Post
by knolan » Thu Mar 26, 2020 1:49 am
Casiotone 1000P - an amazing arpeggiator / sequencer and to my knowledge, utterly unique to this day.
You type in digits between 0 and 9 - up to 256 steps. Then, whatever pattern you hold down on the keyboard, it plays those notes back in the 'digit entered' order.
The powerful aspect to it - it always cycles around all the numbers you type in no matter what notes you hold down - so from a "meter" stand point - it maintains total consistency at all times - hugely important in live performance. If not enough notes are played to sequence the pattern within a given octave, repeated notes from higher octaves are used to complete the digit-entered cycle/sequence.
For example - suppose I type in 1,2,3,4. Then - for whatever notes I hold down, it'll play in '4 time'
If I type in 1,2,3,4,5 then - it's '5 time'.
So considering the 1,2,3,4 again and I hold down just one 'C' - what you get is 4 'C's over 4 octaves. If I hold down C and E - then you get C E C' E'
If you hold down CDE you get CDEC' and so on.
This might not sound particularly impressive, but from both composition and in particular realtime performance stand points it's a dream - because you can change the notes of the pattern literally by holding down the chord so you get realtime arpeggiated chordal movement with your playing; even if you play less notes in any one position it still maintains the 'meter'; or indeed if you play a complex chord it still cycles in the 'metre' determined by the length of the sequence itself. Coupled to the fact that you have a ridiculously easy way of entering any pattern you like up to 256 steps - as simple complex as you like, and it makes for a dream realtime performance sequencer where the only preset aspect to it is the digit order of replaying the notes, but the specific note playback controlled by you in real time, always in time with your piece!
And then there are some incredible quirks to it. Imagine typing in the sequence 6,9,8,7 and then play one C note. The Casio tries to play C's that are 6,9,8 and 7 octaves above the C you hold, in that order - where all sorts of aliasing artefacts kick in on the sound - or - notes dropped when out of range - so all of a sudden you're into a sequence based sound design territory producing all kinds of over tones, delivering amazing bell and chime type sequences. Enormous (unintended) possibilities emerge.
It is the _perfect_ realtime performance sequencer. It's pre MIDI - and I haven't used it in a while but intend reintroducing it into my setup where what I hope to be able to do with Ableton is convert its notes to MIDI - not sure if that can be done real time but if not then once I perform the sequence on my Casio, recorded as an audio track, then convert to MIDI to apply that performed sequence to any MIDI synth or plugin.
I'd love for this little gem to be coded by someone in MAX (or Reaktor) as a MIDI plugin, from a realtime performance stand point it is, as said, quite incredible and to the best of my knowledge, utterly unique. Even arpeggiators that allow you to enter the notes in any order come nowhere close.
Another option to 'code' it would be to make a Karma "Generated Effect" for the Korg Karma / OASYS / Kronos workstations ( I own an OASYS ) but haven't had the time yet to look into that.