In the digital piano and electric keyboard industry, Casio has always been one of the leading manufacturers. Although many in the music industry consider Casio a producer of toy instruments, this company has been proving that it is a reliable brand recently. I personally might actually rate this as my favorite free piano VST plugin. It also comes with a great story. A student of Berklee decided to mic up and record a few upright pianos in the basement of a dorm. What we get is what his results were. I think is the most realistic sounding free piano VST that’s currently available.

LMMS Wiki has been archived and it is now read-only. If you are interested in writing documentation or tutorials for LMMS, please move to https://docs.lmms.io/user-manual/.

MIDI settings

VL1 is an emulator of the famous classic Casio synthesizer. VL1 is not just a sample player, it is a real emulator that emulates the original hardware. VL1V1010 ( 0.28 MB ). The Casiotone 201 was the first electronic keyboard CASIO brought onto the market, while the VL-1 was the first mini keyboard with a synthesizer and sequencer function. This resulted in CASIO’s first market.

You can find the MIDI settings in the Settings window

ALSA-Sequencer is the recommended setting for Linux. WinMM MIDI is the default setting for Windows. Modify the default settings only if necessary.

Quick MIDI setup

This is a quick way of connecting your Instrument to a MIDI device. For more advanced settings go to the MIDI tab.

The MIDI tab

The MIDI tab in the Instrument Editor has some more 'advanced' options.

This guide will hopefully allow you to get acquainted with LMMS and get it linked to your keyboard. Future posts will explain some of the more complex and interesting things possible using LMMS.

Where do I get started?

Let’s get your keyboard up and running, playing an instrument.The first thing you need to remember, is important!
The keyboard should be plugged in BEFORE you start LMMS! If you forget that, LMMS may not find it!
So..

• Make sure your keyboard is connected via USB, and then turn it on!
  
• Refer to your keyboard’s manual to see if there is an option to change the keyboard to “PC Mode”, where no sound will come from the keyboard itself. If there is no option, turning the keyboard’s volume off should suffice.
  
• Open LMMS now. This guide presume you use the default settings!
  
• Look at the “song-editor” window. Since you’ve just opened LMMS, you will have a “TrippleOSC-instrument” in your song-editor! -If not, you use a personalized Template. If so, just drag a TrippleOSC into Song-editor, from My-Instruments in side-bar
  
• Open the UI, with a click on the preset. TrippleOSC' UI looks somewhat like this:
  

• Click the word “MIDI” and you’ll go to the MIDI tab.

• Here, click the grayed-out diode, to the left of “enable MIDI input” and the diode should light up green.
  
• Click the little keyboard icon to the right, on the downward arrow. That opens a list over found and connected MIDI-hardware -Normally its a short-list, but if you have more hardware, it grows..
• Look for your keyboard’s name.
• Select the keyboard with a left-Click.
• Turn your PC speakers on, turn the volume up and play some notes on your keyboard.
  

You should hear an output now, and the TrippleOSC will default produce a simple sine-wave tone.
If you hear that output; Congratulations!
You’re good to go!
See the next section, on how to get some really realistic instrument sounds and powerful effects.

Deprecated Windows OS
Windows Vista will not let you change MIDI output device (to chose your keyboard). To solve that, you have to make a change in the Windows Registry Editor or install and run programs like VistaMidi.exe from IPE Prodipe VE or Putzlowitschs Vista-MIDIMapper before you can use LMMS.

Let’s get some real sounds working!

First we need a new project, so close all open windows, and then open song-editor (F5) or button 1 in the speedbar.

• In song-editor, Click the blank page icon, in the top left to start a new project.
• In the song-editor window, click on the tools icon next to each track and click “remove this track“. We want a clean and completely blank canvas to work from.

So now we need instruments! The first button in the sidebar opens “instrument plugins” menu.

• Click on it.
• Each of the options is its own instrument plugin which runs inside LMMS, and can be connected up to your keyboard in the same way as above.
• Look at the bottom for “zynAddSubFX“, these plugins are very good, and there are a lot of available highend presets already made for you to enjoy. zynAddSubFX is also called zasfx :) You may also notice there is a plugin for sound samples named Audiofileprocessor, or AFP, as it commonly are called. A SoundFont2 plugin; -You can find many great soundfonts, in the Useful-resources section Useful resources, and many more fine instruments, Like Monster, TrippleOSC, FX-generator -well.. even a Game Boy Color sound plugin called Freeboy ;).

I recommend you to get familiar with all LMMS' instruments, but right now, we will continue with zynAddSubFX.

• Drag zasfx into the song-editor.

It does have a default sound, but that is uninteresting, so lets load a good preset!

• In the sidebar, click on the star. This is the shortcut to your presets!

