07. Casiotone CT-S1000V CHALLENGE & CTX-3000 - "ONCE" by Stewart J Wallace -

This is a song I composed entitled "Once" which has a dreamy quality to the music, and the subject of the lyrics is the state of the environment and our need to change our ways - quickly! The song is also an entry for the Casio CT-S1000V Challenge.
I've used the Casio CT-S1000V to "sing" the melody line. I created short phrases of the lyrics and then exported them to the keyboard. I then created a sequence to play them back in the order required - this also has to be exported (or "transferred") to the keyboard. I used phrase playback mode so I also had to input the rhythm for each phrase - I found it better to decrease the rhythm value of the last note otherwise phrases tended to get delayed or stuck before moving onto the next one in the sequence.
The keyboard is controlling the pace and rhythm of the words - you can set the "lyric speed" so it matches the speed of the song, and it can be quite difficult to keep in time with the pulse. Notice that you don't have to trigger notes which have the same pitch, just change the pitch at the appropriate moment and the keyboard takes care of the rhythm. I think the clarity of the lyrics is better in play mode than note mode.
I decided to use the Casio CTX-3000 to provide the accompaniment and extra tones, and the Casio keyboards are not synchronised - I just set them to the same tempo (96BPM). I did try using just the CT-S1000V for the whole song, but I couldn't have two different lyric sequences which I wanted in the son - that's why I am going back and forth between the two keyboards in the performance. The CT-S does save the lyric sequence in the registration memory, so you don't have to load it from your device every time - that's a bonus!
At the end of the song I used 3 choral samples, which were created in Steinberg's Dorico notation software and then exported as .wav files. The CT-S has 10 seconds of sampling time, but it can't do much more than replay the samples - velocity switching or time-stretching is not available. I edited the samples slightly, and then imported and assigned them to 3 keys on the CT-S using drum sample mode.
Just to save channels on my mixer, I fed the output signal from the CTX into the CT-S and then balanced the two keyboards with their volume controls. The output from the CT-S then just goes into my audio interface. I think the speakers on both keyboards are pretty good, and because I'm recording direct into the interface, I can monitor the sound through the speakers without the need for headphones.
I hope that explains the process and it helps you create your own music with these keyboards. All the best.
The sheet music can be purchased from www.sheetmusicplus.com and www.sheetmusicdirect.com. Thanks for your support.
#cts1000v_challenge

[@EBTheOriginalMaster]

Well done

[@StewartWallaceSJWMusic]

Thanks for the feedback - much appreciated.

[@wpsam52]

This was awesome!

[@ivysilk6983]

Lovely words and music, would like to hear it with a nice strings and piano rhythm,👍👍👍

[@4tune889]

How nice, well said and well played Stewart

[@Casiomidi1]

Compelling listening great use of the CT-S1000V I've never heard it before 'singing' the lyrics of a complete song, and I'm impressed. Thanks also for the technical detail given above

[@stephencurtis6032]

All good stuff but very electronic & synthetic. Thankfully the world is bigger 😉