I want to start off by letting everyone know, I am not a professional piano player. I wish I was, however, that is just not the case. The view point of this piano is from a non-professional standpoint by someone who absolutely loves the piano and has a fascination with them, but could not tell you a thing about the technical end of things. With that said, let`s get started! I was super stoked to check out the Casio CGP-700. Before I get into my thoughts on it, here`s all the technical details on it:

 

 

The CGP-700 is your ideal creative partner. It combines authentic piano sound and feel, an incredible six-speaker sound system, and an intuitive Color Touch Interface. It’s a perfect instrument for any home, and when you’re ready to gig, it becomes a lightweight, portable stage piano. Check out some of the features:

Although the CGP-700 is loaded with impressive features, it’s also incredibly easy to use. The centerpiece of the CGP-700 is a beautiful 5.3" Color Touch Interface™. This high-resolution display is bright and clear, and makes full use of a huge color palette to keep you informed and in control. Navigating through tones and rhythms using touch and swipe gestures is a breeze. There’s also a handy Grand Piano button, which lets you enjoy the CGP-700’s brilliant grand piano sound instantly, and nearby Transpose buttons allow you to quickly shift to a different key.

The CGP-700 has four speakers in the top panel, and two low-frequency speakers in its included stand, with a massive 40 watts of power. Whether you’re enjoying the sonic experience of a 9-foot concert grand piano, playing along with the built-in rhythms, or listening to your MP3 player via the stereo aux input, this unique 3-way speaker system easily fills the room with rich, detailed sound.

At your fingertips is Casio’s famous Tri-Sensor Scaled Hammer Action II keyboard, accurately recreating the touch and response of a concert grand piano with 127 times the resolution of traditional keyboards. Suitable for the most demanding pianist, this keyboard also enables beginning players to develop proper playing technique. Just like a grand piano, the keys have a heavier feel in the lower register, and a lighter feel up top. Even the surface of the keys feels natural, with the reproduced textures of both ebony and ivory.

Having great keys means you need a truly great piano sound. The CGP-700’s 9-foot concert grand piano sound is as impressive as it is thanks to a meticulous recording session with over two dozen microphones. The result is a dynamic and expressive concert grand piano that can be used in stereo or mono, and even includes damper resonance simulation. You’ll find instant settings to adjust the piano for rock, jazz, classical, and other styles to suit your needs. The CGP-700 can also use the optional SP-33 pedal system, which provides soft, sostenuto, and damper pedals.

The CGP-700 goes far beyond piano, with 550 different instrument tones. You’ll find a variety of guitars, strings, basses, drums, synths, and more. There is also a powerful effects system with reverbs, delays, and other essential add-ons such as rotary speakers for organs and phasers for electric pianos. Quickly select one of the 200 ensemble Rhythms, which can accompany your playing with a full backing band which reacts to the chords that you play. You can also save combinations of your favorite tones, layers, splits, rhythms, accompaniment, and tempo for instant recall when performing.

The CGP-700 is a beautiful addition to any home, with its sleek design and matching wooden stand. When performing on the go, it can easily be removed from the stand. At only 26 lbs., the CGP-700 is one of the lightest-weight digital pianos available, and with its 1/4" outputs, you can easily connect to a mixer, amplifier, or PA system.

When you are inspired, it’s quick and easy to record your performance. The CGP-700 includes both MIDI and USB audio recorders. Transfer your recordings easily to a computer to share your music.

The CGP-700 is ideal for any educational environment. Duet Mode splits the keyboard into two equal ranges, two people to play side by side on one instrument. An additional Classroom Mode splits the keyboard and configures the CGP-700 audio outputs to work with third party piano lab systems. The front panel also has two headphone jacks, perfect for a teacher and student.

The class-compliant USB port on the CGP-700 can connect to a PC, Mac, or other devices such as an iPad, with no special drivers needed. Just connect, and instantly control your favorite software. 

 

Casio sent me the set up for the CGP-700 digital piano to check out. First off, the box it arrived in was heavy! Roughly 75 (or so) pounds to be exact. If you have someone who can help you carry it in - let them! From dragging the box through the door into my bedroom, where the piano is now set up, both arms are bruised and look like I had been abused a bit. Hey, I`m impatient and when I saw the name Casio I knew right away what it was! So I drug it in and got to work. While putting it together I thought no assembly instructions were included. I flipped through the user guide and saw nothing. So I contacted Casio who was quick to respond. Luckily, I figured it out. Most of it is self explanatory, but there`s a couple things I needed clarification on. Well, as I flipped through the book trying to learn about the piano a bit I stumbled upon the assembly directions. How I missed them I will never know. Two screaming children during the day while trying to assemble it may have had something to do with it, though.

