The Casio CZ-1 was the top of the Casio’s CZ synthesizer line. The CZ series were a family of low-cost phase distortion synthesizers produced by Casio mid-1980s.

The CZ-1 synthesizer offered the classic CZ sound, but also featured stored splits and layers , velocity and aftertouch sensitivity. The CZ-1 also featured a backlit display – an improvement over the rest of the series.

There were eight models of CZ synthesizers released:

• CZ-101
• CZ-230S
• CZ-1000
• CZ-2000S
• CZ-2600S
• CZ-3000
• CZ-5000
• CZ-1

Additionally the home-keyboard model CT-6500 used 48 phase-distortion presets from the CZ line.

The CZ series were flexible synthesizers, and their price made programmable synthesizers affordable.

If you’ve used the Casio CZ-1, leave a comment with your thoughts!

Casio CZ-1 Resources

• Wikipedia entry for the Casio CZ series
• Casio CZ-1 at SonicState
• The Casio CZ-1 at RetroSound
• Cosmo’s Casio World
• Deep Synthesis on the Casio CZ-1
• Casio CZ-1 Banks for Kontakt3, Wav
• Casio CZ-1 Editor/Librarian and Virtualizer for Windows and Macintosh OS X
• Patchman offers patches for the Casio CZ-101, CZ-1000, CZ-3000, CZ-5000, CZ-1

Video via AnjelicasBaby:

Hi Paul Leishman from British new wave, dance, electronic synthpop and pop music artist Anjelicas Baby here.

Just been experimenting with a now very rare Casio CZ-1 Phase Distortion synthesizer in cubase. All sounds are off the Casio CZ-1 with the addition of modern computer FX and a house drum loop for added effect.

Angelicas Baby music now can be downloaded or listened to from the following sites: iTunes U.S., iTunes Australia/N.Z., iTunes Canada, iTunes UK/European Union, iTunes Japan, Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, IMVU, Amazon MP3, Lala, Shockhound, Amie Street, last.fm, indiestore.com. In the near future there will be many more.

Many thanks for your ongoing support