SolidStateCollective

Casio Synthesizer - Casiotone 701 - Owners Manual - Performance by Echoclerk

2014-10-28T20:35:00.004-04:00

Ran across this Casiotone 701 performance today... Props to Echoclerk for putting this out there.

Thanks to Unuseptium Warehouse for putting together a nice overview of the Casiotone 701 and Gen.Error for scanning the owners manual. Pretty cool.

Unuseptium Warehouse

Gen.Error Link to the Casiotone 701 Manual

Casiotone 301

2014-10-28T19:58:00.002-04:00

One of the few videos that I could find on youtube about casiotone 301. Would love to get my hands on one.

Favorite Online Resources for Vintage Synthesizers and Keyboards

2014-10-28T19:57:00.000-04:00

Hi! Given that I spent way to much time on the internet researching vintage synths I thought others might appreciate a listing of some of my favorite sites.

There you go. I'd love to hear comments and suggestions about sites you know about. I'll add them to the list.

Kurzweil K2000 - Replacing the Floppy Drive with a Gotek USB Floppy Emulator

2014-09-29T17:59:00.000-04:00

Hi there - I wish that Ray Kurzweil could have predicted this... My Kurzweil K2000 floppy drive recently died on me. I searched high and low on the internet for a modern replacement and was surprised to see how little information is out there. This post will walk you through how I replaced the floppy drive with a cheap floppy emulator from Amazon. I plan to add pictures and more direction on using the software. Stay tuned and enjoy.

Things You Need

Floppy Emulator http://www.amazon.com/Updated-Version-SFR1M44-U100K-Floppy-Emulator/dp/B00C4PCK9S/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1411207827&sr=1-1&keywords=floppy+emulator
Phillips Screwdriver
PC
USB Floppy Drive
WinHex Software
USB Floppy Manager II Software

Floppy Emulator
There are a ton of options coming out of China. From what I can tell they are all basically manufactured by the same company. What I learned...

SFR1M44-U100K / This model only works as a replacement for 1.4 MB floppy drives. It was perfect as a replacement for the floppy drive in my K2000.
There is another variation out there that starts with SFRM72. There are intended to replace 720kb floppy drives. I plan to try one out on a Sequential Circuits Prophet 2000 in the near future.
If you buy the emulator that I liked to above it will come with the software that you need. It's not the greatest but it does work. Both programs are built for Windows XP. If you have a newer version of windows you will need to run the software in compatibility mode.
The JUMPERS... Probably the most frustrating thing for me to figure out. You need to make sure you have a block in the "MO" and the "JA" positions on the floppy emulator.

Kurzweil K2000
This part is easy.

Unplug the synth.
Flip the synth upside down on a soft surface.
There are 6 screws that you need to remove. One in each corner and two in the middle.
Carefully lift the bottom of the synth and flip it away from you. There is a cable connecting the two parts together. Be careful and take your time.
Locate the floppy drive. Carefully remove the ribbon and power connectors from the drive and unscrew it from the bay. Once the screws are removed, take the floppy drive out of the synth.
Make sure you have set the jumpers on the floppy emulator to the "MO" and "JA" positions.
Insert the new floppy drive emulator into the bay and screw it in. Carefully connect the ribbon and power connectors.
Flip the bottom of the synth back onto the top.
Replace the 6 screws that you removed earlier.
Flip the synth back to it's normal position and plug it in.
Insert a usb thumb drive into the usb port on the floppy emulator.
Hold down the two buttons on the emulator simultaneously and power on the synth. Keep holding the buttons down until you see the LED display on the emulator start cycling through numbers.
Release you hold on the buttons and wait for the emulator to finish it's cycle. When it is complete it will read nothing but zeros on the display. Congratulations. You've just formatted your thumb drive into 100 1.4MB floppy disks.
Take a break and pat yourself on the back, your done for now.

What Next?

