Casio

Casio has big plans for its two new synth babies: the XW-G1 Groove Synthesizer and the XW-P1 Performance Synthesizer. The first is kind of like DJ gear with a keybed, offering the functions of the various digital equipment used by club DJs in a single unit; while the second is meant for onstage musicians wanting to create sounds, play expressively, and do cool stuff in real time.  

Casio added four new keyboards to its WK and CTK series. The new additions offer new music-creation features such as sequencing and audio recording, plus new sounds, Touch-Response keys, microphone and stereo audio line inputs, and more.  

From what Casio says about its latest digital piano, the Privia, it sounds so real that you might mistake it for an acoustic grand.  

The Casio Privia line of digital pianos has become among the most famous, offering scaled hammer action and a reasonable set of sampled sounds for very reasonable prices. Adding in new technological advances to the Privia line, the Casio Privia PX-730, PX-330, and PX-130 have been introduced to storm the digital piano realm.  

Even for those of us not long enough in the tooth to remember when the Casio SK-1 came out, the legend of this handy device looms large, even though the thing itself is not that big. One man band Willis P. Jenkins demos the SK-1 for us, and continues to amaze us with his penchant for instruments that make multitasking seem easy.  

Greg Curvey of the Luck of Eden Hall shows us the Casiotone MT-30. To some, this thing is easily written off as just a toy, but to others like Greg, it's a toy with some pretty interesting sounds in it, innit?  

Believe it or not, there was a time when the Casio VL-Tone represented quite the advancement in performance synthesis. We called that time "1981", and Greg Curvey from Luck of Eden Hall treats us to a visceral recreation of that storied era, via this Casio VL-Tone demo.  

Singer / songwriter / accordionist Jordi Rosen talks to Gearwire about the collection she uses to make her music. Low end keyboards and pawnshop accordions combine to create and eclectic, dreamy sound.  

The Beat-Bike on display through Dorkbot is a pretty ingenious concept. Throw a kid's drum machine and a Casio keyboard onto a bicycle, perform some circuit wizardry, and you've got music that changes as you ride.  

Mike Conroy of Fiendo has a collection of some really odd equipment including this Casio DG-20. Fretting down and playing sends MIDI information to create the desired note rather than detect a note as a MIDI pickup would...  

In the late 1980s Mentallo and the Fixer started making "industrial" music in Texas. Before applying the term "industrial" in this case it is best to put yourself in a time machine and go back to the time period--when...  

Circuit Bending 101 continues with this demonstration using a Casio PT100. Dan Demchuk works with Allison Lake to get unique sounds and bends from Allison's PT100.

To get more out of your synth, Dan and Allison...  

Since it hit the shelves in 1985, the Casio CZ-101 has been a bit of an anomaly. The CZ-101 was the first and probably the all around best-selling synth in the CZ line. Casio made more than 60,000 CZ-101s.

Looking...  

Dan Demchuk hosts our continuing series on the art of anti-theory and circuit bending. Circuit Bending is the growingly popular craft of taking apart battery-powered electronics and subverting their original purpose....  

"The synthesizer you don't need a master's degree in science to master" reads the ridiculous tag line to this September 1986 ad for the Casio CZ-230S from Keyboard Player magazine. Here's a hint: if someone tells you...  

Summer NAMM 2005: Normally Gearwire tends to cover gear that is obviously musical - synths, guitars, microphones, stompboxes, etc. But when all is said and done, you still need a way to get your CDs to the masses. Enter...  

Summer NAMM 2005: Casio takes Gearwire for a brief walk through its CTK keyboard series, ranging from the economical CTK-496 to the versatile CTK-900.

Casio CTK Series official links: CTK-496 CTK-800 ...  

Summer NAMM 2005: The piano has come a long way since the days of powdered wigs and hand-scribbled music notation, and the Casio AP45 would definitely get a raised eyebrow from the likes of Beethoven. This digital...