I really love the way the history sections of these videos push in different directions, like the tangent about the german christmas album. It feels very natural and organic.
11:58 Apparently this is the source of the iconic patch in the intro to Sicko Mode. The Rapman was sampled by Kontakt, and the Kontakt preset is most likely what the producer used.
"So, it's haaaardly usable for singing - hahaha" This is my favorite part. Thank you for this wonderful video, brother! The nostalgia, analysis, exploration, visuals, and pace are all just right! Well done!
The video itself is pure gold. You've done a fantastic job explaining the device and contents. But I just have to say that you truly are gifted. You disassembled the entire keyboard and removed the power unit so that you could give it a much needed cleaning and explained its internal electronics, then put the unit back together with expertise. Then you played songs on the keyboard! You, my friend, are extremely talented. I haven't even made it past the 12-minute mark yet, I wonder what else you're going to do! Great video. You breathe life into these old and forgotten keyboards!
Dude stfu,my god the comment section has made people that were never funny and aren’t funny,think they’re fn funny. Maybe if he sounded like Batman,but Batman doesn’t have a British accent. And it’s likely text to speech,a lot of youtubers are too lazy to narrate their own stuff.
Brilliant work, Mr. Keen! I love the Rapman for continuing the Casio philosophy of being "utterly ridiculous, but simultaneously utterly brilliant", though for sure it's quite limited. Now you've inspired me to dig out my own Rapman and have a jam with it! Really looking forward to seeing your upcoming video of the DJ-1 "Rap Studio" model - it's been on my radar for some time, but appears to be very hard to find. "Yo!" :-p
Thank you! Yes, the DJ-1 is hard to find. I've only seen it once on ebay in the last few years and of course had to buy it, despite the outrageously high price. We'll see if it's worth the money.
I’ve got a boxed one that I somehow stumbled across in the 90s. In some ways I remember liking the Rap-1 better. Better get them out for a Rapman Battle, I guess.
I absolutely love your videos! So many memories! I remember when I was a young boy in the 70’s, my grandfather was the first person I met with synthesizers, etc. he had an Omichord, several other oddball keyboards and a mini moog. What’s funny to me about all of that, is that he used all of that tech to sing religious hymns, lol! Anyway, I credit him with my lifelong obsession with synths! He’s sorely missed. Thanks for the video!
The first small Casio keyboard (apart maybe the VL Tone) that really made its way into the rap game is the SK-5 in 1989. It has been frequently used by De La Soul in their first album, Three Feet High And Rising, at the time I remember watching a small reportage with the three plugs in studio showing how they used the orange sampling pads of the beast.
Thank you so much for making this video. When I was little, my father (who passed away a couple of years ago) gave me this keyboard, that was in '93 or '94, I don't remember exactly. Over time, years later, that keyboard broke and was discarded. Now, recently, I remembered that keyboard and was thinking of searching for it, but all I knew was that it was CASIO and nothing more. Thanks to the RUclips algorithm reading minds, your video appeared, and what a video! My bad for not preserving that now 'vintage' keyboard. Thank you very much for bringing back those sounds and beats that the keyboard had. Many thanks for making me remember those beautiful moments!
Now that's a pleasant surprise! I helped pad the comment count for the Rapman's Bad Gear episode a year ago, and I'll be savoring your experience with this keyboard very much! I think I might go cook a steak for this one, even. Happy New Year to you, Keen!
Brilliant! This keyboard is so flawed and I love it. Also I never knew of the Bollock Brothers - that sent me into a hilarious rabbit hole to explore. The feedback effects made my jaw drop!
I'm not surprised you haven't heard of the Bollock Brothers. They're not really as famous as they always claimed. And the fact that their version is the best known was of course a joke.
For a real oddity check out Devestatin' Dave's Zip Zap Rap... A couple years ago I went and found all of his tracks in the weird corners of the internet (pandemic lockdown deep dive) and it left me flabbergasted for days.
Awesome video! My mom was the best. To know that Between my brother and I, we had two of these keyboards in our possession. I forgot about the second one. We loved the yellow "Music Major" keyboard when we were kids as well as the Rapman. I'm proud to say that I still have my Original Rapman with mic I received 32 Yrs ago on Christmas morning. I could never part with it. It's a special piece of gear.
