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Casio HT-3000


giano

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Hello All!

 

While the HT6000 offers broader synthesizing capabilities, I love the simplicity and robustness of the HT3000.

 

Its limitations make it such a nice synth to program and play. Any more HT3000 enthusiasts out there?

 

Greetings from Munich, Germany :)

 

 

 

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I have 2 x HT700's, that are pretty much the same as the HT3000 minus the bigger keyboard, mod wheel and splittable keyboard.

 

I also have an HZ600 and 3 x HT6000's. The HZ600 is a slimmed down HT3000 minus speakers and accompaniment, and the HT6000 is the flagship with 4 x "oscillators", velocity keyboard and 8 filters (full filter polyphony with a filter per voice, all the other HT's/ HZ share a single main voice filter, making them paraphonic).

 

The 6000 is capable of much more than the lesser models, yet despite being less well featured, I find that the 700 sounds "sweeter". Somehow the 6000 sounds more digital to me, though I should try programming a patch on it with just one voice to exactly match a patch on the 700 to see if there really is a difference in sound.

 

They're all great synths for sure, very underated and unique sounding. I love mine ❤

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Yesterday I was playing around and ended up with the following bass sound:

 

PAR  00 01 02 03 04 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 20 21 22 23 24 60 70

VAL  17 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 25 00 20 26 00 17 00 14 31 01 -5

 

It is a very simple patch, based on wave 17 (a squary static waveform but a bit more lively than 02 in the low range), with no LFO, very simple VCF and DCA envelopes and some chorus. Also, since the HT3000/700 are not strong on bass there is no resonance because this would remove frequencies in the low range; the patch works best when transposed low and played in the lowest octave.

 

Try a simple bass riff with your left hand while changing cutoff frequency up and down!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yes, me! I have an HT3000 and I am reading this site as research as I am considering biding on an xw tommorow I haven't yet heard the sounds I like but i just know it has hidden realms. Hopefully I'll win and will come back for learning and can chat about ht's too. I have let my kids have mine for a while but Im taking it back to sit with it's new brother I f I'm lucky

 

THANKS

 

antelephant

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 12/16/2019 at 8:53 AM, giano said:

Hi again! 

 

I have programmed some drum sounds on the HT3000 and played them on a simple riff (I have used the free DVS drum sampler VST).

 

It is surely no 808 but the HT never lets you in the rain! My tip for Xmas: give some old HT out there a new home :)

 

 

HT3000_Analog_Drums04.wav 2.39 MB · 1 download

 

@giano - I've finally got round to listening to your patches - excellent work sir!

 

When you say that you programmed some drum sounds on your HT3000, are the drums that I can hear in the wav file above all from the HT? Or are they from the DVS drum sampler? Or did you mean you recorded the drum sounds of the HT into the DVS, and used the DVS to play them back? 

 

Love the sound of all your patches! They remind me a little bit of the 8 Bit Commodore SID chip, somewhat Lo-Fi, but still full of character. Makes me want to dig out my HT's, but I must finish my current projects first!

 

 

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@Chan Thanks! happy that you like it :) 

 

I have not used the preset drums: all drum sounds are custom programmed HT3000 patches, recorded straight on the PC from the HT output and then loaded on DVS for convenience of playing; to my ear they sound much warmer then the presets. The cymbals and cowbells were a pleasant surprise, big kudos to whomever defined the HT waveforms!!

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all! happy 2020! here some winter thoughts :)

 

The HT has no VCF/DCA tracking so many patches will sound properly only on a limited keyboard range; take for example the following e-bass:

 

PAR  00 01 02 03 04 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 20 21 22 23 24 60 70

VAL  04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 29 00 05 20 00 19 05 13 31 01 -5

 

It is basically dead beyond middle C, but who cares! At the end, a bass voice needs primarily to work in the low range, a pad in the middle and a lead in the middle-high.

