The beauty of the SK-1 wasn't just being able to sample sounds you could make, but sample sounds of sampled sounds thus changing how it sounds. Or sampling some really weird stuff like those old short wave radios that had all sorts of wild sounds. Being a kid back then was a blast if you had a wild imagination!
My sister got a SK-1 for Christmas while I got a rather basic PT-100. I used to cheat and "combine" the two keyboards by sampling the fabulous vibraphone on the PT-100 using the SK-1's sampler. The PT-100's built in sounds were pretty good, but it really needed all the goodies the SK-1 had like portamento.
Great video. I love my Sk1 to sample my groove boxes at a fast rate and high pitched. Then slow them down on the SK1 to make them sound filthy af. Subscribed!
I used to put my SK-1 next to an AM radio. The interference produced by certain sounds was just as fun. The interference was either a wobbling noise or a sharp one. I wish I still had mine.
Totally fantastic! I sold these little boards back in the mid-80s; if someone had played this track for me then, and told me it was from an SK-1, I would have thought they were an alien from a future utopia. Thanks for sharing this.
Great video! I modded one of my SK1 so it doesn´t sound muddy at all, it sounds extremely bright. Those presets sound amazing, and sampling have much more life, very much like a Mirage.
Is that the mod to remove the anti-alias filter? I've considered doing that to mine, but I can't bring myself to circuit bend it since I've had it so long!
This Casio would've been considered a cheap piece of cr*@p back the 80s, but it still works despite many years of use and abuse. Many pro keyboards will be faulty, not working or in landfill by now! That is a seriously deep clean you gave her, nice work, SK-1 forever! Some of the presets are really good too, much better than expected!
Nope in the eighties it was a respected cheap instrument that was used for much greatness. That might be the attitude for you and your time but you are so far from the truth. This lad does not know how to use this to it's potential and I imagine you are worse. You are incapable of understanding the time and music. Lol
Yeeeessss! The Casio SK-1 was my first keyboard and sampler as well. I then aquired an SK-5 which took it to another level. I might have the SK-1 packed up somewhere. I plan to pick both of them up when I find them again. Great video.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it 😊 I actually use mine quite regularly in my music, its a great way to introduce some inspiration when you're a bit stuck for ideas
@@TheOrphicCreative That's cool. I just bought a few months ago a Casio PT-50 which has some great sounds as well. I plan to use it in recordings in the coming year. But I definitely want another SK-1 and SK-5. Like you mentioned, thanks to those keyboards is why we do and have what we have today. So I guess we owe to Casio.
I have a circuit bent one, and a plain one. A radio shack sk5. Love them, but your song was pretty awesome. That was well done. I even learned some new tricks. That rise was awesome! Never seen that before.
How??? Just how on earth does this video exist? I imagine this would take a TON of money, time, and a team of people working for you... did you do all this yourself? Either way this was incredible.
I'm subscribing right now! I love my little Casio SK1, and like you I did everything in my power to use to create my own bedroom music right up until my mid 20s. It wasn't my first keyboard - that was a Casio VL-Tone, followed by a Casio MT-45, followed by a Jen SX-100 mono synth, then came the SK1 and finally a Casio SA-10 - and my drum machine was a Movement Sequence Memory Rhythm which was actually stolen from the boot of a friend's car and I've never been able to find a replacement in all these years. The instrument set was rounded off by a cheapo electric guitar and bass guitar. Sadly, being broke in that period I had no access to a portastudio, so used to just manually overdub everything using two tape decks and a cheap Tandy 4-track microphone mixer. Results were hissy, ultra-lo-fi and mono, but I loved every moment. I actually miss those 'hungry' lo-fi days where I had to make every sound count and push every instrument to it's maximum potential. This era of DAWs and digital recording almost seems too effortless. Great watch, thank you!
@@lordsnot9540 Thanks for sharing your story! I hear you regarding things being too effortless these days. You had to really be innovative back then and use what you had to its absolute limits. I've kept all my old recordings from back then and often enjoy revisiting them. Some of them still sound surprisingly good today.
@@TheOrphicCreative Thanks for your reply. I kept my old recordings too - around 25 C90 cassettes stuffed with original songs stretching back to 1984, and I even digitised them all in later years and did my best to clean up and filter out all the noise and hiss and make them borderline listenable - though the results are still far too amateurish and lo-fi to publish anywhere, they're purely for my own pleasure.
