Casio Keyboards

From Homestar Runner Wiki

Revision as of 11:52, 29 August 2025

Ah, the melodious tunes of a cheap, affordable synthesizer

From a 2003 interview with Club Aquatica:

DAN: The Cheat's playing a Casio in the Puppet thing. Is that what you play?
MATT CHAPMAN: Yeah, that's where all of those cheesy tunes on the site come from. We have a stack of five old Casios and almost all the music on the site comes from those.

Casio keyboards, particularly of the Casiotone line, are used to make most of the music for the Homestar Runner cartoons. They also make appearances in some of the toons.

Models Used

The Cheat's phat Casio staxx: (top to bottom) VL-1, SK-1, HT-700, CT-405

Showing off keyboards in the stu-jo: (left to right) SK-1, HT-700, Playtime Keyboard

• Casio VL-1 — Used for Casio Head Strong Bad's head, and its music can be heard when the character expresses emotions.
  • The Chaps' real VL-1 is used for the character's puppet incarnation.
• Casiotone 405
  • TROGDOR! sound effects
• Casiotone MT-65^[a] — The majority of the site's music is performed on the Casio MT-65.
  • In Search of the Yello Dello theme
  • The Lappy's startup sound was created using the "Funny" preset.
• Casiotone MT-100^[a] — Demo tracks and riffs of the Casio MT-100 have been used occasionally.
  • Two of the "rock" bass demos form the background riffs in the "Laserdisc" song from lady...ing.
• Casio SK-1 — Used to craft some of homestarrunner.com's earliest tunes:
  • Old Intro ("Chord" rhythm)
  • A Jumping Jack Contest intro credits ("Rock" rhythm)
  • Eggs ("Pop" rhythm)
  • Homestarloween Party
  • A Jorb Well Done
  • Where's The Cheat?
  • Emails lures and jigs, alternate universe, and parenting ("Human Voice" preset)
• Casio HT-700

Non-Casio keyboards

The FAQ also jokes that they use "worse" keyboards than those from Casio.

• Playtime Keyboard —
  • Main Page 21 — "Hip Hop" drum loop plays when mousing over Games
  • Decemberween Sweet Cuppin' Cakes — "Jingle Bells" demo
  • alternate universe — "Hip Hop" loop plays in the Vector Field

Appearances

• FAQ — According to the Brothers Chaps, most of the music on the site is made with "old Casio keyboards or worse".
• flag day — First appearance of The Cheat's Keyboard, an SK-1.
• Email crazy cartoon — First appearance of Casio Head Strong Bad, whose head is a VL-Tone.
• @StrongBadActual tweet (21 Aug 2015) — Strong Bad shows off "The Cheat's phat Casio staxx".
• Vox Interview - 6 Oct 2015 — The brothers are photographed in their recording booth. Mike poses with a stack of keyboards: the Playtime, SK-1, and 405.
• Screenland - 24 Apr 2017 — Mike uses the Casiotone 405 to compose the music for Homestar Runner Goes for the Gold.
• @StrongBadActual tweet (8 Aug 2017) — Three friends of the Brothers Chaps pose with keyboards.

Notes

1. ^  Not officially confirmed (i.e., neither mentioned in an interview nor shown on-camera), rather best-guess identified via sound and/or rhythm. As some presets reoccur across several Casiotone models, these identifications may not be accurate.

External Links

• Casio VL-Tone Emulator by PolyValens
• easytoolz Casio freeware emulators