Technical notes index

CASIO CTK-6000 REVIEW

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            CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

2. OVERVIEW

3. TONES

4. AUTO-ACCOMPANIMENT

5. SEQUENCER

6. ARPEGGIATOR AND PRESETS

7. OTHER FACILITIES & CONCLUSION

AUTO-ACCOMPANIMENT

The keyboard provides 200 'Rhythms': these are available either just as drum rhythms, or as auto accompaniments in a wide variety of styles. As with the Tones, they are divided into banks and available by pressing one of six buttons then selecting with the thumbwheel.

Each one comes with an optional introduction and closing, and while it's playing you can introduce a 'fill-in' - usually a simple drum sting and perhaps an extra chord - or switch to a variation which is more complex than the basic version.

You can set the tempo using the Tempo up and down buttons, or by holding the Function button and tapping the Tempo up button four times at the speed you want the beats to be.

Then when you hit the 'Synchro' button:



and the 'Intro' button if required, the accompaniment will start as soon as you hit a left-hand key (keys from the F below middle C down to the bottom of the keyboard control the accompaniment, those above the melody). By playing one, two or three notes you produce the accompaniment in the required chords: for example, C alone produces C major, C and E flat C minor, C and B flat C7, and so on: it doesn't matter in which octave you hit the keys, the result is the same.

When I first started doing this I instinctively played the chords legato: but doing this can result in a note from the previous chord hanging on for long enough to affect the next chord, with interesting but undesirable results. You can just hit the key or keys briefly and take your hand off them: the accompaniment will continue in that chord until you give it another one or hit the Stop button (or the Synchro/Ending button to get the closing phrase).

This short example shows the opening, just a few chords, and the closing (no melody) from the 'Latin Rock' accompaniment:

[audio3.mp3]

The intros and closing are variable: some are good, some are frankly a bit cheesy - I didn't use either on the Jazz Combo demonstration on page 2 because the closing sounds like this:

[audio4.mp3]

You can change various settings in any rhythm and save it to the 'User Rhythms' bank (10 slots). Once you've chosen a rhythm, hitting the two buttons marked 'One Touch Preset' will bring up the tone that Casio consider most suitable; but of course you can choose any tone you want.

This demo video shows the use of the 'Mid Big Band' accompaniment with opening, closing and variation, and several successive melody tones. You can see from the left hand how little effort is required to get the accompaniment:



Having created a nice performance, you might like to record it to keep: or you might want to save a difficult chord sequence so you can add the melody to it separately. You can do this with the Sequencer, which is examined on the next page.

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© Roger Wilmut. This site is not associated with Casio.