Casio SK-1
The Casio SK-1 is a small sampling keyboard made by Casio in 1985. It has 32 small sized piano keys, four-note polyphony, with a sampling bit depth of 8 bit PCM and a sample rate of 9.38 kHz for 1.4 seconds, a built-in microphone and line level and microphone inputs for sampling, and an internal speaker and line out. It also features a small number of four-note polyphonic preset analog and digital instrument voices, and a simple additive voice.
All voices may be shaped by 13 preset envelopes, portamento, and vibrato. It also includes a rudimentary sequence recorder, preset rhythms and chord accompaniment. The SK-1 was thus an unusually full-featured synth in the sub-US$100 home keyboard market of the time.
The SK-1 includes one pre-arranged piece of music, the Toy Symphony, which is played when the "Demo" button is pressed.
The Radio Shack version of the Casio SK-1 is called the Realistic Concertmate 500.
The SK line continued throughout the late 1980s, including the SK-2, SK-5, SK-8 and 8A, SK-10, SK-60, SK-100, SK-200, and SK-2100.
Use in recorded music
The SK-1 has been used by a few major recording artists for its simplicity and lo-fi sound. It became very popular in the late 1990s among the circuit bending crowd after the first guide to bending it was published by Reed Ghazala in Experimental [Musical Instruments (magazine)|Experimental Musical Instruments] magazine, though the SK-1 was being modified as early as 1987 when Keyboard Magazine published an article on adding MIDI support.- The synthesizer was one of the first pieces of equipment that Autechre had when they began recording music.
- Musician and score composer Michael Andrews featured a circuit bent SK-1 heavily in the Me and You and Everyone We Know musical score.
- The "Realistic Concertmate" version of the SK-1 is the primary synth used in the no wave / industrial band Special Interest.
- It was used by notable jungle artist DJ Hype for his seminal productions, and rapper and producer Large Professor used it in his early years of beat-making.
- Australian band Turnstyle used the keyboard's sample function on various songs as both repetitive motifs and melodic passages.
- Owen Ashworth used and recorded with one for Casiotone for the Painfully Alone's second live album In Sydney.
- Graham Lewis of Wire used it frequently during their late-1980s period.
- Mount Eerie's Eleven [Old Songs of Mount Eerie] consisted solely of Phil Elverum's vocals and an SK-1, making use of its various effects and built-in rhythm machine. It is also featured on the cover of the Soccer Mommy album Collection.
- Composer Samuel Andreyev has written demanding parts for the SK-1 in several of his chamber compositions, including Vérifications, Iridescent Notation and Sextet in Two Parts.
- Damon Albarn of the British band Blur uses the SK-1 in the song "Advert", on the album Modern [Life Is Rubbish].