Casio CT-310

It's primitive rhythm box is. Just is. Inflexible and lacking in 1-2 beats; you have to use "bossa nova" as a substitute. But it's a Casio, that's what gives it it's definative charm. You have to like this kind of thing or it's worthless to you; give it to me instead.
I can only speak for myself, though. I LOVE LOVE LOVE *heart* this little guy. It's the big-brother of the CT-210 (210 has fewer rhythms, 4 patches, and only vibrato)
With 310 you get Vibrato, delayed vibrato, "reverb" (*cough*), and sustain, all of which are classic casio options. It's the B3 of Casios, i.e it has all the classic features for all the "Classio" sounds.
Look, before you even get to the sounds, we play this guy at every band practice. It's had the same battery set in it for over a year! WTF is up with that? It also shuts itself of if you go for too long without hitting a key, so if you are bold enough to try to play, say "Echoes" by Pink Floyd on it, you better be prepared to cycle the power switch 7 minutes in or so if you haven't used it to wank yet.
Patches? WTH? It has 2 banks of 6 sounds selected by indidividual push switches.
Is it a synth? Well, not in the way most users would say so. Is it an organ? No (well, kind of). Is it an "electronic piano" (umm, thank goodness, no, but then kind of, maybe)? What it is, however, is the epitomy of what in the late 1980's you would think of when someone said "Casio", regardless of whether it was made by Casio, Radio Shack, or Yamaha. There were two basic types, big Casio and little Casio. Little usually (but not always) made one note at a time (like the classic PT or VL series). Not cool at all to show up at your high-school band practice with a PT and claiming to be the new keyboard player. If you were brave enough to hook a "little Casio" to an amp, however, they were pretty awesome in their unique way.
In most places, no one was cool enough let you use one on stage. However, we're talking BIG Casio's here, back well before the days when "Casio Keyboard" meant 120 bad sample sets and MIDI.
They can still be found for realtively low prices at thrift stores and garage sales, but you don't see them often. That's becasue most of them still work, and they are usable enough that no one bothers to get rid of them. Get this, a PT-1, and an MT-40v and you'll have all the classic Casio sounds. (This excludes their esoteric stereo keyboards and the CZ and SK series, which are really their own category).
The "Flute" setting is very dramatic and evocative. Horn sounds are very nice, many sounds are a cross between Casio and Manzarek/organ. The 310 is probably the most musical Casio, I just regret that it has diving-board keys instead of waterfalls. Room was allowed for sound options instead of a dorky ROM cartridge. This Casio was meant to be played. It's an aquired taste, but if you give it love, the 310 will return the favor in spades. BTW, it's full size.

It has 6 or 8 note polyphony, and is "polytimbral" in the sense that the auto-chord, auto-bass and auto-arrpegiator tones come from a different sound generation engine than the "solo" keyboard. It makes its own arpeggios from 4 options out of the auto-chord use their own patch. If you switch auto-chord keys really fast, the arpeggiation and bass lines follow you, and the bass and arpeggio can be used in any combination of switch settings...and they all change according to the rhythm selected! This is *VERY AWESOME AND TERRIBLE*. It has nearly unlimited potential for mischief, misuse, and cutesy-ness that has only improved with age, since it is no longer in everyones grandma's living room or their own toy-chest. And and the rhythm, tempo, and acommpaniment have individual volume sliders
The keyboard splits between the auto-chord section and solo section if you turn it on. If you don't turn it on, the entire keyboard works as per normal, using the normal patches assigned to the rest of the keyboard.
And by patches, I mean 2 banks of 6 sounds each. And by banks, I mean it has 6 cheese-grater Casio Classics that make 6 other Casio Classics if you hit switch #7.
It has an integrated 1/4 inch line out and headphone jacks, and you can use the 'phones jack for extra fuzz. Speaker distortion suits this Casio nicely, signal distortion does not. It's still nice to mic the ratty speaker and add the case resonance by doing so; the distortion of the speaker and case is part of it's charm nad potential. It is secretly a Combo Organ if you jack it up loud through a tiny transistor practice amp . We have tons of amps and it sounds (p/b)est through a used $10 Crate. Triggered effects and phase/flanging work well with it, but it's signal is too harmonically complex for pedal distortion to do anything but become static. I don't use chorus on it at all. Most effects only detract from it's sound; it tends to define any song using it, becasue for to be detectible and not turn to mush in a mix it has to doiminate or else it gets in the way of everything else. it will turn other stuff to mush when you can't hear it, much like it's older 2nd cousin the combo organ. As a male, I would compare the attraction of this keyboard to the teenage attraction of an a nice and exotic gal from another small town when you're both 14. it's strange and fascinating and very very crushable, despite being from someplace that's even more podunk and screwed up than (insert corn town name).
It's seriously rewarding to spend the time learning to appreciate these largely unwanted keyboards.

