Animal Keyboard
This seems to be a mono variant of the Stereo
Playkeys! hardware. It has a very small white- blue or white- red
case with 8 animal face buttons. Although there is only one speaker, the
case contains 2 grills. The animal samples sound better than its predecessor.
main features:
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no power switch (instrument is always on and reacts on any key/ button
presses)
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red LED flashes in orange window with every sound
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22 mini keys
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2 voice polyphony (A keyboard matrix flaw prevents certain key combinations
to be recognized, though only monophonic music can be played reliably,
but unlike "My Music Center" this keyboard at least has no random behaviour.
Due to all sounds but "organ" don't care about the key press duration,
2 voiced melodies can be often played by pressing 2 keys quickly in sequence
instead of simultaneously.)
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8 OBS preset animal instrument sounds {frog, puppy, cow, sheep, kitty,
horse, bird, duck} (low resolution 6 bit samples without loop point)
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2 cute, distorted OBS squarewave instrument sound presets {piano, organ}
-6 OBS preset rhythms (with rhythm only monophonic play possible) {rap,
pop, waltz, swing, disco, samba} Any rhythms always start with default
tempo, which limits the use of the OBS selection for live performances.
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"rhythms sel. " button selects 8 rhythms in sequence. On package box stands
{Rumba, bossa Nova, Trot, Disco, Soul, Cha Cha, slow, New Wave}, but in
reality these include the 6 OBS rhythms. All rhythms sound very hiphop/
tribal- like and use car horn and sort-of latin percussion.
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4 drum pad buttons {tom, gon (=gun), carhorn, whstle (=whistle)}
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monophonic sequencer of some dozen notes (2nd voice can be played live)
-"demo button selects 16 demo melodies in sequence (very fast and intense,
virtuously composed 2 voiced demo melodies with lots of furious instrument
changes)
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4 OBS buttons "song1.. song4" select 4 melodies of the 16.
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8 OBS buttons select the "singing animals" demo melodies out of the 16.
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demo melodies use more samples than available to the player
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speakers is driven by a single transistor amplifier
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CPU uses a normal internal D/A converter (6 bit?) (no pulse width modulation).
eastereggs:
modifications:
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cinch sound output, speaker mute switch and AC adapter jack with regulator
added.
Due to the hardware taps from the battery box 4. 5V for the CPU but
6V for the speaker, I had to simulate this with a chain of diodes in series
to connect a voltage regulator for a power supply. During this it turned
out that the CPU distorts samples when the voltage is slightly too low,
but some keys otherwise didn't work when it was at correct voltage (like
full batteries) <= the flash LED had no resistor and was directly wired
between 2 keyboard matrix data- out lines which shorted them. Adding a
1 kOhm resistor in series to the LED fixed this (but not the other polyphony
bug). Don't operate the CPU with too low voltage; this wastes much of the
sound quality.
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volume control and clock speed/ pitch pot added.
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power switch added (also for reset against pitch overclock crashes)
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1 button as low note key added
notes:
The control panel layout of this instrument is everything but logical;
there are lots of buttons wasted for redundant demo functions instead of
using them for improved playability. "Stereo Playkeys!" is a way better
performance instrument. But the "Animal Keyboard" has many exciting tribal
rhythms and great demo melodies (unfortunately most of these are rather
short). Also the samples sound interesting when pitched way down.
This badly designed instrument seems to exist also in many other (usually
bigger) case variants. One successor of this thing (called "Animal Band"?)
is bigger, has a row of 4 red LEDs instead of the orange window and has
different melodies. (Also the "piano" and "organ" sound more like My
Music Center?) Unfortunately its sound and melody select buttons
are wired parallel in an odd way which limits OBS playability. (I quickly
tested it in a shop.)
| removal
of these screws voids warranty... |
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