One of the things I wish both Casio and Yamaha did is to bring back the DX7 and the CZ synthesizers with new implementations like MIDI 2, MPE and USB connectivity. I coveted these synths for years.
CZs had MIDI of course but a relatively primitive implementation (acute with patch saving and loading as I found when writing my patch editor VZV CZ). Most significantly they could update the engine so that parameters can be changed on the fly and add some global LFOs.
I have had the CTS-500 for almost a year, but I have never used the sampling capability, because I have an iPad that I can play from the Casio via Bluetooth midi, and there is really no limit on sampling with various iPad apps.the built-in sounds and sound editing features of the CT-S500 are excellent and cover most of the bases by themselves.
It seems retro is becoming more and more popular across the entire cultural sphere, not only in music but films and video games as well. Synthwave is among my favorite genres and I can hear the sound from these Casios.
I have two casino keyboards in my vast collection which couldn't be further apart from each other. The first I've had since I was 13 years old, the PT-50 which I still find useful, and the second I bought a few years ago which is, despite having Korg, Roland Akai and Yamaha synths in my arsenal, my daily driver today given how versatile it is, is the WK-3200.
Cool collection! I have a CZ-5000, and I'll be honest, I haven't used it much at all. Wish I had gone for something like a 101, heh (or even a CZ-1). You scored some HT-6000s!? Nice! How do you like them? Iirc, they actually have a filter per voice, etc. Kinda wish the HT-6000s looked more like the HZ-600. I got my younger sister an HT-700 some years ago (she plays piano at a relatively high level* - much better than me, haha). The FZs seem kinda cool, and some of the SKs, despite their HUGE limitations/simplicity, do to an extent, too. [Edit: * And ofc, the keys are VERY much not ideal - or good - for playing like that, but I thought it'd be cool for her to have a synth of her own. And they're relatively affordable.]
@@slipknotboy555 Thanks! Yeah I think the 1 and 101 are the ones to have. I scored two HT-6000 AND two RA-100 memory cards for HT/HZ! I love all HTs... they´re great for melodies, light sounds... not bass heavy sounds. Pads, leads, little sequences, chords... It sounds close to a Juno but with less bass end. I love the 700´s paraphony... and simplicity, and I love the 6000´s 4 osc and a vcf per voice, and various impressive functions, like different velocity responses for each osc, 2 attack curves, etc. The SKs are great, but I also have a Yamaha VSS30 and 200 and I love them a little more.
There's another keyboard, contemporary to the XW series, that still doesn't have a successor: The Privia PX-5S, and somewhat the PX-560. They were sold mainly as digital pianos, but they have hex layer synth engine exposed and a lot of features. The PX-5S despite some quirks, like the absence of the expression pedal and the noisy input lines, it's an interesting stage piano and master keyboard. The flagship Casio digital piano the PX-S7000 is sold in the 2000 euro ballpark the same of the Kawai MP11SE, Dexibell VIVO S7 and Viscount Legend 70. You could still find the PX-5S as new, but seems to me that they are NOS products that were in the warehouses of the sellers, but not anymore in the official Casio pages, except for support. Seems to me that Casio is trying to sell their product more on the educational area, both on digital pianos for piano students and with keyboards for kids, rather than to the professional or prosumer market. Personally I think that if they are going to make a stagepiano/master keyboard with a phase distortion engine and decent controls, they could easily get back on the pro market.
My very first keyboard was a Casio CA 401 and my second keyboard was a Casio CT 670. Casio has such a strong legacy introducing people to music. Love the cz and ht series. They must release new versions before someone else (Uli)...
I had a Casio CZ-1, it was a nice synth, I wish I had kept it as there were some nice sounds to be had from it, I did do loads of sampling of it though on my Akai S3000 and so I still have those. I did try some friends Casio keyboards with the intention of buying one but they had a lot of hiss and the tools on the Akai S3000 removed some of it but not all, I didn't want have to sample keyboard parts just to clean them up either.
...and what happened to the MZ X500, and MZ X300? By the time I made up my mind I wanted one, after watching the demo videos online, both were in very short supply, and have since virtually disappeared! I do own both XWs in fact I have 2 of each because I used them primarily with a mainly covers-playing band, and made setting up a breeze for leaping from one genre to another, from folk to classic rock to experimental... It was your mention of the XWs that brought me here.
