Sam Mullins

Got my black CT-S1 today and played around with it for a half hour. As I mentioned earlier, this is to replace my CT-S300 as my couch rig, so my comments are in comparison to that unit. - Keyboard: one of the cool things about the CT-S300 was that it had an unweighted action that was pretty dang good for playing both piano and non-piano sounds. The CT-S1 is in the same ballpark but slightly firmer, which I think I will like. - Sounds: There is no comparison here. I use my CT-S300 only with an iPad mini; most of the sounds were typical of low-end consumer keyboards. The CT-S1 sounds are well-chosen (although I don't have much use for the "casio classic" tones) and the quality of a low-end professional keyboard (say in the $500-$700 range). I'm mostly interested in the piano and e-piano sounds and these are definitely good enough to use on a gig. The other sounds are quite decent also. - Speakers: Again no comparison here. I played a couple tunes from iPad/Spotify into the audio input of each unit. The CT-S300 sounds like a cheap 90's boombox and the CT-S1 sounds like a modern low end sound bar. It's loud enough to play at a small room gathering and compete with acoustic guitars and low amplification. The surround effect is a nice bonus and subtle. - Aesthetics: It's definitely a more professional styling and pretty attractive. The music stand is much more substantial (metal vs. plastic). It doesn't really lock in on the back so I'll have to see how well it stays in place when playing on my lap. I had my iPad mini "permanently" velcro'd to the top of my CT-S300. You can' really do that on the CT-S1 beacause of the speaker cloth, but because the internal sounds are so much better, I don't think I would do it anyway. I'll probably put the iPad on the music stand when I use it. So early in the process, but it seems like this is an absolute winner for the money. I pre-ordered mine and got a 15% discount so for $170, there really is nothing to complain about. This is really the couch rig/campfire instrument I've been waiting for over the last decade. Cheers to Casio! Related to this, I now have a street rig that I can haul in 1 or 2 trips (as opposed to my normal Kronos/Stage/QSC rig which is 9 items and at least 6 trips): - Spacestation - light weight K&M two tier keyboard stand (K&M 18880/18882) with: Bottom tier: CT-S1 Top tier shelf with following: - USB hub, power strip and cables attached on the bottom of the shelf - a Samson Graphite-25 (which has been in my closet for years) for a few extra keys, pitch and mod wheels and some knobs. - iPad mini (running Keystage with various AUM synths: Module, B3-X, iFretless Bass, Neo-Soul Keys, etc) - Soundcraft Notepad mixer - for iPad audio I/O and mic inputs. Don't know how much I'll use this rig but it's a fun project using stuff I already had.

I have some Purgatory Creek samples and think they are great. But I have owned and loved three Nord keyboards (Electro 3, Staget 2, Stage 3) and IMO, the Nord electric pianos are pretty long in the tooth at this point and nothing to write home about. I have always preferred the Yamaha epianos on the Motif/MOX/Montage/MODX family and the modeled Kronos epiano. So I guess I'm saying that the Purgatory creek epianos are probably way above the Nord. YMMV.

Jaco on Joni's " Dry Cleaner from Des Moines"

I definitely lean towards having two different keyboard/manufacturers. The two obvious reasons are a) diversity of sounds and b) different keybeds (i.e. weighted and un-weighted.) Less obvious and just as important to me: I have one keyboard that is very tactile and simple to use for on the fly (Stage 3) and one that is very deep (Kronos 2) that can cover as complicateded setups for particular songs (e.g. 8 splits with internal/external controllers, etc.) This gives me the range of things I need for both on-the-fly and heavily pre-programmed situations.

I could do a test for you. There is latency associated with Bluetooth audio but I have not tried a completely wireless round trip. I'll confirm the playability and let you know. Thanks Mike..will look forward to your report

I pre-ordered my CT-S1 yesterday. I"m almost 60 and have owned dozens of keyboards and this is the first time I"ve done that! I"m waiting on the Bluetooth unit to see what people"s experience with it is. A question for Mike or whoever knows: can you run the Bluetooth midi and also receive audio back on Bluetooth at the same time. I would like to play iPad soft synths from CT-S1 and then have iPad audio come back to CT-S1. If it can do that with acceptable latency, then I"m going to be a very happy camper. I currently have my iPad mini veclro"d to my CT-S300 and cabled via USB/lightning and headphone audio cable. This would eliminate all that.

Thinking about eventually using this as a replacement for my CT-S300 in my couch iPad rig. This would be mostly to get better speakers, although it sounds like it has a decent piano so would give me the option of using without iPad. Mike: how does the keybed compare to the CT-S300 (which I really like for the price) ?