It operates like an organ, and is clearly in the organ family.There are many classic synths, organs, and pianos here and the 310 logs the most playing time. We use it at every practice, usually as a Combo-organ substitute, possibly the best of it's many secret
powers. Using an expression pedal is essential for dynamic volume control. Failure to use a sustain switch really hinders this instrument, especially if you don't know how to play (these pedals are essential for untrained fun). The switches are self explanatory and the auto-accompaniment is very complex but set up in a way that it's usage is obvioous after about 45 seconds of tampering. the auto accompaniment is VERY VERY usable

It's super reliable. We put batteries in it over a year ago and it still has the set we put in then despite using it several times a week, and with no AC adapter EVER. It won't break unless you knock off the switches, dunk it in water or try to break it in half. And all this despite being made of low-grade 80's plastic and one piece of sheet metal.
It is functionally an Organ. Use it

Spare me, literally.
Be sure and get a spare if it does break. If the IC's go you might be screwed. On something like this, spare keys are always nice if you really beat on it a lot. Spare switches are nice if you knock yours off. For most purposes, a can of tuner cleaner will straighten out anything likely to go wrong, including beer or coffee damage.

There's room for klutzy home surgery if something breaks off.

Keep the battery compartment clean, and the battery terminals polished.

I'd suspend your cables somehow so you don't stress the output jacks (use tape or plastic molded cables). It's probably very easy to break the surface mount jacks, but if they break, just drill a hole in the case and replace the jack at radio shack with a regular one. Don't be afraid, there's PLENTY of room to add stuff.
(circuit bending, anyone?
If a key goes out, it can probably be fixed by anyone, it's a simple mechanical switch; Just pull off the bubble pads, wipe the metal with alcohol, and rub a pencil eraser on the graphite bubble contacts, if I remember correctly from my very abused 210. I almost remember that I just opened the 210 up when it had a dead key and fixed it without having to think much about it and being completely ignorant when I dove in. It was really not a memorable occasion. Quite literally, a few "Duuuuhs", some drooling, and no experience will accomplish this task, that's why I slept through it.
If all the e's or a#'s or some other letter go out at once, expect trouble unless you can replace the IC's or find another 310 for parts.

Seriously, it's only real flaw is probably that they didn't expect anyone to really need the output jack, so they are kind of weak. If you beat hell out of the keys, they will break eventually; keep some spares if you play like Jimmy Smith or Jon Lord. You probably don't, though.
Old Cassies are well made, just don't beat on the palm-smearing like it's an incredibly well made (and they were miracles of solidity) b or m series hammond. Use a light touch on the smears and you'll be fine.
Buy a gig case or you'll lose the candy-like switch caps, again, needing a spare.
You won't forget what it is becasue it says "CASIO" proudly on the back, boldly declaring what it is no matter how out of place or ambarrasing to the rest of the family it is, like a drag queen hooker in a baptist church.
Casios know no shame and do not care what you think, they just shine on and revel in their Casioness, a Bulgarian bravo in a room of Parisian dandys, a incredibly skilled ninja warrior with a cheesy steak knife (more like a spork) in a room full of rookie cops armed with stun guns and ignorance. You know how that movie ends.
Of course customer support rocks, I am the customer and I am very helpful to my Casio, as it is to me. Casio, however, probably forgot this exists.
Don't expect a reissue.

