Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!TIS.COM!dmb
From: dmb@TIS.COM (David M. Baggett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: CZ 101 & other MIDI keyboards
Message-ID: <8804052015.AA04263@TIS.COM>
Date: 5 Apr 88 20:15:55 GMT
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 34

Hsiung Young asked a few questions that may be of interest to others:

1) Why is the Casio CZ 101 more popular than other MIDI keyboards with
   ST owners?
2) What is a good price for one of these?
3) What are some other cheap MIDI keyboards?

Answers:
1) The CZ 101 is more popular becuase it was the least expensive
   MIDI keyboard for a quite a while.  Now it also has quite a lot
   of software supporting it, making it even more popular among ST
   people.
2) Don't know, but I would imagine you can get one for $250 or less
   these days.
3) Casio makes a few other low-end MIDI keyboards which are very
   good for the price.  The major difference between the "low-end"
   keyboards and the "more professional" keyboards is the size of
   the keys.  The CZ-101 has "mini keys" (i.e., little keys which
   are much smaller than piano keys", while the better keyboards
   have piano-sized keys.  Another difference is the amount of
   polyphony -- the number of keys you can hold down at once.  The
   CZ-101 allows 4 with most patches (sounds) and 8 with others.
   Better keyboars allow 8 or 16.
   Aside from the Casio keyboards, I know that the Korg Poly 800 II
   can be bought for under $400 now.  It is (I believe) the cheapest
   keyboard with piano-sized keys.

   Make sure that you get one with MIDI or it won't be of any use
   with your ST!  Some companies "fail to mention" that their
   cheaper keyboards don't have MIDI ports...

			Hope this info is useful
			Dave Baggett
			apra: dmb@tis.com