MATRIXSYNTH: The Casio PT-1


Monday, January 29, 2007

The Casio PT-1

No title link. Just this shot and details pulled via this auction.

"This is one of the cutest little synthesizers Casio ever made. It dates from 1981, and is the big brother of the Famous VL-1. You will know the sound of the PT-1 and VL-1 from famous songs like "Da Da Da" by the German group "Trio" (recycled into many different advertizing jingles over the last 26 years - most recently in Australia as "Sa-Ka-Ta"). It was also used in countless songs as a novelty fill in sound (The Bloodhound Gang have used their PT-1 on most of their albums).

This casio has been lovingly looked after, and is in a lot better condition than when I got her, she's been cleaned inside and out, and the key and button contacts were cleaned about 6 months ago, so, it works reliably. The batteries have never leaked, although, sadly, I received it with no battery cover, so, it has never had one to hold in it's 4 x AA power source - but this is not a problem as the batteries stay in. There is also a slider cap missing from one of the controls on the front. You can move this around to be which ever control you need it to be.

The PT-1 has all the famous beats of the VL-1, and most of the same sounds. It also has little letters in the plastic under the keys to let you know which notes you are playing (C D E F G). I don't know of any other small casios that have this feature. It's not very useful if you are an experienced player, but, again, cuteness. The PT-1 has an interesting set of capacitor filters and single transistor gates which drive the percussion section and melody tone generator, and, although the heart of the synthisizer is Digital (using Walsh Tones), there are a great many things which can be modified and changed to alter the sound (to make it harsher or smoother, depending on your tastes). The "bends" which can be accomplished (routing the drum tones to the pitch of the main instrument to make arpeggios and such) are varied, and don't require too much experimentation to get good results."

via Loscha

2 comments:

  1. there was another song that used that beat. it had a title something akin to "100 songs about 99 girls" and lyrics somethign like "jenny was a waitress, she worked at a cafe". even with the powers of internet searching i've never been able to figure out the real title of this song or who it was by.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That would be 88 Lines About 44 Women by The Nails.

    ReplyDelete

To reduce spam, comments for posts older than one week are not displayed until approved, usually same day. Do not insult people. For items for sale, do not ask if it is still available. Check the auction link and search for the item. Auctions are from various sellers and expire over time. Posts remain for the pics and historical purposes. This site is meant to be a daily snapshot of some of what was out there in the world of synths.

PREVIOUS PAGE NEXT PAGE HOME


Patch n Tweak
Switched On Make Synthesizer Evolution Vintage Synthesizers Creating Sound Fundlementals of Synthesizer Programming Kraftwerk

© Matrixsynth - All posts are presented here for informative, historical and educative purposes as applicable within fair use.
MATRIXSYNTH is supported by affiliate links that use cookies to track clickthroughs and sales. See the privacy policy for details.
MATRIXSYNTH - EVERYTHING SYNTH