Bad Gear - Casio Rapman - Too Cute??? 

The line between "cheesey toy" and "timeless classic/expensive Reverb listing" is a single underground hit

I love Casio. They tried their best and they failed more often than not, but their failures were almost always interesting. I'll take "interesting" over "decent but predictable" every day.

I love how Roland made the 808 to sound realistic, It didn’t, flopped, and got used in Rap. I love how Roland made the 909 to sound realistic, It didn’t, flopped, and got used in House. I love how Roland made the 303 to sound realistic, It didn’t, flopped, and got used in Acid House.

On the scale of amateur to professional gear this thing is one tier above an interactive book that makes animal sounds

Casio employee 1: "Phat bass and sizzling highs have been done....how about we abandon that for pokey mids?" Casio employee 2: "Interesting. But we need a cool hook too. I'm thinking with the aesthetic of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air". Casio employee 1: 🤩

Casio keyboards are kinda like that free synth VST you downloaded 5 years ago with 500 presets. Most of the presets are really corny but some are definitely diamonds in the rough.

7:28 We need "Cute Gear" spinoff series showing all the most adorable looking gear regardless if they're good or bad... mostly bad though

If you can squeeze out those tracks from a Casio Rapman than you can conquer the world. AudioPilz is the King of Bad Gear.

This was the first musical instrument I ever got at age 8. Probably the reason I'm still making music at 41. I haven't though about this scrappy lil dude in decades, and then I saw it featured on Bad Gear and had a nostalgia overload!!! My god the memories. Thanks AudioPilz!

Units like this should be in every studio. You'd be shocked to learn how many major albums have sounds from "home user" gear, or even as far as beating on trash cans, just to get that weird sound they were looking for! Pro gear isn't what makes an album great. Talent makes an album great.

Still have mine and now passed it on to my toddler :) I think this was my very first musical instrument growing up. Somehow as a kid these sounds never got old...

Aaaaaaaaah this is the first keyboard I ever had! My parents got it for me when I was little and I make Rap Music now at 26, so this one's special to me. Thanks for covering it!

Holy fucking shit - the amount of sound you get out of any piece of gear is amazing. Thank you for your work and generally existing.

"Starting point for a later synth addiction" isn't that in the small print of every Casiotone there has ever been? Mine started with the VL-1, then a CZ-1000 in '86. You just about summed up Casio in 7 words. Excellent as always, Florian.

I only ever knew of the Rapman as a consolation prize given away on Nickelodeon game shows of the 90s like Legends of the Hidden Temple, Nick Arcade, and Double Dare. This is honestly my first time actually seeing one. It's about everything I expected it would be lol

Ideal unit for Trap-producers due to its 3-voices polyphony.

I remember seeing the commercial for this synth back in the day. Casio really had a big campaign around it.

Basically the "Earthbound Indie RPG soundtrack" instrument. Would probably be a killer 5€ Kontakt Instrument or VST effect. (...I'd actually pay money for a good plugin of this, it sounds so charming)

I love this video, and I love that snare sound. No qualifiers or jokes, I seriously love the snap of that silly little keyboard, especially when you'd thickened and processed it. Crunchy overdriven cheap keyboards will always have a special place in my heart.

I'd love to see a whole album or EP made with this thing. It's just quirky enough to fill a niche on some weird corner of the internet.

Holy Crapman! how did I miss this masterpiece ?!?!? this is at the top of my favs now. I keep thinking I have seen all of them, but then out of nowhere, this shows up. This one kills it, especially the 70 Miles an hour house jam . and the guitar effects really makes it insane. I (and the other millions of loyalist) would love to see a follow up on this with a circuit bent version. They are out there and insane. Circuit Bending Fool on RU-vid has one that is INSANE! I sent him a message to send you one for review . maybe you can do a side channel "bent gear".

The intro was Casiocore at its finest! 😊 I thought, ok... this is going to be a whole cheese factory after the intro. But then the Jams hit and i was like: 😲😲😲😲😲😱😱😱😱😱 How many fairies did you have to kill to get enough fairy dust to sprinkle on the Rapman for these jams? 😂

Your videos always cheer me up when I'm in a tight spot. I've probably rewatched the entire bad gear playlist 3 or 4 times at this point and I only found your channel a few months ago. Love your work!