Browse down to zynAddSubFX, and Choose any you like, I recommend “Arpeggio1″ from the “Arpeggio” category. Some of the guitar sounds are impressive too. But choose any you like. You just drag it out and drop it it on the zasfx instrument! -You can also use right-click and any of the context-options.

• MIDI-Link it to your keyboard with the above steps!

Now you can play around with it for a while. Try different presets, and enjoy.The somewhat complicated methods needed for making your own presets in zasfx, can be studied in the zasfx section of this wiki, and there are also zasfx-tutorials in the video-section.

• I’ll leave it to you to explore what you can to from within zasfx, as it’ll take days and days. You might be impressed now, but the sheer amount of options available is incredible.
• Using the same method shown above, you can try other instrument plugins in the same way.

Connection of a dial to a keyboard-wheel

So now you have sound. Fine!

But then you start thinking about the neat stuff on your keyboard.. Like the modulation-wheel.

How do I connect a specific dial or 'knob' to that wheel?

The basic principle in connecting anything to a keyboard feature is:

• Find the knob you want the Mod Wheel to control (filter freq could be a RL example)
• Right click on the knob and a list will pop up.
• In the list select 'Connect to controller', a 'Connection Settings' box will pop up.
• Make sure MIDI controller and Auto Detect are lit up, then just move the Mod Wheel on your keyboard!

Often it will show as ch1, controller 2

• Click OK and the mod wheel should now control the knob you selected.

you can set up any other knob/slider control on a MIDI keyboard controller the same way. It just sets it up as a different controller (CC) number.

Splitting Keyboards

Some advanced midi-keyboards can split the very kb to more then one instrument
This will in most cases be in need of quite specific operations and setting, but we include one here for Yamaha PSR E443. This does not mean, that this kb is endorsed or recommended at all. This description is solely added to our wiki, as a head-up / bright-idea inspiration, if you are struggling with kb-splitting with your OWN kb!

Specifics for this keybord:
Channels 1 & 2 will work with main voice and dual voice.
Channel is 3 is for a split point - left hand voice.
A combination of any of those can be used. Left hand will not work unless channel 3 is used.
Do the following in the SF2 players:

• Digital Keyboard selected for Midi input and output for all.

• Instrument One – Enable Midi Input – channel 1 – Output channel 1 and program 11.
• Tapped upper keyboard after setting this.

• Instrument 2 – As above this time Channel 2 for input and output and program 6.
• Tapped upper keyboard after setting this.

• Instrument for Right hand – As above with channel 3 for both and again tapped upper keyboard.

• Instrument for Left hand (with keyboard split) – Input selected but with no input channel number. Channel 4 for out put and this time tapped the lower keys after setting.

List of working midi keyboards

Here we list the midi-keyboards, that our users has used successfully with LMMS newer than 1.1.3.The list should not be considered as 'endorsement' of any Brands or manufacturer. You are most welcome to make posts about Your working midi-Hardware on Forum: Add MIDI Hardware

• Akai mpk mini II On Windows (convulated installing -propl. caused by drumpad
  
• Akai MPD226 on Ubuntu 18.10
• AKAI MPK mini Play On 76 i7 Lemur with Ubuntu Studio 18.10
• AKAI MPK mini Play On Windows 10 Home 1803 (32 bit OS)
• AKAI Professional LPK25 On Windows Vista Home SP2
  
• AKAI proffesional MPK mini MKII On Windows 10 Home
  
• Alesis Q49 input device to Q49. OS [NA]
  
• Arturia Minilab Mk II
• Axiom Air Mini 32 - M-AUDIO On Windows 10 home
  
• Behringer UMC-204HD USB-Audio device On Ubuntu Linux] 18.04.1 LTS
  
• Casio CTK6300IN through USB On Windows 10 version 1704
  
• Casio CTK-591 MIDI to USB adapter Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS x86_64 4.15.0-50-generic, with JACK
• Casio PX-350M Digital Piano on Win7 Home SP1 & Win10 Home
  
• Casio Px-860 On win7 Driver update necessary!
• Korg micro keys 25 with Xubuntu 18.04.
  
• Korg NanoKontrol 2 on Linux.
  
• Korg Nano's ; Key, Drumpad and Controller. On Win7
  
• Korg Nanokey2 On Linux Mint
  
• M-Audio Keystation 61 ES under Kubuntu 10.04
  
• M_Audio Oxygen 25 MkII on Win7 Home SP1 & Win10 Home
  
• M-Audio Keystation mini 32 , on Linux and windows.
  