I waited 20 years to find another of this specific model. I'd be really sad. If it got stolen, it would probably be becasue Iwas playing it in the street or at a park or in the sun instead of moldy old living room in some crap-hole musician-affordable slum.
I do everything I can to ensure I find another one or one of it's fancy stereo-panning relatives. I'd take it's little brother the 210, anything. I'd be depressed for at least a week whenever I thought of it. I (and my freinds and musicians) feel very fond of this beast, and it's hard not to. It has charm and character, and it has moxie and spirit. You love it even if you hate it. I can't say enough positive about this instrument, it's warts only make it nicer.
Use this not expecting it to sound like other instruments, but rather to serve the same functions. It will always be casio-mushy, but that's why you're using it. The flutes act like (not sound like) a Mellotron flute set, the percussive key sounds serve the same function as violent rock piano or rhodes, the clavi/harpsi sounds do the same things, and the unique casio feel pervades them all. The Casio-unique sounds (Funny, Cosmic) are exactly that- Funny and Cosmic.

No patches, and no software. This thing is darn near an antique, and that's sort of what makes it fun to keep around. It's got blender style switches for all the sounds and accompaniment. Pretty easy to use. Turn it on and play.

Twelve different voices, and twelve different rhythms. Tempo and volume are adjusted by sliding switches. No digital LED or LCD screen, and no MIDI.

It's not realistic at all, but it's a record of its time, if that makes any sense. It would work great for that 80s basic synth sound.

It must be reliable. It's about twenty years old and still working, but it's not exactly a gigging machine.

It is what it is. If it were stolen, I'd say, "Darn the luck," and get on with my life. What I like about it is that I can experiment with it and take it anywhere and not worry much about what happens to it. The onboard sounds aren't much to speak of, so I like to hook it up to various guitar pedals and enhancing it. It's a garage sale find and I have it to have fun with.

This is a VERY simple synth to use. Very old-school, early eighties. There is nothing that you can do to "screw it up". Simple layout of what each set of buttons and controls do. You have RYTHEM,TONE,ACCOMP.VARIATION,and CHORD. The CHORD function w/ ACCOMP. is probably the best function for slaping together some fun arpeggios.The RYTHEM has some classic elec. drum beats as well.

As I stated before about the RYTHEM section, it has some really classic beats that you just dont find imulated on samplers today. This is one feature that you might want to check out. It has a couple built in effects: Vibrato, Delayed Vibrato, Sustain, Reverb. These are not somthing to write home about, but they can add a little color to your tones. The Cosmic, Funny, Flute, Organ are some that I have incorporated into some recordings. However I have used these presets with the addition of some heavy tweaking using a Line6 Filter Mod. and a Line6 Modulation Mod. There is no MIDI:( This unit also came equiped with a 3" internal speaker, which I took out. I use the Line Out to my mixer only. (I find it less annoying this way).

As far as any of these samples sounding realistic, I would have to say NO! The closest one is probably the piano, but I have an Elka Rhapsody 610 that sounds closer to a real piano than this unit. If your looking for realistic samples, keep searching. It works well if you like to dabble in some experimental, eletronica/fusion. I have used this unit a number of times,but if you were to hear the recordings you would'nt even know that it was being used. With the exception of a few of the RYTHEM beats. The effects are lack-luster. But if you had some cool out board effects it can be practicly transformed. There is no velocity sensitivity, so pound it, feather touch it, it makes no difference. You can make some nice tone colors with this unit given it a bit of outboard spice.

YES!! You can depend on this unit. It is what my late grandfather would call "tough as nails". This synth belonged to a friend of mine who bought it back in '84 or '85, he gave it to me which I then loaned it out to a friend who I did'nt end up seeing for a couple years.When I did see him again he gave it back to me, I gave it away to another friend as a present.He gave it to another one of his friends as a present a few years later after I gave it to him. I was asking around to see if anyone had any old synths they wanted to get rid of (I do repairs and mods). And this guy who happend to be the present owner of the CT-310,gave it to me! Which was the same one I gave away years back. So I gave it to my brother,who then gave it back to me a year later. So it is made to be. If my studio was to catch fire this would be the only unit unscathed!LOL!! This thing has been everywhere in just about all conditions and still works perfect. I never giged with this thing and probably never will.But a friend of mine did some giging with it and used it for misc. sound effects. He said it performed great!

