When I bought my CTS-500, the CTS-1000 was $ more, and the only real difference was the vocal feature on the 1000, which I didn't think was worth a $ premium. As of late 2024, Casio dropped the price of the CTS-1000 so that it is only $ more. I think at that price, I would go with the 1000, which I also think is slightly better looking. I don't think you can go wrong with either of them, honestly.

Bought this Keyboard for my wife. She absolutely loves it as do I. Simple yet incredible. If your thinking this is a toy I assure you it's not. Pick one up and enjoy! Thanks to Braden Thatcher and the whole Sweetwater team for another great experience.

Bought this Keyboard for my wife. She absolutely loves it as do I. Simple yet incredible. If your thinking this is a toy I assure you it's not. Pick one up and enjoy! Thanks to Braden Thatcher and the whole Sweetwater team for another great experience.

Portability! That is the selling point of this keyboard -- and probably the only selling point. It weighs about 11 pounds. I HATE hauling heavy keyboards around, especially to open jams. So, this is the perfect solution.
It can run on batteries, but they will drain down fast unless you disable the speakers by plugging something into the mini headphone jack. BTW, earbuds work great for monitoring as long as the band isn't that loud. Beware that the cheaper Casio models do NOT have line outputs, so that makes them useless for gigs. This one DOES have audio outs to run to the soundsystem PA.

The sound is low-fidelity and thin, HOWEVER when it sits in the mix with the other instruments at a live gig, I think it sounds fine.
This keyboard has a wide variety of sounds to accommodate just about any pop song. As long as you're not doing complex 'piano songs' (ex- New York State of Mind) I think this keyboard holds up. For simple piano songs (ex- Amy Winehouse - Back to Black) this keyboard is acceptable.

One of my biggest complaints about this keyboard is that the sustain pedal is useless. Once plugged in, the sustain is on. Push the pedal down and it's off. So, it's bass-ackawards. Even if it was configured correctly, it's just not like a regular digital piano sustain. So, basically, you have to program sustain either on or off. One or the other for each patch. Accordingly, with a sustain 'off' patch, if you want more sustain in some parts of a song, you have to just compensate with your playing.

I also hate the unweighted 'synth action' keys and the short-scale 61 keys. It will take some practice to get used to.

The onboard effects are limited. For example, you cannot tweek their preset delay times. For some reason, reverb is not always available. You can layer or split 2 sounds and then save your own patches. These get stored in the 'registration' section. You cannot name them. It's just, for example, Bank 4, patch 3.

Compared to more expensive keyboards, the CTS500 seems like a toy. However, depending on your live musical needs, it might serve its purpose perfectly.

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I have a number of keyboards, but I was looking for a keyboard with two primary functions (1) Something to just turn on and monkey around with with instant sounds which has a speaker system (2) something to use as a midi controller with my iPad. The Casio CT-S500 is excellent in both departments.

First, in terms of instant sounds. My heart is that of a synthesizer player. I have nothing against home keyboards but I want to them to act like synthesizers. The CT-S500 has excellent synthesizer functions for a home keyboard. It has a pitch wheel, a modulation knob that can also do other functions, two large assignable knobs that default to filter cutoff and resonance - but also which can be assigned other functions. Finally, a rarity among home keyboards, it. has portamento. You can split the keyboard, layer sounds, add efffects, and adjust the attack and release times. I have had full-blown synthesizers with less sound customization capability. There are about 800 sounds which are generally good, and you can customize them. There is even rudimentary sampling capability that I haven't even explored yet. You can't judge the quality of the sounds by what comes out of the 3 watt speakers. To get the quality the instrument is capable of, you need to use headphones or an external sound system.

In terms of a midi controller - I have barely touched its multi-channel USB midi controller capabilities, but it also comes with an included bluetooth midi adapter that works seemlessly with iPad (and probably iPhone too). Download a free program called BLE-Midi, and all your iPad instruments should recognize the Casio wirelessly automatically. Once you have attached the iPad via bluetooth, you can either run the audio from the headphone jack or adapter into the aux-in of the casio, or just listen to the audio from the iPad directly. Unlike most "professional" synthesizers, the CT-S500 has a sturdy music stand that will not just hold one iPad, it will hold 2 easily. I used this functionality when I hooked up the CT-S500 to my MacBook Pro and attached two iPads at the same time running two different screens on Logic Remote.

