Recommend a synth for a 13 month-old girl

Aaron writes: "My daughter likes the volume and tempo knobs and buttons on her 1980 Yamaha Portasound better than the mini keys, but she tends to pull the knobs off. Same with my electric piano, though its few knobs are more tug-resistant. I'm reluctant to let her play my relatively fragile X-Station, so I am looking for a synth keyboard that will let her tweak away without choking hazard.
Requirements: Tough knobs that can withstand tugging and teeth, built in speakers since cords are for yanking and chewing, an arpeggiator and/or rhythm generator so she can get her groove on. The cheaper the better, but if it is something that she can grow up with, we might be able to spend more." Obviously the perfect solution would be a Cybersongosse, apart from the cheap bit. Any more sensible suggestions? (The picture shows my son Alex rocking the Alesis Ion at 18 months)

Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Comments:

Aaron, your daughter and my daughter should work together sometime...

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:43 am

your description seems to be describing a casio sk 1
you can get them on ebay for around $30

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:22 am

I've got a Casio SA-39 that's gathering dust on a shelf in my studio that I could let you have for US$20 plus shipping if you want to pay through PayPal.com or with a check.

If you're interested contact me at johnsrude "at" yahoo.com.

Cheers,
Kevin

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:23 am

oops.. posted this in the wrong thread... so here it is..

you could get here a circuit bent something or other that only has buttons. ??? a lot of those things have built-in speakers.

or one of those cheapo yamaha drum pad things? some wierdly tuned bongos?

too bad roland mc-303's dont have built in speakers..

# posted by

Anonymous : 8:25 am

I had a Casio VL-Tone from when I was around 2, and it lasted until I was 8-9 despite being bashed around a lot. That and a tape of Kraftwerk given to me when I was 6 sorted me out, although I never understood why since neither of my parents like electronica... you can still pick up VL-Tones on eBay for under £20.

# posted by

Anonymous : 11:30 am

Take the yamaha and glue the controls onto their shafts with superglue.
You won't be able to take it apart for repair, but who sends their 1980 portasounds for repair anyway?

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:19 pm

Well my kids (14months, 4 and 6 years old) love my korg electribes. Lots of flashing lights and cool sounds to be made while tweaking knobs. I would recommend any of the early ones, ES-1,EA-1, ER1, and EM-1. They have no sharp edges on the molded plastic cases which is very kid safe. Like someone else mentioned, I would glue the knobs on for a really small child, to avoid any choking hazard. I picked up each one of the mentioned grooveboxes for $75 each, used.

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:50 pm

I had a Yamaha CS-1X that was pretty damned bulletproof, and it's an excellent synth available regularly on eBay for under $200.

# posted by

Dave : 12:59 pm

Suggestions:

80's Casio organs. They usually have an arpegiator and a rhythm section + some tone controls. I think they're Casio CT's

Yamaha Portasound PSS-480 or 680: with FM synthesis. One of the PSS keyboards has sliders... not sure which one it is, but it was reviewed in TapeOp a few issues back.

If you want to spend a bit of money, your best bet is Roland Juno HS-60 (106 with built in speakers)

If you didn't need built in speakers, you'd have a lot more options.

# posted by

msutherl : 1:41 pm

My wife found a Yamaha Portasound PSS-480 at a yard-sale for $2. She knows to buy such things for me :-) But that is what I let our 13 month old son play with... It has no knobs, lots of buttons, and just two sliders. One for on/off and one for volume.

# posted by

Jeremy : 2:20 pm

If she likes to turn knobs (and who doesnt?), I would like to suggest you actually buy something that has knobs and just replace the push-on knobs with ones that attach with a set-screw, like the kind you can get from Radio Shack. I don't think she'll be able to pull them off! Good luck =)

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:32 pm

My daughter at the age of 8 months really liked my zoom drumpad.
I hooked it up o the stereo and she played as good as I do :)

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:39 pm

Oh, I almost forgot.

€50 gets you a wood-encased synth with a pure analog signal path, lots of control and a built in speaker: The Cracklebox

Alex loves it, although it is slightly annoying when he's playing with it (it's very, very noisy)

# posted by

Tom Whitwell : 3:53 pm

my little lady [almost one year] started on the 50'es philicorda organ, moved on to the casio v1, and REALLY loves the casio sk5...
but the real hit is the casio dh100 midi saxophone [in key only mode - she obviously cant blow the thing]...
go casio!
also a wind up radio, the eton fr200, is a very good thing for static and glitch...
oh and nothing has broken yet!
:)

# posted by

Anonymous : 3:54 pm

our apartment is so small, that my almost-2-yr-old has full access to all my gear. (i can hear you all gasping now). she is actually pretty good around it. the keyboards are high enough for her to only touch the keys (unless she gets on the couch which is adjacent to the boards). her weapon of choice, however, is a casio sa-32, that can play happy birthday over and over and over. that casio is not recommended. also, she's had a lot of fun singing what she sees in her books while strumming the guitar.

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:15 pm

Strikes me that the ideal would be an old Moog Source: I looked on eBay, there aren't any around right now but you never know…

[btw, is it just me or is blogger more resistant to auto-login than any other type of board?]

# posted by

Anonymous : 7:33 pm

easy: yamaha DJX. made for beating by kids, sounds great, even has some decent features .. check it, yo!

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:27 pm

I second the motion recommending the yamaya DJX

# posted by

Anonymous : 9:21 pm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tekkaz/64433633/

This girls dad bought her a buchla, hmmm.. I wish my dad had bought me a buchla. Get her a little keyboard and put a pitch knob, everyone (especially little kids) love tweaking things that are quite distinguishable (if that is a word)

good luck!

Keith.

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:20 pm

Hey I'm a Musical Interaction Designer for children. Dare me, and I just might design the perfect synth for 18-month olds!!

# posted by

Sick Brothers : 5:27 pm

get a proper analogue synth for her. Most of them are damn near unbreakable.

Or Maybe a cracklebox? Those are fun.

Or an Alesis AirSynth. Or a theremin? It takes years to learn play the damned things, might as well start early :)

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:53 pm

There's an extremely simple way to do what you want.. with the synths you have already.

Take your synth to a electronics repair shop and have the knobs and potentiometers replaced with ones that are screwed on (there's a small screw in the side). The kids won't take that off!

cheers
cheatercheater00@gmail.com

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:38 am

Concertmate MG 1

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:54 am

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# posted by

Anonymous : 7:54 pm