Synthesizing calculator

[Joseph_21sv]

In the 1980s, Casio produced two models of eight digit square wave based monophonic synthesizing calculators with 100-step sequencers and 19 selectable tempi: the VL-1/10 and the VL-80. Of these two, the VL-1/10 is the fuller featured synthesizer with five preset instrument sounds, ten preset percussion patterns and an envelope with waveform, attack, decay, sustain level and time, release time, vibrato and tremolo programmable by entering an eight digit number into the calculator's memory. Although this synthesizer was popular at its time and stays popular today, nobody really developed further on the concept of a synthesizing calculator either on the synthesizer or calculator side of the equation. How could so many companies, including HP, have failed to see the potential business in a synthesizing calculator with MIDI or a synthesizing scientific or financial calculator? What might it have looked like for some company to make a more advanced synthesizing calculator?