Nostalgia demo 1

Nostalgia demo 2

After the success of the VL-Tone, Casio continued with their range of musical 'instruments'. One such product was the PT30, a monophonic fun keyboard that had eight sounds, auto-accompaniment, a 'chord play' feature and so on. As you can imagine, the sounds were pretty cheesy but not without charm or appeal.

The PT30 came with eight sounds (Bass, Fantasy, Mellow, Flute, Horn, Harpsichord, Piano and Organ) and strangely enough, when played polyphonically and with velocity (not possible on the original), the sounds are surprisingly good. With some creative treatment, some effects and some tweaking, there are some nice pads to be had in there and the harpsichord (whilst totally unrealistic) cuts through a mix nicely and would serve well as an arpeggiated sound. The piano (of course) sounds nothing like one but is a useful sound nonetheless and the simple bass is surprisingly solid - just because the sounds are from what most would regard as a toy doesn't mean that they should be dismissed! This donation comes from Pol Davril (studio HSD, Belgium) who owns the one shown above. Pol has meticulously multi-sampled each of the eight sounds. I am extremely grateful to Pol for this donation and hope that you find a place this little slice of cheese in your work!