I dont think there's support for this unit any longer.I never had to repair this thing, but if I ever had to it would be the ribbon connectors.There's nothing else on it to go wrong.

If this thing disappeared into the night....It would come back!LOL!!(see previous)No seriously, I dont think that I would miss it that much. I would find somthing else to prop up on top of my vintage RMI electra-piano Harpsichord. Probably the Elka. I also use a Roland XP-10 and a Boss DR 770, among a plethra of effects pedals,units etc. Also guitars and basses. I have been playing for 22 years.Got into having my own studio for the past 6 years, have worked in different studios and have done repairs and (some mods) to synths,amps,guitars,basses,mixers, etc...and blah,blah,blah.:) But this little synth has stood the test of time and appears to be a real work horse. I'm sure I will continue to use this unit for years to come, providing it can summon up what I need.

Doesn't do that much, but what it does, it does very well.
offers 'auto chording' - where it plays the major if a 'low' note is pressed, if two are pressed, it plays the minor of the lower, three gives you a 7th, and 4 gives you a minor 7th, anything more, and you can use the 'fingered' chord setting. Arpegio & auto-acompany very basic, but effective

8 note, keyboard is fill-sized, but uses membrane cintacts under a sprung action, no MIDI, very basic, no pressure sensitive feature, some expansion jacks on the back for audio effect controls, but never tried them.

12 voices, all pretty naff, good for letting the kids play with - saying that, you can't stop grinning when you hear it - features sustain, vibrato, delayed vibrato & an electrically noisy reverb (probably has more to do with replaced internal wiring than a design fault)

Built like a Volvo, but nobody would seriously gig with one of these!
Not much to go wrong inside, besides the membrane keyboard contacts & switches, if you *have* to open it up, you can expect the internal ribbon cables to need replacing

Too old to support!

Lost/ stolen? - you're kidding - too big & far too 80's for that! - would I miss it? - possibly a bit. these are DIRT CHEAP but worth every penny, the only thing which I really don't like is the slider potentiometers, it would be so much better if they had been rotary

Very easy to use, at the most you have two functions per button (voices and rythms)
Intiuitive didicated controls.

8 Notes Polyphonic

4 Dedicated Volume controls for Rythm, Accompaniment, and your main Sound, as well as a Main Volume

6 Buttons for Voices With an Up/Down position providing two different tones per button. I played the tone named "COSMIC" to death. The other tones come to life with outboard effects.

Reverb on/Off

6 buttons for Rythms same as Voice selections, One button = two differnt patterns.

The best part...
Accompaniment section has 3 Sliders with 4 positions, I, II, III, IV
These adjust the different versions of Chord patterns, Bass Lines, and Arpeggio's that can be used. The Arpegiator has a dedicated on/off switch.

Start/Stop button for the Rythm/Accompaniment and a Fill button for
the Rythm/Accompaniment.

Rear Panel has 9V input, Line Output, Sustain Pedal, Volume Pedal, and Tuning knob.

I had heard someone mention that it was not able to do more than one sound at a time, but in reality you could set the Accompany mode a mode where you physically played the Chords versus one finger mode and just not start the rythm and you would have a basic split.

Well since this was from an era when most (if not all) home keyboards were not touch sensitive I guess the addition of a Volume pedal probably added some depth to the CT-310's expressiveness. The sounds were for its time and price ranging decent. By today?s standards, the only saving grace would probably be the rhythm sounds and the arpeggiator/accompaniment, buried under copious amounts of outboard effects.

Never had a problem ever.

Don't know, never had to depent on Casio's Tech support.

This is all from memory....

I got one, as a birthday gift when I turned 14. This was late summer of '85.
I played piano, and was deep into classical music back then.

