@@HelloKittyFanMan. a) you still have to be talented to come with the whole idea in the first place b) you don't need very fancy things to modify the sounds at all, plenty of ways of doing it without spending a penny c) never forget that tools do not operate on their own, knowing how to use them well and push their limits is what makes Andres and many others great. The exact same tools in other hands would not make such an impression.
@@DarkSideofSynth, I didn't say that talent wasn't needed; I'm just saying that talent isn't everything, just like the tools aren't everything. So no, it's not just talent that beats equipment every day of the week, because you could have some really wicked talent but not enough of the right tools to _use_ that talent.
@@HelloKittyFanMan. You misunderstood what we mean with "talent beats equipment'. The tools are there, if they weren't, you couldn't use them. Of course you 'need' them. The whole point is given THE SAME TOOLS, a talented person will OVERCOME the limitation of those tools, and still get great results, whereas a untalented person will very likely not get good results even with BETTER TOOLS. That and only that is the whole point.
OK, @@DarkSideofSynth, well then that's the kind of detail that Re Hash should have given, to be clear. But then why did you think you should use quotation marks (even inner quotes, at that) around "need"? It's a figure of speech or fake? You're just quoting me but you don't think you really need that, or... what?
Looks like a karaoke(ish) machine - Play the tape - sing/play along. Since the mic, tape player and keyboard all come through the same speakers (with no recording), it definitely looks to me like it was made for playing/singing along to a tape. So glad to see a new 8BK video!! (I do love the 8BG vids too) :)
That would be my guess too. So while it might seem stupid to an adult, it would have been something a kid might have enjoyed back in the early 90s who’d love to be able to sing alive with the latest pop tunes and play along too.
@@Charlesb88 Ehh, it makes sense to me, and I'm also an adult. The keyboard probably lets the kids put their own spin on the tracks on the cassette. However, I wouldn't have called it an "early" karaoke machine in the first place, just a different type of karaoke machine.
Chaos89P I’m was thinking more along the lines that as a children’s toy it makes sense but less so as karaoke machine for adults who would find seriously lacking. Young children wouldn’t care as much about the low sound quality of the keyboard’s speaker output or the that it has no audio output jack(s). So they f you know what the point of this keyboard was then maybe stupid is the wrong word but few karaoke loving adults wold consider this keyboard sufficient for that purpose, even in the early 90’s.
Wow, that was so cool! The tune Jensen pulled off from the toy keyboard is awesome! It could totally fit an Amiga game soundtrack, or a 1980's flick, if you will!
Didn't 8 bit guy destroy some hardware on camera a while back? He's already starting his evolution into an angry reviewer, we just need to hear him scream AAAAASSSSS next.
@@Frisenette Sorry, they both sound so similar that it confused me for the 90's. Since that keyboard was made in the early 90's after all. No harm done. 😃
So much emotion out of a tiny instrument. A testament to the composer's genius. I bet even your lesser songs could move mountains. And I truly mean this.
Wow, it has been 2 years since that last episode with Anders??? Time flies. Awesome work as always. Very happy to seen another line output mod and 8 Bit Keys episode in general. :)
It would be very interesting to see someone circuit bend the mic input, as well as the keys - heck, even the tape input... You could get all kind of crazy sounds with this one! :)
sample based stuff usually suck for bending unless it's an og my music center. i still priase cyberyogi, he has a decent site on shit keyboards and circuit bending. weltenschule.de/TableHooters/instruments.html it's a bit out of date, i occasionaly talk to him but he does have updated faq and provides newer stuff on request by email. tons of info on this site. he's awesome, and absolutley crazy. it's such a good resource.
@@akaiuwu Depending on how old the keyboard is. Casio SA series keyboards or similar are very bendable. Same with most of the Yamaha's from the early to late 90's
Good observation. But I don't think that fifth button does anything at all. Look how when he presses all the other switches there's some kind of mechanism activating but when he pressed that one only two tiny metal rods are moving. There's nothing that gets moved when he presses it. Probably that same set of buttons was used (with added recording heads) in other kinds of equipment.
i love that he always not only check the keyboards but also do mods and demostrations. for what i could imagine, this keyboard was uses as an improvized karaoke machine, in which you could also play some notes, play a song with the cassette and use the mic. the musician is way great playing.
Amazing video as usual, and Anders's song is also amazing as usual! As somebody stated below, this is basically a sing/play-a-long karaoke machine, hence the addition of the microphone jack. I remember a school friend had one of these back in 1994/1995, and he used it for performance of a song in class. His parents bought him a cassette tape of karaoke/minus one tracks (very common in Indonesia back in the day), and he plugged in a cheap mic to sing along with the song he choose; he also played along to the solo/instrumental break of the song. I remember the whole class could hear him (It was not a very big room.), but the sound was horrible.
