Casio CT-S1000V Keyboard

General

You've probably already come across the Casio CT-S500 and the buzz that surrounds it, and with the dawn of the Casio CT-S1000V, things are taken even further - in fact, this plucky keyboard is already a social-media sensation. While Casio keyboards carry a toy-like, entry-level image that's been hard to shake, this model tells an entirely different story. While the CT-S1000V is definitely a keyboard, it might as well come wrapped in poetry, because with this one, Casio have pretty much rewritten the book.

The Casio CT-S1000V Keyboard: What You Get

This keyboard is home to the same stack of 800 sounds as the CT-500 as well as an extra bank of advanced voices and choirs. The basic grand piano sound is so good that you might quickly forget you're dealing with a fairly budget-friendly keyboard, and while the mass of other sounds, as well as the built-in effects, are a definite bonus, that's not what the online buzz is about. The CT-S1000V has been treated to a sort of vocoder: a voice generator that's able to build singing voices and complete choirs. Now, since keyboards have been emulating choirs since the eighties, and vocoders are even older, this might not sound that special, but when you combine this feature with the compatible app, you gain access to a word-builder, meaning that you can feed your custom choir original, user-written lyrics! Up to now, this is something that you could only do with professional, studio-grade software, but here, it comes wrapped in a tight off-the-shelf keyboard?! That's something special. And it's something we might never have expected from Casio, but here it is!

Extra Options

The integrated sampler is another more-than-welcome and up-to-date perk that can be used to capture snippets of audio streamed in via Bluetooth or loaded in via WAV files. You can even plug in an external audio player to play music through the built in speakers and this Casio will suppress the melody to make space for you to play along. A sustain, expression, or switch pedal can be plugged in to expand the potential of your playing, and a Bluetooth MIDI adapter comes included for linking your new music-maker to a computer, as well as a music rest. The keyboard itself weighs barely anything, and can powered by six AA batteries, so it's also fully portable. In short, the CT-S1000V offers a whole lot of keyboard for a surprisingly low price and manages to wipe away everything you ever thought you knew about Casio keyboards.