As a young child fooling around on my beloved Casio keyboard, I never even realized that something such as a digital piano existed. The first time I saw one I was at my uncle church and it was an upright Clavinova. I didn’t even understand what I was looking at, and neither did I understand that my keyboard was still in a way a type of digital piano. It wouldn’t be until much later on in my years that I would understand that digital pianos come in many different shapes, sizes, and categories, and there are minute or sometimes substantial differences that separate all of them.

Piano Buying Guide

Below, please enjoy the interactive guide that was created to make your piano purchase easier.  Compare the Casio WK-225 to the best pianos and keyboard on the market:

Photo	Model
	Casio PX-S1100
	Casio CDP-S360
	Yamaha P-45
	Yamaha NP12
	Yamaha P-515
	Yamaha NP32
	Korg LP-380 U
	Yamaha DGX 670

Casio WK225: The World of Music Workstations

One of the types of digital pianos contained under this umbrella pertains to peculiar machines named music workstations. Music workstations are actually not specifically limited to being digital pianos, but many musical keyboards are workstations. A workstation is defined as an electronic instrument that has a sound module, a music sequencer, and usually a music keyboard.

A sound module is simply and electronic instrument or tone generator that is devoid of a playable interface, and needs to be controlled through an externally connected device. This is where the music sequencer steps in. The music sequencer is a device or software application that can record, edit, play back music. When both of these components are combined with a musical keyboard, the entire machine now comes to be called a music workstation.

Music workstations first came to be developed and used in the late 1970’s as the world of technology was really taking off. The development of microprocessors, mini-computers, digital synthesis and disk based storage made it much more feasible for machines like workstations to be created. As time progressed and advancements in areas such as MIDI, memory banks, modular software, and digital signal processing greatly increased the accessibility and availability of music workstations on the general market, while greatly decreasing their cost. The modern music workstations of today can be found in notable brands such as Yamaha, Roland, Korg, and Casio.

Quickly, take a look at some of the best selling keyboards available online, and see how they stack up when compared to the WK-225:

BEST SELLERS
1) Yamaha P-45
4) Casio CDP-S360
5) Casio PX-S1100
2) Yamaha P-515
3) Casio PX-S3100

Casio Piano Which Serves As a Low Cost Workstation

The Casio WK-225 falls under the category of workstations created and developed by the Casio Company, and is certainly one of the lowest costing options you will find. Casio labels it as both a portable keyboard and a workstation keyboard, showcasing the strengths of this product as a very powerful yet mobile machine. Many of the modern workstations of today are big and clunky, but this is not so with the WK-225. This Casio digital keyboard weighs in at an astounding 15.87 pounds, incredible for its classification as a workstation, and is about 50 inches long and 18 inches wide.

The workstation comes in a classy, silver finish and is made out of a sturdy plastic shell which encompasses the keys. The design of the keyboard is such that it is appealing to the eye, yet not too big enough that it would take over the décor of a room. The piano style keyboard fits in nicely with the construction of the machine, and the 76 keys are easily reachable from both ends of the board. The workstation has a rather large backlit display, which is a perfect assistant to anyone using the piano whether to select tones, functions, or rhythms, or to view the pretty fingering or notation display.

This particular workstation keyboard is available on Amazon.com, where it can be found as part of a premium package complete with a keyboard stand, studio headphones and power supply. The keyboard stand included is a ‘X’ style stand made by World Tour Products, who has many of their products included as bundle attachments on Amazon.com. Unfortunately, this particular stand is not a very reliable stand, as it is known to be very flimsy and wobbly, and prone to collapse. This stand has gotten numerous bad reviews, so it would be wise to consider purchasing a different keyboard stand other than the one included in the bundle. Nady HP03 closed black studio headphones are also included in the bundle package along with a Casio AD5 power supply.

Voices, Rhythms and Other Features

The Casio WK-225 comes with 600 built in tones including a number of stereo grand piano tones. Casio is most known for bringing quality realism of acoustic grand piano sounds to the digital platform, and their reputable sampling technology is put on display here. The WK-225 boasts Casio’s AHL sound source system, which stands for Acoustic & Highly Compressed Large Waveform. This technology allow the 225 to accurately assess the touch of your hands and match it with the corresponding piano sample that will replicate how you are playing the keyboard. This sound source is back by 48 notes of polyphony, which isn’t too impressive, but should be enough for that of a 76 key Casio digital piano.

The piano also comes with 180 rhythms in addition to reverb and chorus digital effects. The rhythms allow the piano player to come up with any kind of live performance that he can think of, and the 5 track recorder takes that to a new level by allowing you to compose and piece together your own instrumentals. This 5 track recorder is the most significant part of this keyboard being labeled a workstation, as its music sequencing feature will allow you to save all of your compositions to the internal memory.

The WK-225 can also be easily connected externally, as the keyboard is adequately equipped with a class compliant USB MIDI port. This port will allow the user to connect directly to any kind of external device whether it be a computer, tablet device, or separate MIDI controller. There is also a handy eighth inch audio line input, which is good for recording and other services. A quarter inch headphone jack is conveniently located on the machine so that the user can quietly work on his music while not disturbing others. The Casio WK-225 is available for just $199.

According to Amazon, this keyboard comes with the following features: