Recommendations? (Casio WK-1800, Yamaha PSR-550?)

[CovenantKeeper]

I'm a guitar player in search of a decent quality keyboard for both live (home church fellowship) and recording applications. I'm on a budget (who isn't?) and would like to keep the cost below $400-500. I would like something with at least 61 keys, a variety of realistic voices (piano, sax, trumpet, bass guitar, synths, etc.), and a floppy drive (for using MIDI sequences for backing tracks). For recording I'm using a PC with the SoundBlaster Live!Drive and Live!Value card, BIAB, and PowerTracks.

Right now the keyboards I'm considering are the Casio WK-1800 and the Yamaha PSR-550, although the Yamaha is borderline because of the price. Does anyone have any experience with either of these keyboards and their sound qualities, or are there other, comparable boards out there I ought to consider? None of my local music stores carry the WK-1800, so I haven't been able to check out the sounds for myself and am leery of buying it "unheard" online.

Oh, one other thing - I want a board that will allow you to split the keyboard (e.g., play a bass guitar part with left hand and a piano or synth part with the right hand). Not sure if the Casio will do that or not.

Many thanks for any help on this!

 

[brzilian]

Casio's just plain suck - their sound is terrible. I'll take a Yamaha PSR anyday over a Casio keyboard. Their pianos sound like crap when you A/B them to the Yamaha's.

Casio may be good at bulding calculators, but their keyboards are nothing more than toys...

 

[vactastic]

Roland EM Series?

Maybe take a look at the Roland EM series. I have an EM-10 and I love it, although they have discontinued this model(i believe) there are others i.e. - EM15, EM25, EM55. These have great sounds, and I believe they have an "arranger" mode which lets you split the keyboard(not totally positve on that one).

hope it help


adios
jason