Casio CT-102

Easy as pie... basically a giant-sized VL-Tone. theres maybe a total of 6 switches on the whole thing. also travels well - it doesnt weigh near as much as my CT-610 (a giant 35-lb simulated woodgrain beast) which is a plus.

This is subjective.

Most people would take this little board to the cleaners for the mere fact of it's complete simplicity.

But, you are reading a review from the viewpoint of someone who is elbow deep in the lo-fi casiotronic persuasion. i heard tokyo police club and the unicorns playing these old casios and thought it was the coolest thing id ever heard.

so, bearing that in mind, it has very few features, but the features it has are pretty cool!

For starters, its a giant (honking WHITE plastic) keyboard with maroon-ish brown stenciling on it, and brightly colored plastic sliders and switches. it looks so retro-trashy-cool, im fully planning on posing with it for our band promo shots.

for tones we have Piano, Elec. Piano, Organ, Oboe, Clarinet, and Vibraphone.

it has a switch for sustain and a switch for the Casio Chord option.

Of course, theres the mandatory drum machine, this time with suprisingly usable rock/waltz patterns (skipping such cheese-laden frivolities as "samba" and "bossa nova").

sliders for Volume, Accomp. (casio chord) Volume, and Tempo.

49 fullsize keys.

and thats about it.

Here's the rub. Its trashy. It's grainy, it's old. And it's AWESOME!

Any fans of the VL-TONE or PT-1 will have a lot of fun with this guy, albeit they may mourn the loss of their amazingly useful calculator.

The Piano tone is probably the best, i ran this thing through my behringer bass rig and you could get some surprisingly deep, booming bass out it. good for plunky postal-service sounding lead lines, too.

the Elec. Piano isnt anything super special, but its still cool, and it's good for some Tokyo Police Club-like tones.

the Organ is nicely brash, very good for thick chords in the vein of "the District Sleeps Alone Tonight."

the Oboe is okay. Not surprisingly, very nasal-y and dry, but cool for certain textures.

the Clarinet is a nice, full raw square-wave sound. Also Capable of some decent bass tones.

Vibraphone is pretty neat, too. Kinda boring on its own, with a very short sustain even with the sustain switch on. but add a little chorus and a lot of delay and you have a fine ambient electronica lead. good for stuff like the Knife.

The Casio chord is a lot of fun too. It takes a while to get it down (ie, triggering the chord to be minor with the key next to it, etc) but once you master it, it can be a lot of fun and add a really cool, full buzzy backdrop to your electro/dance/rock songs.

Well, it was probably born on a Japanese assembly line some 24-26 years ago, and its completely undamaged. Everything still works like new. It has undoubtedly changed hands a good number of times.

But this is likely because said hands have likely treated it kindly and gingerly.

It only gets an 8 because the flimsy plastic structure it's housed in worries me a bit.

no need.

I enjoy these old Casios. These were the days back when the sounds didnt sound anything like the instruments they claimed to be.

If youre like me and enjoy the nuances of a more electronic sound rather than a realistic imitation, youll enjoy this Casio too.

i must admit, the CT-610 has a really lush-sounding stereo-chorus button... sure would be nice if this had that.