Great Video. Thank you I own 2 FZ1 (one for spare parts) and would love to see a FZ1 with a better UI and an improved input amplifying stage (with a limiter) so the converter doesn't produce digital clipping.
8:51 I'd like to add that casio DID actually revisit sampling in the 2000's-2010's. Keyboards like the WK200 and later on the CTK-2400 allowed sampling, the former even allowing for samples to be backed up over USB.
I agree with you regarding Casio failing to update models that just miss practical perfection. Studiologic does it. They made some great updates to their Compact series recently.
I chatted with the Casio reps at Frankfurt Musikmesse a few years back (including Mike Martin), and I implored them to revisit the CZ synths. I pushed that given the massive increase in computing power, they could easily create a great 4-part multitimbral CZ synth with at LEAST 32 voices (minimum), and it would sell like crazy, given the growing love of "all things 80s" for synths. They said, "uh...we did revisit the CZ...with the iPad app." I, with an obviously disappointed facial expression, replied, "Is that it? A 4-voice iPad app? That's 'revisiting' the CZ?? That's all we're going to get?" CZ rep: "Yeah, probably." 😶
My first ever touch of an electronic keyboard was a PT-87. One year later I had a Yamaha PSS-480 and was attending music classes at the Yamaha music school. I still have a CTK-731, another of their very interesting products. Casio is focusing on digital pianos and mostly beginner friendly full size keyboards now. Their models are way 'too grown up' and besides the nice prices (and good keybeds as I hear from lots of people) they seriously lack desirability. I would buy a new version of CZ-101 (NCZ-101?) in a heartbeat. Or some mini key backpack friendly version of PT/SK.
I managed to grab a DG-20 guitar recently. I'm not a good guitar player, but that seems to be inconsequential, due to the fret-tracking. I bought it as I thought that using guitar chord progressions on my synths (as opposed to piano chords) would open up some new ideas. I'd love a VA-10, as that thing looks very weird. I love "odd one out" instruments that provide features not found elsewhere. The Boss mini-rack series from the the 80's had a few oddball units in that vein.
I had the pt1, which is the stripped down version of the vl tone, enjoyed it. my second keyboard was the sk1, which I repurchased on ebay not to long ago. my 3rd keyboard, which was either the ca110, or the ma I think 133, as I never payed attention to things like keysize, I also repurchased a few years ago. the one I'd love to have reissued is the rap man, that I got for my 13th birthday back in 1994, loved that keyboard.
I think that in regard to reissuing some of their classic models, especially their more "toy-ish" models (VL1, SK-1, Rapman), it would be worth them looking in the direction of what stylophone have done with their reissues and capitalising on the nostalgia aspect of these instruments. Dubreq have done a really good job of this and used it as a spring board for some interesting things. It is a shame to see that Casio are still making instruments for the "educational " market and not putting in anynof the features that were available in older models in that range that would probably be a lot cheaper to implement now.
A similar idea to the Casio DG-20 was done by the YouRockGuitar, which many people glossed over despite it being a very capable midi controller simply because the company relied too much on advertising it as a game controller for Guitar Hero, which it could also do.
Please, make a series of videos about PW P1 synthetizer. It still sold today and is an affordable power instrument. A deep analysis of its operation would be greatly appreciated.
Agreed 100%. May I suggest they include the Casio (one finger) Chord but not with a bass sound but using it with the patch sound you've loaded instead, as I think this would be far more usable. There are lots in the synth community who don't like practising music theory - me included.
After a 6 years of not having Casio VA-10 due to the irresponsible selling decision i've managed to find it out one more time, and for only about 25$ in a state "i don't know if its working", and after arrival it was clear that it is 100% good! Btw there are similarities in the effect section between Casio VA-10 and Casio CTK 1000, but sadly this big keyboard effect section is much more limited. It lacks most interesting features from VA-10 like feedback and "vocoder" which is in real more like breath controller.
Haha, I'm less than two minutes in, but just wanted to say don't worry - this isn't an "Old man yells at clouds" thing. I'm in my (late) 20s, and I completely agree. I'm sure many people do. Things like the CZ, HT/HZ, FZ, and VZ series, hell, even the SK series, are pretty cool, and modern versions would be nice. Especially if they could bring them out at a relatively affordable price (which, ofc, Casio is kinda known for).
