HEY, PAOLO! Thanks for the mention! The bass on YW is actually my Emax II playing a sample of my Moog Rogue. But there is a Casio on it, of course, the infamous VL-1 doing the HUGE DRUM BREAK that eclipses John Bonham.... lol...
Hi, Jyoti!!! Thanks for setting the record straight on the bass sound on Your Woman , I've always loved that bass line! :thumbsup: especially the "growling" effect that you gave it in some of the beats - like if it's "rolled" really fast in 24ths or 32th notes right before hitting the next note - really cool. I've got a Rogue and will try to get that sound - Ah, yes, the awesome Casio VL beat is a CLASSIC!! :-) Thanks again for letting us all know!
Jyoti Mishra Hi Jyoti! Such a treat to see you here. I’ve always loved « Your Woman » Such a great song. Are you aware that a French producer re-used that bass line for two songs he produced? Look up « L’Alizee » by Alizee (choruses) and « Moi Lolita » by Alizee (verses). The resemblance is striking...
@@SynthManiaDotCom The 'growl' is from the sample going too low and crunchy, nice bonus! :-D Ahhh, I wish I lived closer to you, I would love to meet in person and just ramble on about synths and electronic music for hours...
Jyoti Mishra That’s true! However, it’s way too similar to be just a coincidence. The melody of your bass line is very unique. Even the sound characteristics of the bass is somewhat close to your version. “Moi Lolita” was a huge success all over Europe and Mexico, was in the U.K. top charts (absolutely rare for a French song) and it’s probably why you’ve heard it. If you had had a copyright on the bass, you would have made a ton of £££ 😉 Great talking to you!!
Played a cz in the 80s hung around my neck with a guitar strap. I can remember jumping around on stage with the guitarists and the strap broke and keys flew everywhere 😂
Brings back memories! The CZ1000 was my first synth too; I wish I hadn't sold it. Casio was underrated.. And as life has it, in my case, now I'm living in Italy! :) Thanks again Paolo. Always nice to check out your vids. :)
Loved the shouts to Ciani, a total inspiration for us all in the synth community for sure, and I love this synth. I've been using the Arturia emulation for a while, but aiming to pick up a hardware unit soon. I haven't touched one since the 90s but feel like it deserves a place in the studio out of respect for our heritage. What a great era we came through (if only to push us to get on top of our programming skills).
Hey man, best review on the web for this synth. i've been looking for something like this for a while trying to figure out if this is what i imagine and you totally helped me. thank you so much and greetings from Argentina.
I got my CZ-5000 half a year ago and it was my introduction into vintage synthesizers! I really love it, once you get the hang of the programming it's really awesome. The CZ-5000 can actually use its 8-voice polyphony to play 8 monophonic tracks using different presets! Amazing!
My brother had this synthesizer in the 1980s. I used to play on it all the time. Now I own it. I always liked the fairy tail sound and brass sounds. Keep up the great work I look forward towards your next video.
Excellent, thanks Paolo! Im lucky enough to have recently bought a CZ1 so this is great timing, probably mainly wanted one for the organ sound you demoed.
My first synth in the mid 80s was a Yamaha DX27 and a short time later I bought a Casio CZ230S. I bought it because it was the cheapest way to get a programmable drumcomputer with PCM-sounds. The CZ230S was fantastic, the synthesizer was not programmable but very well equipped with 100 preset sounds. The CZs are very underrated.
Cool , the CZ-1000 was my first synth too (OK, second if we count the VL-1). Such a versatile instrument. it could make both analog and digital type sounds, from Prophet 5 to PPG. And you could also use the complex envelopes to create fake reverb and delay, way before built in digital effects were a thing. The digital envelopes were quite similar to the ones on the Roland W-30 and other S-series samplers.
I still have my CZ-101 that I purchased new in 1987. I also have a CZ-10M that I purchased used more recently. The set of CZ-101 patches that come with MIDIQuest software are those that I supplied to the company back in the late '80's after collecting and organizing hundreds of patches at that time. There is a patch called "Alien Landing" in one of the FX banks that I created from scratch.
Hi Paulo - this was ALSO my first synth back in about 1987 :-) I have a lot of small snippets including the same sounds. SO FUNNY to hear them again on this video :-D I must admit some of them gives me the shivers in a negative way... uargh! :-p But of course I love the synth. I made some usefull songs on the CZ-5000 with sequenzer though. Still have some of the data tapes with tracks :-)
CZs are very easy to program and yet quite capable of making some unique sounds especially basses. I've built an external memory cartridge based on ferromagnetic RAM so the patches can be kept in there forever with no need of a battery.
Great to see and hear the underated CZ1000. I was going to buy the CZ101, but decided at the shop small keys weren't for me. So paid a lot more for the big version. Some years later, 15?, found the matching SQ1 sequencer for sale.