Another great video! I just love Anders' music... true 80s inspired. Takes me back to sitting in front of my C64 in a dark room with the blinking LEDs of a 300/300 modem! :-)
6:50 I charted this for Clone Hero, lolz Always a pleasure to hear the symphonies of A.E. Jensen. Always. A descendant of Symphonius faemself, no less, lol I remember seeing a similar keyboard, I think it was the TA-11 or something. It had a cassette deck but it had the record and pause functions. I never got to see this for myself as it belonged to one of the kids of a family I was visiting long ago, I don't remember what for but that's how it is when you age, you forget stuff like that.
I kind of like the shape and colors of that keyboard. I think I should listen to Anders Jensen's music more, since I follow him SoundCloud. He's a great composer.
This is most likely for learning to play for children. You would insert a cassette and try to play alongside it. Although it would need a separate volume knob for cassette to be usable. It might also be used to play over prerecorded accompaniment on the go. EDIT: It seems I was wrong, this turned out to be more of a karaoke thing, see below
it's an atypical karaoke keyboard, it's probably meant for old disney soundtrack sing-a-long tapes, encouraging the child to play along on the keyboard or sing using the mic port
ok, why keyboard then? why not just a tape player with a mic in? To me it makes sense to have a keyboard+mic karaoke or tape+mic one but not all three of them. Or you mean if a kid wants to sing along both the keyboard and tape but not simultaneously? I kind of doubt this device is cheaper or more convenient than a normal keyboard + a normal cassette player with mic in.
@Amir Pourghoureiyan Oh, ok.. seems strange to me though. I also found some promo materials that do suggest this was supposed to be used as a karaoke-like thing. The only thing else I could say is that I would have LOVED to have a cassette deck built right into the keyboard when I was studying how to play it. Using a standalone boombox was very awkward in my setup.
@@jwhite5008 I can see how it would have been quite a fun learning tool for kids in the 90s, it's kind of sad how hardware driven tools like this have been completely sidelined by software for phones and tablets, design creativity has been lost with how interconnected everyone is now.
Does it have an erasing head though? Cannot say for sure but I don't see it. It was common to reuse the mechanism itself because manufacturing 2 versions of it is expensive but to not solder unneeded electronic components and such.
Fun fact: this keyboard appeared in the movie "Baby Driver". When the character Baby is making his mixtapes, he uses this keyboard to compose the music. "Was he slow?"
They have pretty much same issue for pretty much same reasons. I don't mean soldering wires to olden keyboards, rather having several cheap speakers connected in parallel in the same room.
Anders is such an amazing musician.. Whenever I'm in need of some groovy retro inspiration his tracks definitely work. Awesome piece for such limitations to work with!
I'm always impressed with Anders Jensen's work. He's so damn talented! Would also love to see a mod of this keyboard to see if those other buttons really are programmed in, and was that a record button on the inside of the cassette player or is that something else? (I didn't see a record head but it was rather hard to see much anyway).
It's a first degree high-pass filter. A coupling capacitor. DC signal doesn't go through, but any variations, such as an AC signal, or in this case the various samples, do.