I'm personally a big fan of their Spectrum Dynamic synths, especially when modified for filter control. Casio should just slap analog filters on some of their ordinary keyboards again.
I still have a CZ101 in the studio, along with an SK5 and, of course, the mighty VL-Tone. That CZ, btw...plus 25kW/ch on subs...has the honor of causing actual physical damage at a warehouse event from back c. 1997. Before the set, the old wired safety glass was fine. After, however, there were a bunch of spiderweb cracks in some of them. Oops... It strikes me as odd that Casio hasn't explored some of the potent computing hardware developments from the past couple of decades. As difficult as it likely was to jam the main engine of the COSMOS into a mini keyboard in the mid-80s, it makes me wonder what they could do with an FPGA-based synth platform. True, Waldorf struck first with the Kyra, but it's apparently something of a control nightmare...not too much power, mind you, but a UI that's trying too hard. The CZs worked (and still command respect) because they had clearly worked out the playability issues FIRST before dropping the 101. It's simple, basic and while you lose quite a bit of control granularity from this, that can easily be remedied these days...maybe a UI that uses both macro AND micro levels of programmability would be the thing that'd make it all gel. Plus... it's CASIO. They're past masters of minimal interface controls. If anyone could get an FPGA-based platform on the market at a decent price that was intuitive and player friendly, it would be them!
In my CT-S500, I see 16 tones in the category Classic Casio Tones. I would like it if Casio would improve the firmware of these current instruments. The MultiTrkRec and the User Songs features are not very useful, and they are very confusing.
Typical Casio to drop a product direction like hot potatoes if it doesn't sell immediately: witness the entire pro instrument division post SD synths (HT3000/6000, HZ600 the latter I've never seen )
I agree with you 100%. Casio is nowadays way to scared to go out on a limb. I actually bought the cts-1 when it came out a couple years back and I've owned and own a couple of their higher end pianos, which are very good in their own right. The thing is that they are not relevant anymore other than to pianists really. With roland coming out with their go keys 3 and 5, the Casiotone models just no longer make any sense to buy.
Oh, and as a bit of trivia, the very Casio AZ-1 that you see Thomas Dolby playing in that video is now a beloved part of my keyboard collection. Sadly the metallic silver marker he used to autograph it did not get along with the type of plastic the keytar is made from so because I use it as a gigging keyboard the only part of his autograph that remains on it are "Dol" and even that gets rubbed off a little more each time I take it to a gig.
Maybe modern Japanese buyers aren't as eccentric or quirky as before: hence the staid and conservative new models, plus good quality pianos for schools and home practice
I have also been saying this for years, but my guess is that they have moved so far away from these types of instruments, (into sample based, acoustic emulating electric pianos, mostly), that going back would be expensive. They also would have to compete with all of the VST plug in versions already out there, that have kind of already beat them to the punch. However, the pro grade electric piano market is so firmly dominated by Yamaha, and others, with Casio being taken far less "seriously", they might as well move back into a field where they could actually exert some market dominance, and claim a kind of "proprietary legacy", as the originators of user friendly, low learning curve (I can't think of many things like the sk1 for example, that is both musically useful, but simple enough for a 10 yr old to turn on and use right away) desktop, home production instruments. Even the Rz-1, with it's multiple outs, simple sampling structure, sliders, and filter knob, is still totally unique, in it's ease of use and function. Also, most of these have ALREADY been "modded" in various cool ways, so, a lot of the "heavy lifting" of expensive R and D, has already been done (the fully modded sk-5, for example, is a BEAST, that is waaay more powerful and useful than the stock version) so they would just need to reverse engineer and manufacture them.
Growing up in the 80's, I loved seeing all the different variations and models of Casio and Yamaha home keyboards. I wanted all of them! I think, in general, companies are more risk-averse these days, seeking a "perfect, average" product. Quite boring.
