The CasioTone 101 (CT-101) is a VERY basic analog synth from Casio circa 1981. The keyboard has 49 full-size keys and is finished in satin black painted metal, has wooden end-cheeks and a wood grain finish underneath the front of the keys. It gives your studio a good analog/vintage feel. Most sounds are very basic and fairly unusable. However, its organ tones are pretty good as well as its 'Cosmic Tone' patch, which uses two oscillators tuned an octave apart, and as the keys are held down, the sound drops an octave as oscillator 1 fades up, and oscillator 2 fades down. The CT-101 has been used by The Human League, Blondie, Vince Clark, Severed Heads, Goldie, and Moby.

Grumster

January 19, 2012 @ 8:07 pm

Hi, I bought one of these at my local car boot for £7!
Still got it, sat there on me shelf - just love the basic piano sound. However, have to pull the website up on "VCO"s. No Casio kbds have ever used analogue circuitry, Casio started making calculators, then realised this DIGITAL 4bit/8-bit technology can be used to make sound generating chips with. The filters may be analogue, but the oscillators always digital. Early Casio's mix 2 square/pulse waves together which is why strings always sound nasal - they can't produce sawtooth waves.

tom

December 5, 2011 @ 4:25 pm

This synth has some nice organ sounds. I also use the piano and e. piano sounds through my pedal board and out of my guitar amp. the casiotone sounds sweet through a fuzzbox or analogue chorus. and best of all, it is fun to play.

Carla rhymer

October 22, 2011 @ 4:06 pm

I would love a copy of the user manual for the casiotone 101 thanks in advance

Jack

October 9, 2011 @ 10:25 am

I would say the most useful sounds on it are the strings and the 'cosmic tone' presets. Although you can't change any parameters on the sounds, you can record them into a DAW and filter them there. So really, you can get some (digitally controlled) analogue sounds for a quite cheap price.

Jack

October 9, 2011 @ 10:25 am

Thats my video that's on this site for some reason. Someone else should make one too as its currently the only one on Youtube.
I used this synth for my degree when I had to record synths for coursework. Below is a track of mine on soundcloud from when I was doing that work where the strings from the 101 kick in at 0:34 and the cosmic tone at 1:07. Note: I double the strings up to thicken the sound a bit
http://soundcloud.com/jackdamery/afa

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