Just discovered your channel, and I love collecting old Casio and Yamaha "toy" keyboards (as I generally refer to them to others) from the 80s and etc. Excited for your content, it's right down my alley. I love making Jam's with these little guys. A cheesy little beat can be turned into quite the banger of sorts with just a few tricks. I love em all! Would love to get a vl-1 one day
Never thought I would hear someone say a Casio VL1 will give a minimoog a run for its money in certain situations 😊 Remember getting my VL1 as a birthday present when it was launched. I thought it was the bees knees and recorded many bounced cassette recordings with it. Still have fun with it today going through effects and used it on one or two videos.
I thoroughly enjoyed nerding out with your excellent video. The piano preset at 44:16 would make a good approximation of the opening riff for Orchestral Manoeuvres' Messages. You've opened up the ADSR function to use my favourite sounds of Violin, Guitar 1 & Guitar 2. Many thanks for that. If all else fails run the VL-1 through some expensive effects and tweak that EQ. Keep up the good work CCT.
Thank you so much for the kind words, they're very much appreciated! And yes, running basic keyboards through effects can really enhance their sound. Talking of OMD, the lead melody from Enola Gay also used the same keyboard that was used in Messages - a humble little Korg Micro Preset synth that they bought from their mum's home catalogue on monthly repayments. Had the VL-1 been available when they recorded the song, maybe they would have used it instead of the Korg!
@@CasioChaosTheory You're more than welcome. Anyone trumpeting Casio musical instruments will always earn my attention. Yes I knew about the Micro Preset story, I have met Andy at his studio. Such a nice fella. Like me I think you come from an age when catalogues like Kays, Grattan, Argos & The Index etc fired your imagination with affordable keyboards such as Casiotones, PSS Yamahas the CS-01 & MR-10, the Jen SX1000, Mattel drum machines, Boss Dr Rhythm DR-55 & DR-110 and led to a life-long synth obsession & collection and a life of relative poverty (synth rich / cash poor) lol. Keep up the fab work, can't wait to see your next Casio excursion.
Thank you for the helpful programming info. Mine arrived yesterday and am immediately IN LOVE with this little guy! It is surprisingly capable. However now I am a bit apprehensive of taking it apart to inspect the volume slider which has some issues with being really scratchy and causes issues engaging the speaker now that I saw just how fragile that LCD ribbon cable is.
Brings back fond memories of playing the somewhat haunting theme from the film,or tv series, LLOYD GEORGE back in the mid 80’s, thank you. Now, I’ll have to get another one🙄😂
I can't believe you destroyed the VL-Tone. The saddest part was that you didn't even show us the PCB we needed to see so badly after you did it. :( At least this was a warning to people to never take off the upper pcb. It needs to stay safe.
It's not destroyed. Everything still works except the display. The PCB where the cable connects to it can be seen @6.10 and other than the NEC CPU, all that is on this side of the board are three resistors and some tiny SMD capacitors. Otherwise it's primarily used for the keyboard buttons and switch contacts. I also showed a close up of the NEC CPU and where the ribbon cable connected to the board @6.14. Had I known the cable was going to detach itself then I wouldn't have removed the board, plus I had previously taken my VL-1 apart with no ill effects. This time I wasn't so lucky. However, for the sake of video documentation and information, I wanted to take it apart again so that viewers could see what was inside, and when the cable detached itself I showed this as a warning for others that this might happen if they disturb the the boards in question. I have also been researching how to re-attached the cable to get the display fully working again, and once I have the required solution, I will of course film this and publish a video showing how to do it.
@@CasioChaosTheory I'm wondering if you could just line it up and try hot glue on the top!!! Anythings worth a try I guess. I wonder if there is an adhesive out there that is conductively transparent. I agree with you that the VL-Tone isn't really destroyed but this happens way more often than you would believe and people treat it as junk when it happens which is really sad as they aren't making new ones. People should probably list the broken ones on ebay for £2 or something so they can find a home instead of sending them to landfill or similar.
Thank you for the compliment! The VL-1 has a tuning potentiometer accessible via its underside, and when people carry out pitch mods to old keyboards they would normally swap this for one with a different rating allowing it to cover a greater pitch range. A caveat though is that this potentiometer often affects that overall CPU clock speed, meaning that EVERYTHING will get pitched up and down, and it will also affect the speed the rhythms play back. When it only adjusts approx. 1/2 a semitone this would barely be noticeable. When it adjust an octave or more, it will most definitely be noticeable! I haven't carried such a mod out myself, but a quick search shows a circuit bent VL-1 with what very much appears to be a substantial pitch mod @ 8.55: ua-cam.com/video/oP2zs5SQJEc/v-deo.htmlsi=_GTP2oH4SzS34GZE&t=534
I connected the line out of the VL-1 to my computer sound interface using a 3.5mm TS jack to 6.35mm TS jack cable. This enabled the audio from the VL-1 to be fed directly into my DAW (Reaper).
Just discovered your channel, and I love collecting old Casio and Yamaha "toy" keyboards (as I generally refer to them to others) from the 80s and etc. Excited for your content, it's right down my alley. I love making Jam's with these little guys. A cheesy little beat can be turned into quite the banger of sorts with just a few tricks. I love em all! Would love to get a vl-1 one day
Never thought I would hear someone say a Casio VL1 will give a minimoog a run for its money in certain situations 😊 Remember getting my VL1 as a birthday present when it was launched. I thought it was the bees knees and recorded many bounced cassette recordings with it. Still have fun with it today going through effects and used it on one or two videos.
