Casio ctk1000

tom Cadillac · Post by **tom Cadillac** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 6:32 am

Anyone ever check one of these out? - just got one for $100 NZ, but drove to the next city to get it. Well worth it.

My general impression is that some engineer at casio, left over from the CZ days had been told keep to the "100tones/100 rthyms" format and had rebeled in frustration and pushed the parameters (limited to attack release and waveform) off the scale and then put in the nastiest effects section he could muster. It sounds bloody gorgeous at times. and also quickly does wacked out too. Sure it looks dumb, but would sound maybe heaps better with wood panels and a few knobs!

I appreciate the late date of manufacture (1993), as sounds much more sophisticated than casios earlier synths.

Is there anyone else out there that's played one of these to tell me I'v not gone crazy.

Huppo · Post by **Huppo** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 4:14 pm

Nope, you're not crazy. I bought one of these new back in around 1993 and I still have it. Makes some great sounds and as you noted..the effects section is truly warped. I like the piano sound, too.

Sealed has some stuff about it.

http://homepage.mac.com/synth_seal/html/ctk1000.html

Seems it might have started as a serious synth but fell victim to Yamaha's lawsuit against Casio regarding Casio's Phase Distortion synthesis being too close to Yamaha's FM, etc. It has something called "IXA" synthesis, which apparently came and went without much explanation.

It's a pretty enigmatic piece of gear. Definitely worth checking out. Mine's technically for sale like everything else in my studio that doesnt get used a lot.

tom Cadillac · Post by **tom Cadillac** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 6:12 am

Thanks for that - I like the word eneigmatic. i was wandering arround it and found a momo option for one patch. Don't like it much, but a sure sign of serious synth designing. The other thing I'v got into is the rhythm part =- all the warped effects work on it and its got some pretty interesting rhythms and a lovely glitch where when you increase the modulation level by pushing the button, the effects mute and it plays a single sound - seems to vary - some sort of drum sound or whatever. This sound thus suddenly rises clearly out of the effect ridden sounds arround it. Its a wonderfully musical glitch.

The other thing I wanted to say indicate how impressed I,v been with it is that I finally got the Chroma polaris i,d been gassing over at the same time - yet still was sussing out the CTK1000 at the same time.

In a way the polaris and the CTK1000 are similar - both are the products of labours of love by synth designers. The polaris obviously because the history of Arp's fall leaving designs which made it to reality through human effort. The CTK1000, beacause despite being constrained by the casio CTK formula, I feel the engineer still did his utmost to create an interesting and very musical instrumant. He could have just gone "stuff it - you want the standard casio formula then that's all you'll get." In a way his effort and ability are more apparent than in most synths, because of the lack of modulation options, the patches he created are crucial to its sound.

Sealed · Post by **Sealed** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:48 am

Thanks Huppo for referring to my site.
I suspect that CTK-1000's engine may be related to Evolution EVS-1's complex modulation synthesis (but not sure). I wish CTK was fully editable.