Casio made an excellent enjoyable singing keyboard | Engadget

Casio hasn’t been a critical participant on the earth of synthesizers for a while. Gone are the times of the beloved CZ collection, whereas the present lineup lacks the lo-fi attraction of basic keyboards just like the SK-1 and VL-1. But for the previous few weeks the corporate has been teasing what appeared like a return to real-deal synths, probably with a vocoder.

Well, unhealthy information: The CT-S1000V isn’t a return to Casio’s analog glory days. Nor is it a vocoder. And the $450 record worth is somewhat arduous to swallow.

So what precisely is the CT-S1000V? It appears to be like like a midrange Casiotone that makes use of the corporate’s flagship AiX engine, with vocal synthesis tossed in as a bonus. In quick, it’s a singing keyboard. Frankly, the novelty of having the ability to whip up some lyrics within the companion app, ship them to the CT-S1000V, after which play the phrases as a melody was greater than sufficient to pique my curiosity. I’m a sucker for vocoders, over-the-top autotune and talkboxes, so a singing synth is correct up my alley.

Before we dig too far into the vocal synthesis aspect of issues, let’s rapidly cowl the AiX engine and the {hardware}. AiX made its debut in 2018 and its energy supposedly lies in recreating acoustic sounds. And look, credit score the place credit score is due: The piano sounds on this are fairly first rate. Can I say the identical concerning the different acoustic devices represented right here, like violins, guitars or trumpets? No. But there are sufficient high quality sounds, together with some recreations of basic Casio synth tones, to maintain you entertained for some time.

Don’t come to the S1000V anticipating a very customizable synth, although. While there are some tweaks you could make, this isn’t the keyboard for somebody trying to study synthesis or get into sound design. That ought to be instantly apparent, nevertheless, once you have a look at its entrance panel. The controls are minimal. Physically it has way more in frequent with the $250 CT-S400 than it does with the $480 CT-X5000 (the closest Casio has to a standard synth).

I haven’t performed a contemporary Casio in a while, however I do should say, the speaker system is spectacular. Because the CT-S1000V is clearly aimed toward budding pianists and residential leisure, being self-contained is a big plus. While the built-in audio system on different keyboards usually look like an afterthought, Casio clearly put effort into them right here. When you turn over to the drum and rhythm presets, it’s actually fairly stunning how a lot bass you get from the kicks.

On the entire, the CT-S1000V feels effectively constructed. It’s plasticky and the full-sized keys are a tad springy, but it surely feels stable and the clicking wheel that serves as your major software for navigating the interface is satisfying. Casio did make some unusual selections, although. For occasion, the mod knob above the pitch wheel. Mod wheels and mod strips? Sure. But a mod knob? In this configuration, the place the location would recommend it’s a efficiency software, appears very odd.

The keyboard additionally comes with a Bluetooth adapter within the field, however it could solely be used for streaming audio and MIDI information. It can’t hook up with the companion Lyric Creator app. There aren’t any devoted MIDI ports on the again and, whereas it could supposedly be used for MIDI over USB I used to be unable to get it to work. There are, nevertheless, two pedal inputs on the again (one in every of which can be utilized for expression), plus ¼-inch stereo audio outs and ⅛-inch jacks for audio in and headphones. There’s additionally a pair of USB ports: one USB-A particularly for the Bluetooth adapter and a micro-USB (sigh) connector for transferring lyrics from the app in your telephone.

The app could be very effectively designed and thorough, and lyric transfers over USB utilizing a digital camera package adapter with my growing older iPhone X have been nearly instantaneous. Casio says switch over Bluetooth isn’t supported as a result of it could merely be too sluggish, however simply having it as an choice can be good.

In the app you may both sort out or dictate phrases and it’ll do its greatest to robotically parse the textual content. Your mileage could differ, although. Computers aren’t at all times the perfect at reproducing human pronunciation and the CT-S1000V isn’t any totally different. For instance, “Engadget” was robotically damaged down as “en-gadget”. But when the keyboard sang it again, it grew to become “engage.” I needed to go in and manually tweak the lyric to be “En-gad-jet” for it to sound correct.

You can actually dive deep and customise the phonemes if you would like, and punch in particular timings utilizing commonplace music notation. But there’s no avoiding the truth that getting lyrics to sound correct requires a variety of trial and error, which might be much less of a difficulty for those who may preview the rendered vocals in your telephone earlier than transferring them to the keyboard. Right now it’s simply a variety of forwards and backwards.

On the keyboard itself, you have got two major methods of taking part in again lyrics: Either in Phrase mode or in Note mode as particular person syllables. The former will play again the phrases utilizing the timing you programmed in. As lengthy as you are holding keys down, it can sing the lyrics to you. The one concern right here is that playback will begin over from the start for those who ever let go of the keys. With syllable playback you have got extra management over timing and it’s a bit simpler to knock out a melody (at the least for somebody like me who can’t actually play piano). But it’s nonetheless vital that your syllables be damaged down excellent or the timing shall be off once you attempt to play again a vocal lick.

There are 22 totally different voices so that you can choose between that vary from artificial choirs, to demonic growls, to talkbox emulations. Some of them get fairly same-sounding, however the selection is welcome. There are a couple of methods to tweak the voices, together with altering the “age” and “gender”, although they dramatically alter the core tone of every.