CASIO vl-1 tone Emulator by PolyValens
The VL-1 featured a small LCD display capable of displaying 8 characters. This was primarily used for the calculator function, but also displayed notes played. As well as this, the VL-1 also had changeable tone and balance, basic tempo settings and a real-time monophonic music sequencer, which could play back up to 99 notes. There were also 10 pre-loaded rhythms which utilized just three basic drum sounds.
VL1 is a freeware emulator of the world famous classic calculator annex mini-synthesizer from the eighties made by Casio. VL1 is not a sample player, it is a real emulator that emulates the original hardware. All sounds are generated by software equivalents of the original circuits and the calculator actually works. This also means that ADSR sound programming is fully functional! VL1 was written in honour of Casio’s little VL-TONE that has given me many hours of pleasure and fun.
VL1 is a PC-only VSTi plugin (VST V2.3 or later).
How to use
Stand-alone
Download Hermann Seib’s excellent SAVIHost, unpack it and rename the file “SAVIHost.exe” to “VL1.EXE”. Put this file in the same folder as the file “VL1.DLL”. Launch “VL1.EXE” and use the mouse to play the virtual instrument. All keys and sliders are fully functional in all modes. When you move the mouse over a key or slider a tool tip will show up displaying in a more readable manner what the key is for. You may want to read the original Casio VL-TONE user’s manual to better understand what you can do with it.
VSTi
Copy the file “VL1.DLL” to the plugin folder of your favourite VST 2.3-compatible host. Make the host recognize VL1 by rescanning its plugin folder(s). You may have to restart the host program for this. Once your VST-compatible host recognizes VL1 you can use it as any other VSTi. VL1 will create two channels, one for the rhythm sounds and one for the synthesizer. The synthesizer is always on MIDI channel 1, the rhythm sounds are on MIDI channel 2. Currently there are only three rhythm sounds that live on the notes C3 (60), D3 (62) and E3 (64). You can use as many instances of VL1 as you like and your system can support.
Quick start
The VL-TONE is fairly simple to operate. Switch to “Play” mode, choose a sound and play the keyboard. However, there are some things that need a bit more explaining. A short description of these features follows below. Detailed manuals can be found here.
Rhythm
Rhythms need two keys to get going: first press the “Rhythm” key and then select the rhythm by pressing one of the white keys in the range left B … right D, as indicated by the tool-tip that pops up. You can then change tempo by pressing one of the tempo buttons. Note that you need stereo as rhythms are panned hard right whereas the synthesizer is panned hard left.
Recording
You can record and edit a melody of up to 100 notes. For this you should switch to “Rec” mode. Press “ML-C” to clear the memory and play your melody. Don’t worry about timing, because you can correct that afterwards. You can play along with a rhythm if you prefer, but note that the rhythm is not recorded. Stop recording by pressing “Reset”. (There are other ways to stop recording.) Now you can listen to your melody by pressing “Auto Play”. You can retime or edit your melody by stepping through it with the “One Key Play” keys. Delete a note by pressing “Del”, insert a note by playing it at the right position. These two operations will beep. When the memory is full the display will show a row of dots. Note that the tempo setting has an influence on the record timing.
ADSR
The best feature of the VL-TONE is probably ADSR programming. ADSR is a well-known acronym for most synthesizer players. For those who don’t know, ADSR stands for Attack-Decay-Sustain-Release and in the case of the VL-TONE it relates to how the volume of a note evolves over time. See the manuals for the details, next will follow only a brief description.
Set the preset switch in the ADSR position and switch to “Cal” mode. Clear the memory by pressing “ML-C”, punch in a number, any number, and hit “M+” (or “M-”). Go back to “Play” mode and hit the keyboard. The sound you hear depends on the number you entered.
So how does the ADSR sound relate to the number? Easy: a sound is made up of 8 digits in a row, where every digit can have a value from 0 to 9:
the first (most left) digit controls the wave form, the “sound”; 0=piano, 1=fantasy, 2=flute, 3=violin, 4=guitar1, 5=guitar2, 6=horn, 7=elektro1, 8=elektro2, 9=elektro3
digit 2 is for the Attack of the volume, 0 is fast, 9 is slow;
digit 3 is for the Decay of the volume, 0 is fast, 9 is slow;
digits 4 & 5 control the Sustain of the volume; This is a bit more complicated as it is not a traditional sustain. If both are 9 you will get a continuous full-on constant sustain. For other combinations you will get different kinds of curves.
digit 6 is for the Release, when you release a key. 0 is fast, 9 is slow;
digit 7 is for vibrato, 0 is fast, 9 is slow;
digit 8 (most right) is for tremolo, 0 is fast, 9 is slow;
Note that the sign of the number and its decimal point (if any) are ignored.
For the last time, refer to the manuals on the manual page for more detailed explanations.
Features
The goal when programming VL-1 was to get as close to the real thing as possible. During development I stumbled upon a number of subtleties that I had never noticed before and I have tried to emulate these as well. Some things however are different:
automatic power down after some six minutes of inactivity has been left out
the DC-clicks when changing between modes have not been implemented
rhythm and melody have separate outputs
finally MIDI (melody on channel 1, rhythm on channel 2)
access to the individual rhythm sounds (C3, D3 & E3 on MIDI channel 2)
automation of parameters