CZs are quite easy to find cheap. The CZ101 is the one all want because is tiny&cute, but you can lay your hands on a CZ1, CZ1000 or CZ3000 for 250/300$. Sometimes the CZ101 could also be found at that price, but usually is rated higher. The funny thing is that the CZ101 (and its twin 1000, which is only bigger in size but for the rest is the very same instrument) is the most limited one in the CZ range, but despite of this is the one that is worth more in the vintage market.
MartDrummer Are you nuts and/or deaf? I bought Casio CZ 3000 in the late eighties and soon noticed that with (about) the same amount of money I could have bought a quality synth. Casio CZ's were crap in the eighties and absolutely worthless today. :(
@@mansenmias What has gotten your panties all in a bunch? Different folks. different strokes. You just can't argue about taste?! What sounds like crap to you might sound like heaven to others. I am one of those who absolutely loves the sound of this synth, I own both the cz 1000 and cz 3000 and to me personally they sound amazing. But you are free to disagree.
@@mansenmias People have been saying that about 80s and early 90s Casio keyboards in general since 2003. Back in the 80s a phaze distortion Casio CZ synth or a Yamaha DX synth with FM synthesis was all many producers could afford at the time if they wanted a machine that imitated traditional instruments like accordion, xylophone, flute and brass and I thinki the Casio CZ synths and even the consumer Casiotone MT/CTs pulled that off really well at the time.
Welcome back! I know I had a casio as well as my first synth. I have no idea what model it was. All I know is it played "Never Gonna Give you up" Rick Astley as its demo song:)
Hey Paolo! Welcome back from NAMM! Looked like a blast out there! Thanks for the quick rundown of the CZ, have been wanting to snag an older Casio for some time had a line on a 101, but alas the deal fell apart. Will try again soon though! If you have a chance would love to know the differences between the Casios from back then.
Marshal, thank you! They all pretty much sound similar - the 101 and 1000 are the same (other than the minikeys on the 101); the 3000 and 5000 have double polyphony / layers and also are similar (other than the sequencer on the 5000); and the CZ-1 has velocity and aftertouch
I love this synth. For anyone interested, reverb is offering multisamples of the CZ-1000 presets in wav form for free at the moment. As well as 17 multisampled patches from the oberheim matrix 1000. If you have kontakt, grace sampler or something along those lines, it might be worth checking out.
Aaaaaw! My first synth was a Casio CZ-101. I still have it. Phase Distortion is such an underestimated and overlooked technology. Great for tuned percussion, synth bass, synth bass and weird noises with a great personality that's hard to get out of big league synths because of ... megalomania haha. Some of them were almost corny like the trumpet but still, there is a place for silly, corny noises and melodies in music, and then you need one of these. I'm chasing a CZ-1 now, the flagship of Casio's phase distortion synths. Meanwhile, I'm using VirtualCZ which is a VST plugin from PluginBoutique. GREAT EMULATOR of CZ sounds! It's even possible to use it as a SysEx programmer via MIDI although I haven't tried it yet. A lot of sounds that comes with the VirtualCZ you will recognize.
The 101 was the first real synth I ever heard. I was about 12 years old and I fell so hard in love with it. But it was just too expensive. Poor family and all that. So I never did get one but I would go into music stores on the weekends and they'd sometimes let me play on it. At one point they had a full blown CZ-1 and while I wasn't allowed to touch it the owner gave me a demo and my head just blew clean off. What a monster! I also love that Vince Clark had like 4 of them and took them on tour using just them and a BBC model B computer to drive them all. Not quite sure of the details or even truth on that as that's a story I'd heard decades ago but it always made me want the 101 even more.
Casio was a bit unlucky, releasing their CZ series the same time as DX7 was so hot on the market. The PD-synthesis sounds great and deserved a lot more interest and sales.
Paolo, complimenti per il tuo canale e per quello che fai! Ho iniziato da ragazzo (primi anni '90) con una tastiera Casio economica, con i classici 100 suoni...e quando provai anni dopo a ricreare certi suoni sul sinth (korg m1) non ci riuscii, e ora ascoltando questi suoni ho capito che quella pianola aveva i campionamenti tratti da questi synth Casio che utilizzando come sintesi la distorsione di fase, creano suoni molto particolari che difficilmente si riproducono con la sottrattiva 😮
Ciao Paolo! I have the CZ-1. For some reason I love it even if it has a little plasticky edge but comparing to FM synthesis has also an analog shade and is fairly easy to program, that's why I will never sell mine. Probably I am going to try with an aural exciter to tame the digital soul a little. A presto!👍
Sounds reminds me The Kawai K-1 i owned:-) - another underrated synth imho Anyway I didn't know you were italian (so am I) Tks for your great tutorials and greetings from Bergamo!
