| Notes | 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.
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.
CZ-1000 the same but bigger and normal keys plus membrane buttons
cz-3000: 16 voices 1 DCO or 8 voices 2x stacking 61 keys and chorus effect
cz-2000S: same as 3000 plus internal stereo speakers (also known as 2600s for other market)
cz-230S: tiny as cz101 but preset non editable + speakers + PCM drums
cz-5000: with (difficult) sequencer and 61 keys
cz-1: the biggest with keys velocity with Aftertouch (no sequencer) |
