timbr

Hi, I have an unused CT-S200 (red). Not having touch sensitivity sucks. OTOH, I like the form factor and the red color very much. Since there is no red CT-S300 (or LK-S250), I got the idea to transplant the internals of a (used) CT-S300 into the red CT-S200 body. For this reason, I'm looking for some information about the CT-S300. I presume the internals are essentially the same as the CT-200's. Just the pitch bend wheel might cause problems. Getting it integrated into the S200 body would probably be non-trivial. So I thought I might just disconnect it and do without a pitch wheel in the target body. However, I'd like to get some idea how this area looks internally in the CT-S300 and how the wheel is mounted and connected, before I go out and try to get a used example, which are still a bit above €100 here. Does anyone happen to have a CT-S300 service manual? I couldn't find one on the usual sites (nothing beyond CT-K models there). Or does someone have take-apart pictures, which would show the internal area around the pitch wheel? I also could not find any CT-S300 repair videos on YT. Looks like they never break - or maybe get thrown out immediately? It would also be good to know if the keybed of both models is identical. I'm afraid not, b/c of the necessary sensors for touch sensitivity, but the difference may be only in software, if I'm lucky. Initially I was looking for an LK-S250 as a donor device, b/c drilling two holes for mic port and mic volume knob should be easier than dealing with an S300 pitch wheel. But used S250s are nearly impossible to come by here. BTW, potentially 'inferior' sound quality vs. newer AIX boards won't be an issue for me, as I plan to connect a smartphone via MIDI and use a synth app or something similar. TIA

The keyboard, the box (below), and a blank sheet of copier paper for comparison. Sorry, but I don't have enough time for a more complete response atm. Hope to come back to it later today.

Hi all, since I'm starting a little collection of vintage toy/cheapo keyboards, I recently bought an old SA-21 (from the 1990s) as 'new-in-box' item on *bay. Of course, it is anything but new. Though it is unscratched, as far as I could see, it is clearly used (used batteries from a different retail store chain inside). The (private) seller won't take it back, and I'm not sure it would be worth the return postage anyway. Two things are really annoying: 1) The batteries are rattling when I move the keyboard. 2) All the keys are heavily (and evenly) yellowed. Two related questions before I get to the subject matter: Is the batteries rattling phenomenon a known issue? They don't rattle sideways, but the battery compartment seems to be too wide in diameter. I would have expected there to be at least some kind of padding that prevents them from rattling. In the same vein, is key yellowing a known issue? I would expect a keyboard sitting in its box not do develop that problem, disregarding the duration of storage. Now, having come across the idea of 'retrobrighting' old plastic housings, I was thinking of trying to apply that to the yellowed keys. For those who might not know, 'retrobrighting' is basically bathing (or otherwise covering) plastics in Hydrogen Peroxide (plus some additives) and leaving it in the sunlight or under UV light for a day or so. This should be able to reverse the yellowing. There are numerous YT videos about it and there used to be a wiki on http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com, no idea where it went, but pages (up to ca. 2012-14, oder ones work better) still accessible on archive.org. I have seen several examples of successful retrobrighting of computer gear, but I have never seen it applied to keyboard keys. However, I'm not sure this process is suitable for the kind of plastics the keys are made of, and whether the phenomenon in the keys is caused by the same flame retardants and Bromine in the first place. Anyone ever tried 'retrobrighting' vintage keyboard keys? Any successes or failures? Any other thoughts? TIA

Dang, if I'd bothered to read this thread to the end first, I wouldn't have written a lengthy post that I can now bin almost completely. But it's not the time to rewrite it now, so here's only the first paragraph of said post, plus a few additional comment: Due to insomnia, I came across a weird 2020 YT video where some influencer babe was 'reviewing' 8 "cheapest instruments" (of their respective kind) from Amazon (If you want to spare yourself the rest of the video, the keyboard starts at 9:53). What immediately caught my eye, was the resemblance of the Casio SA-46/47. That keyboard is the aforementioned YCY-0878. It differs (among other things already mentioned) in redesigned speaker grills from the HL-70. On the Amazon page linked under the video (non-affiliate link), the brand name ist stated as 'TWFRIC', but otherwise it goes by the (only slightly less strange, IMHO) brand name 'M SANMERSEN' (note the single 'M' at the beginning; the brand can be encountered on Amazon.com quite frequently), which is also what the logo on the keyboard itself says (also in the video, top right on the panel). It's a bit strange that it has redesigned speaker grills, but the buttons are exactly the same (in size and plaecement, not in function) as on the Canto HL-70. And why this thingy only has *single* Volume, Tempo and Transpose buttons, is beyond me. Pic YCY-0878 & box. BTW: Quite recently, a video with an intensive review of the Canto HL-70 has come online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DPuhhP4Als