I haven't even touched the arranger and rhythm functionality. There are probably better keyboards for this because the controls aren't optimized to make these features as useful as they could be. Obviously when designing this keyboard Casio wanted to keep it reasonably compact and light as well as keep the cost down. Casio therefore decided to use fewer buttons than on a lot of their keyboards. As a result, there is no keypad for accessing individual sounds directly. The button that I miss the most though is Octave up/down. Every midi controller I have has these buttons. (Octave up/down can be selected in a menu.) On the other hand, this keyboard is compact and light, and it has buttons to attach a guitar strap, so it can be used as a keytar. The fact that it can be battery powered and it has bluetooth midi means it is a wireless keytar, and that is pretty rare at this price. I haven't tried it as a keytar yet. It's on my list of things to do. Thanks to Alan F., my sales engineer at Sweetwater.

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In the past I associated "Casio" with cheap music toys. I have changed my mind since buying the CT-S500. I was originally going to buy an 88-key keyboard for my new vacation condo but when I measured the room it would be housed in, I realized it wouldn't readily fit. I did some research online, and for the kind of instrument I wanted to play, this Casiotone, with 61 keys, seemed to make sense. The Sweetwater dudes who make online video reviews seemed to like it and recommended it. I am quite pleased with this keyboard. What I enjoy doing most is setting a drum/rhythm/tempo and accompany it, using the split keyboard feature to play bass parts while jamming with the many, many instrument sounds available to chose from, and just create my own house band. While this is not a weighted keyboard, the full sized keys are enjoyable to play, and I've been playing real and digital keyboards for decades. Similar to how an electric guitar makes chords and individual notes easier to play compared with the amount of force required to press down on an acoustic guitar fret, the Casiotone makes hitting the notes easier - in a good way. The number of available rhythms, drum effects, and instrument tones available is quite astonishing and they sound really good. I hope to use this keyboard to control GarageBand on my Mac laptop, and this presumably should be easy as there is a microB port that will allow me to connect to my Mac. The price is very affordable. Casio makes instructional videos I can watch online to help familiarize myself with the many great features. I don't hesitate recommending the CT-S500. A lot of fun in a small but highly usable package.

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Bought for my daughter in our family praise band

I have hade this keyboard for a month now, and I love it so much I am having so much fun and new ideas come every day. I love the fact that it has quarter inch line uotputs for Profesional use, and over all i really love this keyboard.

I have had this keyboard for a month now, and I am astonished by the sound quality, and built quality from this price range. I like the fact that it has quarter inch line outputs for professional use and can connect to everything I need in my studio. I highly recommend this keyboard.

I LOVE MY CASIO CT-S500 KEYBOARD

IT SOUND GREAT

Like a lot of other uninformed folks, I tended to associate the Casio name with toy-like instruments. Two "under-$100" Casios I've owned pretty much sounded as you might expect.

Not this one. The CT-S500 is brilliant. It has some of the best presets/sounds I've heard, including from keyboards that cost two or three times as much. I was quite impressed with the built-in speakers as well. I'm a relatively new player, so on the one hand keep that in mind. But I also have built quite a collection of keys and synths, and the Casio has become my "go to" keyboard.

Slowly, but SURELY, Casio is taking steps in the right direction (upward)! The S500, given its incredibly low price tag, is simply a superb choice for both absolute beginner AND seasoned veteran. To be sure, the S500 is NOT a full fledged synthesizer-- however, it definitely does allow for a small degree of the joy of synthesis! Casio has given this little keyboard a rather generous supply of hands-on modeling "tools", parameters which come in very handy at staving off boredom and staleness. And as MANY others have indicated, the included on-board sounds (again, at this unbelievably low price point) are simply stellar! I can assure you won't be disappointed. These are sounds that are fun and actually USABLE!
This little "review" has become slightly lengthy (apologies)- but I can honesty say that the CT-S500 from Casio richly deserves ALL accolades, superlatives and praise that can be heaped upon it!... Nice work Casio- keep the trend moving in the right direction...

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