The whole raison d'etre for keyboards,
right from their first appearance, was the different instrumental
sounds - which Casio call 'Tones'. This keyboard provides a wide range
- 670 in all - including traditional instruments, synth sounds, pop
sounds, drum kits and sound effects. They are accessed by using the ten
bank keys, each containing a different grouping of sounds: they start
numbering from 001 in each bank (unlike Yamahas where the sounds are
all numbered consecutively) and are accessed by using the thumbwheel or
the up/down buttons (there are no numerical buttons to enter the sound
number).
When the keyboard is switched on each bank starts with the first sound
(unless you have enabled the Function setting to have the keyboard
remember its last state - see page 7) but will then remember which one
was last in use, so you can set up an instrument in each bank and
switch between them at the touch of a single button - but switching
between instruments within one bank is done with the thumbwheel and so
is probably too slow.
You can save an instrument in one of the Registration memories - there
are 8 banks of 4: however these also save the accompaniment
currently in use, though you can set the Registrations to recall only
the instrument (globally, not individually). It would be more useful to
be able to choose whether to save accompaniment and instrument, or just
the latter, to make it easier to switch instruments quickly in
different songs.
As always, the actual sounds are variable in quality. Pianos, organs,
and percussive and plucked instruments work well on the whole: brass
and reeds are inevitably less successful and tend to sound a bit
mechanical. You can tamper with the sound of any instrument, changing
such parameters as attack, filtering, and amount and style of vibrato,
and save the result in one of the ten 'User Tones' memories (you are
not altering the original sound when you do this, that remains
available just the same in the usual way).
This recording gives brief demonstrations of a handful of tones, just
to give an idea of them (duration 1.27):
A001 Stereo Grand Piano
A024 Harpsichord 1
B033 Vibraphone 1
C012 Jazz Organ 1
C031 Church Organ 1
D001 Nylon Guitar 1
F001 Strings
G001 Trumpet 1
H001 Alto Sax 1
H007 Breathy Tenor Sax 1
J004 Yan Quin 1
H141 Drums: Jazz Set
The results you can get are not limited to pop or jazz: some ethnic
sounds are also available and this video demonstrates one of them in
what is certainly an inaccurate pastiche of the style:
Once you have chosen your tone, you will probably want to make use of
the auto-accompaniment facility, and this is examined in the next page.