VL-Tone Synth
Casio's strange VL-1 instrument sold 1,000,000 units between 1979 and 1984. Trio, the German band, used it to record their huge hit "DaDaDa", and bands like Human League, Devo, The Cars followed suit. And 30 years later it is still backing tracks by Moby and Fergie.
But you don't have to search Ebay to enjoy playing the "Fantasy" sound over a nice "Rock-2" blip. Now you can have the "Unterlanders Heimweh" demo tune right there when you need it, feeling a little lowlandish homesick. The VL-Tone app contain the factory presets and rhythm patterns in all their distorted and noisy glory, carefully sampled from an original Casio VL-1. Never have so few bits been sampled by so many for so little, to paraphrase Churchill.
So, download and enjoy! But note that this software is still a beta. It is tested on a few phones, so it should work quite well, but don't hesitate to contact me via software(at)skrivarna.com if something seems strange. I will do my best to fix bugs quickly!
Currently known limitations:
* ADSR. This version of the app is a sample player, not an emulator. This makes it more or less impossible to program your own sounds. Maybe emulation for ADSR programming will be included in a later version. Maybe not.
* The sustain and decay of the samples are currently a bit rough (to say the least). Will be fixed when I get the time.
* The sequencer is not included right now. If enough people encourage me to implement the step sequencer in the next version I will.
* The LCD display is not of much use.
* The samples contain all the noise and distorsion from my original instrument. And I suppose this is the way it will be, at least for the sounds. But maybe the demo and the rhythm pauses could be cleaned up a little by adding a noise gate. Also, the s/n ratio could be increased with some gentle compression.
* Would it be interesting to have a choice between the lined samples presented here, and some captured with the internal speaker and a mic? I suppose that would add more character to some of the sounds. Let me know!
Now go out and play!
Category : Music & Audio
Reviews (29)
Very good apps but if my memory serve me right the vl-1 i got 30 years ago is when you press and hold the button the tune is not stop until i remove my finger. Your apps is playing wav files only not really generating the tune from frequency....but i might wrong since its 30 years ago. Anyway 5* for this apps
Better than the original. Has the da da da button. Got the original one out of the loft and it sounds just like this, but my phone has a better speaker.
It's almost exactly like the original! When my nephew was a little-bitty boy, he used to dance around to the demo song. I just downloaded this a few minutes ago, and when I played the song for him, he did it again! He's 28 now.
If this thing had a million presets & a billion rhythms... Without a record function it's little use to me! Shame cos would love to use these sounds
Awesome! Developer please add a midi keyboard connection and more sounds. Thank you.
Was fun for a little while, but I didn't end up keeping it on the phone.
It's really cool to have. I'm trying to share in my groups.
Don`t waste your time, this is like prototype of a prototype.
Make it open source please!
My childhood in one app.
Wish they had the calcator impelemented
Gosh, this brings back some memories! Wrote and recorded song back in the 80's using the funky "Rock 2" pattern, a guitar, a thunderstorm, and reel tape and thought about re-recording it on today's technology but my beloved little VL Tone was long gone. Thought I'd try to find a sample of it online and stumbled on your clever and amazing app. Works just like my old Casio in every way. Thanks for taking the time to preserve some early electronic history! My hat is off to you sir! GonzoGator
Guess what, I STILL HAVE THE REAL VL TONE TILL THIS DAY .believe it or not, It's on my desk right now. anyway, i was looking back at the app and the real thing, and i noticed the app has wayyy less keys. so, 3 stars it is.
It's very fun, it would be nice if the VL1 could be made longer so you can play more keys
Such fun, and shows how far we have come with electronic and sampled music. It's a great way to look back and remember, that something good is timeless and is never obsolete.
This is a cool app, I would like to see what you mentioned, being able to capture sound and turn it into a sample.
I used to have one of these things. A huge smile spread across my face when I pressed the orange MUSIC button. Not easily usable as an instrument tho.
Good sounds... Beware though: If you play a rhythm and them hit one of the tempo keys, everything will freeze up and then force close.
😬 it could've been so much better if you people could make the synth into the UI unlike a static jpeg.
I'm no musician, but it's really fun to just bang out some cool noises with this thing. Love it!
Works perfectly on my nexus 4. Not only that, but you can actually make MUSIC with this app. Looks great too. Very highly recommended by me, and I have used A LOT of music apps for android.
Needs record , export and a sequencer. sounds close to the real deal. Some type of visual verification of what button you pressed would also be good
DA DA DA excellent app just like the real thing.
Laffed me arse off. Sounds like the actual junky Casio. So, I say this is just as useless. Good work!
This is awesome, fun and nostalgic, yet lovable! I think I wanna use it in my next song. Definitely implement the step sequencer, that would be epic!
Great little app.; simulates a VL-Tone very well. I have one of these retro calculator/keyboard instruments and it sounds just the same.
The sound comes so late that I practically can never play with the rhythm. (Galaxy Note 2)
This is very nice, everyone will recognise the rock1 pattern...but it would be nice if the buttons were functionable rather than providing a menu.
Can't really be knocked. It is what it is and you get just about what you expect however, shame the calculater doesn't work & would love to use it's sounds in my music production but the record feature doesn't work. Some would say I'm being harsh only awarding 3 stars but these features that are missing are pretty basic & the developer seems to be resting on his/her lorrels!