I'm glad I found this forum! This is my first post here and I'd like to start by sharing my experience with Casio.
As a teen back in the 80's, I fell in love with synthesizers. I had been studying piano since I was 5 and although I enjoyed playing the piano, synths were amazing. I think "Howard Jones" was a major "culprit" in whetting my appetite to get a synth, and after a lot of peskering, my folks gave in.
I originally wanted a Roland, probably because that was one of the main synths I saw popular rock artists using on stage, and the place where I was studying piano at the time had a used Juno 106 come through. I thought it was a Godsend, but after a weekend of thinking about it (my mom insisted I be patient, after all, it was a big expense back then), when I got back on Monday it was gone!
Well, I then started considering the new CZ-1000 that was in the shop. I knew it would be fun, and although I didn't consider it a "serious" synth (I had friends around me buying everything but! Yamaha, Roland, Korg..). Maybe it was desperation, I don't know, but I bought it.
Waveforms and LFOs and everything else was pretty new to me, but I had fun tweaking. Maybe too much fun. And I discovered that the 8-stage envelopes for filter, pitch and amplitude were a head above the other "professional" synths that were out there. (Heck, even the DX7 didn't have stereo output!)
Then, I met a guy at the place where I worked, Tom, who had a CZ-101. So we decided to get together with our keyboards one weekend. After that weekend, we decided to meet again and share what we had come up with.
My friend absolutely amazed me with the sounds he had come up with! One was a trickling water-type sound; another was an emulation of the "Baba O'Reilly" intro. Another was a pretty impressive helicopter sound (not the cheezy stuff I had heard in the past).
I began looking at my CZ-1000 in a different light. This thing had power. In fact, I began "wowing" some of my friends who had other synths, as they couldn't reproduce the sounds (like the trickling water) that I was able to show them. (I even came across an ad about a "modulation strip" that could be soldered to the CZ-1000 to give mod wheel capability. So I got it, and my best friend (his name is Mike Martin! lol) gave me a hand in adding it. COOL!)
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Well, time went by. I sold my CZ, which I now thoroughly regret. It was in good shape, but I thought the money was more important at the time. It wasn't. The money wasn't worth the synth. --Big mistake.-- With it, I sold several cartridges, and all the sounds it could make that I've never seen people post, even on YouTube. A true "love affair" ended.
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Since 2001, I own a Yamaha Motif 8 that I enjoyed for a while, but I'm much more fascinated by tweaking waves than playing samples. (Yes, it's tweakable, but not the same world, imo.)
Then I began exploring softsynths, and in particular, linux-based synthesizers, as I use only linux now. So I use the Motif as a controller now, and it does a good job for that, weighted keys and all.
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Still, I certainly miss the CZ. I've recently made a website where I'm showcasing linux-based synths, and I was finally able to tweak the trickling water sound my friend Tom had created back then. I did it on a softsynth called amSynth. I called the sound "Mr. Tom" in dedication. What he could do, I've never seen demonstrated on any Casio demo, which is sad. Still to this day, I think that synth series wasn't given the attention it should have. Especially the CZ-1, with all the capabilities the CZ-1000 didn't have. Lots of powerful features there. Unfortunately, sampling arrived on the scene and changed the tide.
But I still love tweaking, probably now more than ever. Lots of info out there to learn from, and I'm now doing my part participating in the virtual synth arena. (How I wish I had had Internet back in the 80's, to show the world what my CZ could do!!!!)
End of rant...
If anyone is curious about the trickling water sound (as well as an emulation of the CZ "Brass Ens. 1" start-up patch) or about linux-based softsynths, feel free to visit me at: http://amsynth.com
In my humble experience, Casio is where it all started. I think the vision was good (and Tom should've been hired as a sound designer!). It's just sad that more attention wasn't given to it when it first came out.
Fortunately, I do see some passion re-ignited for these 80's synths. Maybe they'll re-make the CZ line, perhaps with a few more "modern" features, but maintaining the same traditional structure? I'd certainly consider the purchase if they did!
To me, the CZ line was as unique as the Moog or Prophet.
Love to hear anyone's comments!
brian
