I only tried this for a brief time. Loved the sounds, Casio has always been good for me that way. And I wanted to love this keyboard, it was well packaged, solid and the speakers sounded great, but the touch was completely off for me. Not like a piano and not like a synth I found it difficult to adjust. I've played real organs, pianos and synths and usually have no problem adjusting to things in between but this,to me,was sluggish and heavy and just plain odd. Some people might love the action but I did not. It's a seriously strange feeling keyboard. Bummed..

The sound is outstanding and the keys feel great. At this price it is a great board. Just not user friendly in the sub menus. I had originally bought the Yamaha PSR-E473. Out of the box the Yahama display screen was dead. I am so happy that I was able to purchase the Casio instead.

Love this Casio CT-X5000. Great feel to the keys and more options/sounds than I'll ever use.

Very good keyboard for the price it does a lot

I discovered this wonderful keyboard on YouTube. I couldn't believe the sounds and I couldn't believe my ears when I heard the 1970s electric piano sounds. I'll give it a thumbs up. The only thing that I do not know how to work is all of the effects. But, I know how to work the keypads, and the pitch bend wheel. I recommend anyone that loves keyboards to buy this. It doesn't cost much at all.

I've been using this board a lot for two years now. I really wish that Casio had consulted with full time life long keyboard players like myself before finalizing the design of this board. It can do more than a lot some much more expensive boards can, but Casio dropped the ball with a poorly written manual, a bad initialized EQ setting (mids are way too squeezed until it gets buried in the mix, both live and in studio recordings) and switching between the different layers were far too complicated, until I figured out that if you long press the tone button, that makes it easy (not in the manual, plus the tone button does not even have the dual function indicator by it). This board is like that superstar who missed their career.

Played someone else's. Don't have my own. Much better than my Korg PA600. Hoping to be able to raise the money to buy one. Things have been tough but I think its worth sacrificing for. My opinion. Best value for the money

SOUND: The sounds from the new AIX engine are wonderful. The piano sounds are the most realistic I've encountered on a hardware synth, and instruments that have tones that change over time (in pitch, breathiness, etc.) reproduce those changes in a very convincing way. And with 800 sounds, you have plenty to choose from. The amp and speakers are also strong and surprisingly loud in the X5000. Which, BTW, if you are at all serious about your music, you should definitely get as opposed to it's little brother, the X3000. There are lots of reviews & videos to explain the differences, so I don't need to repeat them here. I'll just note that if I had gone with the 3000 and then discovered all the features it lacked, I'd be begging Sweetwater to take it back and upgrade me to the 5000.

BUILD: It's a solid machine. The plastic body is thick and feels fairly rugged, yet it's surprisingly light given everything they've packed in there. The buttons have a nice rubbery feel, and they are *silent* -- None of those cheap "clacky" contact buttons so many instruments come with. The key action is fine for a synth; it's unweighted, of course, but still has a very playable resistance. And the keys, like the buttons, are *also* silent. Some reviewers have complained about noisy keys, but on my unit the only sound I hear is the key landing on its soft pad if you hit with hard. This is a pretty big deal with me; I've had keyboards that I hated playing because the made almost as much noise as their sound engine.

FEATURES: Casio loaded this machine with a feature set that makes it a real steal at the price. It has hundreds of rhythms and accompaniment patterns that sound just fine for what they are (big band, polka, rock, and all the other usual genres), but those are just too "canned" for real performances. The good news here is that CTX 5000 has all the tools you need to compose your own accompaniment. You just play whatever kind of base rhythm and note/chord pattern you like in the key of C, and the CTX your new pattern to the chords you actually enter as you play.

USEABILITY: The physical interface is reasonably well laid out, and for routine operations it's fairly easy to use. But once you start diving in the menus, functions, and other nested features, it it quickly becomes frustratingly complex and inconsistent. Even something as simple as making a routine to change to a configuration can be baffling. Do you press Exit to indicate you are done making a change? Sometimes. But other times you need to press Enter to commit the changes, and sometimes you need to press Enter again followed by the "yes" key to finish the change. And the distinction between what long and short presses do has no apparent logic to it beyond the notion that using long presses usually takes you into a deeper, less common mode. And speaking of modes, this thing is like five finite state machines that collided at an intersection, and I often have no idea what it's waiting for or why it's acting strangely. I often have to give up and cycle the power off and on to get it into its default state, then navigate to where I was earlier and attempt to complete the action it was previously refusing to carry out.

