keyboards (of the musical kind)

[Trickyvee]

Did anyone else go through the keyboard craze? I remember one Christmas, possibly 1988, where a keyboard was on everyone's wish list. Me and my best friend both got the same model, the Yamaha PSS170, after spying it in the Argos catalogue.

It played 'I like you just the way you are' automatically to demonstrate all the sounds and drum beats it could make. It had 100 noises! I remember we were blown away by the amazingness of this!

Of course we couldn't play them and never did learn. Our music teacher set up a keyboard club which lasted 5 minutes - everybody gave up after a couple of weeks. Couldn't be bothered to lug the thing into school. The best I could do was chop sticks and the theme tune from The Clothes Show.

[Marine Boy]

I started learning the piano around eight years old and remember the first keyboards I bought in the early 80s. I loved all the weird and wonderful effects they could produce.

I work in a school now. You've made me wonder about a keyboard club!

[Trickyvee]

2858

Ahh this takes me back. Here it is...my pride and joy. I really thought it was the coolest thing I had ever had at the time :o

[Richard1978]

I had a Yamaha with a basic sound sampling system, I never managed to play on it much but recording a second or 2 off speech & being able to play it back at varying speeds was fun.

[Trickyvee]

Before the Yamaha I had a tiny Bontempi organ. It was beige, didn't have a power lead and took four of those big fat batteries so naturally it didn't get a lot of use! All the power went on the fan. That's what I remember about it the most, flicking the on switch and that couple of seconds when the fan would start up ....hmmmMMMMMM! It was pretty loud.

[sixtyten]

Ah! I had the exact same wheezy beige Bontempi.. world's noisiest fan :)

[tonyfinster]

i first heard autobahn by kraftwerk when i was a nipper, it was one of the most important events of my life, i have loved synths and weird electronic noise since then and have owned several steamy old pieces of gear and some nasty home keyboards up to a couple of years ago when i got rid of my SCI 6 tracs

I started with a bontempi crappy brown box
I got a casio vl tone which was basically a musical calculator
Then swapped for a casio vl 5
then i moved up to,
casio pt 30
casio mt 40
yamaha cs1 and cs2
yamaha cs 5
yamaha cs 15
ARP Quadra
yamaha Dx7
Sequential Circuits Pro 1 (made famous by vince clark of dep mode and yazoo fame)
Sequential Circuits 6tracs.

I now own none but i do have a lot of VSTsoftware based synths and sequencers as they take up less space and less prone to dying suddenly and drifting out of tune.
I want my old pt30 back, had fond memories of it and i had customised it with a paint job.

[Powdered toast man]

I inherited a Giacaggaglia organ when I was 7. It used to belong to my great Aunt and I used to love the sounds it made.
From then on I progressed to-
Casio PT10
Casio SA-1 ToneBank(wish I still had it)
Yamaha PSS 130
Yamaha PSS 270
Yamaha DJX(1st version)

Spent the years between 1999 and 2008 learning and playing the bagpipes! Went back to synths last year as they are less complicated and sound better!

Roland JX10 Super
E-mu Longboard
Akai Miniak

Looking for a Yamaha DX7 at the moment as I just love the sound of the 'Tubular Bells' patch!

[sixtyten]

Oh I have owned so much gear I could open a shop!

Synths have included..

Korg Poly 800
Korg Ex 800
Roland JX3P
Korg Microkorg
Yamaha CS1
Yamaha CS2
Yamaha AN1 X
Yamaha RM1X
Korg T3
Korg Prophecy
Korg M1 (my favorite)
Alesis Quadrasynth
Korg DSS1
Roland JX
Jen SX1000
Roland RS09
Yamaha SY22
Yamaha SY55
Yamaha TG55
Quasimidi Raveolution
Quasimidi Sirius
Sequential Circuits Sixtrak
Ensoniq ESQ1

amongst many others

[Paulos]

I remember kids at school bringing in their old mini casio keyboards was it the casiotone? I'm not sure but I think it was used by Kraftwerk on da da da for it's tinny little rock beat.

Edit: just found it it was the vl tone

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Casio_vl_tone.jpg/800px-Casio_vl_tone.jpg

[Richard1978]

Da Da Da was by Trio, though Kraftwerk did use Speak & Spell for Computerworld.

[Powdered toast man]

OMD also used a Speak & Spell on Genetic Engineering. Those little old Casio keyboards were great fun and seem to have a bit of a cult following these days.

[sixtyten]

Kraftwerk used the BeeGees rhythm machine. used to have one myself, along with the Casio VL