Your creativity is adorable! I am a musician, but I have to confess that I don’t have what it takes to be a digital, electronic, or whatever they call musicians nowadays. I believe that you are really one of the kind.
I have to shout out the Mix Me DJ that gets a couple seconds of limelight here at 6:55. I have one (in poor condition from it’s near constant use in my childhood unfortunately) and it is a VERY COOL little toy. Some wild sounds on that thing, and it’s awesome to see a little recognition here for it.
Back in the early 90's I purchased one of these in a Toys R Us store near my home and had a lot of fun with it. Even back then, I felt like it was pretty gimmicky and looked cheap, but still enjoyed playing around with it for a few years. And despite the Casio Rapman's flaws and limitations, I think that made me work harder to be creative and find more inspiring ways to play and create music, or at least it sounded like music to me anyways :)
@18:23 oh the childhood memories. There was this comedy show in Finland, where was this skit about childrens TV show. Touko-Pouko singing "Kreikanmeri".
Another really enjoyable video - and so well produced. My favourite small Casio was the VA-10 Voice Arranger - what a Pandora's box that little keyboard was! Wish I hadn't sold mine ... 😭
That foam on the ribbon cable was probably to stop it from rattling when played / moved around... Aha - I distinctly remember that “vocoder” sound! Another great video as always!
I've played the SA10. I've seen the Rapman in toy shops back in the day. And my first keyboard was the PSS-480 which had the Rap accompaniment (which I hardly, if ever, used). Thanks for this amazing memory lane trip!
Not to be a soil lodge on your lawn but, you'd said it drops to, "one-note polyphony," which is just called monophonic. I'd have even settled for you saying, " mono-synth," since that what it is. The root, "Poly," does indicate greater than one. I remember having a rapman when I was younger. I did the mic feedback and effect thing, but never was tempted to plug my cs 10 into it. I was happy to watch you break that fourth wall for me ;) Also, I'm glad I found you here, I was a huge fan on your SoundCloud releases! Cheers, and keep it up!
Amazing how you control that keyboard. If what you displayed / the music you made in this video was part of a tv advertisement, a lot of people (including me) were sold and want one!
Looking for your sample set of the Rapman. This was wonderful demonstration using the keyboard very unconventionally. Thank you for expanding our minds.
Great video. Appreciate the circuit breakdown and sibling comparison. The sounds are indeed very SA series, albeit cleaner sounding with a less intrusive button select click tone. It is the most visually pleasing Casio in my collection and my go-to keyboard for improvised jammin'. It seems like Casio took a break from just reusing case designs with stripped down versions of previous keyboards when it came to the Rapman series.The grey variant is new to me, as I had never seen one or knew they were available. Perhaps their distribution was limited, they never come up for sale in Australia.
Einen Wunderschönen Guten Tag der Herr ! Wie immer ein super Video , ich glaube ja das Du/Sie der erste bist der alle Funktionen benutz hat. 😆 der Schaumstoff auf dem Flachbandkabel wäre für mich dafür da das nix "Rappelt " das es gefaltet ja an die Unterseite dran kommt wenn man es "schüttelt" . Freue mich schon auf das nächste Video !! Ansonsten Guten Start ins neue Jahr !!
Danke gleichfalls. Das mit dem rappeln haben jetzt schon einige vermutet. Klingt auch plausibel. Kann aber nur eine allgemeine Vorsichtsmaßnahme gewesen sein, denn auch ohne Schaumstoff rappelt nichts.
👋🏻 First video I’ve seen from this YT channel And what an awesome refreshing vibe of a video ha , with cool history for a younger music maker like myself !! 👍🏻🔥🌎
I go mine out of a Fingerhut catalog back in the early 90's. Seeing the scratch pad and mic is what sold me on it. I had an absolute blast with mine for at least 3 years
Grat review! I´ve got the bigger brother 😁😁😁... the Roland DJ-70 that I´ve bought for 50 dollars. It´s basically an S-750 with keys and a scratch disc. Amazing that that came a year after the Casio one. Speaking of rare Casio keys, I´ve got a rare one... Samick SD-100... basically a rebranded DM-100... I couldn´t find a single website that mention it. Must be very rare!