At this point you should be able save programs onto your thumb drive the same way that you used to do with floppy disks.
The buttons on the floppy emulator allow you to choose which floppy you want to read / write from.
Of the two buttons, the one of the right allows you to advance 0-9. The button on the left allows you to advance the "tens" column 0-9. By using a combination of the buttons you can cycle through 100 "disks". Starting with 00 and ending with 99.

The Rest
The software that came with your floppy emulator is a pain but it does work. I've provided the basics below and will add more detail to this blog as time allows.

WinHex allows you to take any Kurzweil K2000 floppy disk and save it as a .img file on your PC.
USB Floppy Manager II allows you to save these images onto your USB thumb drive.

Enjoy

Going through this process gave my Kurzweil K2000 a new lease on life. I really like having access to all my floppys in one place. I wish you great success.

Yamaha Keyboard - Yamaha CP30

2012-07-22T09:49:00.000-04:00

This yamaha keyboard is not as musical as the CP70b that I have sitting next to it, but still a nice instrument. The piano is built into a road case that transforms into a stand. I wish companies brought this feature back.

EMU Emax II

2012-07-22T09:44:00.001-04:00

This thing is a monster!!! I found two broken ones and managed to build a working one out of them. Took me over a year to find the right parts but worth it. Took an old laptop, installed Windows 95 and installed EXMP on it. Loaded a ton of samples to zip disk and have enjoyed it every since. I'll get around to throwing up a video / sound demo soon.

Yamaha Keyboard - Yamaha CE20

2012-07-22T09:02:00.000-04:00

Three reasons why this yamaha keyboard is cool...

It's a FM mono synth. (some poly, but meant for soloing)
It was a complete flop... Yamaha marketed it to the consumer market before going big with the DX line of synths.
It's the third FM synth that Yamaha produced. (GS1, GS2, CE20, CE25, DX1, DX7...)

Yamaha Keyboard - Yamaha SY2

2012-07-22T06:49:00.001-04:00

I love this little monosynth. As you can see from the photos, the tabs select the presents and also allow you to modify the filters, etc. It's got touch, making it a very expressive synth for solos and bass lines.

CDX 0642

2012-07-22T06:48:00.000-04:00

I lucked out when I found this one. I bought it because I liked the look. Little did I know how much fun it would be to play. I especially like the ribbon strip above the lower manual. I threw up a quick audio sample. This just scratches the surface... More to come.

Casio Synthesizer - Casio CK-500

2011-02-12T16:45:00.000-05:00

To the casual eye it looks like one of those wacky Casio combos. Boombox + keyboard = Casio? What alot of people don't know about this one is you can actually overdub yourself with the tape decks over and over, making it a simple multitrack recorder. Now... Forget the SSL, let me get back to my Casio recording studio...

Casio Synthesizer - Casiotone 405 - Electronic Musical Instrument

2011-02-12T04:52:00.000-05:00

Out of all of my semi-pro Casios, this is by far my favorite. Enjoy!

Casio Synthesizer - Casio CZ-1

2011-02-11T07:08:00.000-05:00

The mighty CZ-1. Thought by many experts to be the best and most powerful of all of the FM (Sorry Yamaha, I meant PD) synths ever made. Enjoy!

Alesis Midiverb II - Vintage 16 Bit Digital Effects Processor

2011-02-10T06:50:00.000-05:00

A classic for sure. There must be at least one of these in every budget studio throughout the world.

Audio Logic MT44 - Quad Noise Gate

2011-02-10T06:32:00.000-05:00

Yamaha Keyboard - Yamaha CS2x

2011-02-10T05:57:00.000-05:00

This yamaha keyboard is a great synth for trance and techno.

Roland R8M - Classic Drum Module

2011-02-07T06:11:00.000-05:00

One of the most powerful drum machines that Roland ever produced.

Akai S1000

2011-02-05T17:50:00.000-05:00

A classic vintage sampler.

