OK, I ADMIT IT. The Casio MIDI Horn does actually look like "Sooty's Magic Saxophone", and you could look like a bit of a wally playing it. But before you dismiss it as just another musical toy, find out what it can do and you may think again.

The history of the synthesiser has been blighted by the common assumption that electronic music must always sound "cold", "emotionless" or "clinical". The robotic posturings of bands like the wonderful Kraftwerk did little to dispel the image. But, as composer David Vorhaus pointed out, if synths didn't sound expressive, it was mainly because they were played with keyboards. His solution was the revolutionary Kaleidophon controller; other developers sought to interface synths with more conventional instruments such as guitars and wind instruments.

With the advent of MIDI, and all its possibilities for control of subtleties of expression, and the appearance of velocity and aftertouch sensitive keyboard, part of this early problem has been solved. But there are still things you just can't play on a keyboard; hence the continued interest in guitar-synths and wind controllers like the Akai EWI/EVI and Yamaha WX7.

But for many people, including Vince Clarke and Andy Bell of Erasure, the most interesting wind controller had to be last year's Casio DH100. Guess why? Because it was cheap. Now the updated version — the DH800 — is available, and though it still looks like a toy, it adds a few more twists which make it worth another look.

The DH-800 is finished in black rather than the 100's tacky silver. Apart from that, it looks substantially the same. It weighs about 1 Kg and features a sax-like shape, finishing in a 2W speaker mounted in the bell, with a system of control keys and a few unobtrusive function buttons mounted on the sides.

Load it with batteries or plug in the external power supply , adjust the neck-strap, place your thumb on the thumb-hold, switch on, and you can play instantly by blowing into the mouthpiece and fingering the keys. There are two different fingering modes. In the standard one, the DH-800 is played exactly like a recorder, so if you were ever forced to play one in school, you'll now appreciate the practise. In recorder mode it has a range of two octaves; C-B, with a Sharp key in the centre and an octave key on the rear operated thumb. Portamento (glide between notes) can be introduced by holding down the top key. If you do this when you switch on, the DH-800 goes into Casio fingering mode. Here, an entire scale can be played on three keys, using others to raise and lower the pitch a semitone, and to move up or down an octave. Unfortunately, I found this mode almost impossible to master.

Whatever you select, you have the same choice of basic sounds: sax, trumpet, synth-reed, oboe, clarinet and flute, selected using a cycling button on the side. Casio's description of them as "ultra-realistic" does stretch the truth a little, but with sympathetic playing, most of them can sound remarkably expressive. All the sounds are velocity sensitive, playing louder as you blow harder, and have a built-in delayed vibrato. If you try using conventional wind instrument "double-tonguing" techniques, you'll find to your astonishment that they work. Remarkable! It's also possible to transpose the whole instrument a semitone at a time over two octaves, using another cycling button on the side.

The DH-800's major innovation is the ROM-pack based accompaniment feature. Recessed into the back is a removable memory pack which contains complete tunes and accompaniment rhythms; the one supplied with the DH-800, for instance, features among others 'When The Saints Go Marching In', Chopin's Nocturne, and rhythms such as Rock, Disco, 16-Beat and Bossa Nova. Pressing one of the 20 selector pads on the side, and adjusting the tempo up/down buttons starts the fun.

After listening to the three-part tune, you can switch off the melody and attempt to play it yourself. While the accompaniment sounds are pretty ghastly, the PCM-sampled percussion voices aren't too bad, especially if amplified via the Output socket.

Of course, the DH-800 really becomes interesting when used as a MIDI wind controller. Connect it via the socket in the left-hand side of the bell into any MIDI-equipped unit and you can use either fingering mode, and all the expressive possibilities, to play your synths. The MIDI implementation is pretty limited; it will only transmit on MIDI channel 1 (monophonically, of course), but it will transmit patch changes from 1 to 6, a full velocity range from 1 to 127, portamento on, and even aftertouch information.

Once you have a decent sound coming out of the thing, the world's your oyster. Get jamming and you'll soon be so excited that you'll be grateful there's a spit-drain at the bottom of the DH-800. Irritatingly, the DH-800 doesn't transmit MIDI clock Start/Stop/Tempo information, so you couldn't use it, for instance, to start a remote sequencer on stage.

Despite its limitations, the DH-800 can be incredibly expressive, and is certainly fun to play. If you ever get fed up of playing keyboards or guitars, it could offer you another way of blowing your own trumpet.

Casio DH-800 MIDI Horn: £159

Info: Casio, (Contact Details).