Transanalog Casio SK-1 MIDI Retrofit

via TRANSANALOG
"Works for SK-1, SK-5, SK-8, SK-10, and DM-100 (top keyboard). Available soon for PT-1, VL-1, Yamaha VSS-30 and many others.

All features accessible from side of keyboard!

User selectable MIDI channel or set it to respond to all MIDI channels. Can also be set to respond to the first MIDI channel received after reset.

SK-MIDI retrofit turns on and off with the keyboard. Will not drain the batteries.

Responds to MIDI notes 53 to 84.

Optional out of range loop feature allows the SK-MIDI to respond to MIDI notes 0 to 127.

Best of all - the internal speaker is retained!"

Those wonderful demo songs... also, my current collection

YouTube via frostedminipete
"* = circuit bent [at time of upload, not filming]
** = will be circuit bent [at time of upload, not filming]
Casio PT-1
Casio PT-10*
Casio PT-50
Casio PT-80
Casio PT-100 x2*
Casio MT-55*
Casio MT-205*
Casio SK-1
Casio SA-8*
Casio SA-2*
Yamaha QY-100 midi sequencer
Yamaha PSS-80 **
Yamaha PS-200 *
Yamaha PSR-77
Speak & Read *
Speak & Spell *
Speak & Math **
Hing Hon EK-001 x3* *
Geosafari traveller *
Wuv luv toy *
Discovery Kids drum pads *
Magnus Chord organ
Mini kids keyboards
E-mu Xboard 49 midi controller
Toy electronic guitar **"

Casio Christmas

via Kasio Kristmas on the forum

"Greetings everyone!

We just finished our experimental 10 track CD of classic Holiday tunes using only Casio instruments (mostly Casio keyboards, but we also used the Casio DH-100 Sax, DG-20 Guitar, and some Casio hand-held games). The recordings are mostly instrumental, but the few that do have vocals, we sampled our voices using the SK-1 & SK-5 or sang through the Casio VA-10 Vocoder, and Casio Rapman keyboards. This was an entirely fun and experimental project that we are very excited to have released. So far the respones has been great.

We hope that some of you here will have some time to check out what we have done with these old cheesy keyboards.
We have blended the nostalgic sounds of 1980's arcades, new wave, synth rock, modern electronica, chip tunes, ambient, atmospheric, disco, sountrack, jungle, & exotica all into one on this new Holiday CD. Even though limiting ourselveselves to only using Casio Instruments, extra care was taken to keep things interesting! It has many Audio layers and great production value . Isaiah Ikey Owens (The Mars Volta) plays a special appearance on the exotica honored track Mele Kalikimaka.

Thank you for your time and we hope to hear from you.

( ( ( ( ( Kasio Kristmas ) ) ) ) )

www.kasiokristmas.com
www.myspace.com/kasiokristmassong"

YAMAHA VSS-200 + CASIO SK-1 Sampling Keyboards by RetroSound

YouTube via retrosound72

"vintage gear demo by RetroSound

Back to the 80`s!

Some people wished that:
The funny Demo Songs of the Casio SK-1 and Yamaha VSS-200 Sampling Keyboards.

So many memories... :)

Casio SK-1 (1985):
5 PCM tones: piano, brass ensemble, trumpet, synth drums, human voice
3 additive synth tones: flute, pipe organ, jazz organ

Yamaha VSS-200 (1988):
4 voices, 8-bit sampling, 100 FM tones, 9 DSP effects: loop, u-turn, reverse, FM, AM, fuzz, echo, level and pitch"

Modular Casio SK-5 Bent by Oceanus, the Vince Clarke Machine

YouTube via xd515. images via this auction
"in a modular design, with a intergrated Speak and Spell called the 'Vince Clarke Machine'.. not endorsed by Vince but totally capable of making erasure'esque sounds!

Over 100 man hours went into putting this beast together and it has many technical bends previously unheard on the SK, such as the spacial distorter the Auto bend ( as on my modular SK-1 but now syncronised to the internal clock signals ) and the ability to re-program the percussion patterns.

Sadly I can't show all the features in the 10 minutes youtube allow, It can also separate and solo any one of the 4 channels, has separate Percussion / Speak outputs, will sync the autobend to the address bus, you can switch of the internal highpass filters etc.

The Intergrated Speak and Spell has it's own LFO and I have a similar one here on youtube.

This machine may also be for sale for a sensible offer.. :-)

Some hi-res pictures and sound clips can be downloaded from here:
http://www.mediamax.com/oceanus_creat...
http://www.mediamax.com/oceanus_creat...
http://www.mediamax.com/oceanus_creat...
http://www.mediamax.com/oceanus_creat...
http://www.mediamax.com/oceanus_creat...