Jay Ferguson was my first rock concert experience as a kid; he opened for Styx on their Grand Illusion tour...which is why I went. I'm guessing if I went back and listened to both today, I would prefer Jay

And yet there is a large contingent of my generation that will say "there is no good music being made today" ...which given the above is highly unlikely. Finding the good stuff is a different matter of course. For people who are engaged, it's a golden era. You can pay $10 per month to your streaming service of choice and listen to anything without further investment. That's a good thing for expanding people's musical palette.

I've been doing music at various levels of seriousness since grade school. When it came time for college I never really considered doing music as a career. As a lower-middle class kid who's father died when he was 7, I was VERY pragmatic and got my degrees in electrical engineering. I don't regret this choice; it's been sporadically interesting, I've provided for my family and I can probably retire a bit early if I want to. BUT I do regret not getting a rigorous jazz theory/improv education in college while my mind was nimble. I've chipped away at it over the years and can do a reasonable impression of a solo jazz pianist at a party. If I had a better base of knowledge/habits from my younger years, things would be so much easier.

This one (below - the $40 one) sounds OK to me. And BTW, I think that the CTS300 with the handle is the way to go - for this specific use - motel rooms. I even think I'll get a red one in case Yamaha starts making that dream Reface CP - I can give the red piano to a grand niece. Win win - if Yamaha will heed the call https://www.guitarcenter.com/Road-Runner/Keyboard-Bag-Slim-88-Key-1430146862496.gc?cntry=us&source=4WWRWXGP&gclid=Cj0KCQiAyoeCBhCTARIsAOfpKxgl_p0eM1ETZ_YoTp9OnBTtWQv38Y3_0vZvLxOX3aMCNX-MfySeWR0aApvfEALw_wcB I would suggest getting two sets of rechargeable batteries and a charger that you can put in the bag. I haven't really calculated how long the battery charge lasts but it seems like maybe 10 hours. In any case, as soon as they run out, I plop the other set in and start charging the set that were in the keyboard. Haven't plugged this thing into AC since the first week I got it 10 months ago.

Hey...great minds think alike! The 4-octave (with full-size keys) Reface DP was my wish list item from manufacturers for years...never happened Gosh, it would be really cool if Yamaha read this. But surely they've pondered this specific thing. The Reface is so solid. Especially when you consider the reface width (with 3 octaves of mini-keys) is 20.87"...and you can fit 4 full-size octave in a little over 27" (e.g. irig keys i/o 49 is 27.3") So with only 6.5" wider, you would get a MUCH more usable instrument. Sigh.

Hey...great minds think alike! The 4-octave (with full-size keys) Reface DP was my wish list item from manufacturers for years...never happened But like i said I'm now happy with my solution. Obviously, a newer model iPhone might also give you better sound options if you find the Casio sounds unacceptable. Action is always subjective but I find the CTS-300 much better than the typical department store consumer stuff and actually better than some dedicated MIDI controllers. And for the price, it's built pretty solidly and has that nifty handle.

I get a lot of use out of the "couch rig" I mentioned in that thread (basically ct-s300 and ipad mini velcro'd and wired together...scroll down in second page for picture). After nine months, with the exception of the speaker quality (understandable at $130), I couldn't be happier for that purpose. Love having high quality sounds like Ivory for Module and Neo-Soul Keys.

FYI, if you aren't aware: The Amazing Slow Downer app supports Spotify directly. So you can stream your playlists directly from Spotify and get all the benefits of that app: section looping, time-stretching, pitch change, etc. No need to download files, convert them, etc. Very handy for learning/transcribing and well worth the $15 (ios) to me.

Interesting because the absolute loudest show I saw was also at Irving Plaza; Husker Du on their last tour in 1986. Horrible show; they all hated each other at this point and 2.5 minute post-punk masterpieces were bloated with extended wanky guitar solos at horrific volumes. I had to go out to the lobby for relief. The funny part of that show was that the opener was a young Dwight Yoakam in fully Gene Autry regalia....the moshers didn"t know what to think. But he won them over and was by far the best part of the evening.