You are correct. To cut off DC to be precise - to prevent accidental damage to both the keyboard and his recording equipment. However I believe the way he does it is somewhat unsafe and may degrade sound quality Disclaimer: I'm not an audio equipment engineer and can be mistaken. Feel free to correct me. Although quality is not really a problem with toy keyboards and un-safety should not be a real problem in his setup - he powers the keyboard with batteries anyway, and his audio equipment should be able to protect itself anyway. But my point is - don't blindly copy this. Details, if you need them: 1) You need two capacitors - one for each lead. RCA plug ring may then also be connected to power supply ground through a large resistor (and maybe a high-voltage ceramic capacitor) to reduce noise. Having it on one only could lead to having a ground loop. I'll explain: If the keyboard was powered from a wall power supply, and either the same power supply is used to power some other equipment (which is uncommon but far from impossible) or the supply is faulty, or it connected its output ground wire to home earth wire (which is uncommon for this exact reason) then the following could happen: He soldered two wires to the speaker, inner lead through a capacitor, outer lead - directly. If the directly-soldered lead is internally connected to a power supply ground and all of his other equipment is also done this way then this should do no damage. Otherwise current may flow through this wire to his equipment and may damage it and/or the keyboard. This is unlikely to happen because his recording equipment should have a similar setup (capacitors and resistors) on its side, so the capacitors he soldered are not required. Having said that, there is never too much safety, and a wiring mistake may be a possibility, RCA plugs are often also accidentally momentarily shorted when inserting, so the capacitor is not optional - and even one is enough for most cases. Same problem can also happen if something metallic and grounded accidentally touched the connectors when powered on. This is not uncommon when working with a lot of equipment alongside. 2) 100uF 50V electrolytic capacitor may be an issue (but better than something that I believe was like ~1000uF 6V one he may have used in one of the other videos) It is recommended to use a mylar or polycarbonate or polypropylene or polyester capacitor, but those are rare and way more expensive and larger size. Ceramic capacitors are ok but they further reduce audio quality due to microphonic effect. If there is ever a voltage difference of more than 50V (which can probably only happen if something fails dramatically) the capacitor may fail and his equipment may be damaged. On other hand, a 6V capacitor is not good at all. EDIT: as noted in the comments below, electrolytic capacitors are also polarized, and if large enough reverse DC bias happens to be applied for prolonged periods the capacitor may easily fail. So at least those should not be used. Furthermore, 100uF may be a lot, and the larger this value is the larger is leakage current and current spike when connecting the equipment. This may also adversely affect sound quality. Larger values may be required if you are directly connecting speakers or hi-fi headphones to the keyboard - otherwise it would be too silent and distorted - but for line-in about 1uF is enough most of the time. EDIT: The capacitor is also supposed to protect against occasional short-circuits on the connector side. But 100uF one is too large so the components in the keyboard may be damaged anyway if such a short occurs. He seems to be using a high quality capacitor which makes this kind of Ok - those can withstand quite a bit of punishment and have very little leakage. Furthermore this keyboard only has 7.5V power supply (which is probably downregulated to 4.5V to match the batteries) so no damage should occur unless reverse voltage is applied for any reason. 3) Ideally the output should be connected before rather than after an amplifier (parallel to the speakers). He does just that in one of those videos because of balancing issues, IIRC. This is because the amplifier may distort the signal unnecessarily, and the amp is not needed for line-in anyway. Furthermore, some older keyboards might have used a transformer in the amplifier to boost the voltage instead of current, therefore subjecting the speakers to some 48 volts or something. This is most likely not the case with this keyboard but is something to check beforehand anyway. That being said, it may be riskier to solder wires to the middle of the board without understanding how it works - speakers seem to be a somewhat safer option. So use your best judgement. Disclaimer: I'm not an audio equipment engineer and can be mistaken. Feel free to correct me.
Actually they don't do anything. Maybe they will provide a bit of protection, but nothing more.. There is no DC component across the speaker, otherwise the speaker would very quickly overheat and die. Anyway connecting outputs to the speaker terminals is not a very good idea, in 99% of cases it's easy to figure out how to connect directly to the sound chip (after r-c network maybe), and there will be MUCH less noise and better sound quality.
@@jwhite5008 If i'm not wrong the capacitors he soldered in are aluminum electrolytic types. They are supposed to be connected with fixed polarity, otherwise they can fail rather dramatically - with a pop and some smoke. The signal to the speakers is AC, so that might be a problem.
Glad to see you are still making keyboard videos! You inspired me to learn to play the keyboard and after using a toy for the last 2 years I finally pulled the trigger and got a REAL keyboard, the Yamaha PSR-E363. Keep up the great work!
I was going to ask if that was an un-connected record button, the tape deck chassis is likely an off the shelf component but they probably didn't include the record/erase head, so it's likely that button is not connected to anything inside the unit either - but would be neat if it were!
I was also wondering what the 5th button is. It should be clearly visible if there is a record head inside the tape deck. I didn't find a scene in the video where it would be visible...
Anders Jensen is amazeballs. I want to be like him when I grow up!
TheGeekPub 😂🙈 Thanks!
Btw, you have a little gift from the guy we visited in Austin. Pick it up at David’s place. :)
@@AndersEngerJensen Can I have a little gift too?
Diak- PUBG um no
@@AndersEngerJensen You are most talented! I am always amazed by the music you come up when playing with these keyboards :D
when will you have new videos?
This just proves talent beats equipment every day of the week. Andres is sooo good.
...Except the equipment that's needed for modifying the sounds to make the talented person seem more sharp.
@@HelloKittyFanMan. a) you still have to be talented to come with the whole idea in the first place b) you don't need very fancy things to modify the sounds at all, plenty of ways of doing it without spending a penny c) never forget that tools do not operate on their own, knowing how to use them well and push their limits is what makes Andres and many others great. The exact same tools in other hands would not make such an impression.
