Casio CTK-1500AD Full Size Keyboard with Dance Mode and AC adapter – Black/white

This is a great keyboard-a step up I would say from basic entry level. Firstly although it says full size keyboard this is not the full range that a piano will have but bigger than many keyboards. I found it quite light and easy to move around, I imagine stands are available but I have been using it on a dining table which is a little high for comfort but fine for short periods. This has many of the features that you would expect these days, a wide range of voices ranging through 120 instrument sounds some of which are more effective than others plus some special effects, together with 70 rhythm beats including rock, waltz, jazz, country etc so lots to play around with. The stand out feature is the dance themes, hip-hop, house, acid, trance etc – 50 altogether, and the ability to mix and match a variety of drum, chord and rhythm with one key press and to loop and put your own top line on. For me this is fun to play around with, for a more experienced keyboard player you could really go to town to create some good mixes building up the sound using the various functions. A beginner can play a top line and put a chord and rhythm accompaniment so even with very basic skills you can get a lot of pleasure out of this. To be honest I haven’t got close to getting to grips with the full capabilities. It does offer built in lessons that you are supposed to use to play along with the built in tunes and learn as you go but these are a poor substitute for proper lessons or a decent book as the screen is so small. Incidentally the built in tunes are mainly traditional songs like Danny Boy or When the Saints go Marching in or light classical music like Fur Elise or Ave Maria – not a dance tune among them. The controls are quite confusing as in order to activate the various functions you have to combine key presses- there are 11 options on the function key alone – so keep the instruction book handy. The screen displays a lot of information within a very small space which is not always easy to see.
There is a headphone socket which I think you can use to record on a computer though I haven’t tried it. It is for the large size jack plug so you will need an adapter if you only have headphones with a 3.5mm plug. There is no midi input/output.It comes with a mains adapter but you can use batteries 6 X AA.
I would not suggest this model for a very young child who wants to learn as most of the keyboard’s capabilities would be lost on them but for an older child or adult serious about learning keyboard (or actually just for fun) this is great and has great potential even if you are not into dance music.
I would also not suggest this as a practice instrument for those learning the piano as it does not have piano weighting on the keys.