I love that you used the input and output as an unintended-but-brilliant fx loop/feedback loop (Eventide H910, look out! 😉). I play around with similar hacks and creative applications with the I/O on much newer and more expensive gear, like grooveboxes and samplers in the range of $500 USD, paired with effects pedals in the range of $250-500. 🥰 Clearly, my money could be more frugally spent! 😉
Such a peculiar device! For some of the tunes, I could not help but remember on game in the Sega Genesis console: ToeJam & Earl: Panic on Funkotron. This game's music was the only exposure to hip-hop for me, and I never happened on an instrumental hip-hop record that would catch the same vibe - until this video. Perhaps, there is some similar music out there, after all?
When i saw this in my notifications, I recalled hearing that three Animal Crossing games used samples from this keyboard for some of K.K.'s “aircheck” song versions. Once you started demonstrating some of the instruments, I definitely started recognizing some of them.
I had one when I was 11. It was in 1991 or 1992. I am pretty sure that the microphone had a orange cover on it. It matched with all the other orange buttons 😅 It’s so funny to hear this sounds and beats after over 30 years again. Thank you 😊
Do a video on the Yamaha portasound 470-or the whole portasound series... I'd love to see you take those apert, as they have the inner workings of the DX-7. Great video you did here
Would never have expected a Bollock Brothers mention in a video about the Casio Rapman! As for the keyboard itself, those distorted sounds remind me of early Chrome albums.
I really love the way the history sections of these videos push in different directions, like the tangent about the german christmas album. It feels very natural and organic.
I agree. It also shows that there's actual research going on, not just reading or re.wording a wikipedia page.
Wrote my first song on this thing in 1992 and now I'm transitioning from being a professional musician to being a professional song writer.
So do I !! I still have mine but my kids lost the mic
11:58 Apparently this is the source of the iconic patch in the intro to Sicko Mode. The Rapman was sampled by Kontakt, and the Kontakt preset is most likely what the producer used.
SUN IS DOWN
oh thanks for pointing it! i was always feeling funny hearing same sound while playing as in Sicko Mode and now it makes sense.
You're extracting absolutely magical sounds out of this little machine!
STG!!! I had one of these and never imagined it could sound THIS good!!!
"So, it's haaaardly usable for singing - hahaha"
This is my favorite part.
Thank you for this wonderful video, brother! The nostalgia, analysis, exploration, visuals, and pace are all just right! Well done!
The video itself is pure gold. You've done a fantastic job explaining the device and contents. But I just have to say that you truly are gifted. You disassembled the entire keyboard and removed the power unit so that you could give it a much needed cleaning and explained its internal electronics, then put the unit back together with expertise. Then you played songs on the keyboard! You, my friend, are extremely talented. I haven't even made it past the 12-minute mark yet, I wonder what else you're going to do! Great video. You breathe life into these old and forgotten keyboards!
Amen! Agreed!
I’ve had this silly theory that Keen on Keys is actually Karl Bartos based on the similarities of their speaking voices. Turns out he is just Batman.
Probably Michael keen ton
Dude stfu,my god the comment section has made people that were never funny and aren’t funny,think they’re fn funny. Maybe if he sounded like Batman,but Batman doesn’t have a British accent. And it’s likely text to speech,a lot of youtubers are too lazy to narrate their own stuff.
The man machine 😄
@@leewightman8619request Sound Indonesian
Marvellous, a new video - it's like a late Christmas present.
Brilliant work, Mr. Keen! I love the Rapman for continuing the Casio philosophy of being "utterly ridiculous, but simultaneously utterly brilliant", though for sure it's quite limited. Now you've inspired me to dig out my own Rapman and have a jam with it! Really looking forward to seeing your upcoming video of the DJ-1 "Rap Studio" model - it's been on my radar for some time, but appears to be very hard to find. "Yo!" :-p
Thank you! Yes, the DJ-1 is hard to find. I've only seen it once on ebay in the last few years and of course had to buy it, despite the outrageously high price. We'll see if it's worth the money.
I’ve got a boxed one that I somehow stumbled across in the 90s. In some ways I remember liking the Rap-1 better. Better get them out for a Rapman Battle, I guess.
