--- In CasioSK@yahoogroups.com, "edisonbuttons" <edisonbuttons@...> wrote:
>
> hello all!
> first post....
> im about to go pick up a lovely sk100
> wondering if anyone had any experience with this lil beast?
> im very curious....
> as i havent found much of anything online sofar...
> holler at me !
> thanks
>

Hello, you can find a link to the sk-100 manual on www.casiosk1.com. I have the
sk-200 which is functionally identical to the sk-100, but mine is stereo. The
built in sounds are nothing to brag about. The vibes, pipe organ and a few
others sound O.K., especially when output through the 2 RCA plugs to a decent
amp, but the piano, synth, guitar... sound fairly hollow and artificial. Of
course if you're going for that sound, it's perfect ;-) Some of the percussion
sounds are O.K., especially the cymbals especially considering the low sample
rate.

It doesn't have midi, though now that I understand the theory behind the SK1 mod
to add MIDI input, I think it is possible, but you might have to change the hack
microcontroller's ROM and/or hardware because the SK-200/SK-100 has 48 keys and
the SK-1 only has 32 I think.

Where the fun comes in is in sampling. It has a built-in mike as well as
external inputs. When you press sampling for samples 1-4, or sampling long (1.2
secs) for samples 1 and 3, it waits for a sound exceeding its imput threshold,
then it begins sampling. The sound of cymbals indicates that your sample is
done. The keyboard automatically goes into split mode where the upper keys are
your sample and the lower keys are one of the built-in sounds.

You can reverse, loop, apply ADSR or transpose your samples. The samples are
really fun for the kids. I think this kb is helping my toddler learn to talk,
my 6-year old has lots of fun and even I enjoy sampling flutes, guitar, or
recorded melotron samples for that early 1970s sound (replete with LoFi noise
and freq response thanks to the 8-bit quantization and 12k sample rate). The
sampling rate is faster than the sk1 though.

You can only play 3 note polyphony with your samples, but the built in sounds
seem to be able to play more notes in a chord than I can (10?) There are
rhythms, but no demo songs. You can play your sample as a rhythm, you can
record a song with your sample, and record a second track with the built in
sounds, another with the chords.

I had intended to sell my keyboard until I found that in many aspects (number of
keys, stereo, sample rate, sample length...) its superior to the SK-1, but not
as large, fragile and expensive as the nicer sounding modern keyboards that
could replace it.

If anyone knows of a good replacement, mid-sized keys, small with higher quality
built-in sounds, midi, but retaining sampling capability (preferrably at higher
sample rate), let me know and I might consider parting with this. I've never
seen an SK-100 or SK-200 go on ebay, so I'm curious how much are they worth?
Mine is still functionally perfect but over time it has developed scratches and
rubbed off paint on the edges. I hope you have as much fun as I have over the
almost 2 decades I've owned this!