CASIO SA-65 small keyboard with interesting lo-fi wavetable sounds, LCD display & lovely demos

This keyboard of 1997 (embossed case date) was the top of the line model of Casio's classic SA-series. While the sound set corresponds Casio SA-1, the  rhythm set and song bank rather resemble SA-35.

Great is that unlike its predecessors has 37 midsize keys and an LCD which graphically indicates besides some parameters the position of currently played notes on note lines. Annoying is that it plays too loud because volume can not be set lower than medium.

This instrument was later re-released as Casio SA-67 (with silver control panel and blue display frame).

main features:

eastereggs:

notes:

The case construction has unusual waterfall style midsize keys, held by end tabs visible at case bottom. All sounds of this instrument sound cleaner and less harsh than in Casio SA-1; apparently it is better filtered. Unlike other SA keyboards, pressed buttons play no noises here (likely because the LCD gives visual feedback instead) and thus don't disturb live performance anymore. Unfortunately the user interface has a small design flaw: the volume or tempo buttons always switch the control panel into volume or tempo entry mode (the mode is indicated by an arrow on the LCD), in which no preset sound or rhythm can be selected anymore (despite the cipher buttons can not be used for volume/ tempo entry anyway),  thus you have to switch it back by pressing the "tone" or "pattern" button again each time you select a sound or rhythm after changing volume or tempo. This is no severe problem since you can access these buttons with one hand together with the cipher buttons, but it still disturbs some live play tricks. (Like with other SA series keyboards you can e.g. hold notes and switch the preset sound or volume, which then only affects new played notes while the old note keeps playing on its initial sound until you release the key. Also the pattern speed of ringing mandolins etc. still changes the known way with the volume setting.) But volume can not be set lower than average ambient loudness. There is also no sound output jack despite the PCB has empty solder holes for it; the similarly sized Casio SA-35 still had one.

The preset sound set resembles very much the 100 ToneBank of Casio SA-1 (see there), but by the longer keyboard you can play 5 additional lower notes here. There are only few differences; e.g. the "metal guitar" and "metal lead" play a different chord. Also the split points of split sounds are different (to fit to the longer keyboard), and the pitch of some non- melodic sounds is different. A bit annoying is that the "sample percussion" (sort of gong with orchestral hit) plays here only on a fixed pitch, while on SA-1 many pitches (narrower than normal tone scale) were distributed over the keyboard. But in comparison to my Casio PA-31, most sounds on the SA-65 play a bit more sonorous, more open and clearer, while the PA-31 sounds more pale and muffled. Generally I like most of the SA-65 timbres better.

The rhythm set resembles much the Casio SA-35, but has a few additional rhythms. Unfortunately the accompaniments are still fixed- key and thus badly suited for melody play, but they can be inspiring for tekkno- like things. The new pattern "cheer" is a squarewave(?) organ fanfare loop (like from a historical videogame) while "accident" is a synth loop with ambulance siren and photo camera clicks.
 
The LCD shows 5 parameter values {volume, tempo, sound no., rhythm no., song no.} one at a time; an arrow indicates the parameter name. When you play notes, the LCD shows black dots on their note lines, which can be useful to learn which keys belong to which note pitches. When only naturals (white keys) are pressed, it displays their note dots simultaneously, while with sharps (black keys) it cycles through them alternatingly with about 2Hz by the lack of separate "b" and "#" symbols for the individual notes. It can only show black dots (like full notes) and not different note characters. During rhythm or demos a metronome with flashing notes and a walking dot row is displayed.

The instrument has a song bank of 10 wonderful orchestrated polyphonic demo melodies:

  1. Ode to Joy
  2. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
  3. Santa Lucia
  4. Yankee Doodle
  5. Minuet (J.S. Bach)
  6. On the Bridge of Avignon
  7. Silent Night
  8. Aura Lee
  9. Skaters Waltz
  10. Little Brown Jug
They can be played separately or repeated in a sequence. With the "melody off" button the demo songs can be started with main voice muted to play to their accompaniment. Unfortunately this button does not take effect while the music is playing, thus you can not switch back and forward to simply mute the main voice, improvise a few bars and continue with the original melody track like on most other keyboards with this feature. Interesting is that you can switch to different preset sounds (including non-melodic ones) during demos, those play as their main voice.
 

hardware details

The Casio SA-65 is based on the CPU "OKI M6387B-A28" with LCD controller "Sanyo LC75821".

Like other SA series keyboards, also the SA-65 has a 30 pin CPU of the "OKI M6387" family, but this one has additionally an LCD controller IC on the back of the PCB. The LCD here fortunately has 2 silicone contact strips instead of the infamous fragile Casio foil cable.

keyboard matrix

Because of the longer keyboard, the SA-65 matrix layout strongly differs from other SA-series instruments. Beside 3 lower note keys there are no interesting eastereggs.