Oceanus"

Modular Casio SK-5 Bent by Oceanus, the Vince Clarke Machine

YouTube via xd515
"Following on from the Modular Sk-1, this is a Mega bent SK-5 in a modular design, with a intergrated Speak and Spell called the 'Vince Clarke Machine'.. not endorsed by Vince but totally capable of making erasure'esque sounds!

Over 100 man hours went into putting this beast together and it has many technical bends previously unheard on the SK, such as the spacial distorter the Auto bend ( as on my modular SK-1 but now syncronised to the internal clock signals ) and the ability to re-program the percussion patterns.

Sadly I can't show all the features in the 10 minutes youtube allow, It can also separate and solo any one of the 4 channels, has separate Percussion / Speak outputs, will sync the autobend to the address bus, you can switch of the internal highpass filters etc.

The Intergrated Speak and Spell has it's own LFO and I have a similar one here on youtube.

This machine may also be for sale for a sensible offer.. :-)

Some hi-res pictures and sound clips can be downloaded from here" When you get there, click the more link in the description on the right and scroll.

Casio DM-100

Click here for shots via this auction.

"The Casio DM-100 is basically a Casio SK-5 and a MT series keyboard in one housing. I believe it was the only mini-keyed keyboard to have dual keyboards on it.

Strangely though, not all of the SK-5 features are present (or at least brought to the control surface). Absent is the ever-useful lions roar, laser gun, dog, and surf sounds, but it features a few others instead. It does keep up to four samples and retains the useful sample tune, reverse, loop, and amp envelopes. The samples are stored in the memory after power off as long as batteries or AC adapter are present. I never cracked it open to see, but I imagine that some of the other SK-5 features are still there on the circuit board and accessible to hardware hackers and circuit benders. It has a built-in microphone as well as a 1/8" line-in jack for the sampler. The larger speakers on the DM-100 make it sound better than any SK-5 ever did.

The bottom keyboard has a PCM sampled soundset with the ability to layer any two of the 20 sounds together for a total of 210 possible combinations.

It also has rhythm accompaniment as well as Casio's auto chord accompaniment feature. It has a mixer section to balance the sound output of the top and bottom keyboards with the accompaniment and a 1/4" headphone jack on the front. On the back are RCA outputs, a 9V DC-in (AC adaptor not included) and individual tuning knobs for each of the keyboards so you can get detuned chorus-style effects out of this thing if you play both boards at once."

via devetron

Update via Alex in the comments: "Hate to break it to you, but the sampler is not based on the SK-5. I've owned two of these and had a good, long look inside them. The sampler is basically a stripped down SK-8 with the same instrument set and sampling capabilities.

So, you won't find any lion's roar or laser gun in this keyboard, I'm afraid. Neither will you find the oriental features or even any of the ROM related features."

The Casio DM-100

Trip. I've never seen one of these before. Retro Thing has a post up on the double decker Casio DM-100. It's a Casio PCM based home keyboard with an SK-5 sampling keyboard built in. Title link takes you to more.

MIDI Music - 1986

Click here for an episode of Computer Chronicles from 1986 on MIDI Music. Amazing how far we have come. $100 for a singe CD-R. : ) Links to video stream on on the left pane when you get there. Via this post on VSE.



Computers and music, MIDI machines and interfaces, and music composition software.

Guests: Chris French, Music Software; Bob Moore, Hybrid Arts; David Schwartz, Compusonics; Chris Potter, Mimetics; Curtis Sasaki, Apple; Gary Kildall, Digital Research; Gary Leuenberger, Midi Revolution

Products/Demos: Casio SK-1 Synthesizer, Atari ST, Activision's Music Studio, ADAP Sampler, DSP-1000, Apple II GS, Ensoniq Sound Chip, Soundscape, Commodore AmigaEZ Track, Kidnotes

Yamaha MK-100

It's funny. Every few months my parents-in-law come up to visit for the weekend or we go down to visit them. Frequently they go "garage sailing." I always tell them to look out for keyboards with knobs especially any "broken ones" that only play one note at a time. They typically come back saying no knobs, just Casio's and Yamaha home keyboards and I dismiss these thinking good, didn't miss out on anything by skipping that trip. Well... Now I'm beginning to think maybe I am missing a few gems out there - those home keyboards that offer that little extra. I knew about the Casio SK-1, but I just recently read about the Yamaha MK-100. Not only does it allow you to adjust the OSC waveforms and Envelope patterns, but it actually has a built in analog drum machine! And... It sounds good. I'm left wondering how many other home keyboards are out there like this. Yes there is the Radioshack Concertmate MG-1 Moog, but come on, we all know that is a real synth, a Moog Rouge repackaged. : )

Click here for Sealed's Deep Synthesis page on the MK-100 with some samples, and overview section and more. Now off to check out some circuit bent stuff.

Update: How could I forget about the Yamaha DJX searies! : )