Casio hasn’t been a serious player in the synth world for a while. Gone are the days of the popular CZ series, while the current cast is missing the Lo-Fi charm from classic keyboards like the SK-1 and VL-1. But in recent weeks, the company was teasing what looked like a return to real deal synths, possibly with a vocoder.
Well, bad news: The CT-S1000V is not a return to Casio’s analogue glory days. It’s also not a vocoder. And the $450 The list price is a bit hard to swallow.
So what exactly is the CT-S1000V? It looks like a mid-range Casiotone, using the company’s flagship AiX engine and including voice synthesis as a bonus. In short, it’s a singing keyboard. Honestly, the novelty of conjuring up some lyrics in the companion app, sending them to the CT-S1000V and then playing the words as a melody was more than enough to pique my interest. I’m a fan of vocoders, over-the-top autotune and talk boxes, so a singing synthesizer is right up my alley.
Before we get too deep into voice synthesis, let’s quickly cover the AiX engine and hardware. AiX debuted in 2018 and its forte reportedly lies in recreating acoustic sounds. Lo and behold, credit where credit is due: the piano parts on it are pretty decent. Can I say the same about the other acoustic instruments represented here like violins, guitars or trumpets? No. But there are enough high-quality sounds, including some recreations of classic Casio synthesizer sounds, to keep you entertained for a while.
However, don’t come to the S1000V expecting a truly customizable synth. While you can make some tweaks, this isn’t the keyboard for someone wanting to learn synthesis or get into sound design. However, this should be immediately apparent when you look at the front. The controls are minimal. Physically, it has a lot more in common with the $250 CT-S400 than it does with the $480 CT-X5000 (the closest thing Casio has to a traditional synth).
Terrence O’Brien / Engadget
I haven’t played a modern Casio in a long time, but I have to say the speaker system is impressive. Since the CT-S1000V is clearly aimed at aspiring pianists and home entertainers, independence is a big plus. While the built-in speakers often seem like an afterthought on other keyboards, Casio has clearly made an effort here. When you switch to the drum and rhythm presets, it’s really quite shocking how much bass you get from the kicks.
Overall, the CT-S1000V feels well built. It’s plasticky and the full-size buttons are a bit springy, but it feels solid and the click wheel, which serves as the primary tool for navigating the interface, is satisfying. However, Casio made some strange decisions. For example the mod knob above the pitch wheel. Mod wheels and mod strips? For sure. But a mod button? In this configuration, where the placement would suggest that it is a performance tool, it seems very strange.
Terrence O’Brien / Engadget
A Bluetooth adapter is also included with the keyboard, but it can only be used to stream audio and MIDI data. Unable to connect to Lyric Creator companion app. There are no dedicated MIDI ports on the back and while it claims it can be used for MIDI over USB I couldn’t get it to work. However, there are two pedal inputs on the rear (one of which can be used for expression purposes), plus ¼-inch stereo audio outputs and ⅛-inch jacks for audio in and headphones. There’s also a pair of USB ports: a USB-A specifically for the Bluetooth adapter, and a micro-USB port (sigh) for transferring lyrics from the app to your phone.
The app is very well designed and thorough, and transferring song lyrics via USB using a camera kit adapter with my aging iPhone X was almost instantaneous. Casio says it doesn’t support streaming via Bluetooth because it would just be too slow, but it would be nice to only have it as an option.
In the app, you can either type or dictate phrases and it will do its best to analyze the text automatically. However, your mileage may vary. Computers aren’t always the best at reproducing human pronunciation, and the CT-S1000V is no different. For example, “Engadget” was automatically broken down as “en-gadget”. But when the keyboard sang it back, it became “Engage”. I had to go in and manually adjust the lyrics to be “En-gad-jet” to make it sound right.
Terrence O’Brien / Engadget
You can really dive deep and customize the phonemes if you want and key in specific timings using standard musical notation. But there’s no avoiding the fact that getting lyrics to sound right requires a lot of trial and error, which would be less of an issue if you could preview the rendered vocals on your phone before committing them to the keyboard . It’s just a back and forth at the moment.
On the keyboard itself, you have two options for playing back lyrics: either in phrase mode or in note mode as individual syllables. The former will play the words at the timing you programmed. As long as you hold down the keys, it will sing the lyrics to you. The only problem here is that if you ever let go of the keys, playback will start over. With syllable rendition, you have more control over timing and it’s a bit easier to bang out a melody (at least for someone like me who can’t really play the piano). But it’s still important to get your syllables broken down just right or the timing is wrong when you’re trying to replay a vocal lick.
There are 22 different voices to choose from, ranging from synthetic choirs to demonic growls to talk box emulations. Some of them sound pretty much the same, but the change is welcome. There are a few ways to tweak the voices, including changing “Age” and “Gender,” though they dramatically change the core tone of each voice.
