The story
This was an eBay purchase, I think it cost me be about £25 in 2013/14. I needed some really lo fi sounds and my old Casio MT18 wasn’t really cut out for synthesis. I’m sure you know, but in case you don’t, the Casio VL1 featured a synth, sequencer and a calculator! I don’t think anyone really knows why. Loved by many electronic musicians for it’s unique, lo-fi sounds. Most notably used by Athlete, Dee Lite, The Human League, Talking Heads & Kraftwerk to name a few. I created this simple Kontakt interface to include speed/tune, drive and warmth controls to subtly edit the samples. Includes ADSR programmed patches of little blippy, lo-fi synth sounds created by typing in many sequences of eight digit numbers used to programme this little beast. I have since sold the synth. I hope you enjoy it. Requires Kontakt 5.8.1 or later
Interface
Reviews for Custom Casio VL1
- Sound
- Character
- Playability
- Inspiration
- GUI
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My first synth come to life
This was my first ever synth. A Christmas present in maybe, 1983? Now 49 and with my VL-Tone dead and buried, I'm really grateful to John that this little beast has risen from the grave. Many thanks!
It brought me memories!
As a kid I used to have a very similar sounding Casio synth, and this definitely gave me some flashbacks of the demo songs I used to put on to listen to. Inside you will find 12 different and nicely sampled patches of all kinds, and everything seems to sound exactly as I remember it to be too, though this one is limited to just 2 octaves long in each patch. If you hit the notes too hard you might listen some slight noise in the tail of each note but it's not too audible.
All patches come with 3 settings in the GUI, drive, warmth and speed (stretching that also changes the pitch). The other buttons and switches are part of the image, so don't be confused!
If small Casio synths are your thing... Look no further!
The samples could do with some noise reduction. But there's a decent amount of presets here and they otherwise sound exactly as you'd want them to. If you're into these kinds of loft small synths, then you'll really enjoy this instrument.
Nice work John!