I have never understood why manufacturers of many types do not produce products that have maintained popularity. They gain very little from creating collectors markets.🤔
I think it would be very easy to include a lot of memory and full sampling capabilities, but they're afraid of cannibalizing sales of their higher end keyboards. Or maybe the Japanese market for sound design sees no point in hardware over just doing stuff in a daw.
even if companies wished they could, they cannot - they have long-since dumped the schematics, dumped the circuitry-making rigs and templates, and they sure as hell don't have access to older-styles of transistors, resistors, circuit boards, ect ect, and that's just the internals that they cannot replicate anymore. They would have to spend the first trillion and the first decade just to re-develop the older-style infrastructure and production stuff, before even starting to re-tool any sort of resurrection-production-lines for replica designs of what they used to make. Thus, they have no choice but to cut all the corners and stick with subscription-model soft-synth digital-sampling widget-app programs.
Damm Jesus!!! if you see....., casio is out of bussiness in this moments, and the heaven sends signals like you, lucky people to get your free help!!! Cmon Casio, how many signals you need.....🌠
Casio, as a manufacturer of synthesizers and workstations, is dead, its last releases were more than 10 years ago with the xw and MZ series...the ctx line is far below and still more than 5 years ago since its launch... Casio is more focused on manufacturing pianos and watches. You can't say this in the forums because they call you a troll, but it's the truth.
Those nylon-stringed Casio guitars are SOOOOO BAD. I mean I love some pretty awful stuff like the Omnichord. Even the Rap Man is charming. But I had one of those guitars with the nylon strings and buttons under the rubber fretboard and it's for-real unusable ... but I appreciate them being different/weird. 😂 But I think mine was the DG-10. Hopefully the DG-20 was a little better.
They must've been a bit of a challenge for people used to playing real guitars! The DG-10 and DG-20 are structurally identical, with the DG-20 differing by having extra tones, extra rhythms, drum pads and the all important MIDI feature.
Casio has just become boring now. Not making all the fun weird fun synths that they used to. Also Phil Collins "In the Air Tonight" rhythm sounds pretty similar to the Beguine rhythm on the Casiotones of the early '80s, but maybe it's just a CR78 rhythm.
Not all casio keyboard instruments were children's toys, the cz line is very powerful using phase distortion synthesis. I had the cheaper version that was named at the home keyboard market and it was still more powerful than a poly 61
I want updated CZ series synths!
This truly is one of the mysteries that keep me up at night!
Love your channel mate. Yours and Sam Battle's.
Your VA-10 video is great. I really want one now.
This old man is yelling at the cloud with you. You pose all the questions I’ve been asking for a while now.
One of the things I wish both Casio and Yamaha did is to bring back the DX7 and the CZ synthesizers with new implementations like MIDI 2, MPE and USB connectivity. I coveted these synths for years.
CZs had MIDI of course but a relatively primitive implementation (acute with patch saving and loading as I found when writing my patch editor VZV CZ). Most significantly they could update the engine so that parameters can be changed on the fly and add some global LFOs.
@@ian_b All true!
I'm looking forward to Behringer producing an SK-1 clone one day!
Very interesting ideas - I hope Casio is listening. Loved the Sinistar samples!
my very first real synth was the CZ-1000. still got a CZ-101, CZ-230s and and SK-1. love them all.
I have had the CTS-500 for almost a year, but I have never used the sampling capability, because I have an iPad that I can play from the Casio via Bluetooth midi, and there is really no limit on sampling with various iPad apps.the built-in sounds and sound editing features of the CT-S500 are excellent and cover most of the bases by themselves.
An updated rz1 would be an ideal gateway product for Casio. Something that can go toe to toe with the MCs and MPCs.
It seems retro is becoming more and more popular across the entire cultural sphere, not only in music but films and video games as well. Synthwave is among my favorite genres and I can hear the sound from these Casios.
'retro' aesthetics have been popular for a long time - the period of time people feel nostalgia for just keeps changing.
I have two casino keyboards in my vast collection which couldn't be further apart from each other. The first I've had since I was 13 years old, the PT-50 which I still find useful, and the second I bought a few years ago which is, despite having Korg, Roland Akai and Yamaha synths in my arsenal, my daily driver today given how versatile it is, is the WK-3200.
