Casio WK-7500 76-Key Digital Keyboard Workstation 

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Digital Keyboard Workstation:

Okay, I've been playing professionally since 1970 and taught band and choir since '77. What I would have given for a keyboard with these features years ago. I've gone through "many" keyboards, always looking for great sound, great feel and fairly easy to use for live use with my band and school. I bought this 2 years ago just for the lightness, piano and great organ sounds (with drawbars) and the cool rhythm machine. Turns out it has really nice electric pianos, strings, etc., with layering and splits. It costs less than most drum machines - and the rhythms and ability to use them for live solo/duo gigs is incredible. I use it as my 2nd keyboard in a setup with a Korg grand, synth pedals, bass station keyboard and multiple modules along with vocals and trumpet. It does so much for so little $$$. I've used it by itself sitting in with bands that needed primarily B3 organ and some piano. Under 20 lbs - even with the batteries!
I must admit, though, I had an engraved plate made up to cover the word "Casio" in the front - there is still a bit of a stigma with being a professional with a Casio. I just wish Casio would come up with another name like their Privia line for instruments like this - people tend to stereotype the name Casio with consumer stuff. Outside of the auto rhythms I don't use recordings or sequences when playing live. I haven't even started using the recording features yet, but there is a lot there. Oh, yeah - it's got speakers that you can use while it's plugged into an external amp or mixer - cool! Could say more - but for the money you can't beat it. Get one!

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Digital Keyboard Workstation:

Using the basic features is easy and rewarding. Having the ability to save setups is terrific. For the money, it is hard to beat. That said, it is NOT weighted keys (none in this price range are), and the keys are beginning to feel a little loose. However, they still play and respond well. The sequencer and pattern features are nice, but I am struggling with figuring out how to use it all. There are some great videos out there on using garage band and an ipad with the keyboard, and this works well. If this is the goal though, get a WK2000 - why spend the extra if you are going to use the sounds from the ipad? I bought this model primarily for the sounds and for having the organ features.

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Digital Keyboard Workstation:

The sales staff at Musician'Friend have be fantastic to work with. Helpful and professional. I highly recommend them. I have purchased a ton of studio gear over the past few weeks and all my purchases were made at competitive prices. They even price matched several items without a hitch.
You can't go wrong dealing with this firm.

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Digital Keyboard Workstation:

You should know that this review is based on trying out Casio WK7500 for about 35 minutes in a music store. I'm very experienced user of electronic keyboards: I own a Yamaha PSR 550 (a very similar PSR 650 is the current equivalent); it's a competitor to this Casio keyboard though it sells for about $300 more. I've owned several arranger workstation style keyboards over the last 25 years, and have tried quite a lot of others. Since the Casio has gotten so many glowing consumer reviews here and on other vendor websites, I thought I'd share my mostly negative impressions about it.

I thought the instrumental sounds very inferior to my Yamaha PSR 550, when listened to on the built in speakers. When listed to with headphones (and I imagine when played through external amplified speakers or amplifier) the Casio sounded quite a lot better, but many of the instument sounds were still inferior to the Yamaha, especially guitar sounds. The Casio piano sounds were fairly good.

Despite what I read from two or three consumer reviewers, tweaking the perameters for instument sounds proved impossible to figure out. I got down into the menu where settings can be changed, but the keyboard refused to respond to every conceivable button combination I could see. I could not get the arpegiator to work at all. True I did not have an instuction booklet, but this Casio was either far more difficult to figure out than most other keyboards I've tried, or was broken (not a testiment to it's durability, since keyboards don't get a lot of use in the music store I was at).

The keyboard action was OK, but not any better than other keyboards near it's price range, despite what a couple of reviewers said.

The control buttons are very logically laid out, but seem fragile. They are not lighted and are all black; the result is they would be difficult to see in a dimly lit room, and it would be difficult to tell whether any particular button has been turned on or off. The display, where current settings are shown and the control menu accessed, is small, low resolution, with primitive graphics; it's considerably worse than the display on my Yamaha PSR 550, which means it's really awful.

To tweak the settings on this keyboard you have to go through multiple levels of menus, hitting a selection button for each menu before you can get to the next level down; it's slow and frustrating, user unfriendly.

On the plus side the Casio offers all sorts of potentially useful features that you'd have to pay a ton more for on Yamaha and other competitor keyboards, 76 keys vs. 61, line output jacks, arpegiator, etc. And the Casio certainly is inexpensive compared to the competition.

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Digital Keyboard Workstation:

The piano sounds and electric piano sounds and organs are great sounds but there are only 2 samples: quiet & loud. The tine piano sounds have a loud attack and a soft: no nuance to the touch and unpleasant volume/attack things happen. The drawbars do not work well because there is a fader-latch like thing when you first turn on organ mode, and you have to move/reset them to get them to register where they are at. The world sounds are pretty good too. The percussion, mallets are nice. The synth bank is well-rounded in content but not mind-blowing. Brass & strings are typical for this class of keyboard. It is also too thick and bulky for my taste in a portable arranger. Not too bad in weight but heavier than I would've wanted in a plastic keyboard. Because I am a performing musician (both stage & studio) and favor playability & sound quality/realism over loads of features I sent it back with a decision to go up toward higher caliber arrangers or performance keyboards with a lot of pro sounds on board
1/4" outputs, tons of neat sounds including world stuff, arpeggiator, drawbar organ with rotor on/off & fast/slow simulator, 76 keys, full arranging sequencing & recording capability: This is an amazing collection of features that no other board in it's class has all of at the same time. It seemed perfect, but read on, because not all these features were of sufficient quality.
Casio's build quality and sound quality keeps improving. The plastic casing seems robust for a home or light-duty user. Still not sure it'd hold up to frequent road gigs. The buttons are a bit soft and require a careful push. This is especially problematic when you're trying to hit the fill-in/intro auto accompaniment stuff in mid-song. The banks of patches become challenging to get thru to find a specific one quickly. I encountered troubles with how the the arpeggio/harmony thing works, never clearly figured it out, again impedes quick changes in that area. The keys, even for unweighted ones, felt solid with minimal clicking noise when pushed, yet seemed stiff in an odd way.
a lot of features, nice price, but in the end you get what you pay for

