Is there a please for messing with the keys and keep sounds on dial up for more time in the size that it needs the method to draw more music on the spot?

1. A transpose function that changes actual MIDI note values - 2-3 octaves down would be nice - and leaves coarse-tune RPNs to the Mixer. (My XG box doesn't handle RPNs on drum sounds.)

2. A registration memory that does not send mixer settings (program change etc) on channels 2-4 if turned off by either the Split/Layer buttons or the Mixer.

3. A full-range chord function that prioritises the lower notes better (hold down a melody 4th and hit a minor chord, or a flatted 6th and hit a minor 7th chord...) and tracks pedal-sustained notes also.

Similar to CTK-601/611/631 with 32 registration memories, a real pitch-bend wheel (with a convenient detent halfway up), 6 non-assignable drum pads and a very informative backlit LCD but no "free sessions". I usually play it in Fingered mode, retrieve Split/layer/sostenuto-pedal setups from registration memory and pretend I have 3 hands for a while (Split/layer doesn't work over MIDI-out though).

Most of the GM voices are reasonable - good Grand Piano and Electric Piano 1, even better (although limited to 12-note polyphony) Stereo Piano (#138) and Chorus Electric Piano (#146); Church & Reed organs, Strings 1&2, Bass+Lead and Polysynth for full-keyboard organ/synth work; good fingered & slap Basses (including a crossfade at #135) and excellent solo trumpet & alto/tenor sax. The guitars were mostly more suited to accomp than solo work, and I was disappointed with the Electric Grand, Brass Ensemble and Whistle. Some of the synth tones are good, others very cheesy .... but ANY tone can be modified and saved as a user tone (take a bass sound, add pitch-set 37 and a slow release and Voila: Disco!) - just ensure you have the batteries inserted or take a sysex bulk dump. The 50's - 70's pop/rock styles are rendered very well (now what's that song? #34 is by Deep Purple) but with the 90's dance ones - Rave and Trance excepted - I found myself involuntarily reaching for the mixer to "cut the cheese".

The manual can be hard to fathom and there are a few other traps for the unwary, like one-touch settings not restoring mixer defaults (I keep memory 0A aside for this) and the memories don't store variation. And look out when playing a melody 6th note with a held left-hand chord in Full Range Chord mode - it recognises this as a minor-7th chord unless you move the 3rd note of the root-note-low chord to the right hand or add a (dominant or major) 7th to the 5th-note-low chord inversion. Or you can turn channel 9 off via the mixer and roll-your-own-bassline with the remaining chord notes lightly held into each change (I edited voice 136 to create a fingered-bass/string crossfade).

Overall a good and very flexible attempt by Casio. But don't leave it in the sun otherwise the LCD can fade out permanently!