Here´re my Casios!!!! DM-100, CZ-1, CZ-101, CT-410v, FZ-1, 2x HT-700, HT-3000, 2x HT-6000, HZ-600, PT-1, SA-20, 2x SK-1, 2x SK-10, SK-2100, VA-10. 19 in total!
Cool collection! I have a CZ-5000, and I'll be honest, I haven't used it much at all. Wish I had gone for something like a 101, heh (or even a CZ-1). You scored some HT-6000s!? Nice! How do you like them? Iirc, they actually have a filter per voice, etc. Kinda wish the HT-6000s looked more like the HZ-600. I got my younger sister an HT-700 some years ago (she plays piano at a relatively high level* - much better than me, haha).
The FZs seem kinda cool, and some of the SKs, despite their HUGE limitations/simplicity, do to an extent, too.
[Edit: * And ofc, the keys are VERY much not ideal - or good - for playing like that, but I thought it'd be cool for her to have a synth of her own. And they're relatively affordable.]
@@slipknotboy555 Thanks! Yeah I think the 1 and 101 are the ones to have. I scored two HT-6000 AND two RA-100 memory cards for HT/HZ!
I love all HTs... they´re great for melodies, light sounds... not bass heavy sounds. Pads, leads, little sequences, chords... It sounds close to a Juno but with less bass end. I love the 700´s paraphony... and simplicity, and I love the 6000´s 4 osc and a vcf per voice, and various impressive functions, like different velocity responses for each osc, 2 attack curves, etc.
The SKs are great, but I also have a Yamaha VSS30 and 200 and I love them a little more.
There's another keyboard, contemporary to the XW series, that still doesn't have a successor: The Privia PX-5S, and somewhat the PX-560. They were sold mainly as digital pianos, but they have hex layer synth engine exposed and a lot of features. The PX-5S despite some quirks, like the absence of the expression pedal and the noisy input lines, it's an interesting stage piano and master keyboard. The flagship Casio digital piano the PX-S7000 is sold in the 2000 euro ballpark the same of the Kawai MP11SE, Dexibell VIVO S7 and Viscount Legend 70.
You could still find the PX-5S as new, but seems to me that they are NOS products that were in the warehouses of the sellers, but not anymore in the official Casio pages, except for support.
Seems to me that Casio is trying to sell their product more on the educational area, both on digital pianos for piano students and with keyboards for kids, rather than to the professional or prosumer market. Personally I think that if they are going to make a stagepiano/master keyboard with a phase distortion engine and decent controls, they could easily get back on the pro market.
My very first keyboard was a Casio CA 401 and my second keyboard was a Casio CT 670. Casio has such a strong legacy introducing people to music. Love the cz and ht series. They must release new versions before someone else (Uli)...
My favorite Casio is still my WK-1800. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
without you, you r WK-1800 is useless...
I had a Casio CZ-1, it was a nice synth, I wish I had kept it as there were some nice sounds to be had from it, I did do loads of sampling of it though on my Akai S3000 and so I still have those.
I did try some friends Casio keyboards with the intention of buying one but they had a lot of hiss and the tools on the Akai S3000 removed some of it but not all, I didn't want have to sample keyboard parts just to clean them up either.
...and what happened to the MZ X500, and MZ X300? By the time I made up my mind I wanted one, after watching the demo videos online, both were in very short supply, and have since virtually disappeared! I do own both XWs in fact I have 2 of each because I used them primarily with a mainly covers-playing band, and made setting up a breeze for leaping from one genre to another, from folk to classic rock to experimental... It was your mention of the XWs that brought me here.
Great Video. Thank you
I own 2 FZ1 (one for spare parts) and would love to see a FZ1 with a better UI and an improved input amplifying stage (with a limiter) so the converter doesn't produce digital clipping.
8:51 I'd like to add that casio DID actually revisit sampling in the 2000's-2010's. Keyboards like the WK200 and later on the CTK-2400 allowed sampling, the former even allowing for samples to be backed up over USB.
I share your passion bro, but don't make them popular! They're already getting too expensive! lol
I agree with you regarding Casio failing to update models that just miss practical perfection. Studiologic does it. They made some great updates to their Compact series recently.
I chatted with the Casio reps at Frankfurt Musikmesse a few years back (including Mike Martin), and I implored them to revisit the CZ synths. I pushed that given the massive increase in computing power, they could easily create a great 4-part multitimbral CZ synth with at LEAST 32 voices (minimum), and it would sell like crazy, given the growing love of "all things 80s" for synths.