Good thing you met Suzanne Ciani. She is a fantastic person and excellent pianist and composer. Pioneer of computer music. I still have the records Pianissimo and Suzanne Ciani and The Waves that she signed for me when i interviewed her for World Music magazine in Barcelona. His musical themes are romantic and srntimental. They reach the heart. Have you thought about doing any collaboration?
Question is if you didn’t already have the pro one or the sh101 would you choose the behringer stuff or would you still buy the older originals? How do you feel about the remakes
Synth walk question ,would you consider doing a kickstarter for an external midi patchbay say 8x8 I would think you have the subs and connections to make it happen?
My first synth was a Korg T3 in mint condition but with dead battery so I've replaced the battery but couldn't find original software so I learned how to program on Korg synth. Nevertheless it was a great synth. Also owned a casio CZ5000 and gave it to my friend because i didn't know that Casio had such a good synth back in the 80's
Your videos are awesome. Really enjoyed this one as well. IMO: Don’t worry too much about a schedule "rare gems" are good too. How much did you need to shell out for a CZ back then? How long did it take you to raise the money and why that specific model? I‘m asking as I’m in the market for my first own synth and I still don’t quite know whether to go retro with a DX7 II/SY77 or if I should have a look at some new synths. I do really like FM synthesis, what is your recommendation?
Thanks - the CZ was the cheapest poly synth at that time, that's why :-D Yes, I remember exactly how much I paid for it (used in a small Rome store in 1986 or 1987), I paid 300,000 lire for it, I worked as bartender in a hotel when I was a teenager to make the money to buy synths and stereo equipment (gear was very expensive back then). You'd have to do a search and adjust for inflation to see how much 300K lire translates to today's dollars, probably something like 300-500 dollars of today. If you're starting out and like FM, you might want to consider Volca FM, DigiTone, Reface DX, Waldorf Blofeld etc.
A lot of toy Casios had their sounds sampled from the CZ machines. The CZ synth brass for example is another sound that ended up sampled in a lot of Casio toy keyboards from the mid 80ies.
Dude you are so skilled. You could pump out tracks like the outro as ‘outrun.’ Or ‘new wave retro’ and it would be so sweet. A 20m freestyle jam of 80s style synth wave would be ver popular
Ciao Paolo, mi fai tornare al 1986 quando suonai il bigbro cz5000 di un amico. Molto impressionante per me che cercavo di spremere suoni sinth da una GEM DSK100 (Che ancora ho👍).. tu puoi sicuramente capirmi 😁. Comunque la sintesi sonora Casio non mi ha mai fatto innamorare.
Eh si', infatti anch'io avevo una GEM DSK-8 Stereo e poi ho comprato subito il Casio, visto che sulla GEM non era proprio "sintesi"... cambiavi i parametri pigiando i bottoni sul pad per cambiare quattro valori, che non sapevi mai se era il filtro, l'inviluppo, il vibrato etc. :-D. Anch'io ho ancora sia la GEM, che il CZ-1000
I'm a big Casio fan Paolo , love these videos. What's your opinion on modern vst emulations of all these great synths that you own? It's possibly the only chance that I could ever own such classics .
Synth Walk question: You mentioned working for Networking/Telephone companies. Have you ever been interested in Phone Phreaking and the associated tones/sounds/computer systems? You seem about the right age and I'm wondering if your interest in synthesis and sounds also lead you into other worlds such as these. Recently read a book called Exploding the Telephone and it seemed to have an association to people who are attracted to computers, sounds and programming. Just wondering and I hope you have a wonderful day.
Thanks a lot Paolo, long time no vids. Especially big Thanks for organ part, on 2:39, from the track that I adore: "Another Night", by M. C. Sar & The Real Mccoy. You promised to make Eurodance vid. What about creating of 1:1 instrumental of "Another Night"? Two goals at the same time: Eurodance vid and instrumental, that millions fans want to listen😉👌
Hey Paolo! Got a question for your next synth walk - How do you go about processing the Roland TR-909 when recording it? I own a 909 and while the unit does sound phenomenal on its own, I struggle to get things to sit right in a mix - the kick drum especially. I have watched many of your vids with your 909 and the kick drum is always nice and punchy and I am just curious what your process is for getting the kick to sound like that? In my mixes, it is always buried. Thank you Paolo, I have watched your videos since I was 16. You have always been an inspiration and you are a huge reason why I got into house music :+)
Great video! Was wondering if someone could explain how these synths differ from other digital synths? (i'm assuming the sound source is digital) I'm not sure what it is about these sounds, is it the bitrate or something else? They have a real old school or cheap keyboard vibe to them, which I'd love to try and emulate. Thanks.
