This, again, might be a non-issue for beginners. The so-called heft might not be as noticeable as I make it out to be, but I still find myself disliking that.

Dual Mode is the only extra play mode you get and it’s sometimes called ‘Layer Mode’ on other keyboard brands. Although the keys are not properly weighted like the more expensive higher model Yamaha P-45 and above – I still found it nice to play! Someone who’s played the piano for many years may of course prefer to go for a higher model which has weighted keys, but for a beginner this is absolutely fine. Dual Mode allows you to play two sounds simultaneously with each keypress and allows you to get richer sounds with minimal effort. When you reach the polyphony cap, the piano starts to drop the earliest played notes to free up memory for new notes, which in turn affects the quality and fullness of the sound.The second electric piano sound is a glittery, 80s kind of bell-synth. It’s extremely bright, but it’s sampled well, and it allows for clean playing across the octaves. Each hit is initiated by a charming bell plink, followed by a warm muted tone that mellows out the first strikes. Using the sustain pedal warms this sound up quite a bit, as the clinks of the bell tone are very short, and the lower tone is longer and catches with the sustain. The NP-32 is also quite bare-bones when it comes to connectivity options, but all the essentials are here. The keys themselves have a good feel to them. Although not full-weighted (which is to be expected given the price), the keys still feel quite realistic, albeit slightly lighter. They are made with touch sensitivity, however, so there is more of a realistic feel compared to most other models in this range. The CT-S1 is the latest offering from Casio. This 61 note beginners keyboard delivers fantastic sounds at a great price.

From afar, the NP-32 can pass off as a more premium digital piano. The body itself, while compact, does feature a clean front panel that doesn’t have too many buttons or printed text. If you feel like you absolutely need more that 61 keys, go for the NP-32. Otherwise, the NP-12 performs just as well as the NP-32, if not a little better because of its portability. Final Thoughts OCTAVE. You can transpose up or down 1octave to adapt to different voices to different sound registers, this can also be applied individually to each layered sound. With that said, I do believe that the sluggish keys hurt the NP-32 / NP-12 in this regard. I’m more used to the weighted keys of fully-fledged digital pianos, but I still found the flatbed keys on the PSR-E363 usable.Despite being unweighted, Yamaha does include velocity sensitivity, and it is responsive, like with the PSR-E363. You can come to grips with dynamic control, an absolute must for any pianist or keyboardist.