I absolutely love your videos! So many memories! I remember when I was a young boy in the 70’s, my grandfather was the first person I met with synthesizers, etc. he had an Omichord, several other oddball keyboards and a mini moog. What’s funny to me about all of that, is that he used all of that tech to sing religious hymns, lol! Anyway, I credit him with my lifelong obsession with synths! He’s sorely missed. Thanks for the video!
The first small Casio keyboard (apart maybe the VL Tone) that really made its way into the rap game is the SK-5 in 1989. It has been frequently used by De La Soul in their first album, Three Feet High And Rising, at the time I remember watching a small reportage with the three plugs in studio showing how they used the orange sampling pads of the beast.
Thank you so much for making this video. When I was little, my father (who passed away a couple of years ago) gave me this keyboard, that was in '93 or '94, I don't remember exactly. Over time, years later, that keyboard broke and was discarded. Now, recently, I remembered that keyboard and was thinking of searching for it, but all I knew was that it was CASIO and nothing more. Thanks to the RUclips algorithm reading minds, your video appeared, and what a video! My bad for not preserving that now 'vintage' keyboard. Thank you very much for bringing back those sounds and beats that the keyboard had. Many thanks for making me remember those beautiful moments!
CLASSIC!!!
The one piece of gear this guy likes
This thing sounds awesome! Better than I expected! 11:57 sounds like sicko mode lol
that's because it is the sound used for the intro of sicko mode.
@@DJ_BoomBear what is the riff's name before this one?
@@LeopoldMichaelsonsmoke on the water
Animal crossing also
11:57 AYO IS THAT SICKO MODE
Sicko Mode by Travis Scott feat Drake uses preset 24 Wah Voice
Now that's a pleasant surprise! I helped pad the comment count for the Rapman's Bad Gear episode a year ago, and I'll be savoring your experience with this keyboard very much! I think I might go cook a steak for this one, even.
Happy New Year to you, Keen!
That's a good idea! Happy New Year to you too!
You know it's a good day when you see KoK release a new video
Hats off for holding composure while playing such funky melodies.
I love this channel. The digression off into the Bollock Brothers was massively unexpected and hilarious 😂
What a satisfying video! And you play this instrument so nicely. Thoroughly enjoyed every second of this. Thank you!
Brilliant! This keyboard is so flawed and I love it. Also I never knew of the Bollock Brothers - that sent me into a hilarious rabbit hole to explore. The feedback effects made my jaw drop!
I'm not surprised you haven't heard of the Bollock Brothers. They're not really as famous as they always claimed. And the fact that their version is the best known was of course a joke.
For a real oddity check out Devestatin' Dave's Zip Zap Rap... A couple years ago I went and found all of his tracks in the weird corners of the internet (pandemic lockdown deep dive) and it left me flabbergasted for days.
Great video always good to learn about vintage equipment
Awesome video! My mom was the best. To know that Between my brother and I, we had two of these keyboards in our possession. I forgot about the second one. We loved the yellow "Music Major" keyboard when we were kids as well as the Rapman. I'm proud to say that I still have my Original Rapman with mic I received 32 Yrs ago on Christmas morning. I could never part with it. It's a special piece of gear.
thank you for the trip back in time
I don't remember being so entertained in a long time! Thank you!
Always love your demos and riffs. Really pushing the limits of the machine!
your demos are genius!
Your channel is a hidden gem, great video thank you
I LOVE the Rapman, found mine at a Goodwill for $5 and have used it in several songs
Your videos - golden youtube content. I watched all of them more than ones.
24:07 🤣. (edit) woah, that was impressive what you did later on with this little keyboard. Very interesting and inspiring vid.
Another brilliant demo! Can’t wait for the next one!
This is your weirdest and best video yet!
I absolutely love this.
I admire that you can play so precise on this tiny keys.
Excellent video, superb level of creativity.
So viel (musikalischer-) Background und Liebe in Deinen Videos - Grandios!
Your original music has a really charming video-gamey vibe and I love it so much!
Masterclass of hacking Casio for sound design! Great! Thanks for this new episode.
Your creativity is adorable! I am a musician, but I have to confess that I don’t have what it takes to be a digital, electronic, or whatever they call musicians nowadays. I believe that you are really one of the kind.
I have to shout out the Mix Me DJ that gets a couple seconds of limelight here at 6:55.
