CASIO CZ-5000 Digital Synthesizer 1985 | HD DEMO

[@synthesizernews]

Imagine a CZ-1 Rev. with sliders, an enhanced LFO and a FX section. Casio can you hear me? Owned a CZ-3000 in 1986, sold it in 1988 and always regreted it. These resonant waves are so unique.

[@smacloopy4029]

This was my first pro synth in the early 90´s and i loved it. I used it on every track until the sad day a friend knocked it over and killed it. luckily I´d saved all my sounds on Atari CZ librarian. 25 years later after being into analog synths i get given an Atari so find out my old disks. I couldn´t find a 5000 but recently picked up a CZ-1 locally and it loads my old CZ-5000 sounds perfectly! Seems it´s the same synth but with double patch memory and velocity/aftertouch. Still a unique sounding synth and mixes good with analog. Nice keyboard feel also.

[@pyrra]

I've got one and I love how he can sound like an expensive but dreamy OB-XA with 16 voices of polyphony and 2 tones simultaneously, one of my favourite synth

[@longshotkdb]

super bright and crisp! excellent for live performance. i always felt casio may have benefitted from a different name for their high end gear as there was always a bit of stigma associating them with the 'toy key boards' they mass produced. cheers!

[@s3nsec0rruptr80]

Like Epiphone and Gibson? Why can't I think of any synth analogies right now?

[@longshotkdb]

@@s3nsec0rruptr80 hmm, i can't think of any examples in the synth world either ...

[@RayyMusik]

Kawai branded their synths ‘Teisco’ for a while (in the 80s IIRC).

[@s3nsec0rruptr80]

@@RayyMusik you know, that reminds me I hadn't really thought back far enough. The old minikorg was also released under a different name, though I don't know that it had anything to do with the perceived quality of the model.

[@slowblack3947]

Who cares about the name of the brand!? It sounds awesome! I use anything I can get my hands on, if it stimulates my creativity. Just go for it ; )

[@ultravice191]

I bought this when it came out. Gives a clue to my age. Loved it. The sequencer was awesome.

[@CarlosFerZar]

This synthesizer was used by Los Prisioneros in many of their songs since their album Pateando Piedras

[@DavidLee07]

Who cares about the Super Bowl, let's hear some SYNTHS! For the price you can get them now, this sounds very nice. Aside from the PD, the basic waveforms sound good.

[@MoonLanta]

I'm sure this European couldn't care any less about muh super bowl 😆

[@fjfrancois]

More like Super Bull Crap .

[@brightbite]

Super Synth

[@oupahens9219]

What's a PD?

[@DavidLee07]

@@oupahens9219 Phase distortion, the synthesis method for this synth.

[@scoimalloi3405]

I had one of these back in the day. The added sequencer allowed quick recording of ideas. Def unique sound.

[@fortheloveofnoise]

Great demo, my CZ-1 is never leaving me!

[@AnalogAudio1]

thanks!

[@Vin4227]

A great synth that is so underrated.

[@RayyMusik]

So true. My favorite synth in the Arturia V-Collection.

[@New_Zealand_Music]

I really wish Casio would re-release these. I believe they would make so much money out of them. Can make sounds that no other synthesizer can, like massively, long filter sweeps amazing. So upset with myself for selling my cz3500. It was an absolutely mint condition is the person didn't use it. And I miss it every day. If I had a choice between this and and dx7 this would win every day of the week. Thank you for your great video

[@chinossynthesizer705]

Of course you pick this over the dx7 because of its filter sounds and analog type sounds.

[@larsbergen6126]

Beautiful Cosmo-Synth series! Love my CZ-1!

[@ymotechnopopfan]

Lovely synth.

[@malu1096]

I also have this one since few years within my collection. Since the first impression i would like to say that CZ-5000 can be called the first virtual-analogue synth (spoken in modern terms) as its sounds are unusual fat and warm for a digital synth of that time. For other competititors like Roland it took almost further 10 years to reach that kind of analogish sound with a digital synth... Well done, Casio - why didn't you go on?

[@BOGDANSAR]

The first virtual-analogue synth!

[@derekbaker3279]

Yamaha sued Casio for patent infringement, claiming the Casio's "Phase Distortion Synthesis" was the same as the "FM Synthesis" that Yamaha had been using for several years in their wildly successful DX7, as well as the DX-1, DX-5, DX-27, etc. (this is a claim that still gets debated in the synth-lover community). In the end, Yamaha won the court battle, which forced Casio to shut down manufacturing of their 'semi-pro'/'pro' CZ & FZ series. That left Casio with just their cheaper line of synths to manufacture & sell. This, in-turn, gave Casio the erroneous reputation of only being capable of making & marketing inferior 'cheesy' 'toy' synths - a reputation that continues to this day among musicians who have never heard the CZ & FZ series of Casio synths.

