Behringer today shared a sneak preview of their CZ-1, a portable synth inspired by the classic Casio CZ-1 Phase Distortion synthesizer.
It’s a 4-voice polyphonic synth in Behringer’s Mini line, a set of small desktop synths designed to compete with the Korg Volca line. While some might consider the Behringer CZ-1 to be a knockoff of the Casio CZ-1, the mini-synth is so stripped-down that it’s more akin to what Korg did with the Volca FM, a new design that takes inspiration from vintage synths, but doesn’t really copy any specific vintage synth.
The Casio CZ-1 was the company’s top-of-the-line CZ keyboard, featuring a 61-note keyboard with velocity and aftertouch, 16-voice polyphony and some interesting features, like 8-stage envelopes.
Details on specifications and availability are to be announced, but Behringer says that they are targeting a $99 USD price point.
vst in a small box
What do you think Yamaha reface’s are? Or how about the entire Roland Zen-Core series? They’re all that now. Pointless to even say it.
@Dave C
I think it’s called trolling.
Phase distortion is very underrated…very dynamic and yet can sound very organic.
Hats off to Behringer for bringing back this classic tech in a fun compact attractive package.
Teenage Engineering sucks donkey balls
TBH the idea of a VST in a small box is actually very good. Anyone who has tried to migrate an old legacy operating system/DAW setup to their new computer after a decade of use will have encountered that moment where they can’t find their old license key, or the software wont run because its outdated and abandoned or unsupported by the corporation.
“VST in a box” is implied as an insult, but in 20 years time a VST in a box will probably power up and make a noise.
Not with an ‘analog filter’.
That puzzles me. It makes it look like this is a analog/digital paraphonic hybrid.
What do you think Yamaha reface’s are? Or how about the entire Roland Zen-Core series? They’re all that now. Pointless to even say it. 😉
Hello, are you a bot?
Why would they give it exactly the same name as Casio’s CZ-1 flagship synth? Did someone simply not know?
If I had to guess, I’d say that Uli was just pushing his “F### You, haters!” limits.
it’s just a concept *now*. plenty of time to change something ‘pointlessly’ unimportant like the name. i wonder why it’s $99; micros are targeted at $99, and Mini’s are $149. probably a mix up.
maybe because its fully digital
actually i got the prices wrong. they’re back to $49 and $99. my bad.
i hope they call it the Pazuzu!
Look at picture ‘Analog Filter’ – learning to read is a useful skill well worth developing
cz-1 is the name of countless products.. none of them except the casio is a synth
probably just a prototype name anyways
I believe it’s the CZ-1mini, at least according to the pic up there.
I’m all for the Behringer hate when it is existing products being copied, but I think this clone is completely awesome. Anyone who has ever played the CZ-1, CZ-101, etc… knows how fun and how great it can sound (find the casio cz 101 oberheim video on youtube). The midi implementation on the CZ-101 is super wacky if I remember correctly, so hopefully this thing has normal midi cc support for all parameters (wouldn’t put it past Behringer to stupidly miss this honestly).
Or you could save money and buy the VirtualCZ plugin for exactly the same sound quality for $29, run multiple instances, and have access to microtonal tuning and easy bank/preset naming and storage, and it won’t be broken in 6 months like the Behringer.
if your mostly daw-less that wouldnt work aka no computer
It can run in stand alone mode without a daw 🙂
So it requires no computer?
it will be dawless.
You must not have seen my comment up there “aka no computer”
To be fair to Behringer, like Roland, Casio are refusing to make any iterations of their old kit, so it’s fair game to make a CZ for people who want one. Having said that, there are plenty of real ones on Ebay, and the only draw I see in this Behringer is the analog filter (and maybe the velocity sensitivity mostly missing on real CZs). Without support for microtonal scales it’s pretty disappointing in 2023, there’s just no excuse on a digital synth (e.g. the UDO). This is why I use VirtualCZ despite owning multiple real CZs.
But yeah Japanese companies have a tendency to treat everything they ever made as ‘history not to be repeated’, hence other firms making clones of legendary kit, and the CZ is undoubtably legendary kit, used on many hit pop songs. It’s the synth you hear in Prince’s The Beautiful Ones.
tbh, most companies don’t want to revisit old products; typically the only guy left who knew how it worked is gone, and the design data can’t be resurrected because the language is defunct, tools are gone, files are missing, new versions are incompatible, or out of business, etc… so it would be a ground up endeavor and all the best engineers want to only work on their own ideas. that’s the major reason companies don’t do it. they spin VST versions because they’re challenging for their software engineers to get excited over. your best people want to do their own thing, or they move on. Behringer can get talent to revive vintage gear because it’s an interesting challenge to reverse engineer something accurately. while resurrecting something is for interns and new hires. it’s just not going to happen very often.
