Casio RZ-1, 80's Sampling Drum Machine

[SirLanceALot]

  Casio has made some real musical jewels over the years, and the 80's era RZ-1 Digital Sampling Rhythm Composer is one great example.   I bought my RZ-1 new, and still have it. 

  It was only an 8bit machine, but back then that didn't matter and besides Casio put the most usable samples in it already.  But its most incredible feature was its sampler and 4 panel buttons for them.  You just didn't find drum machines with samplers that good back then.    First sample I added was a tambourine.  We used the hell out of those customized samples. 

   The front panel buttons were Perfectly designed, with two Accent buttons, a must for realism!     The front panel included a mixer with sliders, and there were outputs on the back for every drum sound, for you super tweakers.   

   Most people who hear my tapes think it's a real drummer.  The only giveaway was maybe the crash because it was truncated due to memory constraints, but heck my drummers use to do that on purpose a lot anyway.  With reverb you could extend the crash tail (ahhhh... By using the crash's separate output in the back)    The cool thing about that was you could trigger other sounds from any of the RZ-1's sounds. ( bass drum triggering bass guitar's noise gate on : ,"Land of Confusion")   Course it had MIDI implementation too.

    The RZ-1 was simple and intuitive!  The front panel silkscreen was near perfect!   The color scheme was cool, and pretty much matched my Yamaha gear, so folk thought maybe it was a Yamaha.  (Could be a Casio right? Dont they just make toys... Well tell that to Eric Johnson)

   I consider myself an expert at programming and using the RZ-1.  I've programmed about 100  songs with it, and gigged in the DFW area for 2 years with it.  We kept going thru drummers, and I also composed  a lot,  and one day I came across the affordable RZ-1 and couldn't resist it.   Now I didn't program easy stuff.  I was in an arena style  progressive rock band, and was programming ELP, Yes, Rush, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, early and 80's Genesis tunes, and the like.  Only a couple times did I run out of pattern memory, like on ELP's 3rd Empression. (Yea we did that one live too)

  Today most guys are programming on their computers.  But if  you don't have a computer,  and you're looking to get started on programming drums and want a control surface, check out the RZ-1.   I've seen them go for $20 on eBay, if you can find one. They're rare.

Edited March 16, 2016 by SirLanceALot
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[Jokeyman123]

No no no no not 20.00! I've a checked the only 2 I've seen lately (I'm a drummer but I still like a good drum machine!). We're talking more like 200.00, somebody is running the price up on these, like many things on eBay lately. Not many music thingys used PCM back then. ELP drum tracks on a drum machine, man you must be one patient guy...first track I think of is Tarkus, ow! Trilogy has been tough starts and stops. I think I'd still rather do these tracks on my set!