The VL-1 was the first instrument of Casio's VL-Tone product line, and is sometimes referred to as the VL-Tone. It combined a calculator, a monophonic synthesizer, and sequencer. Released in June 1979, it was the first commercial digital synthesizer.
It has 29 calculator-button keys (G to B), a three-position octave switch, one programmable and five preset sounds, ten built-in rhythm patterns, an eight-character LCD, a 100-note sequencer, and a multi-function calculator mode. The VL-1 is notable for its kitsch value among electronic musicians due to its cheap construction and its unrealistic, uniquely low-fidelity sounds.
Its sounds were mostly composed of filtered squarewaves with varied pulse-widths. Its piano, violin, flute and guitar timbres were nearly unrecognizable abstractions of real instruments. It also featured a "fantasy" voice, and a programmable synthesizer which provided for choice of both oscillator waveform and ADSR envelope. It had a range of two and a half octaves.
The VL-1 featured a small LCD display capable of displaying 8 characters. This was primarily used for the calculator function, but also displayed notes played. The VL-1 also had changeable tone and balance, basic tempo settings and a real-time monophonic music sequencer, which could play back up to 99 notes. There were also 10 pre-loaded rhythms which utilized just three basic drum sounds.
More info :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_VL-1
from
Casio VL-1,
released December 21, 2018
*I try to challenge myself to produce a sound experiment - create compositions with the restriction of using only one instrument: Casio VL-1 and with minimal / less effects to the instrument. (less is more - truth of the material)
Composed, performed, recorded,
Produced, mixed, mastered,
Cover art / photograph :
by Fahmi Mursyid