While Casio is known for many of its toys, watches, and entry level keyboards, many people will often forget that Casio has been making pro level gear since the 70's. The CZ-101 was the first ADSR programmable digital mini-synth that could rival the ubiquitous Yamaha DX series in the 80's. Popular and esteemed electronic pioneer musicians such as Tomita and Yukihiro Takahashi of YMO were Casio users and endorsers.

The Casio Privia series is one those grey area products that Casio has made many of in the past - not quite built to pro standards of durability, road worthiness and compatability with other manufacturers' gear, but with enough pro features and low pricing to make them very attractive.

As a Digital Piano, the PX-110 is pretty damned good for its price, which is about half the price of most equivalently featured Yamaha, Kurzweil, Korg,Roland or Alesis models. The hammer action is surprisingly realistic, the touch dynamic control of the sound is excellent, and the speakers give decent enough stereo sound for home and studio use. The reverb and chorus are ok; they work better when used with the electric piano or organ sounds. The sustain pedal works fine, no weird sound triggers or digital artifacts when depressed and released.

As we approach the grey area, we have 2/3 of a usable MIDI controller. The reason I say that is because although the PX-110 has full MIDI and the ability to layer and split the keyboard, there are no pitch bend or mod wheels. The PX-110 can only be used a s a note trigger with dynamics control.

We also have an "almost" workstation in that the sequencer is limited and at most, you could pre-program one of the drum rhythms and add a bass part to go along with a piano part. (I suppose if you limit your chord voicings, you could also add an organ part).

The construction definitely leans towards the consumer side, since the light weight, which makes the PX110 great for transport, also would make it fragile for the road. A great piano for the studio, songwriting at home or for teaching.