Music
Fun - Melody Keyboard (My Music Center variant
with many demo melodies)
This yellow tablehooter from 1996(?) is one of the many My
Music Center variants, but remarkable is that the case is a blatant
imitation of Casio
KA-20. Much like My Song Maker
it has 37 keys, many demo tunes and no animal samples anymore. But unlike
the latter it has still the annoying polyphony flaw of the original My
Music Center and the "one key play" feature here plays only the monophonic
melody voice of the demos without any accompaniment. But at least the 19
demos are nicely made.
On eBay I saw that the trade name on its box of such an instrument
was "Music Fun - Melody Keyboard". On the back of the case is an
embossed label "© SUN TA TOYS . SDN . BHD . 1996", which may be the
genuine model name. The instrument behaves mainly like My Song Maker
(see there), thus I describe here only the
differences to the latter.
different main features:
-
37 midsize keys (very responsive)
-
theoretically 2 note polyphony, but a chip bug randomly cuts the tone of
a held down key when a 2nd is pressed =>only monophonic play is reliably
possible.
-
built-in speaker (quite hissy)
-
8 OBS preset sounds {piano, organ, violin, bell, music box, guitar, new
organ, trumpet}
-
8 OBS rhythms {slow rock, rock, hip hop, disco, march, waltz, samba, blues}
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drumroll mode button is here labelled "on/ off drum" instead of "drum/
samba"
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4 plastic drumpads {base, snare, hihat, cymbal} (hihat is mislabelled "block
drum")
-
19 demo tunes available
-
"one key play" mode for demo tunes exists (no accompaniment, only melody
voice)
-
primitive sequencer stores 37 notes (no drumpads)
-
no start-up jingle
-
button presses make a typewriter noise instead of a beep sound
-
battery alarm (2 cymbal noises)
notes:
This instrument may be a predecessor of My Song Maker since it has
still the annoying polyphony flaw of My Music Center, but strange
is that it has 2 different sounds and some different rhythms while My
Song Maker behaves exactly like My Music Center. Unlike these
it is bigger and has midsize keys those react on very little pressure.
The case is a blatant imitation of Casio
KA-20 and even its protectors are rubber- like (soft PVC?), although
the case is more orange and the protectors more reddish than the original.
(The easily detachable protectors can be even exchanged between both cases.)
Although My Music Center was also inspired by this case design,
it has hard plastic protectors, different colours and mini keys, thus possibly
the Melody Keyboard might be even older.
In comparison to My Song Maker all sounds except "guitar", "trumpet"
and "new organ" play 1 octave lower, thus you can play lower bass notes
than on other keyboards of this hardware family. (Pitching down the clock
by circuit bending would sound different, because it makes aliasing noise
audible and slows down envelopes.) Most preset sounds of the Melody
Keyboard are like My Music Center, but instead of the ringing
"mandolin" it has now "new organ", which sounds like a harsh pipe organ,
and the extremely harsh "trumpet" has been replaced with a duller brassy
tone without chorus effect that resembles an oboe. Also the drum solo patterns
are different and the "new age" rhythm was renamed again into "hip hop".
Unlike My Song Maker here the demo select button has to be pressed
simultaneously with a white key to select a song. The "one key play" feature
of the 19 demo tunes here only plays the monophonic main voice without
any rhythm or accompaniment.
The demo melodies of this instrument are:
-
Jingle Bells
-
Happy Birthday
-
Republic March (Glory Glory Hallelujah)
-
?
-
Alle Vögel Sind Schon Da
-
Oh My Darling Clementine
-
Little Bee/ Hänschen Klein
-
London Bridge Is Falling Down
-
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
-
The Little Donkey
-
Santa Lucia
-
Are You Sleeping
-
("Grobda/ The Hand" arcade videogame theme)
-
?
-
?
-
Old Mac Donald Had a Farm
-
Yankee Doodle
-
(slow oriental tune)
-
Little Miner
Most of these tunes are quite short and repeat in a loop. The orchestrations
are not bad and vary a lot; some include quite furious, orchestrion- like
march rhythms. The "Jingle Bells" demo of the Melody Keyboard features
no trilled notes and thus sounds less like the Casio
KA-20 version than the one on My Music Center.
Possibly the same CPU like in the Melody Keyboard was also used
in the
High Frequency/ SoundWave (or SoundWaves?)
keyboard (black case with 2 speakers at the sides, 37 midsize keys, likely
identical with the cyan Master Sound keyboard); I once saw it in
a Toys'R'Us shopping center and remember that it behaved quite similar.
| removal
of these screws voids warranty... |
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