They said, "uh...we did revisit the CZ...with the iPad app."
I, with an obviously disappointed facial expression, replied, "Is that it? A 4-voice iPad app? That's 'revisiting' the CZ?? That's all we're going to get?"
CZ rep: "Yeah, probably." 😶
My first ever touch of an electronic keyboard was a PT-87. One year later I had a Yamaha PSS-480 and was attending music classes at the Yamaha music school. I still have a CTK-731, another of their very interesting products. Casio is focusing on digital pianos and mostly beginner friendly full size keyboards now. Their models are way 'too grown up' and besides the nice prices (and good keybeds as I hear from lots of people) they seriously lack desirability. I would buy a new version of CZ-101 (NCZ-101?) in a heartbeat. Or some mini key backpack friendly version of PT/SK.
I'd love to see Casio revive the ROM Pack keyboards, I think particularly of the PT-50, PT-82, PT-88 etc.
I managed to grab a DG-20 guitar recently. I'm not a good guitar player, but that seems to be inconsequential, due to the fret-tracking. I bought it as I thought that using guitar chord progressions on my synths (as opposed to piano chords) would open up some new ideas. I'd love a VA-10, as that thing looks very weird. I love "odd one out" instruments that provide features not found elsewhere. The Boss mini-rack series from the the 80's had a few oddball units in that vein.
Waiting for the Behringer CZ1.
There’s the ALM Cizzle Eurorack Module..
In a couple of videos time I plan to cover a couple of CASIO's weirdest keyboards, perhaps you'd like to be involved in that vid :)
Sure! Let me know how I can help out :-)
45:16 I agree big time.
Anyway, it would be fun if Casiio Releases the vowel consonant machine & more of the afomermentioned instruments i saw.
I had the pt1, which is the stripped down version of the vl tone, enjoyed it. my second keyboard was the sk1, which I repurchased on ebay not to long ago. my 3rd keyboard, which was either the ca110, or the ma I think 133, as I never payed attention to things like keysize, I also repurchased a few years ago. the one I'd love to have reissued is the rap man, that I got for my 13th birthday back in 1994, loved that keyboard.
I think that in regard to reissuing some of their classic models, especially their more "toy-ish" models (VL1, SK-1, Rapman), it would be worth them looking in the direction of what stylophone have done with their reissues and capitalising on the nostalgia aspect of these instruments. Dubreq have done a really good job of this and used it as a spring board for some interesting things.
It is a shame to see that Casio are still making instruments for the "educational " market and not putting in anynof the features that were available in older models in that range that would probably be a lot cheaper to implement now.
A similar idea to the Casio DG-20 was done by the YouRockGuitar, which many people glossed over despite it being a very capable midi controller simply because the company relied too much on advertising it as a game controller for Guitar Hero, which it could also do.
Please, make a series of videos about PW P1 synthetizer. It still sold today and is an affordable power instrument. A deep analysis of its operation would be greatly appreciated.
Agreed 100%. May I suggest they include the Casio (one finger) Chord but not with a bass sound but using it with the patch sound you've loaded instead, as I think this would be far more usable. There are lots in the synth community who don't like practising music theory - me included.
After a 6 years of not having Casio VA-10 due to the irresponsible selling decision i've managed to find it out one more time, and for only about 25$ in a state "i don't know if its working", and after arrival it was clear that it is 100% good! Btw there are similarities in the effect section between Casio VA-10 and Casio CTK 1000, but sadly this big keyboard effect section is much more limited. It lacks most interesting features from VA-10 like feedback and "vocoder" which is in real more like breath controller.
CZ PD synthesis is completely different than FM. PD synthesis is more like analog synthesis, but with a ring modulator for metallic sounds.
Haha, I'm less than two minutes in, but just wanted to say don't worry - this isn't an "Old man yells at clouds" thing. I'm in my (late) 20s, and I completely agree. I'm sure many people do. Things like the CZ, HT/HZ, FZ, and VZ series, hell, even the SK series, are pretty cool, and modern versions would be nice. Especially if they could bring them out at a relatively affordable price (which, ofc, Casio is kinda known for).
