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The CTK-1000 was my first ever MIDI instrument and keyboard and I made hundrets of songs with it. Right to the beginnig of my text I may tell you that the CTK-100 is not a good synthesizer, but somehow I became addicted to it...
The CTK-1000 has a strange kind of sound synthesis: some sounds can be edited by layering 2 different interal samples, some other more synthetic sounds can be modulated and thus be altered. Most samples are thin (except for the great harp some brass and the glockenspiel) while the synthetic sounds are all quite OK.
In general the CTK-1000 sounds extremely unique. Very good sounds are the somkey ah-voice, some synthetic sounds (a kind of synth-harp) and some organs. But many instruments are very thin indeed - forget the winds, flutes and guitars. The drumkit is a little thin, too; Especially the bassdrums lack any kind of bass.
The sound itself is not very clear. Sounds very much like 12 bit 32 KHz, but I really don't know it. Standard aspects of sounddesign are a bit limited, too; you can't edit any LFO - either the sample has an LFO or not. There are no filters but a kind of phaser for the synthetic sounds. Some sounds react to your play in a way that is very interesting but can't be edited, too. For example, there's a synth-bass which gets a great accent when played very quickly.
Then there's the effects-section where you can choose one from many effects and they're not too bad. But you only have two buttons with either plus or minus and no display which show what you are actually doing... Even worse, you have only one single effect for -all- voices. This is OK when the CTK is only an addition to your setup but when it's your only instrument, forget the effects except for the reverb...
The CTK-1000 has a strange layout which makes it difficult to use standard functions if you don't have a manual.
The keyboard itself is good but lacks the modulation-wheel.
After all the CTK-1000 is not what some would call a "professional" instrument. But remember that even trees with a hole in the middle ("digderidoos") are considered "professional ethnic" instruments; it only depends on what you want to do with it - and the CTK-1000 has what a good instrument needs: unique sounds which you won't get from any other keyboard, although most of them are cheaper, better and more widely spread.
I still use it in my setup and it's always worth for a nice choir, a distorted pad, a nice synth-lead or some background percussion.
Alex
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