• M-AUDIO KEYSTATION 49es On Windows 10 Pro 64bit.
• MIDIPLUS AKM320 (32 Mini Size Key USB Midi Keyboard Controller) On Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP 1
  
• Midistart 3 pro keys' USB keyboard by miditech. On Windows
  
• Midistart Music 25 Windows 7 & Debian Sid,
  
• Nektar Impact LX25+ on Ubuntu 18.04
• Novation Launchkey 49 Windows 10, Does NOT work in LINUX-Ubuntu Mate
• Rockband 3 MIDI Keyboard w. MIDISport 1X1, & simple MIDI cable on win10
• Roland Juno-DS88 (Ivory-Like Keys) Windows 10 Pro OEM
• Roland E-300 Intelligent Keyboard - 64 Voice Polyphony w. OIBTECH USB MIDI Cable Interface. Windows 10 Pro version 1903...
• Swissonic easykey49 on ubuntu studio 18.04 64bits OS
• WORLDE Panda Mini controller on windows 10 64bit
  
• Yamaha DigitalKBD On Windows
  
• Yamaha DGX-640 Digital 88 Keyboard Yamaha USB-MIDI Driver V3.1.4 for Win 10/8.1/8/7 (64-bit)Windows 10 Home (64-Bit)
• Yamaha E413 keyboard. On WinXP SP3.
  
• Yamaha E443 keyboard. On Windows.
  
• Yamaha PSR 500m with MIDI-to-USB On Windows
  
• Yamaha PSR-E363 On Win10
  

List last Updated 4. May. 2020
________________________________________________________________
And then one that has been impossible to connect to LMMS:

• SAMSON Graphite M32

Other Working Hardware

• Akai professional midimix on ubuntu studio 18.04 64bits OS

Navigation

VL1 is a freeware emulator of the world famous classic calculator annex mini-synthesizer from the eighties made by Casio. VL1 is not a sample player, it is a real emulator that emulates the original hardware. All sounds are generated by software equivalents of the original circuits and the calculator actually works. This also means that ADSR sound programming is fully functional! VL1 was written in honour of Casio’s little VL-TONE that has given me many hours of pleasure and fun.

VL1 is a PC-only VSTi plugin (VST V2.3 or later).

How to use the VL1 VSTi

Stand-alone
Download Hermann Seib’s excellent SAVIHost, unpack it and rename the file “SAVIHost.exe” to “VL1.EXE”. Put this file in the same folder as the file “VL1.DLL”. Launch “VL1.EXE” and use the mouse to play the virtual instrument. All keys and sliders are fully functional in all modes. When you move the mouse over a key or slider, a tool tip will show up displaying in a more readable manner what the key is for. You may want to read the original Casio VL-TONE user’s manual to better understand what you can do with it (see the Download section).

VSTi
Copy the file “VL1.DLL” to the plugin folder of your favourite VST 2.3-compatible host. Make the host recognize VL1 by rescanning its plugin folder(s). You may have to restart the host program for this. Once your VST-compatible host recognizes VL1 you can use it as any other VSTi. VL1 will create two channels, one for the rhythm sounds and one for the synthesizer. The synthesizer is always on MIDI channel 1, the rhythm sounds are on MIDI channel 2. Currently there are only three rhythm sounds that live on the notes C3 (60), D3 (62) and E3 (64). You can use as many instances of VL1 as you like and your system can support.

Quick start guide

The VL-TONE is fairly simple to operate. Switch to “Play” mode, choose a sound and play the keyboard. However, there are some things that need a bit more explaining. A short description of these features follows below. Detailed manuals can be found in the Download section.

Rhythm
Rhythms need two keys to get going: first press the “Rhythm” key and then select the rhythm by pressing one of the white keys in the range left B … right D, as indicated by the tool-tip that pops up. You can then change tempo by pressing one of the tempo buttons. Note that you need stereo as rhythms are panned hard right whereas the synthesizer is panned hard left.

Recording
You can record and edit a melody of up to 100 notes. For this you should switch to “Rec” mode. Press “ML-C” to clear the memory and play your melody. Don’t worry about timing, because you can correct that afterwards. You can play along with a rhythm if you prefer, but note that the rhythm is not recorded. Stop recording by pressing “Reset”. (There are other ways to stop recording.) Now you can listen to your melody by pressing “Auto Play”. You can retime or edit your melody by stepping through it with the “One Key Play” keys. Delete a note by pressing “Del”, insert a note by playing it at the right position. These two operations will beep. When the memory is full the display will show a row of dots. Note that the tempo setting has an influence on the record timing.

ADSR
The best feature of the VL-TONE is probably ADSR programming. ADSR is a well-known acronym for most synthesizer players. For those who don’t know it, ADSR stands for Attack-Decay-Sustain-Release and in the case of the VL-TONE it relates to how the volume of a note evolves over time. See the manuals for the details, next will follow only a brief description.

