Casio CZ-101

Presets are nothing special, but there's lots of tweakability for such a low-budget synth. Altering presets is somewhat clumsy without a patch editor. Manual is basic but sufficient.

Polyphony is limited, keyboard keys are small and not touch-sensitive, no built-in effects, no on-board sequencer. However, a bargain at the price.

In general, I really like the sound capabilities. The envelopes can be quite complex.

I actually own two. One died mysteriously (an internal computer problem, I assume), and the other no longer gets power from the wall adapter, forcing me to use batteries. However, I got several years of fun from them, and the price was very reasonable, so overall I'm impressed.

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This is a good starter synth if you're new to synthesizers and don't have much cash. It uses a unique synthesizer technology titled "phase distortion", which is somewhat similar to frequency modulation (FM) synthesis. My experience is that you can sometimes get thicker sounds with the Casio than a Yamaha FM synth, but my experience is subjective. I really wish that a software synthesizer like Native Instruments would create a phase distortion synthesizer.

Presets are generally useless with 1-4 exceptions depending on one's taste. While editing is not really intuitive, it follows a logical flow once you get it - the oscillator, pitch, and volume are all 8-staged and follow the same basic editing instructions. I don't think personally that a patch editor is all that necessary. The manual is decent.

It's an old synth so the poly is limited, either 8 if you use 1 oscillator and 4 if you use 2. Features are pretty simple, there's a sound expansion card capability but those take a little work to get a hold of. Given how much the CZ community seems to stay alive though it's quite doable. The MIDI implementation is limited but not impossible. All that being said, it does well for its price, being a basic synth with a unique architecture. You can do things on this that you just can't do elsewhere.

The sounds are pretty cool if you want non-natural sounding stuff, either on the noisy end or on the electronicy end. It also does some really nice bell sounds. The keys are not touch sensitive at all, so expressiveness is tricky; you have to sort of program the patches to interact with attack speed of the keys in order to get some degree of "touch" on this.

I've had 2 CZ101s, one died completely, with a shot motherboard, but after many years. The other has lived on and in fact just fell and broke open last night at a show (my fault); it's STILL going, remarkably. Phew! So I'd rate these things high.

They were helpful on the phone but that was over 10 years ago! I'm leaving this as "no opinion" now, it's also na anyway since the unit is ancient.

(One price comment - bear in mind the price here is what I got it for roughly NEW around 1986)

I would definitely replace it if something happened. It's worth way more than I paid back then. My tastes in synthesis/performance have changed so it's worth less to me now than it used to be but has indispensible sound/sound synthesis.

The presets basically all sound cheesy...even the better sounding ones don't compare to anything you could make on your own. When i first got this thing just figuring out how to make my own patches took a while, and this is my first synth (ive been playing bass guitar for about 5 years). ive had it for about a month now and now it's not hard to use at all (especially compared to some other synths i've tried!) but there's definately a learning curve you have to deal with. but nothing that should keep you from buying this thing. i bought used (obviously) and i didnt get a manual with it. everything has to be punched in manually, no knobs or anything, but it's still not too bad if you ask me.

This board doesn't have a lot of features. it's best feature is the obvious 8 stage envelopes, which are pretty easy to use and come in really handy sometimes. it has a protect switch on it so you can keep little cousins from screwing up your favorite patches. the other reviews mention the rest really...not much i can say about it.

Listen to the people that say you can't get realistic sounds out of this thing, they're not playing!!
at first i thought this thing was really limited. but now i think i have unlocked it's true potential and it always impresses me. you just have to know how to use it properly and how to program it...i can't stress this enough. this thing can seriously blow if you dont know how to program it! it can sound like total digital ass. but i've got some VERY analog sounds out of it, and a lot of useful "real" instruments too. i can get some great organ sounds out of it. i can nail the "where it's at" by beck pretty well, and i can get a cheesy organ sound that sounds JUST like tool's "intermission" off of their anima cd. and just today i got a really good electric bass sound.
the ring modulator can have some really good results, especially when used with the detuner. it's hard to explain but it's really cool, it's a shame that most synths dont have ring modulators on them. the noise modulation at first seems really useless but dont be afraid to try it out!! i've gotten this drum sound that sounds like a caveman playing a broken drum set in a barn. it's really cool for some lo-fi loudness, but i've yet to get any hi-fi drum sounds out of it.
the sawtooth sounds like a sawtooth should, and the same goes for the square wave. you cant really go wrong if you know how to use this thing, it cant do every sound imaginable but like what one reviewer said what it does it does great. also, with the detuner if you leave it off and change the "FINE" setting you can get a slow chorus and it actually sounds pretty good. the vibrato is pretty cool but it's usually too extreme! sounds like a siren or something. it's cool for making weird noises though. today with the noise modulator i got a sound that sounds just like someone bangingon a tether ball pole in a storm. sounds really scary actually. this thing is unpredictable sometimes! if it likes you it might pop out something really cool that u werent expecting. like i said you need to mess with it and see what you can do.
all in all it's a great bang for buck and i'd recommend it for anyone that wants a good synth for not a lot of money and doesnt mind learning how to program it and spend some time with it. i use my boss DD-2 delay pedal with it and it doesnt sound so dry after that...with some creativity and imagination you can have some great results with it! but like i said it cant do everything, it wouldnt be good as your only synth unless you only do simple basslines and leads.

