CASIO-46
I was reading reviews on a site and someone mentioned that he used this keyboard on trips to sing Kirtan chants, that it did a good job. That got me interested because I’ve been looking at real harmoniums for awhile but around where I live there are none available. I could order one but I have a feeling harmoniums are like acoustic guitars, best to play it first to see if it’s a good fit.
So I decided to give this SA-46 a try to see if it would work til I found what I wanted. Actually its not bad at all considering it was $45 delivered in 2 days from Amazon. Does it sound just like a harmonium? Not really, it’s in the neighborhood but it doesn’t fill up the room with an acoustic sound that is powered by a hand bellow. But, it still works. The low end is closest, to me, it’s more like a Vox organ mixed with pipe organ patch giving it a lot of overdrive. It sort of has the harmonium sound and you can definitely do your Kirtan chants with it.
I’ve had nice keyboards in the past and actually was a keyboard tech for major music companies so I know a bit about what it can do. Which is not much :) now for a kid to bang around on it’s great. Other than the harmonium sound I wouldn’t bother ordinarily. No midi, headphone out and that’s about it. I went for this model, (the 47 looks the same except it says harmonium), I assume it’s sold in India.
The batteries last a long time. I’ve played this daily for a month, same 6 AA. (There is an adapter for it, not included.) The only things to eat the battery is the speakers and a tiny LCD indicating numbers…no LED’s…has automatic shut off which is nice. It has a few Indian drums but the buttons are a little hard to push on mine so grooving is stiff. The onboard drum patterns are your typical budget sounds along with everything else. I assume there is an owners manual online but if you’ve been playing keys at all, you will have this unit figured out by the time you put the shipping box away.
There’s models up from this one with more keys but I’m glad I got this one. It’s literally the size of my computer keyboard only thicker. I keep it next to the computer and place it in my lap if I want to play. Throw it in a briefcase if you want and go out the door. Easily played while on the move. Key action is OK, good response. Of course no pressure sensitivity. I should mention there’s beat guys on youtube using this but I don’t know much about that arena these days.
I’ve been working up different harmonium riffs and songs that can be found on youtube which is a lot of fun. I see something I like or wondering how it was played, put it in Reaper and go from there. If you need a very low budget harmonium, I think you will like this.
Here’s one on Amazon if you want more info: https://amzn.to/38LfmkW
