The ranting about vastly overrated machines thread.

[Circuitbenders]

This is all down to ebay culture though isn't it?

Outside of ebay you wouldn't get £5 for an MR10, just like you'd be lucky to get £10 for a 606 at a car boot sale.

Get a few thousand rabid analogue electro obsessives looking at it and suddenly its a 'classic bit of retro kit' 

[SineHacker]

the hype around bending is probably quite a cause for prices going up as well - most crappy keyboards on ebay have "CIRCUIT BENDING!!!!" in the description. hype is good but price is bad 

[MAGTIG]

You have GOT to be shitting me. And that's not the only VL-1 going for around $70 right now.

[manufactured zero]

Not sure what the exchange rate is but i've seen them go regularly for £35+ over here. And in contrast a PT1 or 10 will sometimes go for as little as 99p even though it's pretty much the same thing. Who in the limelight of the world of music has used a vl to make them so fashionable then?

Kanye west? 

[SineHacker]

maybe it's the calculator?

[Circuitbenders]

Nobody is buying that one for circuit bending though, or probably not even to ever use. That one is going to sit there in someones collection with all is original packaging gathering value.

I've got an absolutely mint condition TR505 with pristine original packaging and documentation which i suspect will probably be worth more as a collectors item than as a circuitbent machine, which is kind of tragic.

[sk-1]

I think the most redeeming aspect of the VL-1 is that it's build quality is quite respectable and it doesn't have that same cheap, hollow flimsiness that so many other comparable toys and keyboards have.

Apart from that, it's a piece of crap... but a most curious one at that.

[sk-1]

My phone has more music making power than a VL1 AND it makes phonecalls! It probably cost less as well.

You can't exactly compare technologies that are decades apart... especially when it comes to devices like phones and calculators.  And to give Casio some credit... the VL-1 is actually a calculator, not a musical instrument.

[Circuitbenders]

You can't exactly compare technologies that are decades apart...

Yes i can, in fact i just did, you can see it up there. 

[sk-1]

You can't exactly compare technologies that are decades apart...

Yes i can, in fact i just did, you can see it up there.  

LOL... ummm, so you did *claps loudly*

Seriously though, it's a little like comparing a 2008 model Toyota Corolla with a 1980's Vespa Scooter.  They both serve a similar function, but that's where the similarities end.  Your phone and the VL-1 are both innovative because they attempt to combine more than one function, or machine, into a single hand-held unit.  Due to the limits of technology in the 80's it just wasn't possible to create something like your phone... and back in the 80's, something like a calculator that could play music would have been considered a 'miracle' in modern technology and miniaturization ... which we now see from jaded eyes.

I admire the VL-1 for what it was able to achieve back then.  And for what it was able to do, it did it well.  It was probably the best miniature musical instrument you could buy for it's price at the time... though I think combining a calculator and piano would have to be one of the silliest ideas ever.

[Dylan]

Couldn't agree with you more on the VL-1's. Why even bother bending them when you can get the same results just about by playing it through a distortion pedal.

[SearchAndRescue]

I always find it interesting to find that people are spending so much on these old, crappy things that they surpass the original MSRP. IMHO, if you want to be a Casio collector, that's cool if you want to spend 75 bucks for a VL-1 to complete your collection. As most of us more-veteran benders remember, the whole point of circuit bending at the beginning was that it was a great way to repurpose unused, boxed-and-closeted toys and keyboards and entry-level studio equipment from friends, family, and Goodwill/Oxfam. Now that every guy and his brother are hearing about circuit bending, the demand for vintage stuff is too high and the creativity is too low, and everybody is asking "can you please tell me how to do everything to my Casio xx-xx?" or the youtube comments "how much do you charge for this?". If you bend for business, that's awesome that you get paid to do what youl like, and spread experimental instruments out there for others, but the consumers are really missing the point, then, which is that Circuit Bending is supposed to be a personal, creative, challenging journey that ends in victory (and sometimes, gut-wrenching tragedy, like when i killed my Casiotone CT-390). Sharing ideas and bends are great, but the lack of pioneer spirit is killing the art/science/waste-of-an-afternoon.

But we're on the cutting edge if we can turn our backs on building the same SK-1s that we've been doing for years (and nothing against the SK-Xs, and their builders), and move on to other things. I interviewed Q. Reed G. for my paper zine Search&Rescue, and he told me about a lot of his new ideas for new things. Think about all the 2 megapixel digital cameras, the vcrs, the cd players, the hammond transister organs that clog thrift stores and suburban garages/basements/curbsides we can be rewiring to oblivion. Maybe we can take it as a sign from Fate and walk away from the Speak&Spells and black blob Kawasaki keyboards and use this as a learning opportunity and personal challenge. The demand for the Casiotones and Yamaha VSSs will die, but the art wont.

[selfpreservation]

TB-303 is shitein my own oppinion but my old teaher had one and he would rant about how in his old punk band it was the best sounding instrument he had ever had and every one liked it  they must have had their hearing aids turned off or it was they were trying to be nice

in that case order me up a big plate of shite please ... but seriously the tb303 is the cornerstone of dance misic , its the sound of revolution ...whats not to like ,  the tr909 nothing creates the amount of sound pressure that a 909 creates standing in front of speakers with a 909 playing is an experience like no other i tried 100s of samples for decades and nothing even comes close ,  as for shite over rated instruments well you could basically lump in any grooveboxes for want of a better word particularily the roland mc909  what a humungus pile of garbage, sounds like a trip to disneyland, duibious timing, w*nk sequencing , boring sampling capaibilities £1499 yeah mate ill take 2 

[Gordonjcp]

You'd probably spend more on a Casio VL-1 these days than a Yamaha VL-1.

[Circuitbenders]

You'd probably spend more on a Casio VL-1 these days than a Yamaha VL-1.

when you think about it like that its just bizarre. I got a Korg Prophecy a while back for £65. I've seen unbent Casio VL1's go for that and bent ones go for 3 or 4 times more. Which has really got the most music making potential?