Thank you for this! I’ve had one of these for years and still learned a ton of new things from your thorough overview.
Glad to be of help!
I got one of those as a teenager. I actually used it in performances!
I thoroughly enjoyed nerding out with your excellent video. The piano preset at 44:16 would make a good approximation of the opening riff for Orchestral Manoeuvres' Messages. You've opened up the ADSR function to use my favourite sounds of Violin, Guitar 1 & Guitar 2. Many thanks for that. If all else fails run the VL-1 through some expensive effects and tweak that EQ. Keep up the good work CCT.
Thank you so much for the kind words, they're very much appreciated! And yes, running basic keyboards through effects can really enhance their sound. Talking of OMD, the lead melody from Enola Gay also used the same keyboard that was used in Messages - a humble little Korg Micro Preset synth that they bought from their mum's home catalogue on monthly repayments. Had the VL-1 been available when they recorded the song, maybe they would have used it instead of the Korg!
@@CasioChaosTheory You're more than welcome. Anyone trumpeting Casio musical instruments will always earn my attention. Yes I knew about the Micro Preset story, I have met Andy at his studio. Such a nice fella. Like me I think you come from an age when catalogues like Kays, Grattan, Argos & The Index etc fired your imagination with affordable keyboards such as Casiotones, PSS Yamahas the CS-01 & MR-10, the Jen SX1000, Mattel drum machines, Boss Dr Rhythm DR-55 & DR-110 and led to a life-long synth obsession & collection and a life of relative poverty (synth rich / cash poor) lol. Keep up the fab work, can't wait to see your next Casio excursion.
Thank you for the helpful programming info. Mine arrived yesterday and am immediately IN LOVE with this little guy! It is surprisingly capable. However now I am a bit apprehensive of taking it apart to inspect the volume slider which has some issues with being really scratchy and causes issues engaging the speaker now that I saw just how fragile that LCD ribbon cable is.
Brings back fond memories of playing the somewhat haunting theme from the film,or tv series, LLOYD GEORGE back in the mid 80’s, thank you. Now, I’ll have to get another one🙄😂
Are you gonna do the SK-1? Grew up playing on that thing. It was awesome.
I have plans to make a video with my SK keyboards at some point in the future. They are indeed awesome!
I can't believe you destroyed the VL-Tone. The saddest part was that you didn't even show us the PCB we needed to see so badly after you did it. :( At least this was a warning to people to never take off the upper pcb. It needs to stay safe.
It's not destroyed. Everything still works except the display. The PCB where the cable connects to it can be seen @6.10 and other than the NEC CPU, all that is on this side of the board are three resistors and some tiny SMD capacitors. Otherwise it's primarily used for the keyboard buttons and switch contacts. I also showed a close up of the NEC CPU and where the ribbon cable connected to the board @6.14. Had I known the cable was going to detach itself then I wouldn't have removed the board, plus I had previously taken my VL-1 apart with no ill effects. This time I wasn't so lucky. However, for the sake of video documentation and information, I wanted to take it apart again so that viewers could see what was inside, and when the cable detached itself I showed this as a warning for others that this might happen if they disturb the the boards in question.
I have also been researching how to re-attached the cable to get the display fully working again, and once I have the required solution, I will of course film this and publish a video showing how to do it.
@@CasioChaosTheory I'm wondering if you could just line it up and try hot glue on the top!!! Anythings worth a try I guess. I wonder if there is an adhesive out there that is conductively transparent.
I agree with you that the VL-Tone isn't really destroyed but this happens way more often than you would believe and people treat it as junk when it happens which is really sad as they aren't making new ones.
People should probably list the broken ones on ebay for £2 or something so they can find a home instead of sending them to landfill or similar.
What a brilliant video!
I have it still with me , along side with a casiotone mt65.
Thank you very much ❤
Great info thank you. I’m wondering if there is a way to modify it to pitch down to be a bass monster.
Thank you for the compliment! The VL-1 has a tuning potentiometer accessible via its underside, and when people carry out pitch mods to old keyboards they would normally swap this for one with a different rating allowing it to cover a greater pitch range. A caveat though is that this potentiometer often affects that overall CPU clock speed, meaning that EVERYTHING will get pitched up and down, and it will also affect the speed the rhythms play back. When it only adjusts approx. 1/2 a semitone this would barely be noticeable. When it adjust an octave or more, it will most definitely be noticeable! I haven't carried such a mod out myself, but a quick search shows a circuit bent VL-1 with what very much appears to be a substantial pitch mod @ 8.55:
ua-cam.com/video/oP2zs5SQJEc/v-deo.htmlsi=_GTP2oH4SzS34GZE&t=534
watching this while maintaining this one haha
Hi I want to know how you were able to connect it to your daw? I just found one and want to connect to ableton
I connected the line out of the VL-1 to my computer sound interface using a 3.5mm TS jack to 6.35mm TS jack cable. This enabled the audio from the VL-1 to be fed directly into my DAW (Reaper).
👏👏👏👏👏👍😁
واقعا عالی بود به زمان خودش❤❤
And it's still a fun little keyboard even today!