VSS Volca + Flute LoFi Synth

Getting the opportunity to play one of those old sampling keyboards like the Casio SK-1 is something which has been on my musical bucket list for quite some time. I was never a fan of how expensive they were getting, though.

Then one day I was perusing through my local classifieds again (same old story with the khaen; I think I’m detecting a pattern) and spotted a Yamaha VSS-30 sampling keyboard for sale. I did some research, and the VSS-30 appeared to be Yamaha’s answer to Casio’s aforementioned SK-1 sampler, which was released a little earlier. The price was right and the seller was only a train ride away. Thus, the old sampler was mine before the day had ended.

The VSS works like a charm — keys, microphone and all. Not only that, but I found an adapter buried in an old junk drawer which could let it sample from an instrument’s direct input. The brain immediately said, “GET THIS TO PIANOBOOK. NOW.”

I took a Korg Volca purchased a while back, and a Navajo wood flute gifted to me by my aunt, and immediately got to recording.

LoFi Lead, Ana-LoFi-Log Percussion, Dance Supersaw, Kittens from Space, Saw Harp, and Super Genesis Strings were all made from the Volca directly inputted into the VSS.

LoFi Navajo Flute and LoFi Navajo House Stabs were made by playing the flute into the on-keyboard microphone (the latter of which utilizes the “overwrite” function to stack recordings onto each other. May have to experiment with that more in a future sample instrument…).

Yours Truly Choral Fifths was my own voice recorded via the built-in microphone.

Lastly, True Galactic Harp was a modified sound which came straight from the keyboard itself.

The resulting sounds are very reminiscent of Super Nintendo-style 16-bit instrument samples, and I very much enjoy that sound. Hope you enjoy it, too! 👋😄

And a very special thank you to Mr. David Hilowitz for giving us the Decent Sampler plugin! You rock and roll! 😁👍