alexeiparedes's Casio Studio Setup

This Casio arranger keyboard from the early 80s is very interesting if we think of it as an organ. Some presets with the addition of effects pedals sound very good, but basically they are mostly organ sounds, they don't even mention the name on the panel. The Casiotone 501 actually looks very professional, for the time. The case uses mostly plastic and metal, but has a faux wood look (any wood used is actually compressed particle board). The 49 keys are full size. A large built-in speaker is all you need to hear yourself playing. However, there is a 1/4-inch mono output on the back. There is also a headphone jack and two jacks for pedal/sustain and volume pedal. Comes with a robust road case. You can select one preset sound at a time, and although there are no effects or programming options, there is a slider to activate Vibrato, Vibrato Delay (Delayed) and Sustain. You can choose one of the preset rhythm patterns to play along with some drum percussion - the drum sounds themselves were pretty standard for the time and reminiscent of Roland CR machines. It also has a Fill-In button for triggering drum fills and a tempo adjustment knob.

I chose it as a portable option for my Privia since carrying it around is always a problem. I really like the Piano and EP presets, and I often do without using plugins during gigs.

I like this pedal not because of its size (practically a brick), but because of its very well-made construction, and especially the slow/fast switch. There is no clipping when using this slow/fast switch. The change is gradual, like a speaker that has electromechanically gone from one rotation to another. Although at very fast rotations (level knob) some of the originality of the effect is lost, the sound is honest if used correctly. Summary: a fun and very intelligent pedal if you know how to use the slow/fast feature, with convincing simulations as long as they are not used at extreme levels.