@@lordsnot9540 I've done the same with mine too, although the original tapes still play as well as the day I made them, I doubt anything made today would last as long. I'm thinking of starting a video series actually where I take some of those old tunes and then remake them using my current studio tech, I reckon it would be an interesting exercise
@@TheOrphicCreative Ha! We think alike, I've done that too, in fact I did it fairly recently - I released an online album called 'There's Nothing Out There' in which I completely remade a batch of songs ranging from 1986 to 2018 from scratch. The process was interesting, albeit tricky because back in the early days I had no interest in what musical key I was composing in, I just played something and if it sounded good to my ears that was it, but worse still the practice of multiple overdubbing between tapes ultimately resulted in subsequent overdubs being in an entirely different key due to issues with tape speed. Each recreation was a kind of forensic exercise in analysing precisely what my thought processes were at the time of the original creation. I'll look forward to your efforts to do the same. I suspect we have very different tastes in music as I tend to focus on the post punk/'alternative' genre, though I've dabbled with some electronic dance music too from time to time.
This is absolutely amazing. I had one of these as a kid. I left it at my grandparents' house as a kid but their house burned down so it was lost. Thankfully they weren't home when the fire erupted but alas my little Esky "It was what I called it" was lost in the blaze. I had so much fun with it. These days I have some great keyboards including an original DX7 and second Gen DX7S. But like you, this little keyboard is where I made my start. The synth of mine featured in my avatar is my Behringer Deep Mind 12. Aside from my Yamaha EX5, the DM12 is my favorite and definite analouge go to.
The addative Synthesizing (blue button with the 16' 8' 5(5/3)' etc. keys) works like the pull bars on a Hammond organ So its quite good watching some videos about Hammonds to understand more about it and get suggestions for nice sounds you can set up. (This is more aimed at viewers rather than our host who knows the SK1 like a brother 🤗) My favourite voice on it is the Flute with envelope select on Ab (middle of the keyboard Ab) nice big soft chords hug
Yes, very true. When I first got the SK1 as a kid, I had no idea what was going on with that blue button. But when I was a bit older I finally read the manual, and it completely blew my mind that there were all these new sounds I could access by programming in some additive sequences and an envelope.
As a teen, I recorded a dozen albums with an SK-5, a Kawai R-50 drum machine, and thousands of snippets from TV shows on a clunky reel-to-reel tape. No MIDI, no compressors, almost no EQ, and the shakiest grasp of music theory. Now, with Reason, Reaper and endless VSTs... haven't recorded in a decade.
I feel you. I think the novelty of trying to make something good on crap equipment is what helps to drive the creativity. When I was a teenager I was obsessed with trying to make my tracks long enough to be the same as a commercial single, but the memory limitations of the keyboards I had, and only a standard cassette recorder meant I had to do some interesting things with subtly restarting the sequencer half way through the track without it being too obvious.
Well done video. I also had a SK1 in my early teens and actually never fully utilized its ‘ synth’ controls most likely because manual reading was not on the forefront of a 13 yr old 80s kid. I used to ‘sample’ everything around the house and figured out to make music with it. Flash forward…. I actually gave it to my nephew a few years ago in perfect working condition. Hmmm…. am I wrong to want it back? 😮
@@BK-uw2uk Nice one! Well there's two ways of looking at that - perhaps it would have been nice to keep it and see what more you could make with it, but on the other hand hopefully your nephew might start a whole new journey into electronic music with it, and that would be priceless ☺️
Absolutely love this! Like you, I got a Casio keyboard add a young age. I have the PT 50, but I want to expand myself. I’ve been looking at getting an SK model so that’s why I came across this video actually. I really wish I was as talented as you are, but a lot of those terms go over my head. However, this is a wonderful production! Congratulations
Ah thank you! Definitely try and get an SK if you can, they are really inspiring little keyboards 😊 I find this kind of production is a great way to inspire myself to make something different. Enjoy!
Well, I ordered this keyboard on eBay on Monday, and it arrived yesterday. So exciting. I’ve already put it through its paces, but didn’t know how to do the envelope stuff until I listen to your video again.
Amazing! I Hope it brings you lots of creativity. By the way, I really enjoyed your videos, keep it up! Super cool to hear about your perspective on life.
В 80-х помню вводили в ступор записями на этом чуде обладателей DX-7 и 21х запивали звук гитары разные эффекты через микрофон да же целые кассеты своих сэмплов были у всех был вопрос как на чем салаги записывают от куда у них бабло на крутой аппарат а ответ прост SK-1 и 2 боксерские перчатки внутри микрофоны это были первые электронные барабаны )))раньше творить было интереснее это сейчас открыл DAW и собирай кубики))
Excellent. Hats off to you for doing all of that fiddly work. The source of the kick was genius. I might just have a go at doing something similar with Logic Pro and my Casio CZ1000 (if I can find power supply for it) Thanks for the inspiration.
Yes I might revisit that again in a future video. But for your info I just used mild soapy water to clean the case and keys, using a toothbrush to get into the gaps. That was enough to get it looking pretty decent again.
