I wanted to buy a keyboard to continue developing myself as a professional musician and record songs with Song Sequencer. Since I’m an experienced keyboard player, I wanted to pick up a keyboard with at least 5 octaves and the best touch-sensitive keys, so that the harder you push the key, the louder the note sounds, which is similar to the real piano.
Price point: ca. $150-190
Now I’d like to share my thoughts on the instrument.
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CASIO CTK-3200 is not weighty, although it possesses a great range of different functions and effects.
The keys are standard-size and look similar to the real piano keys. However, they do not “drop deep down” when pushing, which is the case with a real piano, it’s easy to use them.
The package comes with a metal music stand that you attach to the instrument:
It is not really convenient to use, as the book always slips down right onto the keys 
As for that, Casio comes with a music book also:
You can find a great deal of songs provided ranging from classic, folk, etc: Jingle Bells, Fur Elise, Turkish March… Well, why talk about it. Check the contents yourself:
The instrument is also equipped with a learning system. You can listen to the songs included and pick out the notes, but if you don’t know how to do it yet, the keyboard also displays them and shows you which keys to push and play the song properly. It’s up to you, but I think that a pro should learn everything here beginning from playing the keys from the song book to picking them out himself.
The keyboard has several jacks on the back:
- Audio In, which I’ve never used.
- Power Jack: Though the keyboard can also be charged with batteries.
- Phones/Output jack: the socket could be used for headphones or an amplifier. You can easily use regular headphones there. You just need a small jack adapter that look like this:
The next two sockets:
- USB port: used for connecting the keyboard with a computer as MIDI keys. I’ve started using the instrument this way. If you use some good plug-ins, you can achieve the same awesome sound like with a real piano.
- Sustain Jack: never used. It’s probably designed for sustain pedals.
On the left side of the keyboard there is a pitch bend wheel for sliding the pitch of the sound output upwards or downwards… It is hard to explain why we need it. To cut it short, the wheel is generally used by solo guitarists.
How can we use it for our keyboard then? In my opinion the wheel is here for guitar tones that are included in a keyboard. By the way, the number of built-in tones is 400:
Among them you can find piano, guitar, organ, drums, symphony and jazz orchestra instruments, a wide range of samples and voices...So much of everything! The tones are realistic and expressive yet some of them sound kind of childish…
I don’t care anyway, because I use only the piano tones and create all the other necessary effects on my computer.
Nevertheless, you can achieve a great sound if you know how to use all the included effects properly. You should just want it badly!
Built-in rhymes: 150
Built-in songs: 110
The display doesn’t light up unfortunately.
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Let's talk about the sound now:
The volume is good enough, at least for playing at home.
You can get a great piano sound by using a reverb. If you play sad music, you may set the reverb to 10, but if the song is quick and jolly 7-8 is enough for you. Additionally, you can regulate or turn off the touch-sensitive keys.
Although the instruments has only 5 octaves, the option could also be extended.
All these and further information is provided in a manual.
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So Casio CTK-3200 has plenty of functions!
It’s a perfect instrument for me to play piano songs and record the sounds!
Highly recommend the model for the beginners, amateurs and pros Plus, the Casio keyboard is the most affordable at the moment!
GET CREATIVE!
