RE: [motm] Alternative controllers
2000-03-24 by Tkacs, Ken
I looked at the Suzuki just prior to the holidays. I knew it was being marketed as a toy, buts still, it seemed like it could be a great alternative controller if fed to the MIDI/CV converter. I had bought a $45 Casio Midi Saxophone years ago which was a toy but I still managed to put it to great use (without even being a sax player). But the Suzuki ended up being much, much cheesier than I even expected. The salesman completely talked me out of it, which was a major switch for Sam Ash. It seemed really biased towards its automated tunes and less as a strumming controller. I hope they do continue to develop this device, though, because I think there's potential there. The Casio sax was a good find, though. I fed its internal sounds into a Korg DVP-1 harmonizer, and its MIDI out controlled a Yamaha TX-81Z. the two sounds were mixed together and I got some really wild output. The breath controller really "breathed" life (forgive me) into the sounds. Around the same time, I also picked up two Yamaha 4-pad electronic drum sets for very cheap, too, also marketed as toys. Really not bad for the money (I think I paid about $40 a piece at Service Merchandise, which is also where I bought the Casio horn). The only complaint I had about the drum pads was the screwball way you changed MIDI channels: you had to hold down a key sequence and whack the pads until the right channel got set. There was no display and it didn't remember settings. But for a toy, it was great! Especially hooked up to my old HR-16.