How Did I Miss That!?

Holy crap! This thing has polyphony!

I currently own an old Casiotone CT-460 keyboard (synthesizer) the used to belong to my grandmother. This thing has been around since the late 80's when Grandma first got it for christmas from her kids. I guess the hope is that she would learn to play. I think she did take lessons for a little while, but this little casiotone just isn't properly suited for any sort of serious playing. Like many keyboard of it's kind, it only has 49 keys instead of the standard 88.

I used to practice on this little keyboard when I was growing up. If my parents left town we'd stay at Grandma's, and so I couldn't get access to my piano. The casiotone was the only way I could practice. But of course it had all these cool little buttons and knobs and sound effects and I'm easily distracted. So practicing didn't go so well. But I did learn what all the buttons did.

All except a small handful, that is.

Allow me to sidestep for a moment. I took 10 years of piano lessons through the Suzuki method, and eventually earned my Grade 8 diploma from the conservatory of music. I'm no mozart, but I'm pretty darn good I guess.

Well when I left home I couldn't take my piano with me, so for the past 10 years it's sat in my mother's basement waiting for the day when I'm stable enough in a home to relocate it. So a few years ago, while my Grandmother was still living, I asked if I could take the Casiotone. It had by that time taken up residence in her basement where nobody used it. I moved it to the city with me. I purchased a midi cable for it. And I began to dabble in electronic music. I've been doing so for a few years now. In case you didn't notice the link on the right, here's the kind of stuff I mess around with in my spare time. Audible Fragments .

Well last year I wandered into a music store and puttered around on some synthesizers. The technology has come a long way since they made this casiotone. And so I decided last June that as soon as I was done paying off my debt I'd start saving money for a new synthesizer. Something that would be good enough to replace a real piano, and that would double as an excellent device for messing around with electronic music as well. I've decided on the Roland RD300GX digital stage piano. My debt payments are going along nicely, and I've even put away some money for the Roland too. I should have it by June, or maybe even sooner if my income tax return is nice to me. But I'm stuck with the trusty old casiotone in the meantime.

So coming back to the point, I decided to see if I could find a manual online for it. Just for kicks. Sure enough I did find the manual. So I took a browse through the PDF file, and there it was! The description for that goofy "465 sound tone bank" button that I'd never figured out the use for.

It's a polyphony toggle! You pick a sound, hit the button, pick a different sound, and voila! 2-sound polyphony! After 15+ years of messing around with this thing, I've only just now discovered one of the coolest features it has!