Aparently if you picked the built in microphone amd then put it on loop, should the sample be ahiet enough you could get this really cool tone because it looped the sample so freaking fast! I don't know how to describe it, but I descovered it as a kid when I tried to make a recording and it was way too short, causing me to experiment. The tone created is so cool!
Thank you! I'm not really an electronics expert but one thing to try would be to see if you have sound in the headphone jack, which would indicate if the problem is with the speaker amplifier. Could also be corrosion on the volume slider might need some contact cleaner on it
This an incredibly informative and well put together video. Thank you so much for making it! I was wondering how to add a percussive attack to a sampled sound in ableton! Just to make sure I understand your process - essentially you sampled the SK-1 and played/programmed/sequenced everything in Ableton, correct? You didn’t hit record on a track that had sound coming live from the SK-1’s line out at any point? Thanks!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it 😊 Yes, you're correct, everything was sequenced and produced in Ableton live. All of the sounds used in the track originated from the SK1, but they were all then processed and manipulated using the tools in Ableton Live to create the finished sounds you hear in the track.
I had heard of them but never managed to get hold of any. I did make my own FX tapes through, complete with a little index card with the tape counter numbers so I could fast forward to the right place 😀
Hey there, thanks for this overview of this exciting milestone instrument. I had one back in the day. The fact that the words "sampler" and "economical" appeared in the same advertisement was astonishing. I went out to buy one immediately. If I remember correctly, I mostly used it as a sample looper for my guitar (my primary instrument, both then and now). I spent many enjoyable afternoons creating short guitar loops and then playing along with them. 1. A quick question: was the SK-1 ever used in any well-known and/or popular songs of the day? (mid-to-late 80s or even later)? Just curious. 2. One last question: I was familiar with the follow up product, the Casio SK-5, but a quick seach also brought up the SK-8. How far did Casio go with their line of samplers?
There are a few artists noted in this article www.vintagesynth.com/casio/sk1.php, although they don't mention specific songs. I am also sure that I've picked out some SK1 sounds in a few songs, for example Get Your Freak On by Missy Elliot (listen at about 2:55) or Cold Cold Heart by Midge Ure (listen at about 3:03) Casio made a whole range of SK keyboards. Not sure how many in total, but easily between 10 to 20 variations. I believe the top of the range was the Casio SK2100. Very rare to see now though.
@@TheOrphicCreative Thank you for the response. It's difficult to convey the technological breakthrough that the SK-1 was to the youth of today. They carry far more computing power in their pockets now than the SK-1 had (and far more than even 1969's Apollo 11 had!) Anyway, I appreciate the info on those who used the SK-1 in the studio. Missy Elliott - I know the name but not exactly my cup of tea. But Midge Ure...that's a different story. C'mon! Thin Lizzy, Visage AND Ultravox??? Are you kidding me??? Actually, I almost caught Midge with Lizzy back in the day. I saw TL in Oakland, California on July 4, 1979. The late, great Gary Moore was with them then, although he was soon to depart (and to be replaced by Midge). Hell, I would have been happy to see TL with anyone on second guitar-they were great that day and they are still one of my all-time faves. But coming back to Midge...no other artist can bring me to tears the way he can. I need to set aside about half an hour to listen to "One Small Day" by Ultravox. Five minutes for the song and 25 to recover. (I'm turning into such a softie in my old age. 😂)
When you turn the left-most slider to Play or Record, the LED should come on and you should be able to play notes on the keyboard. If that's not working then I think maybe the terminals in the battery compartment might be corroded. Try and find a power adaptor to use it with instead, just remember the plug is centre-negative not centre-positive like most electronics these days
anybody know why the sk-1 seems to add a kind of percussive 'tick' noise to the start of samples when sampling via the line-in? i've seen someone mention it in another video but not how might be able to get around it, does anyone have any ideas? it's kind of a low 'thud' but it becomes really noticeable and irritating as i'm trying to use the sk-1 for some lofi ambient jams and the thudding really builds up...
Yeah, unfortunately its a side effect of how the amplifier circuitry works, basically each time a note is triggered it sends a DC pulse through the amp which is what you hear as the thud. Its actually on all the sounds including the built in ones. One way to make it less noticeable is to choose an envelope with a softer attack, or you can also filter the sound through a high pass filter after it leaves the keyboard.
They are pretty bulletproof, so there's probably a relatively simple solution. Check for loose solder joints, particularly on the power circuits. Could also be oxidisation on the power switch, you can try spraying some contact cleaner into it. Hope you get it working!
19:24 I think your originally "music box" patch was there. The octaves and the EQ just made it sound more like... idk... a nondescript island instrument played out of a synth?? But hey... this is me being hypercritical. Hats off to you for being able to do all this with an SK-1. Very impressive to say the least.