Casio should release the XW-PDJ1,the Super-Vowel Consonant Casiotone, the keyboard at 29:11 & the XW-PG2
Love how the burb sample still had a British accent
I'm personally a big fan of their Spectrum Dynamic synths, especially when modified for filter control. Casio should just slap analog filters on some of their ordinary keyboards again.
CT-1000P was fantastic - almost an additive synth
I still have a CZ101 in the studio, along with an SK5 and, of course, the mighty VL-Tone. That CZ, btw...plus 25kW/ch on subs...has the honor of causing actual physical damage at a warehouse event from back c. 1997. Before the set, the old wired safety glass was fine. After, however, there were a bunch of spiderweb cracks in some of them. Oops...
It strikes me as odd that Casio hasn't explored some of the potent computing hardware developments from the past couple of decades. As difficult as it likely was to jam the main engine of the COSMOS into a mini keyboard in the mid-80s, it makes me wonder what they could do with an FPGA-based synth platform. True, Waldorf struck first with the Kyra, but it's apparently something of a control nightmare...not too much power, mind you, but a UI that's trying too hard.
The CZs worked (and still command respect) because they had clearly worked out the playability issues FIRST before dropping the 101. It's simple, basic and while you lose quite a bit of control granularity from this, that can easily be remedied these days...maybe a UI that uses both macro AND micro levels of programmability would be the thing that'd make it all gel.
Plus... it's CASIO. They're past masters of minimal interface controls. If anyone could get an FPGA-based platform on the market at a decent price that was intuitive and player friendly, it would be them!
I have the casiotone CT 6000 five keys don't work the keys stuck down and would like to get it fixed but it's too heavy to take it to a shop
401 Casio made the frog sound on the thriller album
brilliant ! let's hope Casio hq do watch this, thank you 👍
As for Behringer: if they are doing Mini versions, the Big versions are bound to happen
Could I use these to replace my old tabla dots ? considering my skins are fine just the rubber is falling off in pieces
In my CT-S500, I see 16 tones in the category Classic Casio Tones. I would like it if Casio would improve the firmware of these current instruments. The MultiTrkRec and the User Songs features are not very useful, and they are very confusing.
I want a new WK-Series synth.
Surprised you didn't reference Flight of the Conchords or Jan Linton as heavy users of DG20 "guitar from recycle shop in the future"
Typical Casio to drop a product direction like hot potatoes if it doesn't sell immediately: witness the entire pro instrument division post SD synths (HT3000/6000, HZ600 the latter I've never seen )
I agree with you 100%. Casio is nowadays way to scared to go out on a limb.
I actually bought the cts-1 when it came out a couple years back and I've owned and own a couple of their higher end pianos, which are very good in their own right.
The thing is that they are not relevant anymore other than to pianists really. With roland coming out with their go keys 3 and 5, the Casiotone models just no longer make any sense to buy.
Please Casio please please please release your older keyboards as VSTs!
The hex synth engine is also in the stage piano-ish Privia PX-5S pretty deep. So sad
Why Casio hasn't created Volca-esque versions of the Vowel Consonant, SK, and CZ synths is beyond me. They're leaving money on the floor.
Oh, and as a bit of trivia, the very Casio AZ-1 that you see Thomas Dolby playing in that video is now a beloved part of my keyboard collection. Sadly the metallic silver marker he used to autograph it did not get along with the type of plastic the keytar is made from so because I use it as a gigging keyboard the only part of his autograph that remains on it are "Dol" and even that gets rubbed off a little more each time I take it to a gig.
I would be interested in a Behringer CZ-1 mini! ........ Pretty Please ........
