Casio Casiotone, 61-Key Portable Keyboard (CT-S200BK)

Product Information

In 1979, Casio announced their intention to enter the electronic musical instrument business, and the following year they released the Casiotone 201. This was a polyphonic synthesiserwith 49 full-sized keys and eight-note polyphony. Adding performance-focussed functionality, the CT-S300 is perfect for those seeking more expressive capabilities. It retains all of the features of the CT-S200, but with improved playability.

First and foremost, we are musicians, and we want other players to find the right product for them. So we take into careful consideration everything from budget to feature set, ease of use and durability to come up with a list of what we can safely say are the best Casio keyboards on the market right now. This model adds touch-responsive keys, with two different levels of sensitivity plus the ability to turn touch off. There’s also a pitch-bend wheel – letting you add flair and expression to your performances. The most exciting feature for a keyboard in this price range is the USB connection, allowing you to connect up to a computer or mobile device and control them using MIDI. This opens up practically limitless applications for the CT-S100. When connected to your Casio piano or keyboard, Casio Music Space can act as a digital music score, a teacher, a live-performance simulator and an all-round app with which to enjoy learning and playing music. Based around the functionality of Chordana Play but with an expanded array of features, it’s aimed at complete beginners, people taking up an instrument again, or intermediate to advanced players who want to experience a new way of playing.

The Casiotone 201 proved immensely popular and opened up the world of electronic music to a much wider demographic than ever before. Casio had discovered a gap in the market: consumer-grade electronic musical instruments. As suggested by the sudden jump from 500 to 1000, this keyboard takes a significant step forward from its predecessor.

Essentially, digital pianos aim to give an authentic simulation of a traditional piano but in a convenient, keyboard-like format. They are likely to have any number of voices but most of these will be quality piano tones, plus perhaps a few organs. They differ from arranger keyboards in that they are unlikely to have auto-accompaniment features. The Casiotone range largely appealed to amateurs and hobbyists, but some models have achieved cult status among composers and producers. One such keyboard is the Casiotone MT-40, famous for birthing the Sleng Teng riddim. It’s a bit bigger and heavier, and the handle is gone – so this keyboard has lost some of the mobility of the earlier Casiotones. Dance Music Mode has also been taken off.

Chord Detector

The CT-S1WE is a portable keyboard that delivers incredible sound quality, style, and simplicity. Whether you need an affordable first 61 key keyboard, a portable piano for practice or performance, or an always-ready songwriting partner, the CT-S1WE goes beyond your expectations and redefines what a portable keyboard should be. Whether you’re a beginner keyboardist looking for your first-ever instrument or a rookie producer seeking a highly affordable MIDI-compatible keyboard, the CT-S100 is a great choice. Roland's take on the portable keyboard concept features 61 keys, more than 500 sounds, onboard Bluetooth and a Loop Mix feature. Despite its toy-like looks, it’s more than just a plaything. One hundred tones with shortcuts to piano, trumpet and drums, 50 built-in rhythms and 32 note polyphony make it an intriguing learning tool for young minds, plus they’ll get access to free lessons at Casio’s Music Academy.

The CT-S100 is the spiritual successor to the original Casiotone 201. It’s simple – basic, even – but it does what it does very well. All of the products on this list can be powered via a standard power supply or USB, and some enable you to use batteries – a handy option for those who need some portability. After the release of the Casio SK-1 in 1985, gradually PCM sample-based tone generators became dominant in Casio's keyboards line. After the 1990s, most Casio keyboards utilized PCM tone generator or its variants. Following directly on, the CT-S200 is like a beefed-up CT-S100. It offers all of the functionality of the CT-S100, with lots of useful extras.If you require any further information relating to the Delivery service used, please call us at +44 (0)20 8208 9567. The tiny but mighty SA-76 is a colourful and fun way to start your kids off on the path to exploring the world of music. It’s affordable enough to help determine whether or not you have a budding Mozart in the house, without breaking the bank. For improved projection, the CT-S300 also has new, more powerful speakers. They’re powered by two 2.5W amplifiers, so you can pump up the volume if you want!

We’ve included a few digital pianos in this guide, so it’s worth making the distinction even though there’s often a lot of overlap between them and arranger keyboards. Modern electronics allow Casio to fit far more quality-of-life features into their budget keyboards than they could in the 1980’s, however. The CT-S100 comes with a built-in metronome, key transposition, and tuning control (A4 from 415.5Hz to 465.9Hz). There are also four different reverb settings, as well as a headphoneconnection and two 2W amplifiers for the built-in speakers. Arranger keyboards often ship with hundreds of different instrument presets, representing practically every instrument that exists and probably quite a few that don’t. Bear in mind that quantity isn’t always a measure of quality, though – it’s far better to have fewer usable voices than hundreds you’ll never bother with, especially if you’re more in the market for a digital piano than a portable keyboard. For more information on the differences between the two types of instrument, see our digital piano vs keyboard article here. Here at MusicRadar, we are experts in our field, with many years of playing, creating and product testing between us. We live and breathe everything music gear related, and we draw on this knowledge and experience of using products in live, recording and rehearsal scenarios when selecting the products for our guides. Though it’s still a relatively portable unit, the PX-S1100 is a serious instrument, with an active touch-panel display, Casio’s great-feeling Smart Scaled Hammer Action weighted keyboard and a whopping 192-note polyphony to ensure you won’t have any sustained notes dropping out.

Connected to Your World

The CT-S400 uses Casio’s AiX Sound Source. AiX stands for Acoustic Intelligent Expression (sort of), and it combines high-performance EQ and DSP effects with carefully designed instrument noises. This results in highly expressive acoustic instrument noises with incredible clarity.