So far it hasnt given me any reason to not trust it. It ALWAYS keeps my patches saved, you have to have the batteries in at all times and it'll keep them saved for you. but i dont know if this is with all of them or not....i have new batteries in it and i have to have an adaptor or else thepower light blinks and it shuts off after a while. but with the adaptor it always stays on! there's a auto powers shutt off button on it somewhere and that should solve the "turning off after 5 mins" thing. i leave mine on for hours at a time sometimes (no reason to turn it off!) unattended and it just stays on liek it should.

have no idea! i doubt casio would be much help with a unit as old as this one though

I would definately buy another if anything happened to this one. i dont think 100 dollars is pocket change, but compared to buying new stuff it definately is. this is my only synth but i have Native Instruments FM7 on my computer and it is a LOT different than the cz-101. it does some CRAZY atmospheric pads and some good strings and it has a GREAT scary choir sound. i use it to fill the gaps that the cz-101 leaves. but i prefer this for lead sounds and even most basslines. it definately has its own character, even though the FM7 is really great, too, but the FM7 is REALLY hard to program and use i had to download some patches for it it's so complicated! just remember proper EQ goes a long way with this thing and learning how to program it right is top priority. then you'll be all set and have an inexpensive synth that is really a lot of fun and definately sounds good enough for me. just dont expect it to do everything and use your imagination a little bit and you should enjoy it also. Obviously i wish it had a filter on it (even though u can emulate one with the resonance waves), and the keyboard is actually good for my hands (im 5'5 130 lbs, i have really small hands). email me if you have any questions, i have some sound files i've made if you'd like to hear, even though my playing isn't the best (i'm new to synths!) but i know what i like and i like this!

very easy to use. i don't have a manual for this and i've never had trouble getting it to do what i want.

8/4/1 note polyphony depending on number of oscillators per voice. midi capability is note on/note off/pitch bend as far as i can ascertain.. slot for memory card in the back but no idea where you'd get one these days, or whether you'd really need one either. how many features were you expecting for #50?

pointless for real instruments - it's an electronic sound synthesizer for goodness sakes. discreet blips and seasick pads a total breeze, but a rather charming ersatz electric piano can be yours for a little bit of effort.

very reliable in terms of always goes wrong in comfortingly predictable ways. never stores patches (this is a good thing) and turns itself off after half an hour if you're not playing it (it gets bored i think) but patches can be rescued under these circumstances).

not an issue for me but i think online manual reasonably easy to obtain.

i would replace this if it broke or ran away. play it in an electronic music duo called isan on pretty much every damn tune ;-)

Some classic presets, very easy to edit your own sounds, don't need a manual. No menus, very basic interface, just some buttons.

8 or 4 tones, 4 part multi timbral, no effects, slot for memory cartridge, simple midi

Very nice basses, leads, pads and some percussive sounds. Very warm sounding, more analog feeling than a DX synth. So it doesn't make those hard, dissonant basslines like the DX series, which are perfect for hard techno. This machines is good in almost any kind of electronic music. Maybe more suitable for electro, synt, blipblop electronica.

Very stable, to simple to turn you down.

A cheap and good little synthesizer, easy to use, very basic. The only bad thing about this synth is the noise and hum level but, nevermind.

The cz-101 is hard core machinery, I love it but the ease of use was quite puzzling at first.It's taken me 2 years to really know what's going on in the little keyboards mind...

The features are quite fossil in the synth.The worst part is the memory and beacaus of the capacity many sounds are gone with the wind.
The effect panel is simple to use.There are two main effects(noise and ring), but they are not the kinda effects you allways call effects.

Great...Absolutely great sound modifying operations...

I can't repend on my cz-101 beacause it's memory vanishes with no reason what so ever.I think it's beacause I haven't got the original adapter(9v). Don't know...It's been a bastard playing live...

The little devil is just what my simple mind needs and check how much I payed fir it.I think it just is luxury for me...

Well... the interface was a little less than user-friendly, but there are a ga-zillion (give or take a few ba-jillion) computer editor/librarian programs for this machine that make the tedious task of editing the sounds much easier. There's one I use on the Atari ST that has one of the most useful features ever. It sends Random data to the CZ-101. 90% of the time you get unplayable junk, 5% of the time you get a dull, uninspiring sound, 3% of the time you get a really cool sound that only requires a little manual tweaking to make it perfect and 2% of the time you get an amazing brilliant sound that is absolutely perfect as is.