Some is the nature of how PD synthesis works. A lot tho is to do with the DAC which ran at an odd rate and was cheap so it was not exactly clean (at least in the 1000). This added to the character of the instrument overall. While I have tried almost every CZ emulator and even made my own attempts using various methods incl bit crushers, while I may get one sound that is passably CZ, I definitely can't recreate the instrument overall. I talk a lot about that here: ua-cam.com/video/0r2dsbAoRVo/v-deo.html
My first synth, Christmas 1985. My parents were concerned I would lose interest in this “toy”. No, it only fueled my obsession with collecting synths. Great bell sounds! The CZ Patch library and CZ touch are nice newer tools for this amazing synth. A synth I often return to for great sounds!
Thank you. I got it now it’s a ELEC ORGAN preset 6 I believe. I wonder why factory presets are not present on VirtualCZ? Luckily they are on Arturia CZ-V which is on my list now. One great feature of VirtualCZ is that it can also export Sysex programs that can be loaded in real CZ!
Markus, I used to play the MK88 in the early '90s because the studio where I used to go to had it, but don't remember if there's a reset feature... however, here is the manual for it in case you don't have it, so you can set it the way you want: www.lim.di.unimi.it/manuals/midi/Elka_MK88.pdf
I find the Casio CZs easy to edit and program then the Yamaha DX. Since the 1980's I've bought several used Synths trying to figure it out. My problem is that I'm a guitarist and keys are second and I don't really have the space to set everything up. So i'll set they keys up for a couple of weeks and work on a few inspirations then pack them away. So my $100 Casio PX-310 has a lot more possibilities then my Yamaha P-70 had. I bought the Casio Xw-P1 new and it's an awesome $500 Synth I paid $100 for my Casio CZ-3000 that came with a Casio hard shell case and a Yamaha AW-1600 Hard Disk recorder with a case and candy. At 68 years old, I'm set, I just need a bigger room.
HEY, PAOLO! Thanks for the mention! The bass on YW is actually my Emax II playing a sample of my Moog Rogue. But there is a Casio on it, of course, the infamous VL-1 doing the HUGE DRUM BREAK that eclipses John Bonham.... lol...
Hi, Jyoti!!! Thanks for setting the record straight on the bass sound on Your Woman , I've always loved that bass line! :thumbsup: especially the "growling" effect that you gave it in some of the beats - like if it's "rolled" really fast in 24ths or 32th notes right before hitting the next note - really cool. I've got a Rogue and will try to get that sound - Ah, yes, the awesome Casio VL beat is a CLASSIC!! :-) Thanks again for letting us all know!
Jyoti Mishra Hi Jyoti! Such a treat to see you here. I’ve always loved « Your Woman » Such a great song. Are you aware that a French producer re-used that bass line for two songs he produced? Look up « L’Alizee » by Alizee (choruses) and « Moi Lolita » by Alizee (verses). The resemblance is striking...
@@SynthManiaDotCom The 'growl' is from the sample going too low and crunchy, nice bonus! :-D Ahhh, I wish I lived closer to you, I would love to meet in person and just ramble on about synths and electronic music for hours...
@@SamSine hah, yes, I was struck by the similarity at the time they were released. But no-one owns chord progressions, of course. :-D
Jyoti Mishra That’s true! However, it’s way too similar to be just a coincidence. The melody of your bass line is very unique. Even the sound characteristics of the bass is somewhat close to your version. “Moi Lolita” was a huge success all over Europe and Mexico, was in the U.K. top charts (absolutely rare for a French song) and it’s probably why you’ve heard it. If you had had a copyright on the bass, you would have made a ton of £££ 😉 Great talking to you!!
Played a cz in the 80s hung around my neck with a guitar strap. I can remember jumping around on stage with the guitarists and the strap broke and keys flew everywhere 😂
Casio CZ's are hugely underrated.
The CZ-101 was my first "real" synth that I purchased with my paper route money back when I was 15 years old in 1984/85. :)
Absolutely love the attention to the CZ!!! Love this synth
Brings back memories! The CZ1000 was my first synth too; I wish I hadn't sold it. Casio was underrated.. And as life has it, in my case, now I'm living in Italy! :) Thanks again Paolo. Always nice to check out your vids. :)
Brilliant. Love the CZ’s❤️🕺
Loved the shouts to Ciani, a total inspiration for us all in the synth community for sure, and I love this synth. I've been using the Arturia emulation for a while, but aiming to pick up a hardware unit soon. I haven't touched one since the 90s but feel like it deserves a place in the studio out of respect for our heritage. What a great era we came through (if only to push us to get on top of our programming skills).
Hey man, best review on the web for this synth. i've been looking for something like this for a while trying to figure out if this is what i imagine and you totally helped me. thank you so much and greetings from Argentina.
I got my CZ-5000 half a year ago and it was my introduction into vintage synthesizers! I really love it, once you get the hang of the programming it's really awesome. The CZ-5000 can actually use its 8-voice polyphony to play 8 monophonic tracks using different presets! Amazing!