"You can't change the snare sound" *Cue Lars* "Saaaaaaiiiinntttt anga round my snnaaarrrrraahhh."

I had this and a Casio sk1!!!! Must have been about 11 or 12(now 40) And they are basically what fuelled me to getting into DJing sampling , scratching and producing, became pretty proficient at them all

this is so good, the references, the jokes, the memes, the gear, THE JAMS, all of it!

I have to say that every time i am impressed with the obvious amount of work you put on every episode. Video shooting and editing, "bad gear" exploring AND a new tune recorded, orcestrated and mixed. Do you ever sleep? :)

I remember the old Casio keyboards where you could record sounds with a mic. Everyone made fart sounds and played them as notes in the store where they demo'd them in the 80's. The watches, keyboards, they're all cute but I've never seen anyone use a Casio Keyboard live. But AudioPilz you are of course amazing on them.

Yesss, I have this one. Bout to give it to a young buddy of mine, so, nice timing. A nice reminder to sample it before it's gone. I quite like the beats and the vocoder sound.

I had a little Casio keyboard in the 90s, green accents. I loved that thing I really wish I still had it! I'm sure I could overpay for one now if I worked out what it was. But it wouldnt be mine.

fabulous episode! truly inspiring stuff in the original spirit of the channel- taking bad gear and showing how to make it useful in context. thanks for this!

When I started out making my own music aged 13 my first instrument was a turquoise Casio SA-9, which has most of the same sounds as this plus some extras. Those crunchy sounds still have a special place in my heart, even if a lot of them are too weird and/or obnoxiously midrange-y to be of much actual use. I actually bought an SA-20 a couple of years ago too so I could have the same sound set with (slightly) bigger keys and four voice polyphony instead of the duophony of the SA-9. Being able to actually play proper chords makes it a lot more useful. Fun fact (which I assume also works on the Rapman): the volume adjustment actually affects the envelope of the sound rather than the gain, so percussive sounds have a shorter decay the lower you set the volume, and sounds with obvious loop points also loop faster.

I have the concertmate version of this keyboard. It's Identical. I found it at Goodwill for 2 dollars a while back in mint condition. It looks nice beside my Casio SK 1.

This was great. It's a strange little box of tricks but I was impressed with what you managed to coax out of it. That house track was awesome.

WOW!! By far one of my fav bits of bad gear and also I love all the music you made with it!!!!!!! Also great outro speech. Keep up the awesome work my dude!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The "first 100 words" book image killed me (8:22). Thank you for you videos AudioPilz

Your ability to use the WORST gear and make the BEST jams never ceases to amaze me! It’s truly a gift. Salute

nice fresh episode, breaking apart from the usual suspects. couldn't tell you what model, but the first digital keyboard i ever played was my brother's Casio, to this day i can beat box the lofi waltz rhythm for some reason, imbedded in my head.

AUGH AUDIO YOUR JAMS ARE ALWAYS SO AMAZING!! I swear you could turn lead into gold from audio alone!

The lighter and cigarette ring *immediately* went up on my Twitter, captioned: "The night belongs to me." Thanks for that ;-)

When I was 12 years old, I would have loved to own a synth like this! Definitely more fun than the harmonica I had.

Your editing is second to none! .... And yes! The Rapman was a toy like no other!

I have all these presets burnt into my head and didnt even realise it. I owned one when i was 9 right about the same time as Vanilla Ice and MC hammer dropped lol. I turned 40 last week so added nostalgic maybe the Casio Rapman made me who i am today lol = ) Salute AudioPilz

fun fact native instruments sampled this device for its "kontakt factory" library there's an entire section based on it which includes the rapman wah

The snare drums on this machine sounded incredible. Very nostalgic of Sonic video games and those lofi samples. Love it.

