Casio CT-S1000V: First impressions - Sand, software and sound

After test driving the Casio CT-S1 and CT-S410, I took the plunge and bought a Casio CT-S1000V (AiX Sound Source with Vocal Synthesis, $450USD street). The price was irresistible after making a trade-in. (The Yamaha SHS-500 Sonogenic retired.)

In terms of build quality, the Casio CT-S1000V is robust enough for light to moderate gigging. It feels solid. I miss the fabric speaker covering (Casio CT-S1) as it is a touch of class. I suspect that fabric would get dirty on gigs, however. I wouldn’t park any drinks on this keyboard (or any keyboard) with everything exposed! Yep, it weighs ten pounds, not bad for a keyboard with in-built speakers.

The power supply is a small lump-in-the-middle brick. The mains lead is rather short with one of those “figure 8” IEC 60320 C7 plugs. Other accessories include a music stand and a Casio WU-BT10 Bluetooth dongle — don’t lose that tiny little bugger! The music stand isn’t super-robust and I’m not sure that I want to park a heavy binder o’tunes on it. It’s also too low for my reading glasses and I will probably stick to my usual tripod music stand.

The CT-S1000V keybed is rather nice for a keyboard in this price range. The keys are squared off and piano-like although there’s no hammer simulation, of course. The keys are evenly spaced, are level, and don’t wobble too much. The keys have a textured surface similar to the Roland GO:KEYS. The throw is a little bit light and soft, not unpleasant. (BTW, I couldn’t stand the Roland GO:KEYS and returned it due to keybed issues.)

I can hand-swipe without cutting my hands. I don’t know how the keys will stand up to this kind of abuse in the long run. Plus, this board is so light, I’m afraid of throwing it off the keyboard stand when swiping!

The speaker sound is OK. I regard the speakers as “courtesy speakers.” Sometimes it’s convenient to push only one switch and start playing. They’re loud enough for my studio room, maybe loud enough for the church gig where we don’t generate a lot of stage volume. They don’t get buzzy at loud volume. Since I don’t play at very loud volume at home, I’m good with that. Casio wisely blessed the CT-S1000V with 1/4″ stereo output jacks so I can send the CT to the church PA.

I read just enough of the manual to enable Active DSP, which assigns DSP parameters to the knobs. With an organ tone selected, turning knob 1 (K1) switched between slow and fast rotary speaker speed. Wish there was a way to assign rotary speed to a button or the foot switch… I need to experiment more with Active DSP. Gotta experiment with splits and layers, too. I guess everything is saved to a registration, but we’ll find out!

I played with Vocal Synthesis enough to know there are multiple Vocalists. Some Vocalists are more natural than others. One of the Vocalists is “Death Voice” and I would like to uncork that one in church. 🙂

Quite a playable instrument. I haven’t listened to any of the rhythms yet because I’m mostly interested in flat-out playing. Switching sections (intro, main, fill, etc.) with the buttons below the display reminds me of switching arpeggios on the Yamaha MOX/MOXF.

Hope these impressions help!