We have learned that there is no truth in Uli’s marketing, in fact, despite the continuous announcements, nothing has been on the market since 2021. I believe that Synthopia should definitely stop publishing any deceptive teasing from Behringer.
you don’t understand Behringers open innovation process; they present a concept for approval and consideration to be delivered at a future date, maybe. they are not product announcements until they show up on their product pages. this isn’t explained often enough, and folks don’t understand the difference. in a normal company the design would start at the some time time but you’d never know about it, because they wouldn’t seek outside input, they would engage with their marketing department, and you’d be in the dark until the product is announced at NAMM or something. Behringer really doesn’t do traditional marketing, or many other traditional business processes outside manufacturing and big D design.
synthtopia and others would do well to spend time to emphasis this rather than the knockoff aspect they’re especially enamored with. whee!
You dont understand that the value of a manufacturer is in its product.
Currently the Behringer company is not even a manufacturer of electronics anymore, now their only product is fairy tales
Coming soon: Teenage Engineering’s TZ-1geniee, which looks exactly like the CZ-1mini, but with an obvious logo change and earring loops on each unit. $1000 a pair. Oops, sorry, already sold out.
I had a CZ-101, which was a lot of useful fun on a bun, but I set it to MIDI channel 5 and left it there as another single voice. It was easier on my limited sanity than trying to use it in multitimbral mode.
the CZ could to this crazy long drawn out pop/bop kind of percussive thing. it was beautiful. still have a 101, 1000, and VZ10m, and a wicked little plugin on my Prologue too. the Plaits PD model is very nice too. these would be interesting to retro-fit into eurorack.
Not a Behringer hater but this does not even look fun. Waste of plastic IMO
dude im ready for all of these little bastards
btw, a software synth will never ever be as good as a hardware synth, so give it a rest
Synclavier enters the room.
lol. got him!
tbf, though the VST’s will never live up to a real PSMT and a VT100 to bang on. i love my Synclaviar Go and Knob, but to have the real thing would be dreamy to me.
Hey someone actually bought the knob! (Which admittedly works really well though I can’t bring myself to pay $300 for it.) Now all you need is the Synclavier’s sweet Prophet T8 wooden-key-with- polyphonic aftertouch keybed! But… I expect you could drive the Synclavier app/plugin with a HydraSynth or Iridium keyboard (or perhaps the UB-Xa if it ever comes out.)
I wish that Synclavier-style resynthesis were available in more hardware and software synths.
I see myself mindlessly getting at least one of the Bolcas … not this one 😉
The front panel reads “Hybrid Vector Synthesizer”. WTF…?
The CZ series famously implemented PD, not Vector Synthesis. Is this merely a typo leftover from one of the other concept graphics (likely from the Prophet VS knock-off), or does B actually have something more interesting up their sleeves?
Do I see AN ANALOGUE FILTER on the front panel?! A CZ-101 with analogue filters has long been a fantasy of mine.. If this manages to sound like a vintage CZ-101 (doubtful), I’ll buy two
Good eye. I wondered about that. A value add for sure. IIRC, used a set of resonant waveforms to simulate filter action. That said, the idea of setting 8-stage envelopes via this interface does not seem like a lot of fun.
for sure! I have a CZ/PD plugin oscillator on Prologue, and the analog filter coupled with almost any digital synthesis really sweetens it up. especially if you can get some detuning going.
Isn’t the point of phase distortion that it doesn’t actually use filters but you can still program it like virtual analog? The virtual signal path is basically DCO -> DCW -> DCA, with DCW (varying the phase distortion to vary the waveform and add or remove harmonics) standing in for the filter?
I have tried a signal path with Thor’s Phase Modulation oscillator and a digital filter though – so it would be interesting to try something similar with an analog filter and CZ-style Phase Distortion with 8-stage envelopes.
I struggle to see the appeal of this as a synth, as it looks like a nightmare to program or “play” with such a cramped and clunky interface. like, was there no better way to implement the controls??? it sincerely looks like an incredible pain in the rear.
8 stage envelopes for pitch, filter and volume are excellent especially for strings and brass sounds. I hope they have the long envelope times, you just hit some keys and it just goes on and on.
This is I believe the 8th(?) synth in this Volca-inspired format Behringer has announced. All very nice concepts, but we’ve yet to see the first one appear on the market. I’d be surprised if anything as niche as this CZ clone or the Prophet VS one ever makes it to production.
I do like the somewhat gritty lo-fi digital sound of my CZ-101. The cumbersome envelope allows for incredibly complex evolving patches, if you don’t mind hours of button-pushing. Search for Satoshi & Makoto to hear what can be achieved using nothing but a Casio CZ-5000 and persistence, it’s mind-blowing!
7 minis; Model D, Saturn, Hirotribe, Pro-VS, AKS, CS mini (looking for input only… may happen), CZ mini;
2 micros, JP-4000, UB 1.
I had several CZ’s back in the hardware days including 4 101’s. They are not hard to program. RTFM. 🙂 I will buy at least two of these if they ever get released.
The title could also be “Behringer takes inspiration from anything but themselves”
I have no issue with people who still like their products but the last 2 years of copy paste policy made them a dead company to me
No 8-stage envelopes, no CZ.
I don’t understand this comment. The panel shows 8-stage envelope.