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Digital Keyboard Workstation:

This is a fantastic keyboard for the price. You can't find another keyboard
in this price range that offers as many features as the Casio WK-7500. Great
piano sounds, drawbar organ with 9 sliders, 16 track sequencer and lots of
great sounds. I would recommend this keyboard to anyone looking for a
workstation that won't break the bank but will deliver amazing results!
This keyboard has all the features necessary to create fantastic demos
and backing tracks. Great stereo and electric pianos, strings, synths and
drums. Amazing drawbar organ sounds with 9 sliders to customize the
organ sounds. 32 channel mixer and can also record audio.
The quality is quite good considering the keyboard's plastic construction.
This is a great value considering all that's packed into this keyboard. 16 track sequencer,
drawbar organ and lots of other amazing sounds.

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Digital Keyboard Workstation:

Like i said before a great keyboard and i already have a friend buying one as we speak.
Couldn't ask for a better keyboard for the money. Weighs next to nothing to carry around. Has great sounds to choose from and the organ drawbar ability is just what i was looking for. Being able to split tones on the keys and save these settings to a bank for quick set ups on a gig is just what i needed. My only complaint is that the settings window that's lit up in the center of the keyboard is the only place that's lit up making other settings hard to go to in the dim lighting in most clubs. So far that's my only problem with this keyboard.
Hard to beat the price for what you get.

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Digital Keyboard Workstation:

While I have not yet owned the Casio long enough to learn how to use all the onboard features, one that I did get into is the tone creator. I have had a fondness of the old Clavioline of the 50's and 60's with 'Telestar' as one of my all time favorite pieces. I was able to reproduce the voice almost exactly of the 'Telestar' melody.
My first portable keyboard is a Yamaha PSR-900 that I purchased about 4 years ago, so my review of the Casio is slightly biased because of the Yammy. Even before I made the purchase I did a lot of research online at various music instrument vendors and on You Tube. There were also visits to local brick and mortar shops for some hands-on experience. The overall feeling about the keyboard is getting a lot of value for not so much money. I chose it because it gives me a drawbar organ that is not conveniently available on my Yammy and makes up for some of the features missing on the Yamaha. Both keyboards are in a stack with the Casio on top and the two of them are face to face with my Roland digital spinet piano. They all make a great suite to satisfy my keyboard performance and learning effort.

The only feature I miss on this new Casio is MIDI. I really would have liked to joined the two keyboards together and with my iMac.
Again, the Casio is a great bargain for what I paid for it but the quality is a little less than the Yamaha. The push buttons have a less tactile feel and require more attention to make an accurite press. The lcd is not as clear as the Yammy either.
As I already mentioned, this keyboard is outstanding value. It packs a lot of features for its cost. My Yamaha cost three times more and doesn't give me three times more features.

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Digital Keyboard Workstation:

IT ain't a Motif or an M3, but hell, if that's really what you want you wouldn't be looking at a Casio anyway. If you want the next best thing, with a little less touch, but lots of bang for the buck, this is where to go.
Lots of features, relatively easy to use. Even without resorting to the manual, your able to figure out how to use basic features like split keys and arpegio settings. Very intuative. Some easily accessible organ adjustments are not available for quick editing, an overdrive knob would have been nice to have. A switch to turn off the organ clicking if you don't want it would have also been nice. I find the variety of sounds available and the qualities far exceeded my expectations.
So far it's holding up fine, but it has only been two weeks, for such a lightweight piece of equipment, it seems to have the appearance of much greater mass. The piano-style keyboard isn't real piano action, but something a little springier. Not like an organ, better than a synth, but not a Piano feel. But after a couple of weeks I've gotten used to it and when I go back to my old dieing Yamaha piano, I find the Yam too hard. Which was always what I felt about Yam's designs. Roland still has my fav touch and feel for Pianos. But like everyone else said, for the buck you are getting a great product.
Can't argue with the value of what you get here versus the price you pay. Maybe it has a stigma of not being a big name on a professional level, but this past summer after I saw an orchestra play where their keyboardist was using a Casio, it got me reconsidering the name. Sure I had no hesitation buying a mini casio for my kids when they were small, but I always said when I buy real keyboards, I'll only consider the big names like Roland, Yamaha, Korg. But now I have been converted. Over the years the big three got enuf of my mo, now I thank Casio, to help me keep it in me own pocket!

Comments about Casio WK-7500 76-Key Digital Keyboard Workstation:

The only possible improvements would involve the labels on the instrument which can be difficult to read in certain lighting situations. I'm sure that, as I get to know the keyboard better, these things will become less significant and I'll be selecting by rote and memory rather than by reading.
I have and continue to use other CASIO keyboard products, but this one is by far their best offering.
With true-feeling keyboard action and a chart of available sounds which I'm only beginning to learn, it is truly an amazing instrument for it's price. I demoed several competitors in the (relative) price range and none, repeat none of them hold a candle to this axe. Thanks, CASIO !
As good as many competitors...better than most !
As above, for the price it truly can not be beat !!!