I still LOVE my CZ-101...absolute GOLD. If you spend the time, you can get some great sounds from it. Nice work Paolo! :)
Thanks!
My brother had this synthesizer in the 1980s. I used to play on it all the time. Now I own it. I always liked the fairy tail sound and brass sounds. Keep up the great work I look forward towards your next video.
Thank you!
Nice post -- thanks! About to get my hands on a CZ-5000 and excited to see these cool sounds. Keep it up, man!
Same
One of my main goals going into 2019 was to buy a Casio CZ-1000, I've become obsessed with the sound of phase distortion synthesis
Super awesome CZ fun!! Thank you for sharing this!!! A++++++++++++++++++++
That bass organ sound is a very signature hip house sound, love it!
Excellent, thanks Paolo! Im lucky enough to have recently bought a CZ1 so this is great timing, probably mainly wanted one for the organ sound you demoed.
Thanks!
love to see a walk around your place and how its setup, Mixer processing and amps, stuff like that. Thanks!
My first synth in the mid 80s was a Yamaha DX27 and a short time later I bought a Casio CZ230S. I bought it because it was the cheapest way to get a programmable drumcomputer with PCM-sounds. The CZ230S was fantastic, the synthesizer was not programmable but very well equipped with 100 preset sounds. The CZs are very underrated.
Cool , the CZ-1000 was my first synth too (OK, second if we count the VL-1). Such a versatile instrument. it could make both analog and digital type sounds, from Prophet 5 to PPG. And you could also use the complex envelopes to create fake reverb and delay, way before built in digital effects were a thing. The digital envelopes were quite similar to the ones on the Roland W-30 and other S-series samplers.
Had one in the early 90's, Miss it.
Glad to see Casio get some love, they are my dads favorite Synths.
Retro game soundtrack in a box. Awesome.
I still have my CZ-101 that I purchased new in 1987. I also have a CZ-10M that I purchased used more recently. The set of CZ-101 patches that come with MIDIQuest software are those that I supplied to the company back in the late '80's after collecting and organizing hundreds of patches at that time. There is a patch called "Alien Landing" in one of the FX banks that I created from scratch.
Had one of these in the 80's great synth!
Hi Paulo - this was ALSO my first synth back in about 1987 :-) I have a lot of small snippets including the same sounds. SO FUNNY to hear them again on this video :-D I must admit some of them gives me the shivers in a negative way... uargh! :-p But of course I love the synth. I made some usefull songs on the CZ-5000 with sequenzer though. Still have some of the data tapes with tracks :-)
CZs are very easy to program and yet quite capable of making some unique sounds especially basses. I've built an external memory cartridge based on ferromagnetic RAM so the patches can be kept in there forever with no need of a battery.
I love CZs. One of my first synth. Still enjoy it
Some many sounds that were used as samples back in the day on the Amiga sound tracker mods.
👍Great stuff, love my casio ctx 😉
I had a CZ101... I remember the extended envelopes allowed you to make some great ambient/repeating/delayed sounds... I loved that synth.
Yeah, i had one that i paired with the poly 800. I never really gave the CZ a chance.
Great to see and hear the underated CZ1000. I was going to buy the CZ101, but decided at the shop small keys weren't for me. So paid a lot more for the big version. Some years later, 15?, found the matching SQ1 sequencer for sale.
I've got the matching SZ-1 sequencer as well. I think I'll try to track down an RZ-1 at some point and do a video with the full combo
The electric piano sound reminded me of Coming around again by Carly Simon.
And now I want a Casio CZ on top of all the other synths I already drool over but cannot afford
CZs are quite easy to find cheap. The CZ101 is the one all want because is tiny&cute, but you can lay your hands on a CZ1, CZ1000 or CZ3000 for 250/300$. Sometimes the CZ101 could also be found at that price, but usually is rated higher. The funny thing is that the CZ101 (and its twin 1000, which is only bigger in size but for the rest is the very same instrument) is the most limited one in the CZ range, but despite of this is the one that is worth more in the vintage market.
MartDrummer Are you nuts and/or deaf? I bought Casio CZ 3000 in the late eighties and soon noticed that with (about) the same amount of money I could have bought a quality synth. Casio CZ's were crap in the eighties and absolutely worthless today. :(
@@mansenmias What has gotten your panties all in a bunch? Different folks. different strokes. You just can't argue about taste?! What sounds like crap to you might sound like heaven to others. I am one of those who absolutely loves the sound of this synth, I own both the cz 1000 and cz 3000 and to me personally they sound amazing. But you are free to disagree.
@@mansenmias People have been saying that about 80s and early 90s Casio keyboards in general since 2003. Back in the 80s a phaze distortion
Casio CZ synth or a Yamaha DX synth with FM synthesis was all many producers could afford at the time if they wanted a machine that imitated
traditional instruments like accordion, xylophone, flute and brass and I thinki the Casio CZ synths and even the consumer Casiotone MT/CTs pulled
that off really well at the time.
