Casio has teased a sampler inspired by vintage toys

Casio showed up at NAMM (CES for music gear nerds) this year with a Prototype sampling He called SX-C1 Who looks in every way like the beloved child of A Game Boy and SP-404. The top has a direction pad and four buttons just like you’d find on a gaming console, surrounded by a 1.3-inch OLED display. But underneath, there are 16 rubber sampler pads with crunchy dot number stickers on them.

the device on the screen The display has not been fully finalized, so specifications are subject to change. Casio says the final version will feature 16 polyphonic sounds and 16-bit/48kHz recording samples. It will also contain 10 sample banks, for a total of 160 sample slots, spread across 64GB of internal storage. It will also be pre-loaded with samples collected from classic Casio gear.

There are also two effects slots, as evidenced by the two reels labeled FX1 and FX2. Exactly what the effects are and how they will be implemented is unknown at the moment, although the crusher and delay sound can be clearly heard in the demo clip below.

Likewise, there is a grid-style step sequencer that gives seriousness TR-707 Oscillations. But again, there are no specifications for the sequencer at this time. One thing we do know is that there will be proper sample clipping with a visible waveform like you get on the Roland SP-404MKII, the kind that isn’t available on more affordable portable samplers like Teenage Engineering’s PU-33 or BU-133.

The SX-C1 will have a built-in microphone and speaker and can be powered by AAAs for truly standalone operation. But it also has 1/8-inch input and output jacks, a headphone jack, and two USB-C ports. These USB ports can be used for power and audio, so you can connect them directly to your computer to experience your favorite YouTube clip.

This marks Casio’s return to the world of samplers after a very long absence. 1980s models, incl FZ-1 and SK-1It was creative, but things have been quiet since then. When might the Casio SX-C1 sampler be available, how much will it cost, and whether or not it will be available Until you come to the United States It’s all unknown at the moment, but we’ve reached out to Casio for more details.