Alesis QuadraSynth

2011-02-05T17:34:00.000-05:00

This is the first time that I've played one of these. Pretty powerful synth.

ALESIS QS7.1 AND QS8.1 SYNTHESIZERS UNVEILED.: An article from: Music Trades

1989 Fender Stratocaster Natural Plus

2011-02-05T17:17:00.000-05:00

Very nice guitar!

Electone Dreams... Part IX

2011-01-28T06:17:00.000-05:00

And so I kept searching. I want to give a very special thanks to flametopfred on youtube for helping me to eventually make my final decision. I found a church about 400 miles away that was giving away an Electone E-70. Flametopfred has posted many videos about this instrument. If it had not been for his shared knowledge I may have never contacted the pastor and made the 12 hour road trip to that little Baptist church to continue the legacy. What follows next is a detailed narration of that road trip... I hope that you enjoy it.

Casio Synthesizer - Why Casio? The Dream Maker

2011-01-28T06:08:00.000-05:00

You know, I take alot of flack for the Casio sythesizers so I thought it might be a good thing to explain my position. Here it is... Nostalgia, affordability and accessibility.
When I was a little kid. I didn't sit around dreaming of buying a Jupiter 8 or an OB-12. My dream was to buy a Casio PL5 with the barcode reader. I used to see it in the department store display case and dream about all the great music that I could make with it. My grandmother (R.I.P.) took notice and eventually bought me one for my birthday.
I've got to think that there are millions of people throughout the world just like me. I will be forever thankful to the Casio company for figuring out a way to make electronic instruments affordable to all of the poor dreamers out there.
As I grew older, I graduated to more expensive instruments made by the "pro" brands. Most of those instruments have died on me but my Casio's are still running just fine.
Here's to all the kids out there, throughout the world who are making their dreams happen on a Casio synthesizer. May your instrument serve you well.

Casio Synthesizer - Casiotone 1000P

2011-01-27T15:21:00.000-05:00

The Casiotone 1000P was the very first programmable casio synthesizer. It is a sine wave synthesizer with a programmable arpeggiator. Here are some of the synth specs:

Casiotone 1000P

Number of Keys

61 Keys (5 Octaves)

Chords

8 Note Polyphonic

Preset Sounds

Pipe Organ
Brilliant Organ
Jazz Organ
Bassoon
Wah Brass
Piano
Vibraphone
Celesta
Chime
Flute

Programmable Sounds

1000 Possible

Programmable Features

Feet
Envelope
Modulation

Arpeggiator

Tempo

Variable via Control Knob

Preset Pattern

16 Step up/down

Programmable Pattern

Maximum of 127 Steps with 9 Note Pitches
Rests are Programmable
Storage in Memory is Possible

Effects

Sustain
Vibrato
Delayed Vibrato
Heavy Vibrato

I just put up a video on youtube showing off the presets. I'll put up another one soon showing how to program sounds and patterns. Enjoy!

Casiotone 1000P

Thanks for looking. Feel free to explore my blog for other casio synthesizers.

Sequential Circuits - Prophet 2000

2011-01-23T16:10:00.000-05:00

Early sampler from 1985 with the legendary SCI analog filters in it. An amazing instrument. You can see me running through the presents on youtube at this link. I've also got it up for sale on ebay right now. Enjoy!

Moog Satellite - NICE!

2011-01-23T12:04:00.000-05:00

Simple little monster... Very cool.
Moog Little Phatty - Stage II Analog Synthesizer
Korg MONOTRON 16-Key Synthesizer
Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer

Wurlitzer Model 101 - Just Plain Fun

2011-01-23T11:58:00.000-05:00

One wacky video showing what you can do with this thing.

Line 6 POD 2.0
Electric and Electronic Keyboard Instruments: Hammond Organ, Rhodes Piano, Mellotron, Pedal Keyboard, Wurlitzer, Electone, Optigan, Farfisa