@@DarkSideofSynth, I didn't say that talent wasn't needed; I'm just saying that talent isn't everything, just like the tools aren't everything. So no, it's not just talent that beats equipment every day of the week, because you could have some really wicked talent but not enough of the right tools to _use_ that talent.
@@HelloKittyFanMan. You misunderstood what we mean with "talent beats equipment'. The tools are there, if they weren't, you couldn't use them. Of course you 'need' them. The whole point is given THE SAME TOOLS, a talented person will OVERCOME the limitation of those tools, and still get great results, whereas a untalented person will very likely not get good results even with BETTER TOOLS. That and only that is the whole point.
OK, @@DarkSideofSynth, well then that's the kind of detail that Re Hash should have given, to be clear. But then why did you think you should use quotation marks (even inner quotes, at that) around "need"? It's a figure of speech or fake? You're just quoting me but you don't think you really need that, or... what?
02:27 - introducing the Angry Keyboard Nerd
“What were they thinking???!”
Casio, the LJN of music companies(that might be a bit harsh)
@@jessthebenjamin758 nah. That title goes to the Atari Junk Keyboard
you beat me to it!
Dang Jensen, that sounds like the theme from my favorite SNES game that never existed
Sounds like it could be a dkc song at the start.
Feels very Secret of Mana too like in a village or calmer area
The intro gives me serious vibes to SMRPG.
it does, doesnt it?
Donkey Kong RPG
Looks like a karaoke(ish) machine - Play the tape - sing/play along. Since the mic, tape player and keyboard all come through the same speakers (with no recording), it definitely looks to me like it was made for playing/singing along to a tape. So glad to see a new 8BK video!! (I do love the 8BG vids too) :)
JohnCooperider oh that makes more sense lmao
Yeah, you can play, listen, and sing 🎶
That would be my guess too. So while it might seem stupid to an adult, it would have been something a kid might have enjoyed back in the early 90s who’d love to be able to sing alive with the latest pop tunes and play along too.
@@Charlesb88 Ehh, it makes sense to me, and I'm also an adult. The keyboard probably lets the kids put their own spin on the tracks on the cassette. However, I wouldn't have called it an "early" karaoke machine in the first place, just a different type of karaoke machine.
Chaos89P I’m was thinking more along the lines that as a children’s toy it makes sense but less so as karaoke machine for adults who would find seriously lacking. Young children wouldn’t care as much about the low sound quality of the keyboard’s speaker output or the that it has no audio output jack(s). So they f you know what the point of this keyboard was then maybe stupid is the wrong word but few karaoke loving adults wold consider this keyboard sufficient for that purpose, even in the early 90’s.
Wow, that was so cool! The tune Jensen pulled off from the toy keyboard is awesome! It could totally fit an Amiga game soundtrack, or a 1980's flick, if you will!
What an incredible talent Anders is. That little tune will be stuck in my head for days.
That song they composed sounds like the theme to my favorite 80s cartoon that never got made lol !. Love it.
"What were they thinking?"
James/AVGN is proud.
What a shitload of fuck.
@DiverFictionB salman You mean the Angry TV-Game Nerd
AVGN and 8 bit guy would be a strange collab.
Didn't 8 bit guy destroy some hardware on camera a while back? He's already starting his evolution into an angry reviewer, we just need to hear him scream AAAAASSSSS next.
Don't you mean the Angry TV Game Nerd?
Apple: I am the FIRST to release a device with *no headphone jack*
Casio: *Uhmm, excuse me?*
Lol u rite
It's not cheapskate penny pinching, it's a feature!
Literally most other budget toy keyboard from the 80’s: Kids these days
Anutha Casio banger!
The Gameboy Advance SP was also one of them
Anders seriously knows how to make 90's music sound awesome. Just imagine the intro as a remix.
90s?! That style is firmly grounded in the 80s.
sounds like Trans-X Living on Video
@@Frisenette Sorry, they both sound so similar that it confused me for the 90's. Since that keyboard was made in the early 90's after all. No harm done. 😃
Sounds like department store speakers.
The two-voice polyphony is especially challenging as it prevented the use of chords without doubling the tracks in post.
I’m so happy to see that Anders’s music is finally on Spotify! 😁
Oh thanks for the info, I didn't know that.
Looks like the cassette mechanism has the lever for a pause button (you pushed it with your finger), but it's not connected to anything.
You could give Anders a broken Gameboy Pocket and a MIDI interface and he'd still make something soundtrack worthy. Dude's a savant.
