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How about a moog type synth?


teknoman

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How about a synth based on a minimoog?or better yet a korg ms 20 mini.Something along that idea would be interesting esp.them and their great price point.

 

Not sure what the point would be, when Moog currently make the Voyager and Korg re-released the MS20 last year. Why copy synths that already exist new? I would rather see Casio develop the XW range further, maybe incorporating a CZ emulator with real time CZ editing controls (imagine what THAT would sound like when tweaking!) That way Casio have their own sonic identity rather than mimicking another manufacturer's product. Plus, as October Rust has pointed out, the XW's can already 'do' Moog'ish like sounds, and can even cover most of the MS20 type sounds (though not its wild filter). However, the XW's can do WAY more than a MiniMoog or MS20 could ever do, so why not concentrate on making the most of the XW's powerful features rather than wanting Casio to clone an old design of synth?

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I agree with Chas.  There's no compelling reason for Casio to venture down the currently trendy analog path.  And they have no substantial history with analog so it's doubtful they would do a good job of it (although as already pointed out they have used analog processing before in a few products). 

 

Moog of course does have a rich analog history.  That's their TOTAL history.  Korg is another company with a rich analog past but they are evidently stuck there for the most part when it comes to using analog technology, releasing for example clones of the MS-20 and, I hear tell, planning to clone the ARP Odyssey.  That's what happens when a lack of imagination is combined with corporate greed (to capitalize on that hot analog market all the "boutique" vendors are servicing). 

 

IMO there is real gold in Casio's CZ past.  It's what put the company's name on the pro keyboard map back in the 80's and people respected them for it.  If they were to include a modern Phase Distortion engine with all of today's modulation possibilities, more oscillators and more polyphony in a new keyboard that also included all the other stuff we've already got from them (virtual-analog solo synth, Hex Layers, drawbar organ, decent PCM sounds) they could have a winner.

 

And I say this as someone who grew up listening to and loving pure analog synths and who has never owned a CZ synthesizer. 

 

PS.  Frankly, Casio's virtual-analog solo synth engine only needs some tweaks to be "good enough" for all but diehard analog snobs.  Fix the broken PWM, reduce the aliasing, add a 12db/octave (2-pole) low-pass filter option and perhaps add a smoother option for the 24dB/octave (4-pole) filter the XW uses now (it get can pretty nasty at high resonance, which is good for some types of sounds and not so good for others). The PX-5S proves they have learned how to do better, smoother filters (although in that case they are only 12db/octave).  Oh, and add a few more knobs to the synth's panel along with reasonably complete editing access to the underlying engines using those knobs and the sliders, along the lines of what the G1 allows for editing the solo synth but for all the synth engines under the hood.  Okay, not such an easy job anymore but that's what engineers are for!

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Hey Hugh, great call on Chicago, BS&T (and Father Ted, had my whole family howling).  I kept my vinyls. Look up Blues Project-some of those guys became BS&T. I saved those vinyls too. Way ahead of their time. Like the older big bands, hard to support a full brass/woodwind section touring and making any money, record sales kept Chicago going and BS&T is still going (shifting personnel-almost like a performing community). Still great arrangements to listen too. Lucretia MacEvil one of my favorites. The other issue-if Casio created an instrument like the XW with more analog controls, slightly better hardware like the Dave Smith, Moogs, Sequential Circuits Prophets, could be a killer. At a pricepoint like the PXs, Xws and WKs there might be market. Look at the re-incarnations and what these cost, If Casio could beat that. Throw in the older CZ phase distortion, sampling, keep the step sequencer, etc and it would be a unique instrument-again look at what the old CZ stuff goes for now, wish I had kept mine. Had the CZ-101, CZ-3000 and CZ-1 with several cartridges. Loads of fun and definitely not a DX-7. But gross national product for music instruments is small, keyboards even less so. A business has to turn over alot of product to make money. Ask Generalmusic or Ensoniq how one bad marketing/production mistake/bad management can bring down an entire company.

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 Ask Generalmusic or Ensoniq how one bad marketing/production mistake/bad management can bring down an entire company.

 

I believe the same happened with ARP. The guitar synthesize they spent way too much time on, and the super-polysynth that never did quite work properly (I forget the model now) spelt the end for such a great company.

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