The Frankfurt MusikMesse show is always an exciting time for Casio. This year however, the atmosphere was even more electrifying than usual: the incredible new CT-X keyboards were making their European debut, launched by none other than Grammy award-winning artist, Cory Henry.

As expected, Cory produces a masterful set, wowing the thousands of visitors and putting the new CT-X keyboards through their paces.

After the show, Casio's Jack Terroni caught up with Cory to chat to him about the new keyboards.

"Cory, that was an amazing set. A lot of people here are saying how impressed they are with the quality of the new sounds. How authentic do you feel the CT-X range’s AiX Sound Source is?"

It felt good when I was tracking for the Casio video, the sounds I used in that shoot was really fun! For a starter keyboard you really get great sonic sounds that make you feel as if you are at a professional level, that’s really important.

"I noticed you took great care in adjusting the EQs and Effects on the Keyboard. How important is it to you to be able to refine your sound?"

Yeah, I like my sounds with a lot of low end and on the dry side, with the ability to build effects in if necessary. I like to hear how the tone sounds before effects are added. My boy Rich (Richard Formidoni, Casio US Product Marketing Manager), when he bought the board over, he was like, ‘You gotta hear this man!’ It was cool to hear the CT-X in the raw, you’ve got a good 'board there!

"When choosing a Keyboard what are the things you look for?"

It’s kind of like a 5 point checklist: touch, sound, the ability to navigate smoothly through the keyboard, how many keys, the design… there’s a lot of the different things I look for.

"What music among contemporary artists are you currently listening to and where do you see the state of music at presently?

It’s in a good place, the music is in a good place - I’ve been digging recently Anderson Paak, Kendrick Lamar, Esperanza Spalding and Robert Glasper are amazing… they are really progressing the art form.

"What do you value more in a keyboard player, technical proficiency or ‘feel’?"

Feel, every time.

"Your epic keys solo in the track ‘Lingus’ from the Snarky Puppy, ‘We like it here’ LIVE DVD is often listened to here at Casio Music UK. What are your memories of that day and your time with Snarky Puppy?"

That day was cool, although I wasn’t really feeling that well - we had recorded two shows a day for 4 days that week!

I think they took the ‘Thursday’ (solo for the DVD). However, I think my best day was the second set on the Tuesday. I remember playing that solo and I looked at Mike and was like ‘THIS IS IT!’ and then when the record came out, we were out and I heard it and it was not the ‘Tuesday’ one! Mike said, ‘…well the band sounded better…(on the Thursday session)’. I got it, it was cool, no problem -because by the time I played the last solo on the Thursday I had already played it 7 times, so by the eighth time I just thought I’m gonna let this one hang! I picked some new sounds, I played totally different… I tried a piano track, a rhodes pad, lots of different tones and I’m glad I did it, because I was happy with the one that made the cut after the fact.

Playing with Snarky was great, it was wonderful to be with those guys and travel the world. Everyone in that band was a genius in their own right, it was cool to be in a situation where no one wanted to overstep each other and just play together. It was wonderful.