It depends on who you ask, but I would say any keyboard who’s primary target audience consists of children. This can range from toys for toddlers, to home keyboards for kids. If it wouldn’t look out of place at a Toys’R’Us it belongs in this thread.
Toy keyboards come with all sorts of synthesis methods. Pretty much all modern ones will have (low fidelity) samples onboard. Vintage ones employ a wide range of synthesis and sampling techniques to achieve their sound. Nearly all of them can be found pretty darn cheap* and they can be really fun to mess with or circuitbend. A few examples:
FM synthesis: Most of the Yamaha PSS and PSR synths released between 85 and 89.
Sampling: Casio SK series, Yamaha VSS series
PCM: Casiotone SA series, Nearly all modern toy keyboards
Squarewave: Low end 80s keyboards like the Casio PT-100 or Yamaha PSS-130
*Just make sure to ignore reverb prices and check local ads
I’ll kickstart this thread by posting my Yamaha Portasound PSS-570. I picked this up locally for 15 euros. This synth is a simple 2OP FM synthesizer, based on the same chip used in the old AdLib soundcards. It has a few sliders that allow you to manipulate the FM synth in a few basic ways.
I’d love to see that collection, even if you like your ELZ_1 more right now. The ELZ_1 is very cool though, seems to have a lot of the same DNA to the sound.
I have a random no-name keyboard and a Casio VL-1.
The no name has a surprising amount of lowend and simultaneously a bunch of functions that I cannot figure out😂
I rather like my VL-1 though. The fact that it lets you program your own presets is rather neat for such an old lil guy. I know that the rhythm presets have been used in various popular songs, but I personally don’t enjoy them that much.
I have them pretty much all boxed up, they’re all up in my shed. I liked the Yamaha PSS-100 the best. The ELZ_1 with the FM engines and all all the chip engines can cover pretty much 99% of the sounds I made from all the yammy and casio boards but in a nice little package, I’m definitely going to sell them all but I enjoyed them! I kind of want to keep them just as a collection but they take up a lot of space. I’ll keep my VL-1 though!
The Casio VL-1 was my very first ‘synth’. Bought new way back in 1980 when I was but 14 years old. I spent many cheery hours poking out the themes to Star Trek and Star Wars on those little buttons, and had my first go at sound design using the mysterious “ADSR” function!
I think Casio followed up the VL-1 with a few polyphonic versions of it, like the VL-5. They often have slightly different chips inside but the formfactor stays the same.
Personally I’m really happy with my Portasound. 9 voices and a pretty flexible synth engine as far as toy keyboards go. People get really cool tones out of the ones with editable fm engines (380, 460/470, 560/570, 480/580). Theyre a bit bigger than the VL-1 though, about microkorg sized Id say.