I have one (in poor condition from it’s near constant use in my childhood unfortunately) and it is a VERY COOL little toy.
Some wild sounds on that thing, and it’s awesome to see a little recognition here for it.
Yes it's a funny thing. Maybe I'll make a video about it.
@@KeenOnKeys Please, please do.
Back in the early 90's I purchased one of these in a Toys R Us store near my home and had a lot of fun with it. Even back then, I felt like it was pretty gimmicky and looked cheap, but still enjoyed playing around with it for a few years. And despite the Casio Rapman's flaws and limitations, I think that made me work harder to be creative and find more inspiring ways to play and create music, or at least it sounded like music to me anyways :)
Its actually got some sounds still used today, several very recognisable presets from the Rapman are on Native instruments 25 limited free plugin.
The feedback lead was truly epic! 😮
Love the feedback/distortion! Rock on
I had this as a child! Loved the turntable feature
Love your videos. Bought myself an MT-45 after watching your repair & review video of one last week. Cheers!
Thank you for as usual an excellent presentation fuse with creative vibes 👏👏👏
Those detuned tones would actually be excellent for old school Jungle.
Oh wow - I had completely forgotten I used to own an Alesis SR-16 back in the day. Thanks for unlocking that memory.
wow this video is awesome, was not expected to learn some history of keyboards today haha
I love your videos. You are such an amazing musician!
0:12 "The world's first rap keyboard... *OF THE WORLD...* ", so deep...
@18:23 oh the childhood memories. There was this comedy show in Finland, where was this skit about childrens TV show. Touko-Pouko singing "Kreikanmeri".
Awesome tunes! I think the foam on that ribbon cable is to keep the cable from rattling against the rear panel from all the BASSSSS.
It's amazing how much you can do with something so simple...
14:09 This sound ("Vocoder") - I really remember this from some sample CD. Lovely FX sound.
Another really enjoyable video - and so well produced. My favourite small Casio was the VA-10 Voice Arranger - what a Pandora's box that little keyboard was! Wish I hadn't sold mine ... 😭
This episode is just filled with funky groove beats!
Thanks! your videos are always such a treat.
wow.. the info u giving us .. keep up the good work. i remember reading about this keyboard in a rap magazine
I had this one back in the days and completely forgot about it. So I was pleasant surprised to see your video. I still have my SA-1 today...
Great work! You really know how to squeeze this little machine. 👏🏽🔥
I'm glad your keen on keys , it's very infections. Love your videos :)
Loved this and learnt a lot. Absolutely brilliant.
That foam on the ribbon cable was probably to stop it from rattling when played / moved around... Aha - I distinctly remember that “vocoder” sound! Another great video as always!
I've played the SA10. I've seen the Rapman in toy shops back in the day. And my first keyboard was the PSS-480 which had the Rap accompaniment (which I hardly, if ever, used). Thanks for this amazing memory lane trip!
Good choice! It's hard to beat the PSS-480!
man you really rocked it at 29:20 👌
This was a nice Video.
Awesome to see.
Und schön zu sehen, das man in Deutschsprachigen Raum was Ordentliches macht! 😁💯👍
Not to be a soil lodge on your lawn but, you'd said it drops to, "one-note polyphony," which is just called monophonic. I'd have even settled for you saying, " mono-synth," since that what it is. The root, "Poly," does indicate greater than one.
I remember having a rapman when I was younger. I did the mic feedback and effect thing, but never was tempted to plug my cs 10 into it. I was happy to watch you break that fourth wall for me ;)
Also, I'm glad I found you here, I was a huge fan on your SoundCloud releases!
Cheers, and keep it up!
Awesome video..!!!
Cheers from HudsonBay 🇨🇦
I' ve had this as a kid haha these sirens brought back some memories
Amazing how you control that keyboard. If what you displayed / the music you made in this video was part of a tv advertisement, a lot of people (including me) were sold and want one!
Looking for your sample set of the Rapman.
This was wonderful demonstration using the keyboard very unconventionally. Thank you for expanding our minds.
Great video. Appreciate the circuit breakdown and sibling comparison. The sounds are indeed very SA series, albeit cleaner sounding with a less intrusive button select click tone. It is the most visually pleasing Casio in my collection and my go-to keyboard for improvised jammin'. It seems like Casio took a break from just reusing case designs with stripped down versions of previous keyboards when it came to the Rapman series.The grey variant is new to me, as I had never seen one or knew they were available. Perhaps their distribution was limited, they never come up for sale in Australia.