This matrix is based on the Casio SA-65 service manual.
 
11 KI0
12 KI1
13 KI2
14 KI3
15 KI4
16 KI5
17 KI6
18 KI7
 
CPU pin
in 0
in 1
in 2
in 3
in 4
in 5
in 6
in 7
in / out
 
o
A2
o
A#2
o
B2
o
C3
o
C#3
o
D3
o
D#3
o
E3
out 0
30 KO0
o
F3
o
F#3
o
G3
o
G#3
o
A3
o
A#3
o
B3
o
C4
out 1
29 KO1
o
C#4
o
D4
o
D#4
o
E4
o
F4
o
F#4
o
G4
o
G#4
out 2
28 KO2
o
A4
o
A#4
o
B4
o
C5
o
C#5
o
D5
o
D#5
o
E5
out 3
27 KO3
o
F5
o
F#5
o
G5
o
G#5
o
A5
o
A#5
o
B5
o
C6
out 4
26 KO4
N.
'0'
N.
'1'
N.
'2'
N.
'3'
N.
'4'
tempo
+
melody off
select
out 5
25 KO5
N.
'5'
N.
'6'
N.
'7'
N.
'8'
N.
'9'
volume
+
tempo
-
 volume
+
out 6
24 KO6
song bank
pattern
tone
-
-
start/stop
volume
-
start/stop
out 7
23 KO7

The input lines are active-high, i.e. react on +Vs. Any functions can be triggered by a non- locking switch in series to a diode from one "out" to one "in" pin.
 

legend:

"o"
= keyboard key
N.
= numbers (cipher buttons)
orange
background 
= easteregg
grey 
background
= unconnected doublet

pinout LC75821

The "LC75821, 9CD1" (64 pin SMD, service manual name "KS0035") is the documented LCD controller IC of Casio SA-65. It receives serial data from a CPU to controll an LCD with up to 53 segment pins.

This pinout is based on the service manual of Casio SA-65 and datasheet "Sanyo LC75821E, LC75821W".
 
pin name purpose
1 S1 lcd segment out
2 S2 lcd segment out
3 S3 lcd segment out
4 S4 lcd segment out
5 S5 lcd segment out
6 S6 lcd segment out
7 S7 lcd segment out
8 S8 lcd segment out
9 S9 lcd segment out
10 S10 lcd segment out
11 S11 lcd segment out
12 S12 lcd segment out
13 S13 lcd segment out
14 S14 lcd segment out
15 S15 lcd segment out (not used)
16 S16 lcd segment out (not used)
17 S17 lcd segment out (not used)
18 S18 lcd segment out
19 S18 lcd segment out
20 S20 lcd segment out
21 S21 lcd segment out (not used)
22 S22 lcd segment out (not used)
23 S23 lcd segment out (not used)
24 OPEN NC 
25 S24 lcd segment out (not used)
26 S25 lcd segment out (not used)
27 S26 lcd segment out (not used)
28 S27 lcd segment out (not used)
29 S28 lcd segment out (not used)
30 S29 lcd segment out (not used)
31 S30 lcd segment out
32 S31 lcd segment out
pin name purpose
33 S32 lcd segment out
34 S33 lcd segment out
35 S34 lcd segment out
36 S35 lcd segment out (not used)
37 S36 lcd segment out
38 S37 lcd segment out
39 S38 lcd segment out
40 S39 lcd segment out
41 S40 lcd segment out
42 S41 lcd segment out
43 S42 lcd segment out
44 S43 lcd segment out
45 S44 lcd segment out
46 S45 lcd segment out
47 S46 lcd segment out
48 S47 lcd segment out (not used)
49 S48 lcd segment out (not used)
50 S49 lcd segment out (not used)
51 S50 lcd segment out (not used)
52 S51 lcd segment out (not used)
53 S52 lcd segment out (not used)
54 S53 lcd segment out (not used)
55 OSC clock in
56 VDD supply voltage +5V
57 -INH lcd blanking in
58 VLCD lcd supply voltage +5V
59 VSS ground 0V
60 CE chip enable in
61 CLK bit clock in
62 DATA data in
63 COM2 lcd common 1
64 COM1 lcd common 2

A new case variant of this instrument was released as Casio SA-75 (different silver metallic case, same features, seen on eBay.) The case design of Casio SA-65 was blatantly imitated in the Jin Xin Toys JX-20165 and (less extreme) the Elecking - My Party Piano.
 

 removal of these screws voids warranty...    
WarrantyVoid
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