 

BTW the cymbal sound mentioned above is based on the decay phase of Waveform 29 which is very rich in harmonics and whose envelope contains a useful metallic noise component. At the same time there is also an unwanted audible square-like part, which anyway fades out at high frequencies and fully disappears when playing the top C by highest transpose setting.

The top C is in fact the only usable note of the patch!

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  • 4 months later...

Hello,

 

here's a short clip based on a patch using waveform 23, which is one of the most complex waves on the HT3000.

It is a simple tune, with a single sound playing over drums.

 

The HT3000 has only one VCF and re-triggers its envelope at every key stroke.

This behavior can be used musically, for example to create echo-like effects on sustaining notes like in this clip.

 

Thanks for listening!

 

 

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  • 4 months later...

hi everyone!

 

my second video on my HT3000 today :) trying to give some love to this dated and undoubtedly limited machine...

after a forgivable affair with some other synthesizer today I took it out again, and it was as lovely as I remembered it...

 

thanks for listening and stay safe!

 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi everybody,

 

This is a patch which uses one the HT3000 dynamic waves, a very interesting feature of the HT synth series.

Although the envelopes of the individual components are not fully editable, these wave forms still offer a lot of sonic possibilities.

 

BTW this is an attempt at the love theme from Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, by A. Morricone.

Thanks for listening and stay healthy!

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Oh where to start? I have had all but the HZ. I regret selling all my HT units. The HT3000 is the only one I currently own in 2021 but it is dead so it only LOOKS tantalizing. The previous owner left batteries in it and they leaked inside and ruined MOST of the internal circuit boards and the power input circuit(which I could easily fix if it were not for the battery acid damage). Soooo.. yeah, looking for a HT replacement here. EBAY IS OUT!! The prices as of 2021 are stupid high and I rather just remember my HTs in my mind for free... The ONE and only HT6000 I did have before I foolishly sold it, I had replaced the keybed with the much nicer Casio VZ1/FZ1 semi weighted keybed with aftertouch! So the buyer got a real treat as the original HT6000 keybed is non weighted.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Too bad for the battery leak :( it is the first time I read of such an extensive damage on an HT. I hope another HT3000 will soon cross your way, possibly a cheap one which is battered but functional, so you can use your current one for spare parts!🤞

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1 hour ago, giano said:

Too bad for the battery leak :( it is the first time I read of such an extensive damage on an HT. I hope another HT3000 will soon cross your way, possibly a cheap one which is battered but functional, so you can use your current one for spare parts!🤞

Amen my friend, amen!

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  • 3 months later...

I have found a battered but functional guitar effect pedal (Zoom505II) and connected it to my HT3000.

This little unit offers several effects and adds quite some depth to the sound; in the video I have added some chorus and reverb on the dry mono signal from the Casio.

 

I think particularly for simple synthesizers like the HT3000, an effect unit can make a lot of difference.

The reverb on the drums was like a time machine, sent me straight back to 1982 :) the music is inspired by Der Kommissar by Falco, thanks for listening!

 

 

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@ChasThank you very much! The patch I have used is this:

 

DCO [00] = 1
LFO [01] to [04] = 0,0,0,0
VCF [10] to [16] = 9,2,19,30,0,30,20
DCA [20] to [24] = 8,23,0,9,31
CHO [60] = 1
TRS [70] = -5

 

but with [60]=0 (no chorus) because the effects are from the Zoom unit :)

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The HT3000 internal pattern sequencer has a maximum resolution of 16th notes, but it is possible to double the resolution by recording at "half speed", as you can hear by the metronome clicks at the beginning.

 

This short example uses the internal sequencer combining even and triplet-based patterns on a simple sawtooth patch, with no external processing or effects. Thanks for listening!

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi! as part of my enduring crusade for a rightful appreciation of the HT3000, this is an example of using dynamic waves when programming new patches!

 

As in this example, by carefully setting the DCA envelope parameters, harmonic modulations can be obtained without using the VCF. Thanks for watching!!!

 

 

 

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