At the same time, it is worth mentioning that this Casio keyboard sells for 100 US dollars, which is very low for a 61 key keyboard. This can be a nice gift to a young one, especially a kid who seems to show some musical abilities.
The CTK 496 is a good entry level keyboard at an affordable price. It has 100 tones and rhythms and is a good option for a beginner.
Action & keys
The ctk496 keyboard features 61 full sized keys with synth action.
Fingered mode
The ctk496 features the full fingered mode which let you play chords anywhere on the keyboard and the accompaniment changes accordingly.
Built-in lessons
The ctk 496 keyboard comes with lessons and exercise to help you improve your keyboard skills.
Sing-along
The ctk-496 comes with a "Mic In" slot which lets you connect a microphone to your keyboard. You can select any musical style and sing-along as you play your keyboard.
Other Features
Some of the other features that you will find useful are -
• 100 tones & 100 rhythms
• Polyphony – 12
• Sing-Along function
• Big LCD screen
• MIDI in/out
• Advanced 3-step Lesson system
• Built-in speakers
Conclusions
As mentioned above, the ctk-496 can be a good entry level keyboard, especially for kids. It gives enough features to a beginner to explore and learn the various musical concepts. Using MIDI, you can even connect it to a computer to download songs or to record on an external software sequencer. Adults may find some of the tones on this keyboard a bit unrealistic for their own use, but the Casio CTK 496 keyboard can be a nice gift to a young one.