Welcome back! I know I had a casio as well as my first synth. I have no idea what model it was. All I know is it played "Never Gonna Give you up" Rick Astley as its demo song:)
Wanted a CZ back in the ‘80s, finally bought one a few years ago on eBay.
This is why I love my Casio VZ1.... in 2019😁
I had a CZ5000 and couldn't give it away.. I have recently realized how awesome it was.. it did get some cool sounds but it was a pain to use.
Hey Paolo! Welcome back from NAMM! Looked like a blast out there! Thanks for the quick rundown of the CZ, have been wanting to snag an older Casio for some time had a line on a 101, but alas the deal fell apart. Will try again soon though! If you have a chance would love to know the differences between the Casios from back then.
Marshal, thank you! They all pretty much sound similar - the 101 and 1000 are the same (other than the minikeys on the 101); the 3000 and 5000 have double polyphony / layers and also are similar (other than the sequencer on the 5000); and the CZ-1 has velocity and aftertouch
sounds lovely
I love this synth. For anyone interested, reverb is offering multisamples of the CZ-1000 presets in wav form for free at the moment. As well as 17 multisampled patches from the oberheim matrix 1000. If you have kontakt, grace sampler or something along those lines, it might be worth checking out.
Aaaaaw! My first synth was a Casio CZ-101. I still have it. Phase Distortion is such an underestimated and overlooked technology. Great for tuned percussion, synth bass, synth bass and weird noises with a great personality that's hard to get out of big league synths because of ... megalomania haha. Some of them were almost corny like the trumpet but still, there is a place for silly, corny noises and melodies in music, and then you need one of these. I'm chasing a CZ-1 now, the flagship of Casio's phase distortion synths. Meanwhile, I'm using VirtualCZ which is a VST plugin from PluginBoutique. GREAT EMULATOR of CZ sounds! It's even possible to use it as a SysEx programmer via MIDI although I haven't tried it yet. A lot of sounds that comes with the VirtualCZ you will recognize.
Definitely love the Virtual CZ !!
The 101 was the first real synth I ever heard. I was about 12 years old and I fell so hard in love with it. But it was just too expensive. Poor family and all that. So I never did get one but I would go into music stores on the weekends and they'd sometimes let me play on it. At one point they had a full blown CZ-1 and while I wasn't allowed to touch it the owner gave me a demo and my head just blew clean off. What a monster!
I also love that Vince Clark had like 4 of them and took them on tour using just them and a BBC model B computer to drive them all. Not quite sure of the details or even truth on that as that's a story I'd heard decades ago but it always made me want the 101 even more.
It has a nice bite....Doug Lazy hip house organ....awesome.
Casio was a bit unlucky, releasing their CZ series the same time as DX7 was so hot on the market. The PD-synthesis sounds great and deserved a lot more interest and sales.
dang, i kinda want one, i do luv my casio px 5s. You should get crazy with some of those sample CD's you got again!
Great to see another vid from you!
Thank you!
Paolo, complimenti per il tuo canale e per quello che fai!
Ho iniziato da ragazzo (primi anni '90) con una tastiera Casio economica, con i classici 100 suoni...e quando provai anni dopo a ricreare certi suoni sul sinth (korg m1) non ci riuscii, e ora ascoltando questi suoni ho capito che quella pianola aveva i campionamenti tratti da questi synth Casio che utilizzando come sintesi la distorsione di fase, creano suoni molto particolari che difficilmente si riproducono con la sottrattiva 😮
Grazie di cuore! La PD della Casio e' molto cara anche a me, si possono fare veramente dei bei suoni
Ciao Paolo! I have the CZ-1. For some reason I love it even if it has a little plasticky edge but comparing to FM synthesis has also an analog shade and is fairly easy to program, that's why I will never sell mine. Probably I am going to try with an aural exciter to tame the digital soul a little. A presto!👍
Wow this is one of my dream synth when I was 16....
Casio's CZ sound is known as Phase-Distortion which is a very cool and original style of 'FM' synthesis.
Great video. I love my very old VZ1.
Thank you
Found one today for $7.49 in a thrift shop today. Anazing!!
Hoboken Hi-Fi awesome find mate
Sounds reminds me The Kawai K-1 i owned:-) - another underrated synth imho
Anyway I didn't know you were italian (so am I)
Tks for your great tutorials and greetings from Bergamo!
Gianfranco, thanks and many greetings back to Italy / ciao!
Your woman .... defo in my top ten play list ! I have 3 CZ 1000’s 👌
I hope we can play the song on the radio here -)
Good thing you met Suzanne Ciani. She is a fantastic person and excellent pianist and composer. Pioneer of computer music. I still have the records Pianissimo and Suzanne Ciani and The Waves that she signed for me when i interviewed her for World Music magazine in Barcelona. His musical themes are romantic and srntimental. They reach the heart. Have you thought about doing any collaboration?