I'll never forget going to GEMCO with my Dad to pick it out (of three models in the whole department.) At the time I think there was a Yamaha, and another Casio that had small yellow drum pads. But the Ct-310 seemed to have the most flexibility, back then. I sold it in 1988 for $50 I haven't played one since then. At that time I had just gotten my first polyphonic programmable synth with Memory!!! A Kawai K1. I already had a Roland SH-101, a Fender Rhodes, a Kawai R-50e, and was using Cakewalk 2.0 (MS-DOS 3.2 IBM 8088 10MHZ!!!!!whoooo) and needed the Casio as a Polyphonic solution, for live and recording (OBVIOUSLY NOT FOR SEQUENCING hehehehe)

Today I use Kurzweil K2000RS (64MB Sample Ram 760K PRAM Version 3.18), a Kawai K5000R, Fatar Sl-880, a Fatar Sl-161, Peavy Midi Streamer, and use Cakewalk 8 on a K6-2 500Mhz PC, I gig occasionally, now days but used to work full-time as a musician years ago.

OVERALL RATING....

The Casio Casiotone CT-310 is really a time capsule, from an era long gone. The sounds, rhythms and accompaniments were ok for that time. You have to think of what the average tastes in music were per-capita, (families with heads of household or individuals aged 25-50) back then. In 1984-85 you could have rated it at about a 7, but by today?s standards and tastes in music probably a weak 2. I have nostalgic connections with this keyboard so I give it a 4 :)

Funny, as more time passes, you can really see how far technology has come since then, when you think about how much $300 dollars was back in '85 and how much keyboard for the buck you could get with the same buying power ($800-900 inflation) today; In the Home keyboard market, probably top-of-the-Line, or at least entry level pro-keyboard. Really makes you think, what tomorrow will bring.

This is a great, cheesy keyboard. And I made it much cooler with a few modifications. It?s very easy to use, and ideal for hours of family fun. I really like the arpeggios and the busy accompaniment. With all the busyness engaged, buckle your seat belts for a journey into the spotlight of adventure!

In stock form, this keyboard is limited. However, I found several amazing circuit bends that modify the timbre of the instrument presets, and the drum beats. I?ll talk about those in the next section.
All selections for instrumentation and rhythm are push up/push down. It has auto accompaniment with different bass lines and chord patterns, as well as an arpeggio feature that plays busy piano lines in tune with the selected chord. There is a sustain feature, and a reverb feature. On the back, it has a tuning control, a ?? line out, headphone out, expression pedal input, and 9v in. The keys are nice because they are spring loaded, unlike a lot of consumer grade jap keyboards. And to me, the silver chassis represents progress and forgotten hope in the spirit of the future.

First of all, I'll talk about the instrument mods I made. All bends in these circuits are routed to 3 body contacts, which are screw heads, on top left of the unit. The user only needs to touch these screw heads with different pressures to modulate the sounds. My idea was to make them accessible with the left hand, so right hand could play leads modulated. These modulations are simple, and are effective when combined. The outcome is two distortions, a semi-LFO vibrato (not a true LFO, but similar and subtler), and some bend in pitch. It makes for a good expression modulator, because the effects are pressure sensitive. When pressing all three hard, the effects can sound alien. I must admit that these effects do change some according to which instrument is selected, but no real surprises. And all sounds spring back to 100% original when the screw heads aren?t touched.
The coolest part of this keyboard is the drum bank. The drums sound cool even without internal modifications. They remind me of the electronic drumbeats on Shuggie Otis's album "Inspiration Information". However, the mods I performed on the drum bank are my favorite part. I found 4 different circuit bends, and I have them routed to 3 body contacts, and 3 switches. Switch one activates a breathy "Cha!" into every open high hat sequenced. Switch three is the "drum and bass" mode because it mutes all drum sounds other than the snare drum and bass. Body contacts 1 and 3 are routed to 2 stainless steel acorn nuts separated 1.5" apart. These body contacts act as a ring-modulation to only the open high hat beats. All parameters are variable depending on the pressure given. Body contact 2 is a small screw head placed between the two acorn nuts. This gives the drum signal a lot of feedback and a nice building hiss, and gets more extreme when combined with the instrument-preset body contacts. Switch 2 activates body contacts 1 & 3 fully enabled with no resistance. The result is a squeezee ?blirp? for every open high hat. Switch 2 combined with switch 1 results in a doggy "yelp"(not to be confused with the SK series doggy bark) instead of a squeezee blirp on the open high hat. Finally, it's possible to play realtime rhythms by hitting all the left body contacts as a "bass drum" and the all right body contacts as a "Snare drum." These sounds are just noise oscillations of some sort, and sound nothing like drums, but that's what makes it neat. Well, these are all the modifications and circuit bends I did. These are NOT original features, however they can be done if you take your keyboard apart. So, to keep it fair, I shan't enter a rating for this category. I'll post sound samples on my website www.mysterycircuits.com really soon.