VulpesHilarianus Without the annoying idiot part.
and what can Anders create with the sid chip from the C64.
nothing is cheating when you get a composition out of a little toy piano like that. XD Great music from Anders as always, and great video as always!
That song at the end is better than all the pop music from the last 10 years!good job!
always a joy whenever anders comes on and plays for us
That song sounds like something straight out of a 90's Sega CD or Turbo CD game with anime cutscenes. Love it!
Me too. If only I had a good tape player.
“I always like to use masking tape to mark my holes” David Murray 2019
And he also likes his holes aligned
Who doesn’t?
Always here with the unusual keyboards, top form, Anders is always full of surprises
So much emotion out of a tiny instrument.
A testament to the composer's genius.
I bet even your lesser songs could move mountains.
And I truly mean this.
Wow, it has been 2 years since that last episode with Anders??? Time flies. Awesome work as always. Very happy to seen another line output mod and 8 Bit Keys episode in general. :)
It's amazing how you guys can compose, and even synchronised everything together. Man, I wish I can learn how to do it.
I bet circuit bending fans would love this thing
It would be very interesting to see someone circuit bend the mic input, as well as the keys - heck, even the tape input... You could get all kind of crazy sounds with this one! :)
Someone should send one of these to Simon the Magpie
sample based stuff usually suck for bending unless it's an og my music center.
i still priase cyberyogi, he has a decent site on shit keyboards and circuit bending.
weltenschule.de/TableHooters/instruments.html
it's a bit out of date, i occasionaly talk to him but he does have updated faq and provides newer stuff on request by email.
tons of info on this site.
he's awesome, and absolutley crazy. it's such a good resource.
@@akaiuwu Depending on how old the keyboard is. Casio SA series keyboards or similar are very bendable. Same with most of the Yamaha's from the early to late 90's
You guys are awesome! Glad to see Anders is back!
So we're not going to talk about the fifth button for the cassette player, that didn't have a corresponding switch on top?
i agree this comment should go up
My thoughts exactly ! David what's the deal with that hidden button ?
My guess is it might be for the record button, assuming the deck was off-the-shelf like he says.
Good observation. But I don't think that fifth button does anything at all. Look how when he presses all the other switches there's some kind of mechanism activating but when he pressed that one only two tiny metal rods are moving. There's nothing that gets moved when he presses it.
Probably that same set of buttons was used (with added recording heads) in other kinds of equipment.
Pause and Stop are the same thing. The stop/eject button still exists.
That final song was AMAZING!! I need that song!
Anders' music still holds up even on crappy little speakers. Sure there wasn't much bass, but the core essence of the mix translated really well.
I love how Anders shreds on anything you give him.
That glass harmonica is getting to me, man. It's absolutely amazing.
i love that he always not only check the keyboards but also do mods and demostrations.
for what i could imagine, this keyboard was uses as an improvized karaoke machine, in which you could also play some notes, play a song with the cassette and use the mic.
the musician is way great playing.
I love listening to Anders Jensen Retro Grooves while I work! Such great tunes.
Very impressed! Anders did a phenomenal job! David what you were able to do to bring this little keyboard to life just wow!
AEJ- Would love to see a video of your entire composition and sound editting process for this song.
Anders is like the Dr Strange of musical keyboards, this guy is amazing.
This Anders tune sounds alot better than the soundrtack for "Manhunter" good work!
It's incredible how good the multitrack song is! I feel like it could fit incredibly well with a game!
Anders Jensen just looks like a nice guy. I bet he is fun to talk to!
Anders is from Norway, they are like the Canadians of Europe: awesome, reliable and fun.
Amazing video as usual. Great song at the end, kudos to Anders.
I'm not even that interested in keyboards but every one of your videos are still interesting :)
pretty much X''D
Yup same.
Yep!
Mic + cassette without record features seems like a karaoke thing :)
Fantastic composition . The mix is really good to. Nice job.
Great composition Anders and thank you so much for the sample pack! As a fellow musician, I approve of this.
For some reason the CASIO drums always make me laugh, especially the snare for how cheesy it sounds
Great to see Anders, another great episode. thank you very much :)
An old Keyboard always makes me the best composer!
Please come back to this channel as we miss the amazing tech u find in the music world of yesteryear
It's taking a long time to find, and only finding things in peak condition would get very boring.
