Katana VentraIP

Casio CZ synthesizers

The CZ series is a family of low-cost phase distortion synthesizers produced by Casio in the mid-1980s. Eight models of CZ synthesizers were released: the CZ-101, CZ-230S, CZ-1000, CZ-2000S, CZ-2600S, CZ-3000, CZ-5000, and the CZ-1. Additionally, the home-keyboard model CT-6500 used 48 phase distortion presets from the CZ line. The CZ synthesizers' price at the time of their introduction made programmable synthesizers affordable enough to be purchased by garage bands. Yamaha soon introduced their own low-cost digital synthesizers, including the DX-21 (1985) and Yamaha DX100, in light of the CZ series' success.

Casio CZ

The synthesizer had eight voices instead of four voices (16 oscillators instead of eight)

It was possible to split the keyboard (in other words, have some keys play one sound while other keys played another sound).

The synthesizer had 61 keys, not 49 keys

There was a built-in stereo chorus effect

Instead of having just a pitch bend wheel, the CZ-3000 had both a pitch bend wheel and a modulation wheel.

VZ-1 (keyboard with 16 voices) a.k.a. HS-2 (rebadged for the European market)

Hohner

VZ-10M (2U rack module; functionally identical to the VZ-1) a.k.a. Hohner HS-2/E

VZ-8M (1U rack module expander with 8 voices but a few new features)

Phase distortion synthesis

Casio

Synthesizer

Musical instrument

Musical keyboard

Casio SD Synthesizers

Casio MT-40

Casiotone

. Casio. 104A SA. (PDF version)

Casio CZ-101 Operation Manual

. Casio. (PDF version)

Cosmo Synthesizer CZ-230S Operation Manual

. Casio. 105A SA. (PDF version)

CosmoSynthesizer CZ-3000 Operation Manual

. Casio. (PDF version)

CosmoSynthesizer CZ-5000 Operation Manual

. Casio. SA0405061A. (PDF version)

CosmoSynthesizer CZ-1 Operation Manual

. Sound On Sound. October 1986. ISSN 0951-6816. OCLC 925234032.

"Big Brother"

A comprehensive article on the Casio CZ series of synthesizers by Tomás Mulcahy.

Casio Synthesizers history from 1982 to 1992

RetroSound Casio CZ-1 Page

Casio CZ-101 MIDI Guide - complete information for MIDI programming of the CZ-101

Casio Cz-101 Page: manual, audio clips and Phase Distortion samples