I bought it second hand, and the battery compartment didn't work. But it took about 30 seconds to fix. I haven't had a problem since then. Of coarse I'll gig with it!

Does Casio still exist? (just kidding)

Overall rating? I'll just say I really like it. It's truely an imperial unit. If it were stolen, I'd weep. If I broke it, I'd experience guilt and depression, and then I'd fix it. It's a fun thing to play.

This machine is so crappy its BEAUTIFUL! It has 16 preset sounds which cannot be modified or altered. There is no editing capbilities. The preset rhythms are also un programmable. But lemme tell you, this keyboard is hilarious. You can produce sounds on this thing that you will never hear anywhere else. I personally enjoy running the unit through my guitar effect board and getting some trippy-ass sounds. Since it is so limited in its features, its the easiest thing to use

This thing has little if no real features at all. The only thing is an arpeggiator that incites laughter from all who hear it. However I tend to think that anything that gets a laugh is pretty cool. The keyboard does have a very warm sound to it (once you get passed the terrible hum it emits from it's output jacks.) I have used this thing on some very old recordings and its so flaky sounding that it's an attention grabber.

I give this a 5 because even though it is extremely limited in it's sounds and expressiveness, it is equally unusual and ear catching. So I have to give it a rating smack in the middle. This keyboard is especially great for Psychedlic, trippy drug induced music...but works great for polka too! :)

This thing has been dropped, kicked, knocked over, you name it....but it still works. Would i bring it to a gig without a backup??....I dunno if I would bring it to a gig, I'd rather keep it as my deep dark secret locked away in my studio....besides do you know how laughed at you would get if you brought this thing to a gig?

Never Called casio for anything. The unit never ceased working normally so I never had to call

Like I said, this thing is so flaky it's great. Don't get me wrong, none of the sounds sound anything like what they are said to be. You wont hear any great Hammond emulations or Grand pianos, but it does provide for hours of fun and some unorthodox sounds. If you can spare the extra $5 or $10 dollars at the garage sale for this thing buy it! Even if you just smash it on stage, it's worth it! ammalato.web.com

There's not much at all to this synth, so the ease of use is quite high.
There's no patch editor or anything on this one -- you just hit buttons
to choose some basic presets. There are also switches that control the various
(minimal) effects -- ie, do you want the entertaining auto-arpeggiation? Then
go for it.

There are not many features here. The keyboard has no velocity; there is
a line out option, as well as a phones option, and strangely enough the
phones out jack works better than the line out. Both, however, generate
large amounts of hiss; I have used this synth for recording and you will
want a noise suppressor if you are recording from the line out/phones out
outputs.

The CT-310 features an auto-accompaniment that allows you to either fill in
the chord yourself, or push a preset series of buttons that choose the chord
for you (ie pressing C by itself produces a C-major accompaniment, etc). I have
no idea how this compares to the accompaniment feature with other synths,
although really it's useful mostly for generating funny noises rather than
for serious use.

This keyboard has 8 note polyphony, 12 voices, and 12 preset drum sequences. The
drum sequence controls are par for the course: a synchro button, a stop/start button,
and a fill-in button.

