Experience My Tools of Pleasure

Since I am limited by a puny body to how many I can carry onto a tram to a gig these don't all appear at once live, usually the choicest selection of 6 or so. Nevertheless, each one of these machines has had it's moment of glory under the stage lights and has a place in CasioTown studio or in the bedrooms of CasioLovers I am happy to pimp them out to.

For other fab 80's casios (and there are a lot of them!) I am posting an indepth feature every week on my blog:
'Casio of the Week' article archives

If you still need more Casio goodness I recommend the stunning Warranty Void site and also the Sealed Synthesis site.

Casio Sk-1 (1985)
The cheapest sampling keyboard ever. It lets you play Greensleeves with your burps and much much more! CasioNova hotrodded his to be a SKA-1, the sci-fi soundtrack beast.

:::::How to Rock the SK

Casio MT-68 (1983)

CasioNova rocks the dance floor with those classic casio beats we all know and love.
The Autochord feature frees your hands to do more than just play with your instrument.The 68 (and the white version, MT-65) is THE definitive casio keyboard. This is the one to get.

Casio MT-70 (1983)
Casio MT-68
Almost as good as the MT-68. The sounds are quite different, particularly the drums - not as much variation in the autochord but the autochord on this one through a distortion pedal makes me sound like Skinny Puppy. More digital I guess, apparently a different chip to the 68.

Casio VL-1 (1981)

A Japanese calculator company gave birth to home keyboards by adding an unusual feature into an adding machine.
As a calculator it sucked but as a musical instrument it began the planet-wide population of wonderful plinky sounds.
Marvel as CasioNova plays Duke Ellington's classic 'Caravan' while working out his bar tab. Let's see the latest Roland workstation synth do that!
:::::History of the VL-1(outside link - do come back!)

Casio VL-5 (1982)

The smallest keyboard with a barcode reader. A WHAT!??!! That's right - a barcode reader to scan in songs from a casio book full of barcodes. Cool and weird but utterly useless. The VL-5 has a unique drum sound, an ultra crap user interface but feels real nice in the hand and has the best placing for an output socket of any casio.
The other barcode reader casio was the MT-70 (see above). If I could be bothered it would be possible to make a simple interface so that these casios can be controlled by a sequencer.

Casio PT-80 (1984)

Learn to play with Casio PT's, follow the lights and rock stardom will soon be yours.
Better yet this has the coolest beats in the casiokingdom (the little keys on the side activate autochord).
Just don't show it to your piano teacher.

Casiotone 403 (1982)
Casio CZ101
A very early model casio. Features both real wood panelling AND a fake wood finish. Beautiful sandy home organ sounding drums with a killer kick drum. Instrument sounds are to die for also, especially hte 'frog' sound. Indeed my FAVOURITE sounding casio of all time.The only casio I have seen with a quality inbuilt speaker. I thought when I grow up I would love to be a lounge organist on a Farfisa organ. Now I don't need to because I have a 403.

Casio CZ101 (1985)

Okay, it's not a home keyboard but the sexiest member of the PROFESSIONAL range of casio synthesisers.
This rocked, battery powered and strap on with otherworldly sounds. Seriously, one of the most awesome synths ever made. A lot of 80's synth pop sounds came from this thing, plus it makes you sound like John Carpenter! (the film director who did his own way cool soundtracks).

Casio RZ-1(1986)
RZ-1
Casios drum machine - a big tank like box with one set of rather cool sounds, 4 sample spaces and individual outs.
It was cheap and fab at the time but now it is kinda useless. Anyone want to buy mine?

Yamaha SHS-10 (1988)
Another Japanese company, known for it's fabulous dirt bikes, joined in the home keyboard fun. This is our favourite model, not only because it's design says 'SEX!' but also plays Whams! 'Last Christmas' as a demo tune.
Brilliant!
I also am fond of my PS-3 (1980) which has a beautiful tone and is the most gorgeous brown and the PSS-570 (1987) which did form the heart of my live autochording b4 I kicked the yamaha habit. Yamaha keys, though not as cool sounding as Casio, have the best features for playing live.

The Casio DG-10/20(1987)

D=digital
G=guitar
10=out of ten for cool
This is the first Casio guitar, designed in 1987. Yes, Casio made guitars, yes, the DG-10 has onboard rythmns including 'Samba', yes the DG-10 has sounds including 'Shamisen', yes the DG-10 has an inbuilt speaker and runs on batteries, and yes it really does (kind of) play like a real guitar. There is no more to say, language cannot possibly encapsulate the inherent coolness of the DG-10. addendum:RIP DG-10, I don't want to talk about it!
But wait -- I got a DG-20 now! It has midi! And a couple of more sounds. This thing is HOT! (well apparwently if you have ever played a real guitar it isn't that hot - but what would I know, I only have fingers for classic casio). :::::All you need to know about the DG-20(outside link - do come back)

The Casio DH-100 (1988)
Casio DH 100

D=digital
H=horn
Praise be Christer Nuutinen for GIVING me the DH-100, the ONLY saxaphone that is cool.
Holy crap this is good - special casio fingering so you never play a bum note, a breath control switch off so you never have to breathe and MIDI! Damn straight, I can play my Commodore64 with this thing!
Oh and if you are lucky enough to have one and it doesn't work it is because of one faulty component that is easily fixed. You can DIY it, just email me for instructions.

The Casio Rapman (1989)

F, f, f, f, funky beats! This comes with a 'scratch wheel'- basically a switch makes a record scratch sound and a voice effector that shifts the pitch from the external mic, other things can be plugged in to this - the VL-1 sounds great! This came out in 1989 and the first of casio cost cutting measures are in evidence- limited polyphony, lack of hardware controls and underutisiled chip. But the beats are cool and the drum sounds really punch through a mix.

The Casio HT-700 (1987)
ht-700

Say the words 'Eighties Synth Pop', now say the words 'Casio HT-700'. The words might not sound the same but the music sure does! It has miniature keys, autorythmns, speakers and battery power - proof that the HT-700 is a home keyboard but switch it on and you ARE Human League. For the tech types can we say 'editable filters'. This is CasioNova's keyboard of choice when I finally learn how to play the things. - addendum - Vale HT-700, it was all my fault baby!

Commodore64 Home Computer (1983)

There are other cool home electronics from the 80's that have vast music making possibilites, the king of which is the Commodore 64 home computer and it's SID chip. CasioNova uses his with the keyboard overlay and a Music Machine cartridge. Naturally a guitar strap has been added.

:::::How to Rock with the Commodore!

Nintendo GameBoy (1989)

Yes, the GameBoy is an insanely fantastic music making device! Try the hidden synth program in the GameBoy camera or the incredibly powerful modern software such as Little Sound DJ or NanoLoop.

:::::How to Rock the GameBoy

Atari 2600

Atari 2600

My memory of this machine is a happy little guy running around in the dark eating little pills to electronic music, fittingly this PacMan player is now my DOOF box - the most dancefloor friendly machine in my kit. Thanks to Paul Slocum's synth cart - a modern synth program for the old Atari. It needs the rare keypad controllers though - I resorted to building my own - very easy, check it:.

:::::How to Rock with Atari