"We can all agree that there are enough weird guys on social media sowing the seeds of controversy" hahaha well said. Wish the knuckdraggers on gearspace would get the memo too though. Another fun vid

I love this channel! There's always something that makes me laugh my head off. I'd never heard of this keyboard before, awesome! You've actually encouraged me to wonna buy many machines now, not sure that was your intention? Lol, cheers!

...I absolutely love your channel ...one of the highlights of my week !!! ...sorry I'm not wealthy enough to be a patron ...but still ...thanks for the great episodes ...and I'm looking forwards to the next one !!!

Great review! I'm constantly amazed at how you can get a jam out of just about anything. I'd suggest the Casio CZ-101, except that it's actually good gear......and classic gear at that.

Seriously though - how is the vibraphone voice so head-and-shoulders above the others, quality-wise? Secret vibraphone lover on the development team, maybe?

You know I was expecting a lot for ya but you still managed to blow me away.👍🏼

I don't know what is more surprising, Finally ripping on a Casio, or actually making it sound good in the end. Heavy processing applied of course.

It’s time Bad Gear reviewed the Italian anti-classic Siel DK-80. I had one, it’s broken now. It was a piece of truly bad gear.

You finally found the way to make it interesting !! Nice work dude !! !! 👏👏

hey man i grew up with this keyboard... you're really coming at my heart right now 😂

I would absolutely love to see what Eno would do with this thing. And indeed I would pay $ to hear a Rapman rendition of "Sombre Reptiles."

Surprisingly musical enough beyond its limitations and was polished beyond belief in the finale track, where 'musicians' with a fair amount hardware & DAW would procrastinate for hours and still not achieve the same result from a dinky Casio keyboard. I actually downloaded a load of the samples from a few sites a week or 2 ago and enjoyed jamming & processing them. I'd put this in a 'Limbo Gear' slot where it's not good, certainly not bad and definitely has a more than a handful use cases.

I think the intro should've mentioned the Casio MT-40, which birthed a whole sub-genre by itself (sleng teng)

I had one when I was a kid.. best thing about them is the microphone and built-in speaker.. if you stick the microphone up to the speaker while one of the preset beats is playing it distorts and sounds kind of funky

The presets on this Casio are actually quite charming, didn't expect that. An early Yamaha (I had the PSR-3, but there's a lot of them I guess) has to follow next hahah. Especially with Beach House using them (if I'm not mistaken) Hey, Jam 2 kind of reminded me of Scarface! (Push it to the limit?)

One can only imagine this in the hands of Beethoven . it sounds so majestic.

Wow lol, this is the second video that’s been suggested to me by RU-vid about this keyboard. I had this when I was a kid and remember not really understanding it, even then i found it cheesy. 25 years later I am now inspired so dig it out and finally make a song with! Haha. Nice video, I’m off to watch some more of your content now.

"...are almost there, but not quite..." Remember, this is Casio. They've made a business of producing fundamentally excellent hardware, and somehow screwing it up.

YES I loved seeing the Rapman get the treatment. You were spot on with the future synth addict toddler remark, I've had this thing since I was 4, sincerely it can still inspire me!

haha, saw my comment, nice. Excellent video :3 you gave this keyboard a good treatment :3

I found a rapman years ago abandoned and doomed to go in the trash. But i took care of it and i love it, there is something magic with this little keyboard...

Great content as usual !

Jesus. You make the coolest videos from the weirdest stuff. Pure wizardry.

THIS IS BRINGING BACK TO CHILDHOOD OMG. It alll started here. I just sent this to my brother like OMFG these songs and sounds!!

That suprisingly optimistic 70 mph cruise control deep and dubby house construct was awesome!!

Nice exactly the right image for the (bad) snare sound topic. Much love for your way of seeing/hearing the world. Btw.: ... if someone can really romanticize something, then a Viennese.

Funny and insightful at the same time, I heard the intro and thought, you could never do that with the keyboard alone. Then I realized, that One no longer had to go to a physical studio to make this thing sound as good. Could be done in a small bedroom.

Best intro tune version ever. And nice little sneaky inclusion of the Fairlight. GG!

This is my fave bad gear showcase! What a groove synth!!

