Before you jump to conclusions…keep reading.
By Craig Anderton
Editor in Chief, Harmony Central
The semi-weighted, 76-key, velocity-sensitive keyboard has a bit more resistance than typical synth keybeds. It's comfortable, with a solid "feel." The display is a big, readable LCD; plenty of buttons simplify navigating through the relatively transparent operating system. There are nine physical "drawbars" for drawbar organ sounds, but can also serve as controllers for editing sequencer track parameters......
... very cool extra feature—you can play back the sequence, and record the result as audio to an SD/SDHC card (2 to 32GB), while simultaneously recording audio from the mic or instrument input. (Or just record the audio—ideal for capturing a vocal, guitar, or other musical idea.) You can also save sequencer data as a Standard MIDI File.
Yes, it's an arranger—but check the fine print
I used to think arrangers were for people who couldn't play, or one-man bar bands. But they can be used creatively, and they also make fine "soundtrack generators"—with the cost often being less than commercial music libraries. I don't want to detour too far from musician-land, but for audio-for-video, soundtracks, and broadcast, an arranger keyboard can be the fastest, most cost-effective answer when the client asks "How about a sort of Latin theme for this commercial?"
As to the 250 styles (which Casio calls "rhythms"), each rhythm has an intro, two variations, two fills, and an ending; however you can edit these (alter the mix, panning, effects, etc.) or create your own 8-track rhythms with drums, percussion, bass, and five-chord patterns, which you can save to the 100 available memory slots. It's possible to switch styles while playing without glitches.
You can store 999 files on an SD card, as well as record up to five songs (or about 30,000 events) in a sequence. So, calling up a single sequence file can actually load five songs for instant playback—great for live performance. Speaking of live, you can also save 96 complete setups that basically store a snapshot of everything that's happening in the WK-7500.
But the arranger tag is a bit misleading, because you can also consider the WK-7500 a synth/ ROMpler for stage use or, thanks to the portability, something you could take on vacation for songwriting at the beach.
...Conclusions
If I had to describe the
Casio WK-7500 in one word, it would be "surprising." It's a fine arranger keyboard, but does much more.
The audio recording option goes beyond the norm, and it seemed anything I looked into did more, and was easier to figure out than expected. Even the battery life is decent—around four hours of continuous use—and there's free Data Manager software for transferring various WK-7500 data types to your Mac/Windows computer. Then there's the arpeggiator and alternate tunings, and auto-harmonize, and…
What you can do with the WK-7500 is pretty astounding, but perhaps the biggest surprise is the value. With the WK-7500, Casio is back into workstations in a big and impressive way.
How to convert funny CASIO format files to .WAV
that is where a lot of new CTK/WK-7XXX owners get lost, particularly if it is their first dual function MIDI/audio board. Even the manual is confusing about these two functions. The SEQUENCER section states that audio files are not supported while the audio section states that MIDI files are not supported. Obviously, those passages are referring to their own specific function, but read from another standpoint can make the board seem pretty useless.
When you format the SD Card in the keyboard, it sets aside 640Mb for storage of audio files. MS-DOS and Windows can not see this storage area, but the 640Mb will be deducted from the available space on the SD Card as shown by MS-DOS and Windows. The keyboard saves audio files to this area in a Casio proprietary (non-WAV) format and MS-DOS and Windows can not see them. To port them to your PC and convert them to a WAV format, you will need to download and the Data Manager 6.0 or 6.1. Insert the SD Card into your PC's card reader slot and start Data Manager. Click on the AUDIO button at the top of the Data Manager window and the five audio file storage slots will show up in the right hand panel. Storage slots with files in them will show a file size to the right, while empty slots will show a file size of zero to the right. To convert a file to WAV format and store it on your PC's hard drive, click and drag the file from the right hand panel to the left hand panel. The resulting WAV file will be stored on your hard drive in a subdirectory specified by you under the "Preferences" tab. I know this sounds a bit involved, but once you have done it a couple of times it becomes pretty routine. For the most part, you are just using the Data Manager to manipulate your audio files instead of Windows Explorer. Once the file has been converted to WAV format, you can bring it up in your DAW software for further editing.
d in case you haven't guessed yet - you can not delete an audio file. Those 5 storage slots are permanent, and you just move data in and out of them. You delete old data by recording newer data over it, so don't bother dragging one of those 5 slots to the garbage can at the top right of the Data Manager screen. It won't do anything. The garbage can is for the PC stuff listed over in the left hand panel.
piano tutorial:
From Amazon
Casio WK6600 76 Key Workstation Keyboard with Power Supply
This keyboard offers musicians 700 different tones to choose from, a built-in arpeggiator with 150 different types, along with a USB port for easy computer and MIDI connection capabilities. The Casio WK6600 76 Key Workstation Keyboard features a 32 channel mixer plus a MIC in, and 10 reverb types along with 5 chorus types. This keyboard won’t stifle anyone’s creativity, but bring it to the next level. This workstation is great for creating your own demos, and works with a computer to control your favorite software or save your finished projects.
Song Sequencer
The Song Sequencer provides 16 tracks plus one system track that supports recording of up to five songs and a total of approximately 12,000 notes. Each individual musical instrument part can be recorded to a different track for real multi-track recording capabilities. A full selection of editing tools include event insert, event delete, event copy, quantize, a locator feature for selecting the range of notes to be edited, and more. A step recording function also lets you input notes by specifying the length and pitch. Completed recordings can be converted to SMF (Standard MIDI File) format and stored to an SD memory card.
32-Channel Mixer
Button operation can be used for individual simultaneous adjustment of volume, pan, reverb send, and other parameters. Sound input from an external source via the MIC IN terminal can also be adjusted as desired.
Multiple Digital Effects
Built-in effects include reverb (10 types), chorus (5 types), and DSP (100 types using 46 effect types including delay, phaser, flanger, wah, rotary, and more). You can apply different effects to a tone to create exactly the sound you want. By adjusting the parameters of the DSP effect types, you can create original DSP effects and store up to 100 original types in memory for later recall.
Input/Output/USB Ports
Different input/output terminals are provided to meet a variety of different needs: line out terminals (L/MONO, R) for connection of the mixer of a stage PA system or other devices, a MIC IN terminal for connection of a musical instrument or microphone, an audio in terminal (AUDIO IN) for audio device input that can be output through the speakers, and more. The USB port provides easy computer and MIDI send/receive connection. It also enables quick and simple transfer of song sequencer, pattern sequencer, tone editor and other data, as well as audio data recorded to an SD memory card from an audio device between the digital keyboard and a computer. Download of a special Data Manager 6.1 application is required in order to transfer data to a computer.
Data Manager 6.1
