Chromatic Instruments Pistachiotone MR-65 revives the Casio MT-65 mini keyboard in a free fully-featured Kontakt library for your DAW.
As the owner of the Native Instruments Kontakt sampler plugin, you can enjoy many powerful virtual instruments. The range is vast, from orchestral and detailed acoustic to full-fledged synthesizers. There are also some free gems you can’t miss. One of them is brand new.
Chromatic Instruments has released Pistachiotone MR-65, a free virtual instrument for Kontakt 6.8 (full version) that features the sounds of the retro Casio Casiotone MT-65 mini keyboard from 1983.
Chromatic Instruments Pistachiotone MR-65
Pistachiotone MR-65 revives the Casio CasioTone MT-65 from 1983 in your DAW. Not as a plugin but as a comprehensive virtual instrument for the full version of the Kontakt 6+ sampler.
Chromatic Instruments has multi-sampled the MT-65 keyboard in detail for the Pistachiotone MR-65 virtual instrument. Unlike many free Kontakt libraries, the developer has designed a fully-featured interface that takes you back to the original hardware.
It features the full sound catalog of the Casio MT-65, including all 20 original tone presets, each with four modulation variations, all original accompaniment presets (4 bass and 4 chords), and all seven original rhythm one-shots.
Additionally, Chromatic Instruments added sampled bright versions of each bass, chord, and tone presets without the filter circuit engaged. All these sounds are packed with controls not available to this extent on the Casio MT-65.
For example, the seven original rhythm one-shots offer separate character, tuning, and volume controls for each sample. Plus, you can explore three different rhythm sampler modes using the settings menu.
Playing & Shaping
Then, Chromatic Instruments implemented a faithful recreation of the fingered and pistachio chord auto-chord playing modes in the Pistachiotone MR-65.
The fingered mode automatically picks a suitable bass note for any chord played, while the pistachio chord mode plays major, minor, dominant 7th, or Minor 7th chords based on the number of keys pressed at one time.
It also hosts a multi-FX section with a bit-crusher, saturator, stereo chorus, tape delay, and digital to refine your sounds. Nicely, each effect has two types to choose from. Plus, you can find filter and pitch modulation sections with bipolar envelopes, multi-shaped LFOs, and formant controls.
I’m not joking. There are more features hidden behind a setting menu: individual master volume controls, filter tracking, nine additional filter types, three additional formant types, mono & poly playing modes, and more. On top of that, you can play with a randomizer for instant new sounds.
Phew… that’s a packed free Kontakt library. If that’s too many parameters, no panic. Chromatic Instruments ships Pistachiotone MR-65 with over 100 ready-to-play presets, including pads, leads, effects, retro synth sounds, and more.
First Impression
Based on the linked demo, this library sounds very beautiful and authentic. In the few minutes I spent listening, I heard many charming retro sounds. Anyone who owns the full version of Kontakt 6 or higher and loves retro keyboards shouldn’t miss this gem.
Chromatic Instruments Pistachiotone MR-65 is a free download (donationware 0€+). It requires the full version of Kontakt 6.8.0 or later and is incompatible with the free Kontakt Player.
More information here: Chromatic Instruments
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