It's all about making music on toy and semiprofessional keyboards of the 80's and early 90's. Most of them are quite inexpensive these days, but many of them are still capable of producing some really nice sounds. And I was always fascinated by the quirky accompaniments. But I will also have a look at some professional gear from time to time.
I bought one when it came out in 1981, from an add in the magazine OMNI. I still have it! I once plugged it in a massive system, with pedals and effects: it sounded massive!!
Thanks a lot! I would be so disappointed if I've bought this keyboard after watching fantastic MTV commercial about it. At that time I've bought Yamaha PSS 780 if I remember correctly :)
I thought I'd commented on this video, maybe I didn't. I am pleased you repaired the tape recorder on this keyboard, I think building a keyboard with a cassette recorder in it makes a lot of sense for so many reasons.
I have no less than 3 units 😅 They were dirty cheap (10-20€ each) so I could not resist 😁. They are a bit lesser synth than my Yamaha MODX+ but, well, are pretty fun!
Cheesy af. Only 10 voices and first time I see more rhythms than voices. Cheapy feeling keys. Weird selection methods. I instantly bought my own on auction site.
I have several other synths (and a few Behringer synths) i got the Cat because i watched quite a few RU-vid reviews saying that it was one of the easier Behringer synths to use. However the Cat (for me anyway) is not very intuitive and i just cannot seem to get many usable sounds from it. I often turn it on and after 30 minutes of squeals, static random high pitched sounds (or just no sound at all even after moving sliders and turning knobs for 10 minutes) i usually just turn it of and turn on my Pro-1and 2 minutes after turning on the Pro-1 i have very nice and usable sounds. I have seem many RU-vid video's of people getting some really nice sounds from their Cat, so i know that it is capable of making some great sounds, but i just can not seem to create those sounds. I have started to think that mine is a faulty unit (its really funny because i have had my Cat for about 5 months and because i keep hearing that it is meant to sound "quirky" i cant really tell if its meant to sound like this or not?) and when i see video's like yours i see that it can make some great sounds. Anyway thank you for making this excellent video, it explains everything in detail, but not so deep that you just cant understand what you are watching and its by far the best video showing how to use the Cat. I am going to use this video and really sit down and start again with the Cat.
I love how you're able to squeeze every last bit of sonic capability out of these keyboards. I like to do exactly the same. I didn't see any videos of a Casio SK-1 !! Is there a video out there I may have missed? I'm sure you could work some incredible magic out of it. I recently got one on eBay (after having used it a lot as a kid) and I was surprised how capable it is. It has a sequencer that records two tracks with selectable sounds for each track that play multitimbrally, plus rhythm and bass patterns at the same time. I was definitely not doing that as a kid. I really enjoy your channel and look forward to your videos. Thanks for the awesome content! 🎹
This is the most useful review of this keyboard I’ve found. The main reason I might choose this over the A50 is for the live accompaniment function which I want.
Hello Sir thank you for making this awesome videos! i have this exact model since early 90s, it was my sisters keyboard but now its mine. I didnt had the chace befor to extract the full potential of it until now watching your videos. Is there any way to connect it as midi controller in ableton? do i have to download a driver? i cant find the correct way to use it as midi.
I absolutely love your content. And these samples, as noisy as they are, they're very impressive for 1982. Even though Casio and Yamaha are the most known for sampling in the 80s, I wonder if other toy keyboards from other brands came out with sampling functions or sampled sounds of this type.
I live in sweden and we have a holliday caled midsummer when w e dance and sing and stuff. Ons of the Most popular songs is one of the versions of the musician song. It göres "Vi äro musikanter o vi från Skaraborg..."
Is this FM synthesis or not? I would like to buy this PC-100 but it sounds pretty like cheap 2 OP FM synth. So is this Yamaha's PASS synth? Or PS-3 has PASS ? I am very confused.
When I was a kid, I used to take music classes at a Yamaha school. One of the songs we learned to play was precisely the one on the VL-1. We never used that keyboard, though; it was printed in Yamaha music books. I vaguely remember the lyrics, but they indeed had to do with animals playing musical instruments.
This is a fantastic video! I got a PSS-680 for Christmas in 1988 and I absolutely adored it! Sadly, It fell off a wardrobe in the 2000's and stopped working (I was heartbroken) but I recently bought another on eBay and using it again has been like riding a bike. Did you ever get around to making the PSS-780 video? I had a look but couldn't see it on your channel.
There is an alternate arrangement for the Christmas carol Oh Little Town of Bethlehem which fits the first line of the demo perfectly. Likely, the melody was cribbed from another, preexisting song.
Hola excelente la explicación se entendió espectacular. Una pregunta tengo un behringer cat que tiene entradas VCO, VCF fc, VCF q y VCA. La consulta sería si se puede conectar con un korg SQ1 con salidas CV y Gate a esas entradas del behringer.
I had one of these in 1981 and loved it. The history behind it is interesting and the fact that also it was designed by a woman. Plenty about this instrument in wikipedia too. Some of the sounds were very good for the time. It even had a transpose feature were you could tune it to different temperments. And £99 in the 80's