8:53 to 10:51 sounds like from a video game I never heard before in the 90's ;3 ANDERS YOU'RE A GENIUS
To me it sounds like it could be from a Donkey Kong Country game
@@meiklman Except that if it was DKC everything, especially the bass vould have more echos
LOVE them mixture of bitcrushed and comparatively hifi sounds coming from that little keyboard, and the main hook of that arrangement is spectacular.
I already have all the Mini Discs. I'm gonna get the vinyl now :)
Amazing video as usual, and Anders's song is also amazing as usual! As somebody stated below, this is basically a sing/play-a-long karaoke machine, hence the addition of the microphone jack. I remember a school friend had one of these back in 1994/1995, and he used it for performance of a song in class. His parents bought him a cassette tape of karaoke/minus one tracks (very common in Indonesia back in the day), and he plugged in a cheap mic to sing along with the song he choose; he also played along to the solo/instrumental break of the song. I remember the whole class could hear him (It was not a very big room.), but the sound was horrible.
Ehrmagherd! A new 8BitKeys! (The sweet afterglow of Thomann's lovin' must have finally wore off!)
Another great video! I just love Anders' music... true 80s inspired. Takes me back to sitting in front of my C64 in a dark room with the blinking LEDs of a 300/300 modem! :-)
Retro grooves v2 sounds so fucking good coming out if that thing.
V3 not 2
It really does
Anders is such a cool dude. So is David. I love when you guys collaborate.
Listening to "Alpha Centari B" made watching soldering RCA jacks feel like flying too the moon! ;)
WillieRants thanks for the recommendation mate :)
@@hanawana Just to be clear "Alpha Centari B" was the name of the track David played during most of this video. :) It's one of my fav Anders tracks.
Here :) soundcloud.com/eox-studios/alpha-centauri-b
This was the sound system at my high school prom. The cassette they chose was a Phil Collins album. I graduated in 2003.
FINALLY... New episode from Keys ;) greetings from Poland :)
Second that :)
Prosimy częściej! Pozdrowienia!
no witam kolegów z Polski
Dobrze jest tu zobaczyć innego Polaka :)
I third that
Anders is a genius, His music is not just wonderful on it's own, it's HOW he creates it that really makes it special.
6:50 I charted this for Clone Hero, lolz
Always a pleasure to hear the symphonies of A.E. Jensen. Always. A descendant of Symphonius faemself, no less, lol
I remember seeing a similar keyboard, I think it was the TA-11 or something. It had a cassette deck but it had the record and pause functions. I never got to see this for myself as it belonged to one of the kids of a family I was visiting long ago, I don't remember what for but that's how it is when you age, you forget stuff like that.
I can't get enough of these videos. It always cheers me up to see an upload notification from you. Thank you!
I kind of like the shape and colors of that keyboard.
I think I should listen to Anders Jensen's music more, since I follow him SoundCloud. He's a great composer.
Loved that tune played on the keyboard at the end, brought back some childhood memories.
anders jensen is the most badass dude on the planet, if you disagree fight me
Wow that song was so good. Incredible work Anders :)
This is most likely for learning to play for children. You would insert a cassette and try to play alongside it. Although it would need a separate volume knob for cassette to be usable.
It might also be used to play over prerecorded accompaniment on the go.
EDIT: It seems I was wrong, this turned out to be more of a karaoke thing, see below
it's an atypical karaoke keyboard, it's probably meant for old disney soundtrack sing-a-long tapes, encouraging the child to play along on the keyboard or sing using the mic port
ok, why keyboard then? why not just a tape player with a mic in? To me it makes sense to have a keyboard+mic karaoke or tape+mic one but not all three of them. Or you mean if a kid wants to sing along both the keyboard and tape but not simultaneously? I kind of doubt this device is cheaper or more convenient than a normal keyboard + a normal cassette player with mic in.
@@jwhite5008 this way two kids can be involved, one playing the piano and one singing. It also gets around the two-key limitation pretty cleverly
@Amir Pourghoureiyan Oh, ok.. seems strange to me though. I also found some promo materials that do suggest this was supposed to be used as a karaoke-like thing.
The only thing else I could say is that I would have LOVED to have a
cassette deck built right into the keyboard when I was studying how to
play it. Using a standalone boombox was very awkward in my setup.
@@jwhite5008 I can see how it would have been quite a fun learning tool for kids in the 90s, it's kind of sad how hardware driven tools like this have been completely sidelined by software for phones and tablets, design creativity has been lost with how interconnected everyone is now.
Great song. You guys really get every bit of goodness out of these old keyboards. I enjoy these videos entirely too much.
The Twinkle Echo reminds me of the instrument used on the melody in OMD's Electricity
It looks so amazingly simple to play, yet sounds so rich and interresting.