Sorry about the UI rant, but there's no excuse for shipping a machine this good with a UI this crappy. I have experience in UI design, and I see so many problems that would be easily fixed just by standardizing the functions of the buttons. This is definitely not a machine that you can fully use without studying the manual. Fortunately, the manual is thorough and systematic, so it's possible to figure out how to do things. But that, too, could be improved. For example, a few simple flow charts would do a world of good.

So... if the UI is that bad, why did I buy this thing? Well, I read lots of reviews so I was prepared for the clunky interface, and the machine is so good in every other respect that I decided it was a worthwhile tradeoff. Great sound, a solid build, and features to die for -- I couldn't pass it up. And despite some obvious frustration, I'm definitely happy I bought it. It may not be easy to like this machine, but it's definitely easy to love!

So, I like everything about this machine except the UI, and and if you can live with the UI then IMO it's the best keyboard on the market in the under $1000 range.

I cannot say enough great things about this keyboard. I am having a blast using the Phrase Pads for my solo practice. When I have all four phrase pads recorded and my solo sound setup, I then utilize the amazing Registration buttons that saves all my settings and tempos for quick recall. Great sounds and customized sounds. Oh and super awesome customer service from the team at Sweetwater.

This keyboard has a tremendous sound/tone bank of 800 realistic-sounding instruments, plus the ability to modify and store many parameters for them. Keys are touch sensitive so one can play expressively, and the sensitivity can be modified for your preferences. Recording & arpeggiating tools are very good as well. There are also many songs on it that you can play along with to learn and practice (not what I got it for). It does have a rather steep learning curve (which keeps me from giving 5 stars) for some items, but Casio has YouTube videos for each chapter in user manual so there's lot of help learning. Good for performing as well since you can split keyboard to play different instrument for left and right hand, or play along with pre-recording of song you might perform. Suits my needs without spending over $1000+.

I have owned different Casio keyboards but this tops it all. The only thing that I can't do since I'm visually impaired is edit, and do other things. But I enjoy playing with it. I will buy from this company again by the way.

We wanted an instrument to record and playback our Church service. This model seems to do all we needed, easy record and playback.

You will not find a keyboard that does what this will do in this price range anywhere maybe... for korg pa300 but If you dont wanna spend... more get the Casio

I have a small studio and the CT-X5000 sounds excellent both recorded and through an amplifier. The sound variety and quality is outstanding at this price range. This keyboard has an amazing amount of functions and features. To get basic rhythms and tones is pretty simple, for the advanced features such as recording phrases, storing registrations, setting the arpeggiator, splitting and layering the keyboard ect.. you will need the manual. This keyboard can do a lot, so the manual is lengthy but pretty straight forward. I love the 30 watt on board speaker system!!!!
This is a very good sounding keyboard with a massive amount of tones and features for a very affordable price.

Michael really picked a winner with this keyboard. At the price point that Sweetwater has set, this is undoubtedly the best sounding sound source around. Any recording studio would be lucky to own one of these sound makers. It rivals the best sounds from all the other keyboard makers. It can produce any current or even older songs.'
I wish it had a stronger growl tenor sax sound, because I use that on 80% of my performances., and I can get it from my Yamaha PSR-s910 and PSR-s950. I am saving for a Yamaha PSR-s975.
Although the rhythm and tone selections are a little slow to achieve for a live performance, for me, they would not hold back its use in a studio.
I predict that CASIO will bring out a higher level keyboard with an improved lead tenor sax solo sound and quicker tone and rhythm selections. I am looking forward to such a keyboard and would like to purchase one.
So will everyone else!