Maybe modern Japanese buyers aren't as eccentric or quirky as before: hence the staid and conservative new models, plus good quality pianos for schools and home practice
I have also been saying this for years, but my guess is that they have moved so far away from these types of instruments, (into sample based, acoustic emulating electric pianos, mostly), that going back would be expensive. They also would have to compete with all of the VST plug in versions already out there, that have kind of already beat them to the punch. However, the pro grade electric piano market is so firmly dominated by Yamaha, and others, with Casio being taken far less "seriously", they might as well move back into a field where they could actually exert some market dominance, and claim a kind of "proprietary legacy", as the originators of user friendly, low learning curve (I can't think of many things like the sk1 for example, that is both musically useful, but simple enough for a 10 yr old to turn on and use right away) desktop, home production instruments. Even the Rz-1, with it's multiple outs, simple sampling structure, sliders, and filter knob, is still totally unique, in it's ease of use and function. Also, most of these have ALREADY been "modded" in various cool ways, so, a lot of the "heavy lifting" of expensive R and D, has already been done (the fully modded sk-5, for example, is a BEAST, that is waaay more powerful and useful than the stock version) so they would just need to reverse engineer and manufacture them.
Growing up in the 80's, I loved seeing all the different variations and models of Casio and Yamaha home keyboards. I wanted all of them! I think, in general, companies are more risk-averse these days, seeking a "perfect, average" product. Quite boring.
subbed as soon as i saw Sweet Cuppin Cakes
I have never understood why manufacturers of many types do not produce products that have maintained popularity. They gain very little from creating collectors markets.🤔
Man, I thought I had a lot of Casios!
Uli needs to clone the classics- and add usb, full MIDI, and cv and trig in/out jacks.
The other missed opportunity here is that Casio have never developed vst versions of any of their instruments either.
I don't know why they wont re release.
I think it would be very easy to include a lot of memory and full sampling capabilities, but they're afraid of cannibalizing sales of their higher end keyboards. Or maybe the Japanese market for sound design sees no point in hardware over just doing stuff in a daw.
I contacted Casio suggesting a Nintendo-style revamp..
The reply thanked me for my email..?
😬👍
even if companies wished they could, they cannot - they have long-since dumped the schematics, dumped the circuitry-making rigs and templates, and they sure as hell don't have access to older-styles of transistors, resistors, circuit boards, ect ect, and that's just the internals that they cannot replicate anymore. They would have to spend the first trillion and the first decade just to re-develop the older-style infrastructure and production stuff, before even starting to re-tool any sort of resurrection-production-lines for replica designs of what they used to make.
Thus, they have no choice but to cut all the corners and stick with subscription-model soft-synth digital-sampling widget-app programs.
At the same time, Casio is still selling their vintage LCD watches!
today is good quality product at least, extras only on pro version
2025 is the 40th anniversary of the SK-1. Casio execs, if you're reading... I have the design for the OP-1 killer.
🎹💖
Damm Jesus!!! if you see....., casio is out of bussiness in this moments, and the heaven sends signals like you, lucky people to get your free help!!! Cmon Casio, how many signals you need.....🌠
Casio, as a manufacturer of synthesizers and workstations, is dead, its last releases were more than 10 years ago with the xw and MZ series...the ctx line is far below and still more than 5 years ago since its launch... Casio is more focused on manufacturing pianos and watches. You can't say this in the forums because they call you a troll, but it's the truth.
The driving force behind Casio music products Toshio Kashio is dead since long time ago.
Those nylon-stringed Casio guitars are SOOOOO BAD. I mean I love some pretty awful stuff like the Omnichord. Even the Rap Man is charming. But I had one of those guitars with the nylon strings and buttons under the rubber fretboard and it's for-real unusable ... but I appreciate them being different/weird. 😂 But I think mine was the DG-10. Hopefully the DG-20 was a little better.
They must've been a bit of a challenge for people used to playing real guitars! The DG-10 and DG-20 are structurally identical, with the DG-20 differing by having extra tones, extra rhythms, drum pads and the all important MIDI feature.
Casio has just become boring now. Not making all the fun weird fun synths that they used to.
Also Phil Collins "In the Air Tonight" rhythm sounds pretty similar to the Beguine rhythm on the Casiotones of the early '80s, but maybe it's just a CR78 rhythm.
Not keen on Casio I rather have moog or Korg
Casio, makers of the world's shittiest keyboards. A company which turned generations of people off music.
Not all casio keyboard instruments were children's toys, the cz line is very powerful using phase distortion synthesis. I had the cheaper version that was named at the home keyboard market and it was still more powerful than a poly 61
good god the op-1 is over over over priced!!!!
If they had combined the XW-P1 and XW-G1 with 4by4 drum pads and a bttwr operating system it would have become a classic