is pressing to create a serious instrument. Anyone know of other efforts to create a sample-based piano for the consumer market? If Casio had invested another $50 in ROM, they would have have created an unweighted but professional keyboard.
After playing a very few notes, you will realize that the samples are too brief. (Trying to tweak the sound wth the synth functions, you\'ll find that there is no way to increase the sustain.) But if you play in only the octaves above middle C, the (reverb heavy) sound is surprisingly good. (The loop starts very early and is clearly audible in the bass after 5 seconds, but the samples are very good.)
If you layer two piano sounds (the stereo grand and the wide piano) and increase the release of the envelope for one of the layers, the sound is still better.
Clearly, the sound couldn\'t be confused with a Gigasampler instrument\'s sound. But for a $189 keyboard, the sound is incredible. (Far better than the consumer Yamahas, which fade to a sine wave after three seconds).
I\'m posting this impression because this keyboard makes me wonder where we\'ll be in a year or so. Someone at Casio is pressing to create a serious instrument. Anyone know of other efforts to create a sample-based piano for the consumer market? If Casio had invested another $50 in ROM, they would have have created an unweighted but professional keyboard.