Cheap keyboard with a CASSETTE player built-in??? I definitely could use it, really no joking.
This brought back some serious memories. I had this exact model growing up. Thought it was awesome.
3:26 Is that a 5th button on the cassette deck?
Might be possible to hack in a record button. :)
yes, im surprised David didnt mentioned that theres a extra button not connected to a external plastic button
Does it have an erasing head though? Cannot say for sure but I don't see it. It was common to reuse the mechanism itself because manufacturing 2 versions of it is expensive but to not solder unneeded electronic components and such.
@@jwhite5008 He told some comments upper here that there's not an erasing head there.
David says in a different thread that there's no erase head.
On that side of the deck where the capstan is.. a pause button.
Great vid. really enjoyed seeing Anders making some great music.
WHAT WERE THEY THINKINNGG?!!
Fun fact: this keyboard appeared in the movie "Baby Driver". When the character Baby is making his mixtapes, he uses this keyboard to compose the music.
"Was he slow?"
At 6:06 it sounded like those loudspeakers that stay in front of the supermarkets.
Or IN the Supermarket.
They have pretty much same issue for pretty much same reasons.
I don't mean soldering wires to olden keyboards, rather having several cheap speakers connected in parallel in the same room.
They sound about the quality of my schools loudspeaker system
So many good tunes created with this, top artists of the late 80's and early 90's Eurasia and so many others
Anders sounded Norwegian and he was, we even have some of the same friends 😁
Lovely song at the end, great instrument chosen also. Definitely gonna subscribe to that guy!
Love the "jack-inserting" music. 4:11
Ich want to know the title so bad
It’s from the album... song is “a song long ago.”
@@theinspiringengineer-scien6393 That is it!
@@leafbelly Happy days :)
ua-cam.com/video/DjOvitdvADE/v-deo.html :)
So glad to see an upload to this channel. I love the content of 8-bit keys as much as your other channel the 8-Bit guy.
Who makes a kids keyboard without a headphone jack??? Casio no!! LOL
Poo Ninja it is highly recommended that kids under 10 must not use headphones.
@@samuraifugitivo my tinnitus says What?
Poo Ninja its not tinitus, its the milk you have inside the ear.
@@samuraifugitivo mmmmm milky ears
That multi track tune from Anders is so friggin' a e s t h e t i c
Felt like I was watching Bloodsport with that music during your montage. Great stuff!!!
Anders is such an amazing musician.. Whenever I'm in need of some groovy retro inspiration his tracks definitely work. Awesome piece for such limitations to work with!
Anders Jensen makes wonders with anything with keys and some things without!
SYNTH DAD STRIKES AGAIN! Interesting as always, thanks.
woah. heavy SNES flashbacks on that TA-10
Amazing composing skills! Sounds incredible given the limited tools!
I'm always impressed with Anders Jensen's work. He's so damn talented!
Would also love to see a mod of this keyboard to see if those other buttons really are programmed in, and was that a record button on the inside of the cassette player or is that something else? (I didn't see a record head but it was rather hard to see much anyway).
love the music dude so good man
What purpose do the capacitors on the line out actually do? I'm guessing it's to prevent voltage transfer.
It's a first degree high-pass filter. A coupling capacitor. DC signal doesn't go through, but any variations, such as an AC signal, or in this case the various samples, do.
You are correct. To cut off DC to be precise - to prevent accidental damage to both the keyboard and his recording equipment.
However I believe the way he does it is somewhat unsafe and may degrade sound quality
Disclaimer: I'm not an audio equipment engineer and can be mistaken. Feel free to correct me.
Although quality is not really a problem with toy keyboards and un-safety should not be a real problem in his setup - he powers the keyboard with batteries anyway, and his audio equipment should be able to protect itself anyway. But my point is - don't blindly copy this.
Details, if you need them:
1) You need two capacitors - one for each lead. RCA plug ring may then also be connected to power supply ground through a large resistor (and maybe a high-voltage ceramic capacitor) to reduce noise.
Having it on one only could lead to having a ground loop. I'll explain:
If the keyboard was powered from a wall power supply, and either the same power supply is used to power some other equipment (which is uncommon but far from impossible) or the supply is faulty, or it connected its output ground wire to home earth wire (which is uncommon for this exact reason) then the following could happen:
He soldered two wires to the speaker, inner lead through a capacitor, outer lead - directly. If the directly-soldered lead is internally connected to a power supply ground and all of his other equipment is also done this way then this should do no damage. Otherwise current may flow through this wire to his equipment and may damage it and/or the keyboard.