[@carcass2677]

@@derekbaker3279 wow they could just change the name jeez, god big business is shite

[@Oxygene1841]

Still have mine,wouldn't part with it in a million years!

[@expandingknowledge8269]

Incredible complex wave forms. You can hear some Tangerine Dream in these sounds...EXCELLENT!!! 🎹 🎶 😎

[@AnalogAudio1]

Thanks! I guess it's my playing style...

[@rot_studios]

This makes me wanna revive my phase distortion synth project... Hmmm. Module perhaps?

[@sssyntax]

Cool video! I think that as great as the cz5000 is at covering analogue sounds, its at its best making sounds that dont sound like a synth at all.

[@KurtFuller]

One of my favourite synths. I owned one, but it was replaced by a CZ-1000 (lack of space). Excellent demo.

[@axs203]

Those sounds are so cool.......the CZ's come up to scratch don't they.........very complex sounds

[@Synthesis1979]

How about a Volca PD?

[@toymanreturns546]

The Casio CZ-5000 reminds me of Yamaha DX-7, but even better. The waveforms and its warm oscillators in the digital synthesizer makes musicians of any level to have fun exploring tens of thousands of patterns from various sound banks, and can never get enough for hours. It's kinda like a drug addiction, once you're passionate about the almighty instrument.

[@AnalogAudio1]

I have both and the DX7 is by far the more professional in terms of sound quality, flexibility, features and build quality. You can do a lot more interesting sounds with the DX7 if you take your time. The Casio CZ's lack the impact in basic sound and the frequency range of the DX7. The Casio CZ's are fun though.

[@toymanreturns546]

Fair enough. I like both those synthesizers myself, in my opinion the CZ is alot more fun to play around with if you're interested in ambient or techno music. Maybe it's the octaves as well that gets me hooked if I were to play one sound bank after another. Either way, I like DX7. Nothing wrong with that synthesizer, it's that I prefer CZ more. Each to their own so they say.

[@chinossynthesizer705]

​​​​​@@toymanreturns546. That because the casio saves time making music. programing and learning on the dx7 would take long no wonder why people used presets or samples they had to save time on making their music. in the 80s people liked analog sounds more simple and easier to program. they thought fm synthesis was cheesy because the presets or it sounds plastic metallic glassey.

[@toymanreturns546]

@chinossynthesizer705 I totally understand. Musicians back in the 80s sorta did and at the same time, sorta didn't like FM synthesis much with synthesizers. Thus, they wern't invested in digital music until the mid-late 80s.

[@moogdome2562]

How many presets please?.

[@anthonybrett]

Casio were so underrated. I have a CZ3000, its younger brother. With a good sysex editor these things can sound lucious. I recommend PatchBase, expensive but a brilliant sysex for iOS it supports all CZ synths coffeeshopped.com/patch-base.

[@magneto7930]

I'm wondering if the sequencer tracks can be saved as individual files.

[@B1SCOOP]

CZ-5000 was used on entire 1987 album "Touch Of Clouds" by Polish keyboardist Władysław Komendarek. It sounds very different from this OP's demo, it's definitely worth checking out. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gmTFdGCrpM6Hq5I

[@BOGDANSAR]

The mamooth of Casio! Great but underrated... look's diferent then the other synths of era...that bunch of buttons and metal... and his sound's are interesting! Found one in to a very bad state, now is happy and it sing's again! I had to clean all the contacts of pushbuttons, meanwhile i enjoyed de complex construction, almost a plant inside it! Some kind of digital synth with analog behavior...The sequencer is weird but works well if u get use with it. After all is A GREAT SYNTH!

[@BOGDANSAR]

82 push buttons, 2 sliders, 2 wheels, a lot of status leds and one red on-off button. It used a weird data cartridge with a battery inside it.

[@lukebussey5218]

No other synth sounds like this

[@AnalogAudio1]

Oh yes... the other keyboards of the CZ series :-)

[@annother3350]

I had one for years. Shame there was hardly any real time modulation capability

[@ZElTGElST]

Yeah, a 2020 revision with the same sound but with plenty of pots and realtime would be awesome

[@derekbaker3279]

@@ZElTGElST It would be nice, however, IMHO, it's never going to happen without some massive deal-making. The reason Casio stopped making the CZ series is that Yamaha successfully sued Casio for patent infringement (i.e. "Phase Distorion" & Yamaha's "FM" synthesisis are the same process). So, for Casio to resurrect the CZ series & update it would require significant copyright payments to Yamaha, as well as development & start-up costs.

