The CZ series were a family of low-cost Phase distortion synthesizers produced by Casio mid-1980s. There were eight models of CZ synthesizers released: the CZ-101, CZ-230S, CZ-1000, CZ-2000S, CZ-2600S, CZ-3000, CZ-5000, and the CZ-1. Additionally the home-keyboard model CT-6500 used 48 phase-distortion presets from the CZ line. The CZ series were remarkably flexible synthesizers, and their price made programmable synthesizers affordable enough to be purchased by garage bands. Yamaha soon introduced their own low-cost digital synthesizers, including the DX-21 and DX-100, in light of the success of the CZ series. Users of the CZ series of synthesizer include Vince Clarke, Clarence Jey, They Might be Giants, Jean Michel Jarre, Seventh Celestia, the Orb, Moby, Cirrus, Jimi Tenor and Jimmy Edgar.
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Casio's Phase-Distortion synthesis technique was championed by Casio engineer Mark Fukuda and evolved from the Cosmo Synth System that was custom-developed for legendary synthesist-composer Isao Tomita. Yukihiro Takahashi was also on board during development [1], who in turn toured with a CZ-1 visibly in his 1986 tour of Japan.
To make the CZ synthesizers inexpensive, Casio used digital synthesis without a filter instead of traditional analog subtractive synthesis with a filter. Like many early digital synthesizers, its sound was regarded as "thinner" than the sound of an analog synthesizer. However, the CZ line used phase distortion to somewhat simulate an analog filter, it had in total eight different waveforms: as well as the standard sawtooth, square, and pulse waveforms, it had a special double sine waveform, a half-sine waveform, and three waveforms with simulated filter resonance: resonant sawtooth, triangle, and trapezoidal waveforms. The simulated filter resonance was not considered to sound much like real filter resonance, being a simple waveform at the filter cutoff value instead of a real filter resonating.
Each digital oscillator could have one or two waveforms. Unlike other synthesizers, where having multiple waveforms added the multiple waveforms together, the CZ synthesizers would play one waveform and then play the other waveform in series; this resulted in there being a fundamental added one octave below the pitch of the sound. It was possible to combine two non-resonant waveforms together, and to combine a resonant waveform with a non-resonant waveform, but it was not possible to combine two resonant waveforms.
The CZ-101 and CZ-1000 had only eight digital oscillators. For patches using one oscillator per voice, this allowed 8-note polyphony, but if two oscillators per voice were used, this restricted polyphony to four voices. The CZ-3000, CZ-5000, and CZ-1 had sixteen digital oscillators, making them sixteen- or eight-voice synthesizers. Each of the oscillators in a two-oscillator patch could be independently programmed.
Each DCW (what Casio called the phase distortion part of the sound which determined how many harmonics a given sound had) was also modulated by a dedicated 8-stage envelope generator.
The DCA (which determined how loud a given oscillator was at a given moment) was also modulated by another dedicated 8-stage envelope generator. The DCW and DCA also had a "key follow" feature; which determined how much higher notes affected a sound, making the DCW have a more dull sound with less harmonics with higher notes, and making the DCA envelope faster for higher notes.
The envelope generators in the CZ synthesizers were far more flexible than a traditional four-stage ADSR envelope; they were eight stage envelope generators where each stage had a rate and level value. The rate value determined how fast the envelope would move; the level value would determine what pitch/filter cutoff/volume the envelope would have. There was a single sustain stage, and an end stage.
The synthesizers had but a single LFO, which could only modulate the pitch of all voices in a given patch. The LFO had triangle, square, up ramp sawtooth, and down ramp sawtooth waveforms. The LFO had only three settings: speed, depth, and delay.
The pitch of a voice could also be modulated by a dedicated eight-stage envelope; the envelope generator could only increase the pitch of a sound. The plus side of the CZ-series LFO (even the 101) is that it is polyphonic like the envelope generators akin to those of the Yamaha DX7II/SY77 where every oscillator/voice has individual LFO retriggering/cycling - this means that the LFO can also be used as a simple/secondary pitch envelope generator.
It was possible to modulate the two voices in a two-voice patch in two different ways. Ring modulation had the output of one of the oscillators affect the volume of the other oscillator, resulting in a controlled distortion. Noise modulation caused the second voice in a two-voice patch to sound like digital noise, roughly simulating the effect of an analog synthesizer's noise source.
The CZ synthesizers also had the ability to stack up two different sounds via the "tone mix" feature resulting in a functionally monophonic synthesizer; this was Casio's version of the "unison" feature other polyphonic synthesizers had. Each part in a two-patch stack could be a different patch, allowing great flexibility in stacked sounds. It was not possible to detune the two patches in a tone mix stack; this could be somewhat worked around, however, by giving each of the two patches a different vibrato rate.
The CZ synthesizers did not have some features that analog synthesizers had: LFO can't modulate DCW, and it means also pulse width modulation is not possible; the simulated resonance was an either-or proposition; with the exception of a resonant form, it did not have a triangle wave.
The CZ-101 was the first and best-selling synthesizer in this line. Approximately 68,500 were manufactured. Released in November 1984, it was one of the first (if not the first) fully programmable polyphonic synthesizers that was available for under $500. In order to keep the price low, several compromises were made. The CZ-101 only had 49 keys (4 octaves from C to C) instead of the 61 keys most synthesizers had. Instead of full sized keys, the CZ-101 used miniature keys.
The CZ-230S was released in 1986. Despite the CZ-230Ss model numbering, it was not really a programmable synthesizer; the specifications of this model more closely resembled that of one of Casio's home keyboard models. It used the synthesizer technology of the CZ-101 in a 100 tone preset sound bank, had a mini keyboard of 49 keys, incorporated the RZ1 drum computer technology and had a built-in speaker. Only four of the sounds in the sound bank could be programmed by linking the synthesizer to a computer via its MIDI port.
The CZ-1000 was the second fully programmable phase distortion synthesizer that Casio introduced. This synthesizer, introduced in 1985, was identical to the CZ-101 in function, but used full size keys and more attractive membrane buttons. It was also somewhat larger than the CZ-101. Like the CZ-101, this synthesizer had 49 keys.
The CZ-2000S synthesizer was a rare model that was not sold in North America. It was identical to the CZ-3000 except that it also had built-in speakers.
The CZ-2600S synthesizer was a rare model that was not sold in North America. It was identical to the CZ-2000S except that it was a stereo model.
The CZ-3000 synthesizer used the same phase distortion engine as the CZ-101 and the CZ-1000, but added the following features:
The CZ-5000 synthesizer was almost identical to the CZ-3000, but had a built in 8 track sequencer. In most other regards, it was virtually identical to the other CZ series synthesizers. In the mid 80's this was Casio's flagship alongside the CZ-1, which was a redesigned performance version without the sequencer but adding velocity and aftertouch to the keyboard along with better memory options and a backlit screen.
The CZ-1 synthesizer competes with the CZ-5000 for the title of most advanced in the CZ series. The CZ-1 had all the features of the CZ-5000 except the sequencer. However, the CZ-1 doubled the memory, was multitimbral, also stored splits and layers as "Operation Memories", added velocity and aftertouch sensitivity to the keyboard, along with programming parameters to control how velocity and aftertouch pressure would affect the sound. In this respect the CZ-1 is the most advanced CZ synthesizer. The CZ-1 also featured a backlit display - a small but nice improvement over the rest of the series.
Casio VZ series utilize improved Phase Distortion synthesis (iPD synthesis).
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