Set the preset switch in the ADSR position and switch to “Cal” mode. Clear the memory by pressing “ML-C”, punch in a number, any number, and hit “M+” (or “M-“). Go back to “Play” mode and hit the keyboard. The sound you hear depends on the number you entered.

So how does the ADSR sound relate to the number? Easy: a sound is made up of 8 digits in a row, where every digit can have a value from 0 to 9:

• the first (most left) digit controls the wave form, the “sound”; 0=piano, 1=fantasy, 2=flute, 3=violin, 4=guitar1, 5=guitar2, 6=horn, 7=elektro1, 8=elektro2, 9=elektro3
• digit 2 is for the Attack of the volume, 0 is fast, 9 is slow;
• digit 3 is for the Decay of the volume, 0 is fast, 9 is slow;
• digits 4 & 5 control the Sustain of the volume; This is a bit more complicated as it is not a traditional sustain. If both are 9 you will get a continuous full-on constant sustain. For other combinations you will get different kinds of curves.
• digit 6 is for the Release, when you release a key. 0 is fast, 9 is slow;
• digit 7 is for vibrato, 0 is fast, 9 is slow;
• digit 8 (most right) is for tremolo, 0 is fast, 9 is slow;

Note that the sign of the number and its decimal point (if any) are ignored.

For the last time, refer to the manuals in the Download section for more detailed explanations.

Casio Keyboard Vst Download

Features

The goal when programming VL-1 was to get as close to the real thing as possible. During development I stumbled upon a number of subtleties that I had never noticed before and I have tried to emulate these as well. Some things however are different:

• automatic power down after some six minutes of inactivity has been left out
• the DC-clicks when changing between modes have not been implemented
• rhythm and melody have separate outputs
• finally MIDI (melody on channel 1, rhythm on channel 2)
• access to the individual rhythm sounds (C3, D3 & E3 on MIDI channel 2)
• automation of parameters

Some things have not yet been done

• tune (on the back of the VL-TONE)
• synchronization of rhythm and recorded melody with host
• separate simulated speaker and line outputs
• more memory for ADSR presets
• more rhythm sounds

Some things have to be done better

• automation
• other host-plugin related things
• rhythm noise sound

Finally some things that will probably never be implemented (by me)

• hand-over-speaker simulation, use a filter plugin instead
• low-battery distortion, use a distortion plugin instead
• AU, LADSPA or other plugin formats

VL-TONE versions

I know of several versions of the VL-TONE:

Casio VL-TONE with small LCD (white)
This is one that I picked up on eBay for 1 euro because it didn’t work. Luckily it was very easy to repair.

Casio VL-TONE with large LCD (white)
This is the first VL-TONE that I bought in 1981 or so.

Liwaco LW-610 (bordeaux red)
This model has French print on it. It seems identical to the small-LCD Casio VL-TONE.

Casio Keyboard Vst Torrent

Realistic Concertmate 200 (white)
Identical to the small-LCD Casio VL-TONE, but with different branding.

Elektronika IM-46 (black and white)
Thanks to Kirill Surovtsev I am now aware of a Russian version, the Elektronika IM-46 or Elecim 46. It seems to have the large LCD. More pictures are here.

If you know of other VL-TONE versions, please drop me a line.

Download

V1.0.1.0 (22/12/2006)
This version fixes a problem brought to my attention by David Boeser. The problem was due to the new handling of live MIDI events (f.i. when you play an external MIDI keyboard) as introduced in VST V2.4. This new handling interfered with the MIDI event handling of the VL-TONE emulator (VST V2.3), resulting in stuck notes and no more sound.

V1.0.0.0 (7/12/2006)
This is the first release.

Source code
The source code was lost for a long time, but recently I stumbled upon it when cleaning up some hard disks. I don’t know if it is complete. It was done with Visual Studio 6.

Schematics
Analog board only, I will not do the digital board.

Manuals
English, from www.oldschool-sound.com
French, contributed by Harry
German, contributed by Daniel Balle
Russian, found on a soviet file sharing server
Swedish, contributed by Patrik Markusson

Song books
Concertmate melodies, contributed by George Portier

License

“VL1.DLL” (the software) is not for resale and may not be sold nor distributed without prior written approval of the author. “VL1.DLL” may only be obtained by downloading it from www.polyvalens.com

“VL1.DLL” may be used in commercial productions as long as these productions do not include the software itself.

If you are unsure if what you want to do with this software is covered by this license contact the author at www.polyvalens.com

Credits

All trademarks are property of their respective owners.
“VL1.DLL” is copyright Clemens Valens (www.polyvalens.com)
VST Plugin technology by Steinberg (www.steinberg.de)
The real thing was made by CASIO (www.casio.com)

Free Casio Vst

Contact