This is where subjective opinions really come into play. I personally like the
analog sounds this synth puts out quite a bit. The sounds are not even close
to realistic, although personally I like that. It is true that there are
not many different choices at all for sounds, and you cannot modify them;
however, they are very warm and "synthy"-sounding.

I also really love the drum sequences in this machine: they are beautifully
analog-sounding and I use them when I'm recording songs. They're very simple,
of course, and they're non-programmable, so what you see is what you get; there's
nothing complicated here. I particularly like the "rock" and "samba" presets. Also,
if you stick a delay effect on these, you get even more fun. Really, your
response to the drum sounds on this machine is highly subjective, but for
a nice, simple retro sound this is a good machine.

I don't know exactly when I got this synth, but I was in grade school --
probably 1987 or 1988. I've used it heavily since then and it's done fine.
The only problem is that the power jack on the back is loose, so jiggling
the machine sometimes makes it shut off. But considering its age, and
considering that this is a minor problem, I think that the reliability
of this thing is quite high. Of course, if you find one it'll probably be
really cheap, so you may as well just buy two if you're really concerned.

I've never contacted casio, so I have no idea about their customer
support.

If this machine was lost or stolen, I probably would buy it again (if I could find it);
even though this machine dosn't do anything that a slightly more expensive machine wouldn't do,
its cheapness makes it a nice synth for general usage, even if the range of sounds and drum
presets is narrow. This is not an exceptional machine and it's not versatile; you can't
program in your own drum sounds or mess with the instrument presets. It's simply a nice,
retro, simple keyboard that produces good, warm tones and fun old-school drum sounds. I do actually
use it to make music -- the drum sounds and instrument tones are great for my purposes. Overall,
this machine will not be the jewel in anybody's collection, but it certainly works great in its
own little way.

This thing is metallic silver, and made of plastic. I don't know how I would find the rom version.
There are 16 presets. Horn, piano, etc.. Two that I like are FUNNY and COSMIC TONE. There is no editing of patches, aside from tearing the machine apart and changing transistors.
I got this keyboard when I was around 7 years old. That would be 1983 or 1984. The manual is missing, but I have a kickass silver casio bag that my alesis fits into, and also what looks like a big metal M which inserts into some slots on the casio, making it a music stand as well.

This thing, first of all, has coolness as a feature. Line out and headphones, sustain pedal and foot volume controllers, and a tuning knob, which tunes the thing up or down. That's all, besides a 9V power input. It also takes like 8D batteries. Built in speaker.
This old silver beast has 8 note poly, but no multi mode. The keyboard is terrible. no velocity, aftertouch, no nothing. just "on" or "off" for notes.
There are no expansion capabilities that I know of, and it has no midi.
There is no on-board sequencer, but there is a rhythm section. Just like voices, there is a bank of push buttons (9), but there are also 2 sliders- tempo and rhythm volume.
There is a start/stop, and synchro start button, along with "fill in", which does a cheesy rhythm fill in.
There is also an arpegiator, which really makes this keyboard cool.
There are 2 switches for these functions: CASIO CHORD and ARPEGGIO
CASIO CHORD just makes four-note chords from 1 or more keys pressed in the lowest octave an the keyboard (4 octaves in all on the keyboard).
ARPEGGIO makes arpeggios from the pressed keys in the lowest octave. It is really cool because it has three sliders to control those arpeggios. They don't do a ton, though.
No sequencer.

All the instruments are really bad. This thing sounds so funny compared to my alesis that it is rediculous.
It would be most at home doing funk or rap, I think.
no velocity or aftertouch. THe keyboard is terrible.

I have had this thing since I was a kid, and I have never had a problem.
I would never gig with it.

If it was lost or stolen, I wouldn't be all that pissed off.
I have been playing keyboards, starting with that one, ever since I was a young lad. Right now I have an alesis QS 6.1, and I love it.
I love the casio primarily for its humor value. I started playing it for my girlfriend the other night, and she just laughed her ass off.
I think I want to sample it, download the samples to my alesis, and have all the old sounds there just in case it stops working some day. Just for fun.