Casio SA-46 -Key Portable Keyboard

As a studio musician, I have owned and tried more than a few electronic keyboards. Some are beautiful works of art, some have excellent sound, and most boggle the mind with functions and features 99% of people will never use. The Casio SA-46 combines a few features and functions into an attractive and insanely-bargain-priced package. You really get a lot for under $40 US: 1. Battery-powered, go anywhere keyboard. Works for weeks on 6 AA batteries (not included). 2. Nice, functional drum pads. 3. 100 Tones. Are all of them accurate? NO. Are all of them useful? NO. But all the important ones are there, and enough optional tones are included to make it a useful and fun assortment. 4. 50 Patterns. All the ones you can really use every day are included. By varying tempo, you can easily make some patterns more useful. 5. Song Bank. It is what it is. You will probably not use it too often. This is a musical box built for fun and it accomplishes the goal easily. Anyone from age 5 to 100 will find hours of fun here for a very little price. If you are a more serious musician, and have goals of producing music, it can easily be done with the Casio SA-46 and a free audio program like Audacity. Build a song from multiple, separately-recorded tracks you perform and record using the audio output jack on your keyboard and the microphone input jack on your PC. If you get really motivated or want to use the SA-46 for live performance, I recommend the addition of a Looper Box and battery-operated speaker. You can easily use the stomp box button to record a a basic track and overdub a new track on top of the first one, etc. You can then perform the melody on the keyboard or even sing while your tracks loop and play on your speaker. A basic battery-powered Looper box with unlimited overdubs and 10-15 minutes of loop available is about $45 here on Amazon. Hope this review helps you to understand how fun this SA-46 really can be if you take a little time to practice with it.

This keyboard is very portable and convenient. It can fit in a carry-on bag. It can be used on your lap without a stand, if you want. It has more sound volume than comparable keyboards. The "free session" category of patterns is unique to the SA-46 and SA-76 series of keyboards. Those patterns sound really good when you play to them because the accompaniment is more complex. The SA-46 is a real keyboard, being in tune, not a toy.

It is a great keyboard for the price. Many sounds, and has a 1/8 output jack for headphones or a cable for an amplifier.

I spent a month in a warm southern climate to escape a segment of a very hostile winter season. This small 32 key keyboard was just functional enough for me to practice jazz chords and scales with a headset... so as not to disturb my fellow travelers. I found a suitable organ voicing which I found least objectionable. The compactness and light weight permitted a space in my suitcase. It all worked out. Learning these skills takes a lot of repitition. I think I spent typically a half hour at each session. Will I do it again next winter? Who knows. But the price was certainly right. I have a Casio full 88 key touch sensitive model. I bought it several years ago new for $200. Had to sell my Yamaha studio grand when I moved into a condo. The 88 key was a fantastic solution and at 30 pounds was a breeze to take to gigs. I recommend Casio strongly if you don’t need a lot of bells and whistles.

Who was the weirdo who had the idea of randomly adding helicopter noises to such a small keyboard? Whoever you are, I love you, because this little keyboard is so cute and convenient while also having an arsenal of unconventional sounds at your disposal. This little keyboard has more capabilities than my huge $150 keyboard I bought from a music store. The synths sound great, the noises are strange, just so much fun packed into one little keyboard. Great gift for someone learning to play keys. Also great if you're a live musician who only uses keyboards to play little synthy riffs. I bought this after hearing Kero Kero Bonito compose most of their music on this keyboard. And after hearing all this keyboard has to offer, it makes sense. I love it.

Bought this for my two year old grandchild, or at least that was my excuse. This keyboard is a very good value for the money. It plays enough tunes to get children interested in playing along. It's light weight and small enough for a child to confidently handle. I added a few colored dots on the most-used buttons so that my baby girl can more easily find the off-on, auto-play, and volume controls. She can turn the machine on and get it to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to which she performs a stunning ballet performance (just kidding, it's only a so-so performance). I also added colored dots to the C keys to help her understand how the do-ray-me sequence repeats along the scale. She's only just beginning, but I am certain this keyboard is helping her appreciate and learn the basics of music. I don't expect an early failure of the keyboard because it's very well made, but even if it only lasts a year or two I will have gotten my money's worth out of it. Every home should have something like this for "kids of all ages" to enjoy.

I bought this because of a couple reviews saying it sounded like a harmonium. Sort of but it's more like a harmonium meets a Hammond B3 in overdrive. It gets the job done though, if you're chanting on the go, vocals, need something if you're harmonium is in the shop, etc. It's nice and compact, about the size of computer keyboard. (Sa-46) This little guy is easy on the batteries, I noticed I was able to use it almost every day for 3 mo before changing, that is better than any of my other music toys. There's just a little LCD window with 2 numbers and small speakers to eat the batteries. If you've been playing keys you will figure this thing out in no time. The drum pads are a little stiff, key action is not bad. I didn't really find anything else outstanding other than the trumpets come in handy. (my cat likes to be announced before he comes in from outside). No complaints really, it's holding up. 2 days delivered for $44, you can't go wrong.

Great keyboard for a beginner but also for advanced player. I bought this for my musically inclined 8yr old who loves to sing and wants to be a rock star. I thought she can start getting some piano basics with this. And she loves it!! But also, when she was opening her gift and checking it out, my 20yr old niece college music major with a ton of piano experience said she would love having this too for her own practice. The quality seems great and there's a bunch of options for different tunes, beats and rhythms. The tone and sound quality is good too. My only complaint is there isn't any way for my daughter to record herself and play it back, like I've seen on some toy keyboards. But overall this is a great keyboard!