Casio Casiotone CT-S1 – 61-Key Touch-Sensitive Retro Keyboard | Sleek, Portable Design for Beginners to Pros | Stereo Grand Piano + 60 AiX Tones | USB-MIDI Connectivity | Red

I've had this Casio for 6 months now, and have learned how to play piano/keyboards on it....and have no intention of upgrading anytime soon, because this thing is great! It's just what I had been looking for- just a simple basic electric piano/organ, without all of the endless nonsense that all the other ones seem to have...and most important of all, the piano and organ voices sound GREAT! I don't need accompaniment, and rhythms, and 600 voices, and all of that crap.With this, there's not too much to distract you or get in the way- yet it odes have a ton of useful features, such as octave shift. I love that it is not festooned with dozens of buttons and displays. You access the additional features by pressing a program button and then hitting one of the 61 piano keys. Every key does something different; and every key also turns on another voice (in conjunction with a different button)- but the beauty is, to look at it, it's just a simple, clean keyboard with only a few buttons. Playing this thing is addictive!The one thing I dislike, isn't the product itself, but the manual- or rather, lack thereof. It comes with only a cheesy fold-out, small-print basic starters guide, and you have to access the actual manual online-which wouldn't be a big deal, as really, you can just turn it on and play...easy-peasy...but the thing is, to access the features which are controlled by the piano keys, you have to refernce a chart, so that you know which key does what; and also which key implements which voice, as there are no markings on the unit or the keys.Don't let that dissuade you from buying, as this is the best keyboard you find for anywhere near this price...but it would be nice if it had come with a proper booklet style manual- or at least a decent quality chart showing which key controls what.

I bought it for a friend who's a music teacher and they and their students loved it! It was also super easy to set everything up :)

I've been playing the Casio Casiotone CT-S1 for a couple of months, primarily for practice and casual performances. Its portability and sound quality have exceeded my expectations.

Excellent purchase. Was relearning piano after being away from it for several decades. I spent my childhood playing on a grand piano, and didn’t want a crap electric piano. Also didn’t want to invest in a pro-grade for my needs. This was the perfect balance. Apparently used by a lot of pros when they need something quality to travel with for practice. Will never be the same as the sound of a grand piano when the house fills with the cool spring air. But definitely meets my needs. Ordered it over a year ago I think. Use it a lot. Very happy with quality and sound.

I love this keyboard. I just wish Casio would make an external Pitch Bend/Mod Wheel attachment for it.

Many years ago, I took some piano lessons that never really went anywhere. In more recent times, I'd been thinking of getting back into that and maybe even learning to play the organ. I shopped around and decided that the Casiotone CT-S1WE (the "we" designating a white case) was the best option for me. For as long as Casio has been making musical instruments, they ought to be a safe choice, and I think the Casiotone CT-S1 is a very good if not excellent product.For the price, it's outstanding. While I'm a non-expert, I don't think there is any better inexpensive musical keyboard you can buy if 61 keys are enough for you. The piano tone is of very high quality and this thing will play very loudly if you want it to. You can plug in headphones for private listening and an optional sustain pedal is available. (I also got the pedal, in case I end up needing it.) While not weighted, the keys are velocity sensitive (the harder you press, the louder it plays) for those instruments where the keys would be velocity sensitive on an actual instrument (such as a piano).Casio provides pushbutton access to the most commonly used instruments (several piano and organ variants) and there are seemingly even more than can be chosen when you enter a special mode and press the corresponding key on the keyboard. I haven't tried that. You can also attach a computer using a USB cable and the CT-S1 will appear as a MIDI device. It took a little tinkering around and some dedicated MIDI playback software to make use of this feature. MIDI files played on the CT-S1 sound very good and it's got (at the very least) all 128 common MIDI instruments at its disposal, including drums. You can also continue to play along on the keyboard while a MIDI file is playing, although there is a definite volume difference between the two. (It's possible the MIDI files I tested with have their velocity/volume level set too high.)There's also a Bluetooth adapter and corresponding application from Casio for your mobile device. I bought the optional Bluetooth adapter and gave Casio's app a try. While it works, the Casio app doesn't do much and most of its capabilities seem unavailable on the CT-S1 hardware. I also noticed that the Skoove piano lessons application could not detect and connect to the Casio Bluetooth adapter, instead falling back to the microphone to detect what I was playing. (Maybe this would have worked if I'd have launched the Casio app first and let it handle establishing the connection. I don't know, as I was unable to rerun the Skoove application's first time setup process.)You can power the CT-S1 from batteries, and there's even proper support for the lower terminal voltage of rechargeable batteries, although you have to specify that you are using them. Somewhat surprisingly, Casio chose to allow for the use of AA batteries. I don't know how good the battery lifetime will be as a result, but at least these are less expensive, lighter and more readily available than something like a C battery. I don't plan to play mine using anything other than the provided AC adapter, which has a decently long attached cord.I would have given the CT-S1WE five stars were it not for the lacklustre Casio application and somewhat fiddly effort it took to play MIDI files from an attached computer.

Casio has made great improvements with the sound quality of entry levelkeyboards over the years. I’ve always considered them to be budget keyboards but the sound quality is truly professional. After watching videos and reading reviews, I decided to get the CT-S1 and have not been disappointed. I love how easy it is to use this keyboard. It was a breeze to set up and the midi adaptor (separate purchase) is great for connecting to other apps (I use an iOS tablet) to record/compose songs. The included slide in music/device stand is well made and overall the keyboard has a lovely modern aesthetic look. It is the perfect size for beginner players and/pr those with smaller living spaces that want a solid keyboard. The Casio Music Space App is nice as well and provides the option to stream music from Spotify and Apple. One can also play along with simulated environments. There is nothing like playing beginner ABC songs and hearing a roaring crowd in the background…LOL!