I analyzed the Yamaha PRS e363 and the e463 and then to Casio, first the 3000 then this jewel, the CT X,5000. Of course it does a lot BUT it outshines in 3 ways- you can make the keys sound like any thing you can dream up, The speakers can pan from sides to side but might make you dizzy and you can record lots of tracks and a songwriters dream.

Now here's the magic MIC info you stopped in for. Now if you've been around trying to set up your music studio. Microphones are in a separate class. Bot they all have the same problem, they must be matched to your system. Either they work alone or they need a voltage boost. Most interfaces have 48 or 18 volt, otherwise called a preamp. Stay calm, the 5000 will serve you well. Get used to the fact that it is a very sophisticated piece of technology that needs a 157 page manual. Keep it handy.

I sold my 10 year older CTK keyboard and bought the CT-X5000 as a replacement, hoping that it could work as the next step in my children's music learning, being able to record custom rhythms, use the microphone with effects etc. I was wrong. The CT-X5000 is so difficult to use, normal people will only be able to select tones and rhythms. Any more advanced function is practically inaccessible, because there's no consistent logic and navigation with anything. Every function requires using lots of different buttons and browsing in menus each with its own up/down/left/right/in/out menu structure and separate set of buttons for navigating, and at each button press you potentially make an error. If you memorize dozens of things and don't make mistakes, yes it is possible to operate the functions. For example, how to create a user rhythm ... you would not believe the sorts of things that process involves.

The microphone input does work, but the preamp is underpowered. For example an SM-58, too quiet, practically not really usable.

I sing and had hoped to use the keyboard to accompany myself. The Mic. input in the back of the keyboard does not work. You're instructed to use a dynamic microphone and plug it into the 1/4 inch jack in the back of the keyboard. With the mic. volume knob, next to the input jack in the back of the keyboard, turned up all the way, there is no amplification at all. No one to whom I've spoke has an explanation and I can only assume that Casio is aware of the problem and has chosen to ignore it. None of the videos extolling the virtues of this keyboard demonstrate the use of the microphone.

As an enormous fan of the WK3500 (with floppy drive!), I was psyched to get this keyboard, which I expected to be a significant upgrade. Like the WK3000 vs WK3500, the upgrade from the CTX3000 vs CTX3500 gave me the required 1/4" stereo line outputs. What I didn't realize was that the CTX5000 *removes* battery powerability! Major thumbs down on that. I took it home thinking maybe I will fall in love with it anyway. It took me 4 minutes to realize that I would be returning the keyboard. Here's what I learned:
1. does not run on battery power, if this is important to you get the CTX3000, but no 1/4" line outs.
2. there are huge dedicated buttons for semitone transpose up and down close to the keyboard. This is but one of the "never ever" buttons that would ruin a gig. Interestingly, these buttons are also used for octave up and down, but you have to hold down a third button to get this function. Why did they not reverse this? I wouldn'y mind being able to hit octave up and down in a hurry and I wouldn't have to worry about accidentally transposing.
3. If I fat finger the TONE button and accidentally hit it with RHYTHM at the same time, it will play the dreaded DEMO SONG!
4. While 2004's WK3500 had excellent B3 organs (drawbars even!) with a great rotary speaker effect whose speed could be toggled by the mod wheel or button by default on the organ tones, this keyboard puts a fast deep vibrato effect on the organs, making each and every one of the organ presets completely unusable without editing.
5. Editing. They removed the exit button, it is not one of the numeric buttons. The buttons to get to DSP etc are removed, and you have to hunt around in menus to change reverb (which saturates every sound in a bad way in my opinion).
That was enough for me to send it back after 4 minutes.

I actually just thought I"d "Try" this new keyboard as it was so affordable and the video on Sweetwater"s site showed it extremely well. I didn"t expect "Casio" to have such a professional sound or be so user friendly for my "love application "
But it was all of that. Great sounds, user friendly, very affordable, and great for live application. My only disappointment was that my other keyboard sustain pedals would not work on it. I had to order a Casio sustain pedal separately.

I've owned several Casio keyboards over the years (currently have a px560)...by far this a jump in sound and technology!..the pianos (both acoustic and electric) are by far the best of the bunch...the rhythms with phrase options are improved as well...so far happy with my purchase.