Synth walk question: YAMAHA EX7 vs YAMAHA TG77 which would be the master over the other, emotion, pads thanks :)
The CZ 3000 was my first synthesizer🎹 plus, February 10th is my sister's birthday happy birthday sis!!¡!🎉🎂🎁✌
Question is if you didn’t already have the pro one or the sh101 would you choose the behringer stuff or would you still buy the older originals? How do you feel about the remakes
I LOVE Suzanne Ciani! I'm very jealous now. lol
2:49 It's the organ sound from "Wiggle It" by 2 in a room
I never noticed any Italian in your talking, until 2:18 ;-)
LOL... "and the vibraaaato"
Me too! I'm Italian and I've been watching his videos for a while and didn't notice any Italian accent until he pronounced an Italian word.
haha I noticed that too: funny how one little word is noticed.
The traitor never sleeps :-)
Synth walk question ,would you consider doing a kickstarter for an external midi patchbay say 8x8 I would think you have the subs and connections to make it happen?
I had one of these back in the day... my very 1st synth. Wonder what it'd be worth now
Have you tried the Arturia CZ V Casio version Emulation. Please download demo version I value your opinion :)
My first synth was a Korg T3 in mint condition but with dead battery so I've replaced the battery but couldn't find original software so I learned how to program on Korg synth. Nevertheless it was a great synth. Also owned a casio CZ5000 and gave it to my friend because i didn't know that Casio had such a good synth back in the 80's
Your videos are awesome. Really enjoyed this one as well. IMO: Don’t worry too much about a schedule "rare gems" are good too. How much did you need to shell out for a CZ back then? How long did it take you to raise the money and why that specific model?
I‘m asking as I’m in the market for my first own synth and I still don’t quite know whether to go retro with a DX7 II/SY77 or if I should have a look at some new synths. I do really like FM synthesis, what is your recommendation?
Thanks - the CZ was the cheapest poly synth at that time, that's why :-D Yes, I remember exactly how much I paid for it (used in a small Rome store in 1986 or 1987), I paid 300,000 lire for it, I worked as bartender in a hotel when I was a teenager to make the money to buy synths and stereo equipment (gear was very expensive back then). You'd have to do a search and adjust for inflation to see how much 300K lire translates to today's dollars, probably something like 300-500 dollars of today. If you're starting out and like FM, you might want to consider Volca FM, DigiTone, Reface DX, Waldorf Blofeld etc.
I didn’t realize that the SK-1’s Trumpet came from the CZ
A lot of toy Casios had their sounds sampled from the CZ machines. The CZ synth brass for example is another sound that ended up sampled in a lot of Casio toy keyboards from the mid 80ies.
Dude you are so skilled. You could pump out tracks like the outro as ‘outrun.’ Or ‘new wave retro’ and it would be so sweet.
A 20m freestyle jam of 80s style synth wave would be ver popular
Thank you, yeah, people ask me to do the '80s material quite often... I'll make another one soon
Ciao Paolo, mi fai tornare al 1986 quando suonai il bigbro cz5000 di un amico. Molto impressionante per me che cercavo di spremere suoni sinth da una GEM DSK100 (Che ancora ho👍).. tu puoi sicuramente capirmi 😁. Comunque la sintesi sonora Casio non mi ha mai fatto innamorare.
Eh si', infatti anch'io avevo una GEM DSK-8 Stereo e poi ho comprato subito il Casio, visto che sulla GEM non era proprio "sintesi"... cambiavi i parametri pigiando i bottoni sul pad per cambiare quattro valori, che non sapevi mai se era il filtro, l'inviluppo, il vibrato etc. :-D. Anch'io ho ancora sia la GEM, che il CZ-1000
Can you make a nice relaxing mix of soothing synth sounds? like real chill stuff to chill out on a beach to or drive at night
The CZ-3000 was my first synth!
I'm a big Casio fan Paolo , love these videos. What's your opinion on modern vst emulations of all these great synths that you own? It's possibly the only chance that I could ever own such classics .
Emulations are definitely good - since it was digital synthesis anyway, it'll be very close to the originals
I like its brass tones for sure. The trumpet was like Reggiano though, very cheesy.
Synth Walk question:
You mentioned working for Networking/Telephone companies. Have you ever been interested in Phone Phreaking and the associated tones/sounds/computer systems? You seem about the right age and I'm wondering if your interest in synthesis and sounds also lead you into other worlds such as these. Recently read a book called Exploding the Telephone and it seemed to have an association to people who are attracted to computers, sounds and programming. Just wondering and I hope you have a wonderful day.
happy New Year~~
Interesting, I just found out the CZ-Line can sound very much like my Nord Lead 3.
