Casio CZ Synthesizers

yeah, I just went into Maplins and asked for a 9v regulated DC adaptor - they gave me a 2000mA one with lots of different fittings (to fit the hole where you plug it into the synth) and it works fine...

dunno where you're based, but just go into your local electrical store and ask for a universal 9v regulated DC adaptor....should work fine!

can't be as hard to program as the darned dx-7 which i quickly sold

nice Star Maker avatar reyde_espana

any mac users find a working cz editor?

  On 12/11/2009 at 8:19 AM, bossman said:

nice Star Maker avatar reyde_espana

 

any mac users find a working cz editor?

http://www.squest.com/

has a template iirc. Don't use a mac but have midiquest and am gonna try and hook it up one of these days.

!! I literally got a 101 like 2 weeks ago. WTF. I'm about to take it apart and clean it up. Some buttons are stuck down, so me dont work, but the sounds are knutszo.

nice!

i'm loving the 1000... made my first few proper patches the other day...got a very nice aphexy, harpsichordy, pad thing a la drukqs out of it which is probably my favourite i've made so far

  On 12/11/2009 at 7:54 PM, slightlydrybeans said:

!! I literally got a 101 like 2 weeks ago. WTF. I'm about to take it apart and clean it up. Some buttons are stuck down, so me dont work, but the sounds are knutszo.

yeah a couple buttons on my cz are stuck down, luckily they are only in the patch select section. And the chorus is broken. It was a pretty noisy chorus tho so i'm not that worried.

lol

ya on teh 101 it's the ring mod or noise mod button, so it shorts out and randomly twitches between the 2 while playing lol.

  On 12/10/2009 at 5:24 PM, BCM said:

yeah, I just went into Maplins and asked for a 9v regulated DC adaptor - they gave me a 2000mA one with lots of different fittings (to fit the hole where you plug it into the synth) and it works fine...

 

dunno where you're based, but just go into your local electrical store and ask for a universal 9v regulated DC adaptor....should work fine!

ok... i think ive seen that in radioshack... ive just been to afraid to get one!

also... do you know the exact measurement of the adapting plug?

what does regulated mean? just curious... i wanna be as clear as possible with the salesman... radioshack has got retards working there now.

You should just need a "dc 9v 800ma" adapter. 800ma should be enough. If all else fails take it into the store with you.

If you need to know more there is a cz yahoo group

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/CZsynth/

i'm sure they know exactly what to get that won't fry it. BUt again, 800ma should be enough and keep you safe. If 1000ma is all that is available that's likely okay too.

I'm a couple years late but I use a standard 9V/600mA adaptor with my CZ1000 and it works fine. The plug is around 4mm wide.

It really is a cool synth, with a very well laid out interface and very easy to get good sounds from. I especially like the envelopes, not only they are 8 stages, but being able to set the sustain and end points is a great feature. They're not entirely linear, though, so sometimes they're a bit quirky.

Creating beating effects with the detune is useful and, at first glance, easier to manage than on DX synths. The ring modulator is also good and the vibrato creates good, BoC-type, sounds. However, an extra LFO or two (at least a freely routable amplitude LFO like the one on the DX series) would have expanded the possibilities a lot. Real-time modulation isn't exactly easy on the CPU, though, so this being an early digital synth I guess I can understand it.

I like the interface, despite the lack of a data entry slider. The membrane buttons are OK, but the up/down buttons on mine are horrible. Actually the down button stopped working yesterday and I don't know what to do!

I save my patches using this editor. It's really handy, but it has a bit of trouble detecting whether the sustain step is off, so if you have no sustain in your envelopes, make sure to turn it off on the editor by hand!

i haven't got mine any more unfortunately, sold it ages ago, did make quite a healthy profit though :)

Yay CZ thread!

I went through a serious Casio phase a couple years ago. But all the ROMplers and synths I could find and/or afford. I was obsessed with Casio flute patches.

I really wanted a CZ-101 because it was tiny and cute but ended up getting a CZ-1000 because they cost about half as much ($130-ish). I was delighted to find that is was essentially a Casio ROMpler that you could edit. It had a great flute preset that sounded exactly like the ROMpler flute patches, and it was a great starting point for making portamento leads.

Ended up selling it a while back when I needed money. I never really got a feel for the weird 8-stage envelope thing. But I fucking loved that thing. It was thin and dinky and it needed some saturation, EQ and compression to really come alive, but all things considered I think the CZ is my favorite digital synth. Someday I wanna grab a CZ-5000.

help me to understand the appeal of these?

cheap, interesting type of synthesis (phase distortion synthesis), versatile, cooler than a DX, got Casio on it.

  On 10/13/2014 at 8:51 PM, skibby said:

help me to understand the appeal of these?

It really is a lovely synth. [edit: the CZ-1000, which is the only one I have direct experience with]. There's something about the simplicity of its engine, its very light plastic shell and its sounds. I find it very inspiring - making sounds is fast and they're good. The 8-stage envelopes are great, and when you don't need that much complexity, you can just set the end point to whatever you want, which is very convenient. All the provided waves (preset modulation ratios actually) are very useful, and so is the ring modulator (one of the features I use the most). The only horrible aspect is the bloody up/down buttons (I hope they're not as uncomfortable on other units, my down button is broken so maybe there's something up with my CZ). The aspects that are OK but could be better are the limited polyphony and the lack of an amplitude LFO (for sweeps and so on). And the aspect that would be awesome but isn't needed would be having the ability to edit harmonic ratios as on a DX synth (because PD synthesis is really quite cool.) The build quality is a mixed blessing but personally I like a synth you can easily lift and move around (it even runs on batteries!).

As for the sound, it's similar to 4-op DX, but the types of sounds it makes are more similar to the types of sounds you can make on an analogue. You can do sawtooth pads and quirky resonant barks and stuff like that. But then again it sounds very digital in a particular way.

I swear Boards of Canada must have one, and it doesn't fit Kraftwerk being a bit out of place in a high-tech laboratory but you can do Kraftwerk-ish sounds with them too.

It's one of my favourites I think, not as versatile as the DX21 (my top fave synth) but there's something lovely about it. A Volca-sized tabletop version, or just a CZ-1000 with a data entry slider and better cursor buttons, would be amazing.

http://www.pluginboutique.com/product/4-Synth/1158-VirtualCZ

there's a free demo if you're interested. it basically sounds the same as the real thing but it's a bit more plasticky somehow, it has this polished sound most vst's also have. anyway if you like that you'll like a cz.

(there are some quirks it doesn't emulate, though - for example when you combine two waves on a real cz the frequency drops, which doesn't happen on the virtual cz. but it's pretty much the same, almost vopm quality in its emulation.)

hm. now the frequency doesn't drop on my cz when mixing two waves. i swear there are situations where it does.

I had a 3000.

Just thought , you guys should get rechargeable batteries, so then they can always be running out

please tell me interesting things about synthesizers. forums about gear are like listening to fans of vintage cars and cunning people trying to hype up stuff. forums about music talk about everyday stuff too much.

help

: <

I can't be very objective about it, but I really like the CZ-3000. It was my first 80s synth. Got it at a Goodwill for 40 bucks. I was surprised by how goddamn heavy it was back then. It's pretty versatile. From clear, bell-like tones, to weird industrial noise shit. Thanks for the link to that 101 patch editor, poblequadrat. I'll have to try that out. I hope it works for the 3000.

I just used it in a little jam the other day, actually. :) All CZ-3000 until the sub bass and drums come in.