[@ZElTGElST]

@@derekbaker3279 Great insights, Derek. Would they still need to pay it after the patents been more than expired?. I remember casio launching 2 keyboards few years ago too, but I not rember if they were PD or other technique. Will check

[@ashleywhiteman2684]

@@derekbaker3279 yamaha tried to copyright 'sound'

[@derekbaker3279]

@@ashleywhiteman2684 Wow. 😞 That's taking things a bit too far. 😞 I guess that Yamaha believes that 'All is fair in love & corporate war.'. 😉😆

[@curtisslow]

Is there a good tutorial on programming. Or an online page with patch examples. Perhaps with listed values for each parameter. Got one recently for $150. I feel like it was a solid deal. I like it but I’m not exactly used to programming this way.

[@this_connor_guy]

I remember I got one of these awhile back. It arrived busted with a six inch power cable. This was before my days of repairing my own gear and all that jazz, so it just ended up getting tossed. Given my love of industrial and weird sounds, I feel like this would have been a good synth for me to have.

[@maval4537]

The Casio CZ 5000 was my very first synthesizer, which I bought from a guy in 1986 when I was 15 years old for the equivalent of about 950 €... At that time hardly anyone was interested in this synth; I think it was at least partly due to Casio's image at the time, as the brand was known almost entirely as a maker of cheap digital watches and everyone wanted the Yamaha DX7 anyway, which I never really liked; I really hated his famous E-piano sound because it was in every imaginable ballad and R&B song, I just couldn't hear it anymore. The CZ 5000, on the other hand, offered a lot of music for relatively little money and even had an 8-track sequencer (albeit with a downright lousy storage capacity) and offered a hell of a lot of scope for your own sound creations... I spent hundreds of hours with this fine instrument and loved it more than anything...

[@ish233]

Casio to me always will have a rinky dinky sound, but some of their synths are very interesting, and it's a study on synth sound of their stuff just by listening to your demo. I'm still interested in getting one of their synths.

[@brettlarson3504]

I’d love to hear some slow attack sounds :)

[@SchematicAttenuator]

I love the CZ-5000 even more with external fx. Precious underrated synth!

[@marcpuystiens7737]

Still have mine

[@snoopdoggdankkush9285]

been waiting for this

[@maccagrabme]

Do you know how to clear a midi data error on one of these?

[@AnalogAudio1]

never had such errors

[@thejollyjoker187]

I wonder why nobody makes videos of the preset factory sounds anymore..

[@AnalogAudio1]

Because they are rather boring...

[@thejollyjoker187]

@@AnalogAudio1 Indeed they are, but it gives you an idea of what to expect if you buy the synth. I don't want to hear the potential of the synth, I want to hear how it is made..

[@annother3350]

@@thejollyjoker187 I want to hear the full potential

[@joeambly6807]

​@@thejollyjoker187because plenty of good instruments have absolute shit presets that don't reveal the characteristics if the instrument, just whatever bandwagon they were trying to catch on to at the time

[@thejollyjoker187]

@@joeambly6807 3 of my 4 synths have awesome presets (Virus TI, Hydrasynth, DeepMind12) and 1 of my 4 synths has "ok" presets (Blofeld). BUT these are not as old as the Casios.. idk

[@rejectedsynths]

I'm afraid this video might actually raise prices of used machines! Was hoping to get a CZ to feature on my channel soon because they are both great and dirt cheap these days. I'd better hurry now 😱

[@giuseppebocca7084]

Synt + sequencer very pretty. I have used Cz 1000 + Sz1 and Cz5000...

[@christhedemocrat]

This or the Korg Dw series? What say you?

[@AnalogAudio1]

Apples and oranges.... the DW has an arpeggiator and analog filters, big plusses.

[@Ajbattaglia1978]

So I found one of these in the garbage, it works fine, but can it play just a normal piano sound?

[@curtisslow]

Sort of

[@theidealcopy_]

Had a CZ-3000 for a few years and upgraded to a CZ-1 a couple of years ago. I love the sound of these synths, and the CZ-1's (very limited) velocity sensitivity features make it my favourite of them all. I did briefly have a VZ-1 too but I felt it took too long to program compared to the CZ series, even though you had far more control over the sound. The only thing I miss from it was that you could set the pitch bend range up to +/- 36 semitones which let you do some really crazy stuff!

[@davidsteffens3952]

I love these patches. I just bought one on eBay, been searching for a quality one for a while. Hoping it arrives in good shape.

[@richardsmithson4453]

Are you enjoying it ?

