Casio DH-500 Digital Horn
You don't find very many DH-500s in the U.S. It is more common in Europe, Asia, and Australia, as far as I can tell. The DH-500 does suffer from the same squeal problem that is common to the DH-100s, but it can be fixed.
The DH-500 fixes many of the shortcomings that I have found in the earlier DH horns from Casio.
- It uses the same basic synthesizer, but it adds a neat adjustable reverb effect that adds a lot of color to the sound.
- You have the option of turning the vibrato on and off. I usually like the automatic vibrato, but I have had a lot of people ask me if there was a way to turn off the vibrato on the DH-100s. (There is not)
- The DH-500 has two octave buttons. The top one raises the pitch an octave just like on a real sax. The bottom one lowers the pitch an octave.
- There is a slide switch on the back to select the voice. This allows you to know what voice is playing with having to count key presses, like you do on the other horns.
- There are UP and DOWN transpose buttons and an LED indicator to show you what key you are transposed to.
- There are external adjustments that allow you to set the breath sensitivity
- There is also an external adjustment that allows you to tune the horn.
- The DH-500 adds the two pinky keys that sax and flute players really miss. My biggest irritation with the DH-100/200 is the lack of an E-flat key. The DH-500 has the Eb key on the right hand and also a B key on the left hand. Hooray!
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