Description
All 20 factory presets from Casio’s big-league HT6000 • Digital hybrid sound: digital waveforms plus analogue filters • Simple but powerful control set including Tilt EQ, Filter and Amplifier so you can craft your own sounds • Velocity-to-volume and Velocity-to-cutoff retrofitted for even more expressive options • Classic sounds for 20c per patch!
Although definitely best-known for their rather cheesy range of home keyboards (see our Cheddartastic Orgatone 601 for a classic example), Casio kept making slightly halfhearted stabs at a more professional outing. These included things like the really rather good FZ-1 sampler and its beatbox little bro, the RZ-1 sampling drum machine; and, on the synth front, the HT series of keyboards. Top of this range was the HT6000, which coupled some seriously pro features (MIDI, velocity response, 4 digital oscillators per voice, analogue filters) with some slightly naffer ones (inbuilt speakers, home-oriented splits, auto-accompaniment).
But it does have a unique sound. While the promised 4 oscillators per voice don’t quite materialise – in fact you can only use one wave stacked four times and detuned – the inclusion of oddities like metallic noise and a primitive ring-mod, plus a very healthy selection of 32 basic waves, gives the machine a surprising amount of sonic scope. The results vary from very shiny and digital-sounding to quite warm, hybrid-style sounds, thanks to those analogue filters. All in all, it’s a bit of a forgotten gem, especially since Casio decided in their wisdom to push the lesser-specced HZ-600 as their ‘pro’ machine over the much better HT6000.
Here in the PatchVault version of the HT6000 you get all 20 Upper Register patches to play around with – great for layering with analogue patches for a really rich sound, or for channeling your inner 80s wild child. Makes a deadly pairing with the Orgatone 601, too 😉
Loic Forsyth (verified owner) –
These twenty optimistically-named patches sound nothing like the acoustic instruments they purport to reproduce — but that’s actually great, because what you do get is some of the best full-on Casio digital awesomeness to be had! It’s got its own distinctive sound, and most of the original patches feature Velocity to Filter and/or Amp response, making them surprisingly expressive.
Chances are you’ll love this if early digital / 80’s / “cheap and cheesy” sound is your thing.
A delightful surprise!
ambient.sound.artist (verified owner) –
When I found out you guys released PatchVault HT6000 my nostalgia skyrocketed …So many great memories with the HT! Then next thing you know, I used this little hidden gem to create an Ambient Instrument Addon. Thank’s for bringing me back to my programming glory years, I love this release. For anyone who gives PatchVault HT6000 a go, I have a little treat for you here: http://ambietica.lyonsdenmultimedia.com/starburst-ht/ 🙂