A few random highlights: - UK opening for Jethro Tull in the late 70's: was a huge prog rock guy in high school and UK was at the top of my list at the time. - Los Lobos at the Channel in Boston in 1985: I was in grad school at MIT and heard cuts from Will the Wolf Survive on the student radio station, bought the LP and then got tickets the next day and my skeptical wife said "we are going to see a Mexican polka band?" One of the all time exciting shows I've ever seen; the energy and joy was just over the top. (It was also one of the loudest I've ever been to...but that is coincidental) - Fred Hersch Trio a couple years ago in the "side room" of Hancher Auditorium (U of Iowa performance space)....sublime. - A teenage Sarah Jarosz opening for Darrell Scott at Iowa City Arts Festival....her genius was already obvious. - Steely Dan at New Orleans Jazz Fest a couple years before Walter passed - Joni Mitchell at Swope Park in Kansas City in 1983 for Wild Things Run Fast Tour - My one chance to see a hero...and the band was stellar. - In the regional/touring category: Any Stuart Davis or Willy Porter show - Alt-country hero Robbie Fulks opening with a guitar cover of Karn Evil 9 at a local club in the 90's

I use the idefender+. works great but is more expensive ($45-50) than what you have linked to. For a discussion of this and other solutions to similar situations (e.g. just getting a cheap audio plug that does ground lifting), scroll down within this thread about the CTS300: https://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/3014975/all/casiotone-s300-as-really-cheap-travel-keyboard

I agree that the way it is packaged is not optimal; to me the AUv3 thing should just be standard (even if that just means that part is included and the associated price bump is in the base price.) But I didn't feel deceived at all; the information is there. And the additional cost is negligible for me.

A question asked of IK many times over the past year or so....no definitive response from them apart from "taking the suggestions on board, and looking at it", which is a shame really because the Sampletank for iOS is a "killer" app in my view! having to have it running in the background outside of AUM, Camelot or even Keystage is a major pain, and in my workflow and gig setup, unusable. And it's odd considering that Syntronik is supported on AUv3. But Korg has similar issues; Module was not AUv3 until recently and most of their apps still are not.

I purchased KeyStage and the app/fx units add-ons last night. I will probably never use it for a "real" gig (assuming those ever happen again) because I'm quite pleased with flexibility/redundancy/functionality/stability of my Stage/Kronos (with Set List) combo. But I have played a few sidewalk things where load-in/out hassle is a factor and have this fantasy of having a "popup" rig of: - light weight 61 key controller - ipad - small mixer - mic - single PA cabinet. I have all the hardware above and could do songs (in my duo with my brother) where we just use a couple sounds...which is about half the repertoire. For the other half, there are lots of splits which are generally set up across both my keyboards. I never envisioned being able to play those songs on a single 61 key controller. But using Keystage with the sections, I think I could pull off a lot more of them. Anyway, there's a good chance I'll never do that, but was so impressed with the functionality in the new V2 youtube video that I just wanted to support agoturk's efforts. Good job man!

I downloaded KeyStage last night and played with it briefly. I'm quite impressed with the advertised functionality (no opinion on stability yet obviously) and like the interface better than AUM (which is a narrower tool). One point: it appears that if you are using AUv3 apps, everything will come up automatically. If an app doesn't support AuV3, then you need to use MIDI internally and you have to start the app up manually. This would be the case with Sampletank (at least the version I have does not support AUv3.) That is a bit of an annoyance from my point of view but maybe unavoidable. Someone let me know if I'm mistaken.

..not to mention his fabulous D6 Clavinet samples which are priced at exactly $0 !!!

I would say yes. I have had a Kronos 2 61 for about 5 years and have no GAS for a replacement. I honestly don't spend much time playing it at home but for my live gigs (back in the days before C-19) it was just the ticket. Set List let me keep my iPad at home. It covers a really wide range of sounds and the action is light but really nice. Yes, it's a complicated beast and not really the thing for Monday night blues jam. But it lets me do all sorts of splits/velocity layer tricks etc that are desirable when you cover rock/pop tunes in a duo. (e.g. I've got a combi that uses 15 parts for Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence." ) I really enjoy having two main boards that are on opposite ends of the spectrum: Nord Stage is intuitive, easy to adjust things on the fly and I rarely do anything complicated from a programming perspective. Kronos is deep and involves menus, but with planning and programming, lets me do things live that I could never do with just the Stage. Feel lucky to be at a point in my life where I don't have to compromise...which has now put me in the weird position of having more disposable income to spend on music toys than ever... and less desire to do it.

Yeah, I hope I like it when I finally get it. I had one fiasco with another vendor on this item and had to cancel after it was lost in shipping for 4 weeks..finally got a refund and reordered with different vendor. I was actually surprised at how few decent corner desk options there are. Lots of cheap consumer stuff but not many units that met my requirements (shelf for 40' monitor and two mid-size monitors, some rack space, and not too skimpy on the desk space.). Wish it had a slide under computer keyboard shelf...but I can add that if need be.