[@maxmatson1578]

The "CZ-3000" was my very first synthesizer🎹 I always loved those resonant waveforms. One thing that annoyed me though, is that you couldn't program in real time? even with pressing the perimeter button while holding the key, it would always retrigger the note!🎹🎧💫😵😅👌👍✌

[@spookypen]

Same with the D50 for the most part, it's reprogrammed my brain so even on my newer synths I still retrigger out of habit when making patches 😂

[@maxmatson1578]

I feel ya!🎹😵😅👌

[@RobertoGinsburg]

@AnalogAudio1 Please make a *DR. Lab by FriendChip* electronics from Germany, a very strange Beat programmer and synthline used by Kraftwerk on "Computer Welt" album (1981)

[@AnalogAudio1]

if you send it to me, sure!

[@heliportpoe]

Hi Man ! does casio cz5000 produce a velocity based on how hard you press the key through midi ? my cz5000 seems produce a same velocity no matter how soft/hard i press the keys. i want to know the problem is my midi cable / my daw or the casio cz5000 itself thank you man !

[@AnalogAudio1]

It does not have velocity, the CZ1 is the only one with that

[@tlatsegms]

Amazing⚡️

[@SyncdAlien]

Fun!

[@juliogalvez7687]

don't have velocity?

[@AnalogAudio1]

the CZ-1 is the only one CZ with velocity

[@MrHeuvaladao]

Awesome!

[@MoonLanta]

Pretty sick patches, look up wheelrock's cz5000 vids

[@julianhigginson5946]

Hmmm 🧐. I don’t think you need one of these to make those sounds - simply just roll all the bottom end off your current synths add a sprinkling of bit crushing and distortion pan it central take anything nice and expressive off remove any reverb and boom you got your self a CZ

[@scottlarson1548]

Another synth I should have bought back then instead of my Juno-106.

[@HenritheHorse]

Both are great, but the Juno is over double the price now.

[@MoonLanta]

Yeah cz5000 about $350 nowadays, juno106 $3000!!

[@rasbelix6413]

@@MoonLanta I bought the CZ-3000 for 100€ two years ago. It's the same that the CZ-5000, but without sequencer.

[@kemek3000]

I have both and love both.

[@annother3350]

Keep the Juno and get the Arturia CZ vst

[@lightyear4821]

My first "real" synth: big, heavy, ugly, mostly bad "metallic" sounding, menu diving. Now with modern nostalgia we regret every peace of crap from the past.

[@NROS2012]

Yep. I just bought and collected an old keyboard off eBay today from my childhood 33 years ago. What a classic!

[@d4t4b4s3f4c3]

there's no menu diving with these youre probably mistaking it for every other digital synth

[@lightyear4821]

@@d4t4b4s3f4c3 Oh no, I know it too well for mistaken it, but yes "menu diving" is not a good term it's rather buttons & parameters "drowning" thru small screen's abbreviations :))

[@cnfuzz]

The only good thing that cz synths do is bass , and some koto sounds , but its very good at sequenced bass with clarity and snap

[@AnalogAudio1]

that's also the case with the Yamaha's DX range

[@MrWkdWilly]

Wish I still had mine, swapped it for an electric guitar early 90’s🙄😪

[@ianmilton9587]

I still have one in mint condition

[@frughos]

i want one :-(

[@mark-yj5sg]

5:26 pure Kraftwerk

[@legendhasitstudio]

I BOUGHT A CZ 5000 IN ANVIL CASE FOR $ 40.00

[@AnalogAudio1]

what a bargain! Congrats!

[@synthesizerhome2041]

@legendhasitstudio I got my CZ5000 for a crate of beer few months ago. My Roland CR-78 for 150 Euros. If you are lucky, such things can happen... especially when people don't care or don't know how much it's worth

[@paulosahao3823]

I had one 👏👏👏🎼🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹🎶

[@ymotechnopopfan]

3:54

[@canalcontrols5009]

SHOW!!

[@getinge]

I had one of these in the 90's and it sounded nothing like this. It must've been broken because it sounded like a piece of 💩

[@fjfrancois]

A Digi one 🤔

[@federicocanedo5333]

I don't like it,

[@AnalogAudio1]

not everyone likes every synthesizer, I think that's normal :-)

[@KurtFuller]

Well, Casio CZ synths have a very particular sound. It is a rare mix of digital, FM and analog like sounding that is not appreciated for everyone. Also, the programming is not as intuitive and easy as it could be. In my case, I love these synths, but for many other people, it´s not their cup of tea, so they prefer to expend money in other gear (synths)

[@helio1055]

Sounds plasticy and thin

[@AnalogAudio1]

What did you expect from Casio? ;-) I did what can be done

[@chinossynthesizer705]

Built a analog filter for it then

[@helio1055]

@@chinossynthesizer705 no

[@joeambly6807]

Sort of like your wife's nose 😂😂😂

[@helio1055]

@@joeambly6807 im too young to have a wife, but he he funny