Casionelle VL-1 recreates the Casio VL-1 (VL-Tone, 1979) on the Organelle. The sound engine is a C port of the DSP of an open-source VL-1 VST emulator. It uses the original wave shapes, the 15-level envelope tables, the RC envelope shaper, the LFO rates, the rhythm patterns and the speaker response. The engine is a single external, vl1~, and main.pd only connects it to the Organelle.
The patch is monophonic, like the original: each new key replaces the previous note. Aux switches between 4 pages and the LED shows which page you are on. Knobs use pick-up. After changing page or program, a knob does nothing until it crosses the stored value, and the screen shows + or – to tell you which way to turn it.
Page 1 – SOUND
Knob 1 – Sound: the 10 VL-1 voices: Piano, Fantasy, Violin, Flute, Guitar 1, Guitar 2, Horn, Electro 1, Electro 2, Electro 3. The Electro voices are Piano, Fantasy and Violin with the octave alternating up and down in time with the tempo.
Knob 2 – Attack (0-9): how long the note takes to reach full level.
Knob 3 – Decay (0-9): how quickly the level falls after the attack. 0 means no decay.
Knob 4 – Sustain level (0-9): the level the note settles at after the decay.
Page 2 – ENV/MOD
Knob 1 – Sustain time (0-9): how long the sustain lasts before fading. 9 holds the note indefinitely.
Knob 2 – Release (0-9): how long the note fades after you let go of the key.
Knob 3 – Vibrato (0-9): pitch modulation. 0 is off. Higher numbers are a slower vibrato.
Knob 4 – Tremolo (0-9): volume modulation. 0 is off. Higher numbers are a slower tremolo.
Page 3 – PLAY
Knob 1 – Octave: Low, Middle or High.
Knob 2 – Tune: ±50 cents.
Knob 3 – Tempo (-9 to +9): sets the rhythm speed and the speed of the octave jumps in the Electro voices.
Knob 4 – Rhythm: Off, or one of the 10 rhythms: March, Waltz, 4 Beat, Swing, Rock 1, Rock 2, Bossa Nova, Samba, Rhumba, Beguine. A rhythm starts after the knob has been still for about 0.2 s, so turning through the list does not trigger each one.
Page 4 – SETUP
Knob 1 – Program: loads one of the factory VL-1 sounds (Piano, Fantasy, Violin, Flute, Guitar) into pages 1 and 2. “User” leaves the current values untouched.
Knob 2 – Volume.
Knob 3 – Balance: mix between the melody and the rhythm.
Knob 4 – Speaker: On or Off. On filters the melody the way the VL-1’s small speaker does (low-pass at 800 Hz, high-pass at 65 Hz), which gives the authentic thin, toy-like tone. Off gives the raw output with a brighter, harsher sound and more low end. The speaker filter does not affect the rhythm.
Enjoy :)
