Casio CT-101 Free Ableton Live Pack

The Vintage Casio CT-101

I couldn't say it better: here's a description from Vintage Synth Explorer of the Casio CT-101.

The CasioTone 101 (CT-101) is a VERY basic analog synth from Casio circa 1981. The keyboard has 49 full-size keys and is finished in satin black painted metal, has wooden end-cheeks and a wood grain finish underneath the front of the keys. It gives your studio a good analog/vintage feel. Most sounds are very basic and fairly unusable. However, its organ tones are pretty good as well as its 'Cosmic Tone' patch, which uses two oscillators tuned an octave apart, and as the keys are held down, the sound drops an octave as oscillator 1 fades up, and oscillator 2 fades down. The CT-101 has been used by The Human League, Blondie, Vince Clark, Severed Heads, Goldie, and Moby.  -Vintage Synth Explorer

Nothing quite like describing a sound as "unusable."  I'd like to believe there is a time and place for just about any sound, if you keep your ears open.  But lets face it, the space in your studio is probably more precious than that once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence when might want a sound like this in your productions.  So that's what makes the Casio CT-101 a perfect candidate for an Ableton Live Instrument.

Two Ableton Live Instrument Racks for When You Need a Casio CT-101

My friend and fellow Long Islander, BDEE, sent me some samples of the vintage Casio synth (I love when people send me samples to play around with ;) ).  BDEE is a talented multi-instrumentalist, and one of the most prolific guys in town.  The guy just breathes music.  Visit his BandCamp page for a tiny sampling.  Here's a track he made with my Mom's Piano Instrument Rack.

So, I created two instrument racks using some Casio CT-101 samples.  They were designed to make use of the character of this synth.  I wanted to emulate a subtle keyboard drift on these racks.  That's when the individual notes on an old synth slight "drift" in and out of tune from each other.  To accomplish that, I duplicated the sample multiple times, and spread those duplicates out across the keyboard, so that every couple of notes would trigger a different chain.  From there, I modulated the pitch slightly on each chain, at different rates using the LFO.  The result is that the notes a always drifting away from each other in pitch, ever so slightly.  There's also some nice control over the dirtiness of the instrument.  The video below goes into detail on how this is all done, try it out on your own presets!  Scroll down below the video to enter your email in exchange for the download link.

Free Download: Casio CT 101 Free Ableton Live Pack # 96