casio SK-60

[the_zombiest]

Just got one.  I'm a shade dissapointed with it, but i'm aiming to wrecktifiy that.

Does anyone know of any good bends for this machine?  I haven't had chance to probe it much, and I came up with nothing aside from triggering the keys, but i did only spend 30 minutes messing with it.

any advice is always appreciated.

Cheers

[andy_wheels]

it's an 'sk' so will have those lovely bendy chips in there somehwere....

it's a chip pin to chip pin bending paradise.  enough there for a patch bay and washing machine...

is the sk-60 the bigger one with the longer sampling time? by longer i mean more than 1.4seconds.

[the_zombiest]

it's the wider one with no line in or line out.... not which that's a problem.

it's got some really nice features, but it's not an SK-1 which is what I really want.
There's a feature on this in Ghazala's book, so i'm going to do those bends and then some more if i can find em.
it has bugger all space inside the case.  kinda like the SA-1 where you mount the controls on the overhang.
I'll see what I can do and I'll post pics and samples when it's finished

[gmeredith]

Try checking out the Yahoo groups Casio SK forum, although its for the SK5 and SK8, there's lots of bends that will be applicable to the SK60:

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/CasioSK/

From the specs I have read on the SK60, it seems more related circuit-wise to the SK5 and SK8 than the SK1, like 4 samples, samples are retained by batteries, long sample time:

http://www.tonymason.com/casio/sk60.cfm

Cheers, Graham

[andy_wheels]

picked up a sk-60 this morning from a car booty.

any updates on how you bent this thing mr zombie? is it easy to add in/out jacks? there's not much on the web about bending this little sampling wonder.

[the_zombiest]

Adding in and out is as easy as you'd expect.
The only bends I found affected the sampling side of things.
They were fairly decent but tempermental.
When I was probing most other points crashed it with a lovely pop and occasionally some sparks.
I got really frustrated with this keyboard and sold it on.
I hope you have more luck with yours.
It might be worth exchanging the ceramic res. with an oscillator to get the pitch drop...

[andy_wheels]

thanks for the reply.

shame you found the sk60 so frustrating. it is right annoying when you keep getting crashes during bending experiments....

anyone else have any experience with it? it's a fine sounding little sampler in its virgin state so it would be great to get it mangling and mashing...

i'll post up any results (if i find any) here once i get some time to poke around in it.

[gmeredith]

Andy,
Try doing a line in mod on it, so you can get better quality sampling with it than the inbuilt mic. The sampling specs for the SK60 are significantly better than any of the other sk's - 13KHz sampling as opposed to 9.3kHz. It would almost be a useful real sampler with that. You can also bypass the anti-aliasing filter on the output for even better quality. The yamaha vss30 is only a little better than that at 16k, but it doesn't keep the samples when you power off, unlike the sk60.
I've been keeping my eye on SK60's lately, and I think that although there are less features than the other sk's, most of the sk bends should work on it. I plan to get one and do a memeory expansion on it, like my sk8.

Cheers, Graham

[andy_wheels]

doing some searching around the net resulted in very little info on bending the sk-60. reed 'that's $3500 to you mate' ghazala has a chapter in his book about it but i've never felt like buying that.

i did find a thread about it on the yahoo benders group, started by our very own crustypaul. unfortunately, he seemed to have the same sort of experience as zombie had- eg, no bendy joy.... i think it uses very different tech to the earlier sk's and just isn't as bend friendly.

[iqoruvuc]

Hi andy - I have Gazhala's book, though I don't have a scanner so I see what I can do.  I will have a look tonight and post later

[iqoruvuc]

Andy if you can scan or photograph the board and post it here I can mark on the points that are in the book (I know I should really buy myself a scanner)!

[andy_wheels]

nice one! i'll get a photo of the board posted in a bit....

[andy_wheels]

here you go:

[the_zombiest]

If I remember rightly, this is the area that affects the samples.... but I could be wrong.  I have gazhalas' book somewhere... if I find it, i'll let you know for sure.
You'll need a small pot n' resistor (maybe) in line.
This is a crash monster but the samples are damn fine and variable to a degree.
Hope my vagueness helps...

[iqoruvuc]

Each of the ten points from the IC make connection with the pot.  The actual point on the board to solder the connection for the pot seems missing on the board scan!  There are three points in a vertical row in the book close together and the point you need is the one in the middle, though it is not there .