 

The point is, the customer assistance was great! As far as setting it up, it only took a few minutes once out the box. It`s easier if you can get help from someone, but if now, it`s something that can be done on your own. Just install the speaker box (under the piano) the right way. I made the mistake of putting it the opposite way which prevented the cable from plugging in to the piano - which is needed if you want to use the speaker for something other than a shelf!

 

 

Now to give you an idea of how long it`s been since I`ve even had a digital piano, I had a Casio light up keyboard that I got in elementary or middle school. I`m about to be 30 so obviously things have changed over the years. Back then, it was turn it on select a sound you want, maybe even have the keys light up to show you how to play and then that was that. Not much to it. Don`t expect that from this piano. There`s a lot of bells and whistles to this thing, however, for me, it`s a lot to take in and learn. While the instructions are easy to follow, there`s just so much information there`s no learning it all in a day. Maybe a professional or someone who is used to a piano like this. For an average person, such as myself, though, you may find yourself referencing the user guide quite a bit. Now to be fair, I`ve only had the piano for a couple days and since I have to be an adult and take care of the house, kids, blogging, etc - I just can`t spend all day long on it like I would have been able to do once upon a time.

 

As far as the piano itself goes - wow! It`s amazing! Keep in mind this is actually a full-sized piano - not the smaller versions (which is what I used to have). It has beautiful keys that have a nice texture to them. Not quite glossy and smooth like I remember, but it`s a nice texture. Looking at it it doesn`t appear like it would do much. Remember, I`m used to a bunch of buttons on it.

 

On this one, it gets quite technical, but you do everything through the touch screen. The touch pad screen has many choices for tones, rhythm, balance, and recording. The screen works in the same manner as a smartphone. It has square "app" looking icons that are large and easy to see. You select which one you`re interested in and it will open to a more plain menu for that item. You can`t even imagine how well this instrument responds to the changing tempos and tone selection. I can go from full symphonic with strings to sax or bass with the touch of a button. The panel allows me to select two tones for upper octaves and two tones for lower, and I can adjust them up or down.

 

You can also add accompaniment of drums or an auto-accompaniment that allows harmony with just playing one note. Every type and style of music can be played from hip-hop to orchestral. Not to mention they sound like real instruments - not the cheesy sound effect stuff from back in the day. Plus, there`s still functions that I don`t even know what they do! It`s neat! One feature I love is being able to use a USB to plug in midi files to listen through the piano. I chose to try out Adele`s "Hello" since I love the song. It sounded pretty neat!

 

One thing I do wish is that it would show you the keys to play and how to play it. If there is a way to do this, I`m not familiar with it. Like I said, there`s a lot of features that I don`t understand. One thing you can do with the midi file, though, is play along with it or even add some beats to it. I tested it with pre-made ones and had a cool beat (this was after the YouTube video since my camera battery decided to die on me).

 

 

There are just so many things about this piano that I love. As much as I love traditional pianos, as a non-professional, I feel limited on them. Plus, they require more work. My husband had found a nice old piano (from maybe the 1920s I think it is) that had been sitting in the garage. It was cheap so he was hoping to just have to get it tuned to make it playable and work on fixing it up the appearance later on. Unfortunately, that was not the case. It`s got extensive damage and will require a lot of work to be put it. It`s a lot of money for us, especially when I don`t know how to play anything but a few lines I memorized.

 

With a digital piano, such as the Casion CGP-700, there`s a lot more function and it doesn`t have to be tuned every 6 months. Some people complain they miss the pedals on the piano, myself included, but this piano comes with a pedal that is similar to one on a sewing machine. Now that may not be exciting, but, you can actually buy this pedal add on by Casio to make it like a typical piano pedal with 3 pedals on it. Yes, I actually plan on getting that at a later date! Another thing I love is how loud this actually gets. Not only does it get loud, but it`s a quality sound. It sounds authentic. You have the option to use the speaker bar or just the smaller speakers that are already built in to the piano. There`s also a headphone jack for anyone who wants to enjoy the piano without disturbing other.

 

Like I said, this piano is amazing. It`s perfect for professionals and non-professionals alike. If I had to give one suggestion, though, it would be don`t lose the user guide! You`re definitely going to need it for this one. I`m the type who throws away user guides and instruction books, but for this one, I will be hanging on to it for a while.