I want a Casio Watch Synth to become a reality!! In elementary school I walked into class with that Casio watch and felt like a real BOSS!!

I've often been attracted to the Rapman and its bigger brother, the Roland DJ70. That last track sounded so good, Florian...you can squeeze some bangers out of these little plastic boxes for sure. Ausgezeichnete Arbeit!

Oh WOW!! I forgot I actually had this. Second I saw it, I had flashbacks. When I was 10 years old, I ran out of batteries, and tried to make my own power supply. There was lots of sparks, I was blinded for a second, and I had to explain to my mom why the back of it had burn marks on it. Such good memories. 🤣

Tnx for your video .with your growing bad Gear pile of synth : p. I enjoyd it

nice job - I loved the POG jam my little Rapman is fun, had to get one when I saw it on eBay about 10 years ago :-) like the SK-1, MT-400V, HT-3000 and later "pro" gear like the CZ-1, FZ-1, VZ-1, and the PG-380 MIDI guitar they really nailed the Rapman - I love how they called it the RAP-1 like there was going to be a series of them

bro, you are so talented!

i read long time ago in an interview that the kids of Jan Hammer had the rap man . JAN HAMMER said about the casio rap man: “” i would have killed to have some of these sounds before the fairlight came out”” !!!! Keyboard France magazine tested it when the rap man was issued and said in conclusion that it was impossible to resist to this instrument! I love mine nearly as much as some very expensive gears. thanks for the videos they are great. Cheers , philippe

Almost spit up my oatmeal when the intro began. Thank you!

Nice work at making this sound fairly decent! 😎

Nice work on the house track! Limitation=inspiration. The gamelan on this sounds very dramatic with the TM Pro in Kontakt. I gotta release my Crap Keys sample set soon :)

I hate to admit this -- but the intro song at 0:00 on the Casio Rapman is. My favorite of the whole Bad Gear series 🧐

You must have the most advanced special effects on the internet. I was almost convinced by what I heard, that this toy is a musical instrument. Bravo.

I remember having one of these! Loved it!

That snare is pure gold. Jus waiting to be used in a drum n bass track.

I love casio . Weirder the better. Great show 👏 😎 I put all my casios through the Alesis nanoverb on reverb or chorus . Sounds like a different creature altogether .

The Casiotone MT40 was used in the song Under Mi Sleng Teng, which is widely regarded as the song that started dancehall reggae. It's a great song and I cannot imagine a "real" keyboard substituting the Casiotone. If you haven't heard it, I highly recommend checking it out.

The song is great. You did great work on composition or planning.

I really like when you do gear that most people would never think of using. Shows what we are all missing by chasing after popular and trendy gear.

I have a little PSS-170 at home and I love it, quirky sounds in pedals! and by the way

Excellent video Florian, and great to see you cover a little old Casio - the Rapman is just a crazy box of fun! Those three drum pads are surprisingly responsive, though the scratch platter is a bit of a con as it is just an oversized switch (no variable potentiometer action, sadly). Still, it has lots of unusual and weird sounds and also features that can definitely encourage an off the wall approach to music making as your CASIOCORE ((C) Bad Gear!) composition showed. Casio at their bonkers best!

Okay, since I´ve been around for a short while now, I gotta say I love this format... It shows that even the cheapest toy can have a niche of some way... Thanks for that :) I guess it´s true what they say: "It´s not so much about the gear as it is about your creativity..."

It reminds me of McDonald's happy meal. Absolutely love what you did with the effects!

As I said so many times before, you can make music out of Grandma's bad hearing aid and probably make the next summer-hit-wave out of a couple of PC fans and an abused vibrator with your mad skillz. That said however, I don't think I'm going to go out of my way to get the Casio Rapman. Your creation however reminds me of Anders Enger Jensen's attempt with B. Meowsic (also a toy keyboard for kids of all ages), so well done Mr AudioPilz, I'm going to put that hit of yours on repeat a few times now. :)

PIlz, we love you, and everyone loves an early 90s cheesefest.

Die geilen Intros! Weiter so

Thanks for not being another hater! This show does have good vibes.