Video Technology
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squarewave keyboard
with accompaniment & analogue rhythm |
This keyboard from 1985 may be the ancestor of all no-name squarewave
keyboards. Like the MC-3 and Testron
it employs a Yamaha 4 channel squarewave soundchip, but unlike these,
it additionally uses analogue percussion. This instrument was also released
as Maitho PK2 and a red version as Power Sounds (seen on
eBay).
The Rhythmic 2 has a black case, 1 speaker and some rows
of differently coloured silicone rubber buttons (similar like the Testron
ones). |
main features:
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49 mid size keys
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tinny 3W loudspeaker
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polyphony 4 notes (only 1 note with accompaniment)
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separate knobs for main and rhythm + accompaniment volume
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10 semi- OBS preset sounds selected by 5 buttons + shift button: {organ,
music box, oboe, guitar, trumpet | clarinet, violin, harpsichord, accordion,
piano} (squarewave with digital envelopes)
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10 semi- OBS preset rhythms selected by 5 buttons + shift button: {waltz,
jazz waltz, disco, rock, rumba | march, 16 beat, swing, bossanova, tango}
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sustain and vibrato button
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4(?) percussion sounds (most are analogue, some may be digital)
| base |
= analogue click |
| hihat (?) |
= shift register noise (?) |
| snare (?) |
= transistor noise (?, more muffled than the hihat) with multiple volume
levels |
| tom |
= low squarewave (?) blip |
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auto- accompaniment in single finger chord or fingered (=normal) chord
mode. (manual organ chord keyboard split when rhythm off) For such chords
always the same, envelope- less squarewave organ tones are used.
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arpeggio button (only usable during accompaniment)
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rhythm fill-in button
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tempo {+, -} buttons
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4 demo melodies repeat in a sequence. {[classic tune], Blue Danube,
For Elise, Skate Waltz}
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many red, round status LEDs
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jacks for AC- adapter, headphone
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main CPU "Toshiba TMP4740P, 5444 8814H" + separate squarewave soundchip
"Yamaha YM2163, 7Z 02 83 G" (crystal clocked).
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transpose {+, -, reset} (0..-11 semitones, works only with accompaniment)
All non- percussion sounds are squarewave based (with different pulse
widths and envelopes) and sound much like a C64. The soundchip (same like
with
Testron) apparently internally re-assigns the same tone generators
to different outputs due to in accompaniment mode only 1 voice remains
at the right keyboard section for melody play.
notes:
The hardware construction of this 1985er keyboard resembles much the Letron,
HBATEC,
Testron,
Fujitone
6A and the like, thus it apparently was an early predecessor of
a series of Chinese so-called "no-name" instruments. Interesting is in
this context that the Rhythmic 2 features as well the demo melody
"Blue Danube" (which is the same like with my HBATEC keyboard) as
"For Elise" (which is the demo tune of the Testron), although these
versions are arranged differently. The accompaniments of the instrument's
demo melodies various times miss the correct key (thus sound disharmonic)
and are slightly out of sync, which sounds quite unprofessional. Like early
Casio
instruments, the Rhythmic 2 has a moulded, cylindrical plastic pot
behind the speaker in the case bottom, but unlike good Casios, this one
seems to make the sound rather cheap and canny than improving its timbre.
Nowadays the company Video Technology is better known as VTech,
which is a well known manufacturer of educational children computers; VTech
otherwise is affiliated with Yeno, which was the manufacturer of
the "Der kleine Musikant" toy keyboard.
When I bought the Rhythmic 2 keyboard, the "fingered chord" and
"tempo -" button didn't work due to a broken bridge trace on the panel
PCB.
Interesting for playing are the 5 semi- OBS sound buttons those can
be also pressed while keys are held down without stopping their notes.
By rhythmically pressing these buttons many arpeggiator- like timbre changes
can be created, though this button field can be regarded as a realtime
sound control. The static voice assignment of the instrument is a little
annoying, because in any chord modes only 1 voice remains for the user
selected sound in the right keyboard section, no matter how many voices
are really actually occupied with chords or other accompaniments.
The automatic accompaniments insert a sort-of automatic fill-in every
4 measures, which can be a little confusing, but generally sounds nice.
The complex accompaniment behaviour resembles a bit the Testron,
although it permits less play tricks. The instrument seems to make no use
of the digital metallic cymbal sound of the YM2163 despite it would have
sounded more natural than the analogue transistor noise it uses instead.
Possibly this instrument was originally designed for a predecessor of the
YM2163 soundchip, which didn't feature these percussion sounds.
A stereo(?) variant of the Rhythmic 2 keyboard was the
Rhythmic
6 (seen on eBay), which has 2 speakers and an additional chord
volume slider, but still the same preset and function button names although
it has sliders instead of knobs and smaller buttons. Likely both belong
to the same hardware class. A later fullsize keyboard by Video Technology
was the Rhythmic 10.
| removal
of these screws voids warranty... |
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