This is unlikely to happen because his recording equipment should have a similar setup (capacitors and resistors) on its side, so the capacitors he soldered are not required. Having said that, there is never too much safety, and a wiring mistake may be a possibility, RCA plugs are often also accidentally momentarily shorted when inserting, so the capacitor is not optional - and even one is enough for most cases.
Same problem can also happen if something metallic and grounded accidentally touched the connectors when powered on. This is not uncommon when working with a lot of equipment alongside.
2) 100uF 50V electrolytic capacitor may be an issue (but better than something that I believe was like ~1000uF 6V one he may have used in one of the other videos)
It is recommended to use a mylar or polycarbonate or polypropylene or polyester capacitor, but those are rare and way more expensive and larger size. Ceramic capacitors are ok but they further reduce audio quality due to microphonic effect.
If there is ever a voltage difference of more than 50V (which can probably only happen if something fails dramatically) the capacitor may fail and his equipment may be damaged. On other hand, a 6V capacitor is not good at all.
EDIT: as noted in the comments below, electrolytic capacitors are also polarized, and if large enough reverse DC bias happens to be applied for prolonged periods the capacitor may easily fail. So at least those should not be used.
Furthermore, 100uF may be a lot, and the larger this value is the larger is leakage current and current spike when connecting the equipment. This may also adversely affect sound quality. Larger values may be required if you are directly connecting speakers or hi-fi headphones to the keyboard - otherwise it would be too silent and distorted - but for line-in about 1uF is enough most of the time.
EDIT: The capacitor is also supposed to protect against occasional short-circuits on the connector side. But 100uF one is too large so the components in the keyboard may be damaged anyway if such a short occurs.
He seems to be using a high quality capacitor which makes this kind of Ok - those can withstand quite a bit of punishment and have very little leakage. Furthermore this keyboard only has 7.5V power supply (which is probably downregulated to 4.5V to match the batteries) so no damage should occur unless reverse voltage is applied for any reason.
3) Ideally the output should be connected before rather than after an amplifier (parallel to the speakers).
He does just that in one of those videos because of balancing issues, IIRC.
This is because the amplifier may distort the signal unnecessarily, and the amp is not needed for line-in anyway.
Furthermore, some older keyboards might have used a transformer in the amplifier to boost the voltage instead of current, therefore subjecting the speakers to some 48 volts or something. This is most likely not the case with this keyboard but is something to check beforehand anyway.
That being said, it may be riskier to solder wires to the middle of the board without understanding how it works - speakers seem to be a somewhat safer option. So use your best judgement.
Disclaimer: I'm not an audio equipment engineer and can be mistaken. Feel free to correct me.
Well, i was gonna explain but people have beat me too it
Actually they don't do anything. Maybe they will provide a bit of protection, but nothing more..
There is no DC component across the speaker, otherwise the speaker would very quickly overheat and die.
Anyway connecting outputs to the speaker terminals is not a very good idea, in 99% of cases it's easy to figure out how to connect directly to the sound chip (after r-c network maybe), and there will be MUCH less noise and better sound quality.
@@jwhite5008 If i'm not wrong the capacitors he soldered in are aluminum electrolytic types. They are supposed to be connected with fixed polarity, otherwise they can fail rather dramatically - with a pop and some smoke. The signal to the speakers is AC, so that might be a problem.
Glad to see you are still making keyboard videos!
You inspired me to learn to play the keyboard and after using a toy for the last 2 years I finally pulled the trigger and got a REAL keyboard, the Yamaha PSR-E363.
Keep up the great work!
that song sorta gave me a rainbow road mariocart 64/gamecube vibe
For a channel about retro keyboards, I get WAY too excited for new uploads 😅
3:28 you could have modded a record button with that extra switch with no lever
I was going to ask if that was an un-connected record button, the tape deck chassis is likely an off the shelf component but they probably didn't include the record/erase head, so it's likely that button is not connected to anything inside the unit either - but would be neat if it were!
Yeah you just have to press that down and the play button at the same time to do record.
very beautiful song
That cassette module obviously has a record switch... Should make that functional.
I was also wondering what the 5th button is. It should be clearly visible if there is a record head inside the tape deck. I didn't find a scene in the video where it would be visible...
I was like "am I the only who noticed the hidden record button", but luckily im not apparently!
There's no erase head.
Well, I suppose that does matter.
@@8BitKeys So what you are saying is you only have 1 shot at multi-track recording...
You guys are made of pure gold. Never change.
3:19 If you're good at haccing, then you could maybe add a display for the current instrument, and 5 additional buttons.