The Casio SK-1 is a small sampling keyboard made by

Casio is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. It ...

in 1985. It has 32 small sized piano keys, four-note

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord ...

, with a sampling bit depth of 8 bit

PCM Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to Digital signal (signal processing), digitally represent analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio application ...

and a

sample rate In signal processing, sampling is the reduction of a continuous-time signal to a discrete-time signal. A common example is the conversion of a sound wave to a sequence of "samples". A sample is a value of the signal at a point in time and/or ...

of 9.38

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base uni ...

for 1.4 seconds, a built-in microphone and

line level Line level is the specified Audio power, strength of an audio signal used to transmit analog (signal), analog sound between audio components such as compact disc, CD and Digital Versatile Disc, DVD players, television sets, audio amplifiers, and ...

and microphone inputs for sampling, and an internal speaker and line out. It also features a small number of four-note

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ...

preset analog and

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

instrument voices, and a simple

additive Additive may refer to: Mathematics * Additive function, a function in number theory * Additive map, a function that preserves the addition operation * Additive set-function see Sigma additivity * Additive category, a preadditive category with fin ...

voice. All voices may be shaped by 13 preset

envelope An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin, flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter (message), letter or Greeting card, card. Traditional envelopes are made from sheets of paper cut to one o ...

portamento In music, portamento (: ''portamenti''; from old , meaning 'carriage' or 'carrying'), also known by its French name glissade, is a pitch sliding from one Musical note, note to another. The term originated from the Italian language, Italian exp ...

, and

vibrato Vibrato (Italian language, Italian, from past participle of "wikt:vibrare, vibrare", to vibrate) is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch (music), pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. ...

. It also includes a rudimentary sequence recorder, preset rhythms and chord accompaniment. The SK-1 was thus an unusually full-featured synth in the sub-US$100 (equivalent to $ today) home keyboard market of the time. The SK-1 includes one pre-arranged piece of music, the

Toy Symphony The Toy Symphony (original titles: ''Berchtoldsgaden Musick'' or ''Sinphonia Berchtolgadensis'') is a symphony in C major dating from the 1760s with parts for toy instruments, including toy trumpet, Ratchet (instrument), ratchet, bird calls (cucko ...

, which is played when the "Demo" button is pressed. Casio SK-1 Sampling Synthesizer

The

Radio Shack RadioShack (formerly written as Radio Shack) is an American electronics retailer that was established in 1921 as an amateur radio mail-order business. Its parent company was purchased by Tandy Corporation in 1962, which shifted its focus from ma ...

version of the Casio SK-1 is called the Realistic Concertmate 500. The SK line continued throughout the late 1980s, including the SK-2, SK-5, SK-8 and 8A, SK-10, SK-60, SK-100, SK-200, and SK-2100.

Use in recorded music

The SK-1 has been used by a few major recording artists for its simplicity and

lo-fi Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate stylistic ch ...

sound. It became very popular in the late 1990s among the

circuit bending Circuit bending is the creative customization of the circuits within electronic devices such as children's toys and digital synthesizers to create new musical or visual instruments and sound generators. Circuit bending is manipulating a circuit ...

crowd after the first guide to bending it was published by Reed Ghazala in '' Experimental Musical Instruments'' magazine, though the SK-1 was being modified as early as 1987 when '' Keyboard Magazine'' published an article on adding

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

support. * The synthesizer was one of the first pieces of equipment that

Autechre Autechre ( ) are an English electronic music duo consisting of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, both from Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1987, they are among the best known acts signed to UK electronic label Warp Records, through which all o ...

had when they began recording music. * Musician and score composer Michael Andrews featured a circuit bent SK-1 heavily in the '' Me and You and Everyone We Know'' musical score. * The "Realistic Concertmate" version of the SK-1 is the primary synth used in the no wave / industrial band Special Interest. * It was used by notable

jungle jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...

artist DJ Hype for his seminal productions, and rapper and producer Large Professor used it in his early years of beat-making. * Australian band Turnstyle used the keyboard's sample function on various songs as both repetitive motifs (Happier Than Metallica) and melodic passages (Sad Rambo). * Owen Ashworth used and recorded with one for Casiotone for the Painfully Alone's second live album ''In Sydney''. *

Graham Lewis Graham Lewis (born Edward Graham Lewis, 22 February 1953) is an English musician. He is best known as a bassist, songwriter, and vocalist with punk rock/post-punk band Wire, of which he has been a core member since founding in 1976. Biography ...

Wire file:Sample cross-section of high tension power (pylon) line.jpg, Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample d ...

used it frequently during their late-80s period. * Mount Eerie's '' Eleven Old Songs of Mount Eerie'' consisted solely of

Phil Elverum Philip Whitman Elverum (; born May 26, 1978) is an American musician and songwriter known for his Independent music, indie bands the Microphones and Mount Eerie. Based in Anacortes, Washington, in the mid-2000s he began to spell his surname Elv ...

's vocals and an SK-1, making use of its various effects and built-in rhythm machine.It is also featured on the cover of the Soccer Mommy album "Collection". * Composer

Samuel Andreyev Samuel Andreyev (born Samuel Curnoe Andreeff; 15 April 1981) is a Canadian-French composer, singer-songwriter, poet and educator. As of 2021, he had completed about 30 works, nearly all of which have been recorded commercially. His YouTube channe ...

has written demanding parts for the SK-1 in several of his chamber compositions, including Vérifications, Iridescent Notation and Sextet in Two Parts.Samuel Andreyev, Music with no Edges, Kairos Records 2018 *

Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (, ; born 23 March 1968) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the frontman, main vocalist, and lyricist of the rock band Blur (band), Blur and the co-creator and primary musical con ...

of the British band Blur uses the SK-1 in the song Advert, on the album "

Modern Life Is Rubbish ''Modern Life Is Rubbish'' is the second studio album by the English alternative rock band Blur, released in May 1993. Although their debut album '' Leisure'' (1991) had been commercially successful, Blur faced a severe media backlash soon afte ...

Use in recorded music

References

External links