Sam Mullins

You are correct of course. My first keyboard I bought some 40 years ago was a Wurly 200 but sold it 20 years ago. With emulations (e.g. Nord) I find myself dialing the speed down a bit. But despite my preference Casio did the right thing in maintaining the original speed.

Rachael is the real deal for sure. I"ve been fortunate enough to see Lake Street Dive 7 or 8 times, some predating their 'overnight success' when Kevin Bacon tweeted that Boston sidewalk cover of the Jackson Five. The bass player/songwriter Bridget Kearney grew up in our little college town and spent time at the youth arts program my brother ran. It was great to see 4 young people who were serious about their craft and spent 10 years in a van before it all paid off. I don"t love everything they do but a lot of it is greatâ¦it"s not easy to write smart but accessible pop music. Anywayâ¦back to Rachaelâ¦this one slays me: [video:youtube]

My 80's was Thomas Dolby, Elvis Costello, Prefab Sprout, Los Lobos, etc. When my eldest son (who listened to things like Jaco, Glenn Gould, Chill Peppers, Hendrix, etc in high school) went through a 80's hair metal phase when he was in college, I told him "Hey...that's our sh*tty music...your generation should find their own sh*tty music."

Glad your initial impressions are good. I haven"t settled on the reverb I like best. Curious what you think of the Wurly. The tremolo is faster than I prefer but there are certainly people who like that speed.

There is a bass / piano split built-in but the CT-S1 really isn't about that. It is about being simple, easy and instantly accessible. If you're looking for splits, layers and other things wait for the CT-S400. It has a much larger sound with the ability to store registrations. It is however missing some of the CT-S1's unique sounds. Fair enough. And given the choice, I would probably still go with CT-S1 for it's nicer aesthetics. It's always something

The funny thing is, my first thought about lacking split on a board with layers was that adding split adds a bunch more complications (esp. on a board without display/menus). To make it really functional you need to be able to adjust, not just the split point, but also (even more so than having these things for layered sounds) the relative volumes of the two sounds, octave shifts for the two sounds (for example, a split with strings on left needs to be octave-shiftable unless you only want your strings to be cellos), sustain behavior for the two sounds (you'd want it for RH piano but not for LH bass)... and then I saw that the S1 actually already HAS these editable parameters even for its LAYERED sounds! This board is full of surprises! Right...I think you would just need one function key to switch between layer/split mode and one function key to select split point...the rest of the stuff is there.

Completely agree.

As in, how? As an employer, personality-wise, as a musician? Link? I'll hazard a guess it's as a musician. Over his career, he has had a lot of success trying to sound like other people. This vid is a perfect example...his tone, phrasing and arrangement are 100% Clapton from the Journeyman era. Not just close. VERY close. He's done a lot of that over his career with other artists (e.g. Hendrix/SRV). At times it seems to go beyond influence to straight up mimikry. He does a very good job at it too - he's no slouch. It's odd, because his initial fame came from sounding like himself...then he seemed to work hard to sound more like other people. My guess is that causes animosity (doesn't bother me). Either that, or because he probably gets laid whenever the wind blows. First, I'll state that I don't get worked up about what other people like: if you are listening to music and enjoying it...hooray! Personally, Mayer doesn't excite me at all musically (leaving aside his celebrity). I bought that first album that made him a budding star and liked it fine as a pleasant folk-pop outing. It was one of the things that everyone in our family (two teenage boys at the time) could get behind....so we all went to the his big arena show in our area. It was easily the most annoying/boring big name show I've seen in my life...so much guitar wanking.

I think their target audience is exactly those that care about this. There are dozens of consumer keyboards in this price range and all are of the variety with LED screens, hundreds of low-quality sounds, built in rhythms, etc. I think this was made precisely for "real" keyboard players who have wanted a highly portable unit with decent standard keyboard sounds (i.e use the memory for a few quality sounds rather than hundreds of mediocre ones.) This wouldn't compete in the "I don't know anything about keyboards but I want to buy this for 8 year old to put under the Christmas tree" category....more buttons and lights are what will attract those folks.

I"m not one to nitpick at this price, but I"m a little disappointed that you can"t do splits. This obviously isn"t a DSP performance issue since it support layers; just a software limitation. There are a few function keys still available so maybe in a software update? (I know â¦not likely at this level). If they didn"t support layers, I wouldn"t even bring it up

For me the CT-S1 piano tone/action is decently playable, you're not going to get the finesse of an US$800+++ hammer action, but the dynamics for a US$199 keyboard are a pleasant surprise for me. Don't let your imagination run away with you, it's still an inexpensive plastic action, but there is a feel of key "travel" that gives decent control over dynamics for this price range. notes are super-easy and a fun to play. +1. Well summarized. It doesn"t even occur to compare the action to say my Kronosâ¦different leagues and price to go with it. But compared to other low end consumer keyboards and many dedicated low end MIDI controllers, I find this action much more playable. You can get musical dynamics with this this thing.

One difference I found between CT-S300 and CT-S1 on how the audio in works: On CT-S300: you could turn the keyboard volume down and it would affect the internal sounds separate from the audio volume in. For example, I could turn the keyboard volume all the way down and just hear my iPad sounds coming in through the audio in. On CT-S1: it appears that turning down the volume knob affects both. Additionally, adjusting the primary part volume seems to affect the audio volume in. I believe the manual is incorrect on this as it states: "If the volume of the external device notes sounds by this Digital Keyboard lower than the volume level of the notes you are playing on the keyboard, adjust the volume level of each Digital Keyboard part to balance them." This concerned me at first because it meant I couldn't use the CT-S1 to play sounds from my iPad without having it's own internal sound mixed in. Then I realized there is a LOCAL OFF function to accomplish the same thing

Mine (in black) should arrive tomorrow. How do you connect CT-S1 to Spacestation or other audio out? I was disappointed to read that it does not have L & R 1/4" outs, so I will have to take the headphone miniplug out to a 1/4" stereo splitter to run stereo 1/4" outs. I've had to do this before so I have the cables and adapters and whatever I need, but I sure wish I could run 1/4" cables direct from the CT-S1 to my portable speaker or to 2 QSC powered speakers. I have a a 1/8 " stereo to two 1/4" mono cable....which will run to Notepad mixer (which will send outputs to Spacestation)

According to the LEDs on front, that is the Stage E. Piano. (Not the phaser E. Piano which would be the next LED to right.)

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.