Einen Wunderschönen Guten Tag der Herr ! Wie immer ein super Video , ich glaube ja das Du/Sie der erste bist der alle Funktionen benutz hat. 😆 der Schaumstoff auf dem Flachbandkabel wäre für mich dafür da das nix "Rappelt " das es gefaltet ja an die Unterseite dran kommt wenn man es "schüttelt" . Freue mich schon auf das nächste Video !! Ansonsten Guten Start ins neue Jahr !!
Danke gleichfalls. Das mit dem rappeln haben jetzt schon einige vermutet. Klingt auch plausibel. Kann aber nur eine allgemeine Vorsichtsmaßnahme gewesen sein, denn auch ohne Schaumstoff rappelt nichts.
Thanks again for the very informative video. It was long time ago since your last one. Great job!
Great video! 😃
I really enjoyed this. 👍🏾💜
Indeed a little limited but still loved.
Usual mastery, I particularly appreciated the final piece, pro and in style. 👍
This was quite utterly fascinating 😃
👋🏻 First video I’ve seen from this YT channel
And what an awesome refreshing vibe of a video ha , with cool history for a younger music maker like myself !! 👍🏻🔥🌎
I go mine out of a Fingerhut catalog back in the early 90's. Seeing the scratch pad and mic is what sold me on it. I had an absolute blast with mine for at least 3 years
Thank you for the nostalgia 😊
Grat review! I´ve got the bigger brother 😁😁😁... the Roland DJ-70 that I´ve bought for 50 dollars. It´s basically an S-750 with keys and a scratch disc. Amazing that that came a year after the Casio one.
Speaking of rare Casio keys, I´ve got a rare one... Samick SD-100... basically a rebranded DM-100... I couldn´t find a single website that mention it. Must be very rare!
I had this keyboard growing up, got it when I was around 10 for my bday. It was awesome back then. 😂
I have no idea how to plaything in general, but i want to learn and get one of these so bad, it just sound so cool.
Love the video!
man I am expecting you to do the sing or even do rap. but great video as always. looking forward for the DJ-1 vids!
You should be glad that you didn't have to hear me rap!
I love that you used the input and output as an unintended-but-brilliant fx loop/feedback loop (Eventide H910, look out! 😉). I play around with similar hacks and creative applications with the I/O on much newer and more expensive gear, like grooveboxes and samplers in the range of $500 USD, paired with effects pedals in the range of $250-500. 🥰 Clearly, my money could be more frugally spent! 😉
Always interesting! Thanks much!
Memory unlocked.
Wonderful video and great compositions on such a limited keyboard.
Such a peculiar device! For some of the tunes, I could not help but remember on game in the Sega Genesis console: ToeJam & Earl: Panic on Funkotron. This game's music was the only exposure to hip-hop for me, and I never happened on an instrumental hip-hop record that would catch the same vibe - until this video. Perhaps, there is some similar music out there, after all?
When i saw this in my notifications, I recalled hearing that three Animal Crossing games used samples from this keyboard for some of K.K.'s “aircheck” song versions. Once you started demonstrating some of the instruments, I definitely started recognizing some of them.
with the small microphone you can really tell that you have an unbelievable voice
J'ai adoré découvrir cet instrument avec votre démonstration complète. Merci beaucoup monsieur
I had one as a kid!!!! Brought back so many memories!!!!😂
Great video. As always.
Wow! Memory unlocked!
I had one when I was 11. It was in 1991 or 1992. I am pretty sure that the microphone had a orange cover on it. It matched with all the other orange buttons 😅 It’s so funny to hear this sounds and beats after over 30 years again. Thank you 😊
I have some old radio ads on tape that sound like this, cool! That thing makes so many familiar noises.
Do a video on the Yamaha portasound 470-or the whole portasound series... I'd love to see you take those apert, as they have the inner workings of the DX-7. Great video you did here
Would never have expected a Bollock Brothers mention in a video about the Casio Rapman! As for the keyboard itself, those distorted sounds remind me of early Chrome albums.