I recently ended up getting 2 very fun toy keyboard samplers both with 8-bit sampling capabilities. I was inspired to get them because of a recent recording session with a circuit bent SK-1 that a buddy brought a long. I was helping to produce a track for a friend's band and we ended up using a lot of the sounds.

This song is just a little test for me to check out some of the synthesis and beat capabilities. all in all they are both fun little machines that can be pretty inspiring. all the sounds used in the song were first sampled into or from the keyboards.

What i found is that the vss-30 is amazing for synthesis with some unique modulation, effects options, and an actual ADSR envelope. I can actually see myself doing a lot with it as a unique lofi synth. unforunately it does have a thin sound. It feels like the bass is filtered before the audio path is sent out. its a bit of a shame because it makes for it being a little less useful as a resampling device to use it for adding texture to my sounds.
The SK-1 has a much fuller sound then the VSS-30 when sampling. In addition it includes some sweet toy like drums that are fun to play with. the envelopes are far more limited and the synthesis abilities are rather lacking but are not completely useless. It is a great little sampler for adding some grit to drums and i think that is probably what i will mainly use it for. 

You can't really go wrong with either of these machines. They are a lot of fun for adding random lofi elements to any production.

Toys (literally this time) used:
Realistic concertmate-500 aka radio shack rebranded SK-1  (drums, drum machine sampling)
Yamaha VSS-30 (synths,bass)
Realistic concertmate MG-1 (synth sample source for vss-30)
Kawai R-100 (extra drum sample source)

Tags: casio, chiptune, keyboard, lofi, sk1, vss30, week 27 2014, yamaha, View by:ENC_