Hey, now i know where this organ sound comes from! 😃
:^)
Thanks a lot Paolo, long time no vids. Especially big Thanks for organ part, on 2:39, from the track that I adore: "Another Night", by M. C. Sar & The Real Mccoy. You promised to make Eurodance vid. What about creating of 1:1 instrumental of "Another Night"? Two goals at the same time: Eurodance vid and instrumental, that millions fans want to listen😉👌
I wish Casio come back with a bang and brand new synths!!!
Casio do have 2 new synths the xwp1 performance synth and the Casio groove synth xwg1
Hey Paolo! Got a question for your next synth walk - How do you go about processing the Roland TR-909 when recording it? I own a 909 and while the unit does sound phenomenal on its own, I struggle to get things to sit right in a mix - the kick drum especially. I have watched many of your vids with your 909 and the kick drum is always nice and punchy and I am just curious what your process is for getting the kick to sound like that? In my mixes, it is always buried. Thank you Paolo, I have watched your videos since I was 16. You have always been an inspiration and you are a huge reason why I got into house music :+)
Waylon, thanks! Duly noted for the next synth walk
CZ envelopes are tremendous.
I would have thought that the Glass harp would drive everyone up the walls and that strange sounds like someone playing musical stones
Sound at 2.50 is there any other digital synth I could make this on?
Great video! Was wondering if someone could explain how these synths differ from other digital synths? (i'm assuming the sound source is digital) I'm not sure what it is about these sounds, is it the bitrate or something else? They have a real old school or cheap keyboard vibe to them, which I'd love to try and emulate. Thanks.
Some is the nature of how PD synthesis works. A lot tho is to do with the DAC which ran at an odd rate and was cheap so it was not exactly clean (at least in the 1000). This added to the character of the instrument overall. While I have tried almost every CZ emulator and even made my own attempts using various methods incl bit crushers, while I may get one sound that is passably CZ, I definitely can't recreate the instrument overall. I talk a lot about that here: ua-cam.com/video/0r2dsbAoRVo/v-deo.html
The intro sounded like living on a player.
Thanks bro!!!!! :)
My first synth, Christmas 1985. My parents were concerned I would lose interest in this “toy”. No, it only fueled my obsession with collecting synths. Great bell sounds! The CZ Patch library and CZ touch are nice newer tools for this amazing synth. A synth I often return to for great sounds!
Great story, Peter! I think you did tell me about that CZ Touch app at the studio, I'll check it out
Your studio looks less like a mess than mine does :)
Trust me, mine is a mess too right now :-D
that bass woow!
My first synth i bought with my own money is a dx7
Accidenti speravo di incontrarti in giro per NAMM. Sara' per la prossima volta
Hi another great synth! Is this House Organ a factory preset on CZ-1000? Thx
It is
Thank you. I got it now it’s a ELEC ORGAN preset 6 I believe. I wonder why factory presets are not present on VirtualCZ? Luckily they are on Arturia CZ-V which is on my list now. One great feature of VirtualCZ is that it can also export Sysex programs that can be loaded in real CZ!
one question, do you know how I can do a factory reset on the Elka mk88 ? I messed up the memory somehow... ciao markus
Markus, I used to play the MK88 in the early '90s because the studio where I used to go to had it, but don't remember if there's a reset feature... however, here is the manual for it in case you don't have it, so you can set it the way you want: www.lim.di.unimi.it/manuals/midi/Elka_MK88.pdf
Synthwalk Question: What most excited you about NAMM?
Noted - thank you, Ed
Very interesting
👏👏👏👏👏👍Saludos desde 🇨🇱
For the Synth Walk: Do you prefer Yamaha's FM or Casio's PD synthesis more, as they are very closely related in function and operation. Thanks! :)
@Tijo Lera Ok, cool! :D
you can't emulate filter sweep with dx / fm. So the cz is better if you need to emulate analog sounds.
Didn't Vince Clarke use a CZ series synth on some Erasure songs (I think primarily on Wonderland and The Circus)? :D
Yes and he used FZ and VZ too
@@davidlewis1787 Cool! :D
And Jean Michel Jarre used it on the Rendezvous album mid 80s
@@Oxygene1841 Cool! :D
I find the Casio CZs easy to edit and program then the Yamaha DX. Since the 1980's I've bought several used Synths trying to figure it out. My problem is that I'm a guitarist and keys are second and I don't really have the space to set everything up. So i'll set they keys up for a couple of weeks and work on a few inspirations then pack them away.
So my $100 Casio PX-310 has a lot more possibilities then my Yamaha P-70
had.
I bought the Casio Xw-P1 new and it's an awesome $500 Synth
I paid $100 for my Casio CZ-3000 that came with a Casio hard shell case and a Yamaha AW-1600 Hard Disk recorder with a case and candy.
At 68 years old, I'm set, I just need a bigger room.