ShortScale.org

this was my first musical instrument (portasound):





loved the shit out of it. it had these (then) futuristic touch buttons that you could switch really quick for ultimate versatility! you could also record single track performances on it with optional sweet polyphonic drum beats. i remember the tempo could go stupid fast. and a dedicated 'demonstration' button which basically played this really gay version of 'yankee doodle.'

That thing looks more 80s than a buick reatta's touch screen dashboard

stewart wrote: i think my sister's old bontempi chord organ is still in my parents' loft, the kind woolworths used to sell in the late 70s. they're rubbish though. i think joy division used one on 'atmosphere'.

is it orange / white (or brown and more brown) with the little square keys on the left hand side? I have one of them, made really cheap plastic but they actually sound ok through a few guitar pedals.

Nick wrote:That thing looks more 80s than a buick reatta's touch screen dashboard

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ha, a guy i used to work with had one and when i'd ride with him, if i held my cell phone too close to the screen, it would totally freak out and look like a scene from a movie when all the monochrome screens glitch out and everyone goes bonkers because it's happening...

I want an SK-1 too badly.

dezb1 wrote:

stewart wrote: i think my sister's old bontempi chord organ is still in my parents' loft, the kind woolworths used to sell in the late 70s. they're rubbish though. i think joy division used one on 'atmosphere'.

is it orange / white (or brown and more brown) with the little square keys on the left hand side? I have one of them, made really cheap plastic but they actually sound ok through a few guitar pedals.

yeah, it's various shades of brown if i remember rightly.

here is the dash from my '87 LeBaron.

you could set the mph to kph so you would constantly be driving over 100 all the time. i used to freak the shit out of all my friends when we were on the highway.

hotrodperlmutter wrote:this was my first musical instrument (portasound):

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loved the shit out of it. it had these (then) futuristic touch buttons that you could switch really quick for ultimate versatility! you could also record single track performances on it with optional sweet polyphonic drum beats. i remember the tempo could go stupid fast. and a dedicated 'demonstration' button which basically played this really gay version of 'yankee doodle.'

Wow, same for me. Mine was a Christmas present from an uncle in 1987, and also my first musical instrument. One thing that annoyed the shit out of me even more than the ridiculous demo song was the fact that the recorder/phrase sampler would automatically quantize whatever you played. I had absolutely no idea what that even meant at that time, just that I would play stuff and it would sound absolutely ridiculous when played back quantized.

(skip to 3:50 to re-nightmare yourself with the demo song)
I pulled mine out to photograph just for you. Note the 23-year-old masking tape where my dad marked the notes down for me.



Still love it.

casio rapman! has them scratchy noises too!

I have an original Stylophone and a melodica. I've used the SK-1 and VL-tone too, but these days my main keyboard is a Skyline combo organ from the early 70s.
I'm on the lookout for a nice toy piano/celeste though. Any recommendations?