Living with the Casio CTK-6200

This is good, and I'm glad it's not expensive.

So I've owned my Casio CTK-6200 for a short period of time and I'm learning my way around it. In some ways it's stupidly easily while in others stupidly difficult. I'm not going to get into the details of that because it would take too long to explain. But what I will say is that this particular synth rides the fine line between "portable keyboard" and "synthesizer workstation". It's almost as if I can't decide what it wanted to be, so it decided to be both.

As a performance synth, the CTK-6200 is good. As a songwriting tool, also good. Its weak point however is the sequencer. It works but there are annoyances about it (such as not being able to preview the quantize of notes before actually executing the command.)

My favorite thing about the CTK-6200 is that this was a good reintroduction to the keys for me. I had been without a full-size keyboard for a while, and this one reminds me of what makes synths so cool to begin with.

Now that I've lived with the thing for a small while, would I recommend it? Yes, but only for one reason. It is the most synth you can get for the money. It's not the easiest nor the most straightforward. There is a bit of a learning curve with this thing. But again, you can't beat what you get for the price.

I'll put it another way. If all you want is something that makes cool noises, has no sequencing ability and is as cheap as it gets for something with full-size keys, get this Yamaha PSR-E362 bundle. However, if you want something with more synth stuff in it that's a better value for just 50 bucks more, then the CTK-6200 is the best thing going right now.

Published 2018 Feb 26