Yes, You Can Build a Performance Around an Old Casio (or Yamaha) Keyboard

We love you, old Casio (and Yamaha, and other) keyboards, hard-edged lo-fi synth patches, and strangely alluring stiff automatic drum parts. We love you in original form, circuit-bent mods, and free VST plug-ins. And, via Jaymis, we love people who build “very low-energy musical whimsy” performances on their keyboard, like David O’Doherty:

Anyone have a better performance video of David? (More soon if we can find them.)

Boy, I wish I kept my own first Casio.

Ed.: My first synth was a Casio, but astute reader Grondo notes this keyboard is a Yamaha Portasound — equally full of vintage goodness. (So much for my ears.) I think David may also hack the Casios, but it seems we got our celebrity endorsements wrong in this case. Not that you can really see in this video, of course — hope to share a higher-res video soon. One where you can not only tell a Yamaha from a Casio, but you can smell the circuitry, baby! -PK

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sprouts

that was really great!

December 14, 2006 @ 11:51 am
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grondo2001

all is very well but he’s actually playing a Yamaha Portasound. Believe me I know those FM drums

December 14, 2006 @ 2:51 pm
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Peter Kirn

Suddenly, a loud “Doh!” emanates from New York. Thanks, grondo. ;)

December 14, 2006 @ 3:51 pm
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bryan tewell

I want to find some mods/circuit bends for my Yamaha PSR-6

December 15, 2006 @ 7:44 pm
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goodbaum

I saw a performance on TV the other day. Beck and his band live at the rehearsal hall.

They took a request to play where it’s at and jammed it with the keyboardist playing the riff and going through all the different presets on his Casio. Not a vintage casio though: just a cheap new one with awful sound.

December 15, 2006 @ 9:45 pm
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Jaymis Loveday

Still waiting for my better David O’Doherty video. It will come, oh yes, it will come.

December 19, 2006 @ 12:22 am
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