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.
From Keen On Keys. The DJ-1 is a small keyboard with 32 mini keys, 25 tones, 30 patterns, 6 pads, scratch and pitch disk, microphone, voice effector and a cassette recorder. Released in 1992, it was the successor of the famous Rapman. It was also released as Rap-2 or "Rap Studio". Support this channel and…
From Keen On Keys. The Rapman is a small keyboard with 32 mini keys, 25 tones, 30 rap patterns, scratch disk, microphone and voice effector. Released in 1991, it is the world’s first keyboard designed just for rap. Support this channel and buy a song or album on Bandcamp: https://keenonkeys.bandcamp.com 0:00 Intro 0:21 Overview 2:29…
From Keen On Keys. The HB 404 is the smallest model of the Master series from 1984 and the successor of the Minstrel Alfa. It has 40 mid-sized keys, 8 note polyphony, 6 sounds with sustain and single finger orchestra, 6 hythms, arpeggio and 2 chord modes. Support this channel and buy a song or…
From Keen On Keys. The VL-10, released in 1982, is the smallest keyboard made by Casio. It’s a mini version of the famous VL-1 and has some of it’s features. It’s monophonic, has 29 keys, 3 tones, 10 rhythms, a demo melody, a sequencer and a calculator. But it’s missing the ADSR function, octave switch,…
From Keen On Keys. The MP-1 is the world’s first and only portable keyboard with a music printer. It features 44 mid-sized keys, 8 note polyphony, 10 voices with sustain, 10 rhythms with variation, duet function, transposer and chord and melody memory. It sounds exactly the same as the PC-100 and PS-400 and was also…
From Keen On Keys. The SA-50 is a small keyboard with 32 mid-sized keys, 100 tones, 50 rhythms and 10 songs. It was released in june 2022. It’s based on the SA-46/47 from 2010, but has a few improvements like 32 note polyphony, octave switch, metronome, reverb, transpose function, a couple of stereo tones and…
From Keen On Keys. The SA-46, released in 2010, is a very simple mini keyboard with 32 keys, 8 voice polyphony, 100 tones, 50 rhythm patterns and 10 songs. It is functionally and sonically identical to the SA-47, 76, 77 and 78. Support this channel and buy a song or album on Bandcamp: https://keenonkeys.bandcamp.com 0:00…
From Keen On Keys. The PSS-F30 is a small keyboard with 37 mid-sized keys, 32 note polyphony, 120 voices, 114 styles, 2 chord modes, 30 Songs and a metronome. It was released in 2019 together with the PSS-A50 and the PSS-E30. It is the small version of the PSR-F50/51 and has the exact same voices,…
From Keen On Keys. The Casio CT-410V is the larger version of the MT-400V. It has the same sound and features and was also released in 1984. Support this channel and buy an album on Bandcamp: https://keenonkeys.bandcamp.com Listen to some tracks on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-229361059 Infos about modifications: http://weltenschule.de/TableHooters/Casio_CT-410V.html
From Keen On Keys. The PS-400 is a small keyboard with 44 mid-sized keys, 8 note polyphony, 10 voices with sustain, 10 rhythms with variation, duet function, transposer and a chord sequencer. It was released in 1982. It sounds exactly the same as the PC-100 and MP-1 and was also released in a smaller and…
From Keen On Keys. In this video, I’m going to take a close look at the June 60 V2 effects pedal. It is supposed to be an authentic recreation of the legendary Roland Juno 60 Chorus. I will compare it to the original and try it out with a few other instruments. Support this channel…
From Keen On Keys. The Casio MT-400V, released in 1984, is a small keyboard with 49 mid-sized keys, 8 note polyphony, 12 styles, 20 tones, vibrato, sustain/reverb and stereo chorus. It’s main feature is a filter control with ADS and LFO modulation. It uses the NEC D930/931 ICs which were used for many Casio keyboards…
From Keen On Keys. The Alesis Harmony 32 is a small Keyboard with 32 mid size keys, 300 sample based tones, 300 rhythms, 40 demo songs, a recorder, 5 drum pads, a metronome and a USB MIDI interface. It was announced in late 2020 and has been on the market since early 2021. It’s the…
From Keen On Keys. The Casio MT-65, released in 1983, is a small keyboard with 49 mid-sized keys, 8 note polyphony, 12 styles, 20 tones, vibrato, sustain/reverb and modulation FX. It uses the NEC D930/931 ICs which were used for many Casio keyboards between 1983 and 1986. The D930 accompaniment chip is famous for it’s…
From Keen On Keys. In this video I will have a look at a synth editor for the PSS-480. A freeware program that allows to edit all parameters, even the hidden ones, and to save voices to a computer. You can buy a full album I made with the PSS-480 on Bandcamp. https://keenonkeys.bandcamp.com/album/yamaha-pss-480 The download…
From Keen On Keys. In this video I will have a look at the accompaniment section, the custom drummer, the sequencer and the midi functions of the Yamaha PSS-480. You can buy a full album I made with the PSS-480 on Bandcamp. https://keenonkeys.bandcamp.com/album/yamaha-pss-480 The download also includes 100 synth banks for the PSS-480 (watch part…