I just came across this video (in German) from 2014 about the Casio XW-J1 DJ controller. Interestingly, it carried the 'XW' prefix. I had no idea Casio had ever 'made' (better: sold) DJ controllers. This unit is probably just a rebranded Vestax (the video speaks about a 'cooperation'). Probably quite a rare device, since at the end of 2014, Vestax went bankrupt. There are more videos out there, some also in English. I just happened to stumble upon this one.

Thanks for the response. You're probably right that this matter is quite subjective, so it's probably necessary for everybody to try it for themselves.

Thank you for the explanation. I hadn't noticed (sorry!) that Chas had already clarified the abbreviation "SD". Always nice to have more technical insight, though. @ All: My second question still stands: Is there a listing of what (vintage) Casio keyboards had Consonant-Vowel/SD anywhere? E.g. on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Casio_keyboards the type of synthesis is not mentioned. Edit: Meanwhile I found that there is at least a list of Casio SD Synth keyboards (no idea how complete), apparently with major input (thank you!) from member CYBERYOGI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_SD_Synthesizers

Please excuse my ignorance, but what is "SD"? Also, is there a listing of what (vintage) Casio keyboards had Consonant-Vowel/SD anywhere?

Interesting that you seem to find the CT-S300 keybed superior to the CT-400 one (if I understand it right; this post seems to also point in the same direction). I was actually about to start a thread about the relative keybed/key action quality of the CT-S300/400 (the second sub-topic being the durability of the CT-S400 keybed, but that's another matter entirely), as pt.2 of my small "CT-S300 vs. 400" series, if you will.

XW-Addict, can you confirm that it's working reliably now? This seems to be essentially the same configuration I was asking about here for the CT-S300/400 (although I was after doing something like that with 2 cables). Would be interesting to hear since the CT-S1 and CT-S400 seem to be closely related.

Yes I know that the required ports are there, but I was afraid that e.g. one of them could be automatically muted in such a situation. There is no explicit mention of using MIDI-out and playing back audio-in simultaneously in the manuals. Good point about a possible ground loop though. Has anybody really tried this with the CT-S300/400? I've seen someone doing something similar with a Yamaha PSS-A50, but he was only using the DAW as a man-in-the-middle recording device, with the keyboard playing back the received MIDI data (coming from the same USB cable) using its own built-in sounds. UPDATE: I just found out that another member had already (successfully) tried what I want to accomplish. Unfortunately, I hadn't found that other thread before I posted this question: https://www.casiomusicforums.com/index.php?/topic/17213-casiotone-ct-s-series-as-midi-controllers/ I was glad to read that i seems to work without any noticeable latency (and saddened to learn that there is no MIDI clock sync).

Hi everybody, I'm new here, and I'm pondering getting a CT-S300 or CT-S400, mainly because of their compactness. I've done some extensive research about those models, but could not figure this out through review/tutorial videos or the manuals: Can you use the CT-S300 or CT-S400 as a midi controller to play into a computer or tablet (DAW, VST(i) host or standalone piano app) and feed the music (the sounds coming from the computer) back into the audio-in? This could give you an awesome, minimalistic mobile setup with just the keyboard and a tablet (or even your smartphone): Playing on the keyboard and having the complete variety of sounds from the app (maybe much better than the included ones) to choose from. Sound quality would clearly be better with an extenal amp/speakers, but that wouldn't be as mobile. The manuals seem to hint into this direction, but I'm not sure I interpret the possibilites of the keyboards correctly. TIA