But without a software patch editor, it's not a very easy synth to start programing right off the get go. It's slightly easier than working with it's un-identical twin the CZ-1000 because it has real buttons instead of those damn annoying membrane buttons.

8/4 voice poly depending on if you use dual or single oscilators. 4 mono voice multi-timberal. No volume control or velocity control through MIDI which is a pain (I can understand not including a velocity sensitive keyboard to cut costs but c'mon, would it really have made it that much more expensive to have it respond to velocity through MIDI? No sequencer (but I've never enjoyed on-keyboard sequencers anyways and have often wished manufacturers would scrap them in favour of other features) It has those annoying little mini-keys unlike the CZ-1000, but it has real buttons for editing unlike the membrane ones on the CZ-1000 so you have to pick which annoys you the most (for me it was the membrane buttons). No real effects other than ring modulation and noise modulation. And I have to agree with everyone else, apart from the one string pad, the presets absolutely suck. I would love to be able to hack this beastie to replace it's presets with some of my own... I wonder if they're stored on an independent ROM chip somewhere inside that could be swapped with a custom EPROM or if they're integrated into another chip. Hmmmm... I'll have to look into this sometime.

You can actually get a lot of really interesting abstract sounds from this machine, sometimes some really beefy basses that sound almost analogue. But don't even think about getting this for realistic sounds.

Mine has had beer spilled on it many times, been dropped and otherwise abused but has always come back smiling and begging for more. Very reliable machine.

I wouldn't count on it. But there are millions of geeks on the internet that can tell you just about anything you'd ever want to know about this synth. This is a really well loved little beastie. Almost everyone has/had one.

I bought mine used back in the mid 80s for $300cnd. That was considered a deal back then. Now adays they turn up at garage sales for $20 and music stores that deal in used gear for as high as $75. I probably wouldn't pay more than $40 for one now though and at that price it's a very nice addition to any midi rig. But it's definetly not for someone looking for an all-in-one synth (unless you make very artsy minimalist type of music).

Very easy to use if you understand substructive synthesis.
Presets are poor, so yoou to know this to make good sounds with it.
Each funtion has its button, so acess is very fast.

Great for what it is. 8-segment envelope for DCA/DCW/DCO, very powerful and somethinf you will not find on any other synth.

Super for techno sounds. Grungiest digital synth ever built.

You can find very good condition units of this synth that's almost 20 yeras old. Careful with the batteries leaking out though.

Very good in the UK. Looks like good in Canada as well.

Whata gem!

Don't be fooled by the presets, you can program some nice sounds with this machine. I actually don't think the string pad (preset #4) is all that bad. Editing is not that fun as the screen is tiny and you can get pretty confused w/o having the manual. I have been able to edit and store several of my own patches, though. I would recommend a patch editor in the long run.

Although there are 8 notes for polyphony, most sounds use both lines which reduces polyphony to 4. That's not a concern for me as I have several other synths and don't play a synth like a piano anyway. No effects, but you can detune the DCO's. Cartridges can be used to expand the memory and are recommended, although difficult to find. The mini-keys on mine are very light and loose. I would recommend triggering the CZ from another synth.

The sounds aren't that realistic, but I'm more into synthetic textures anyway. The sounds remind me a lot of Depeche Mode's early work as well as sounds from Erasure, Yaz, and other 80's synthpop. I think this could be utilized for new wave, synthpop, techno, ambient, and other genres of synth-based music. I've gotten some nice full square wave pads and comps as well as filtersweeps, bright and buzzy saw synths, and resonant textures. It's a bright sounding synth which can cut through a mix.

I found it in decent condition in a pawn shop about 3 weeks ago and it has worked just fine. I probably won't gig it as I've already got several other synths I'll be using w/ my band. If I use the sounds, I'll probably just record them to Minidisc to complement what I'll be playing.

Never dealt with them.

I would buy it again at $30, but not for much more. It's a toy for me and is great to play on while I'm surfing. I like the sounds, but in reality, I could program a lot of these sounds on my other synths (Juptiter-8, AN1X, XP-50, DW8000, TG33, FS1R). I do think that it is a nice piece of mid-80's nostalgia though, as it was used on a lot of songs. I feel that it is still useful today if programmed by a person who takes the time to get to know the machine. My only real complaints about it are the small number of memories available for sounds and the tiny little LCD screen that you cannot read under dark conditions. Other than that, it's a fun little synth and can be used as a serious instrument.

This thing is Great!... it's just also kind of strange.. :)
it's NOT an intuitive interface, but it's fairly fast and easy to learn.
lots of buttons, instead of menus, and each button is clearly labeled.

for most uses this is a 4 part poly, non-multitimbral synth,
OR a mono/ 4 part multitimbral.. user switchable.
no FX, although you can get a good fake delay by abusing the 8 step ampenv.
MIDI in/out... NO thru!! arrg!

this doesn't do much, but what it does, it does very well!
it's a great bass synth, cool rezo sweeps and warping pads.
if you know of oneiroid pyschosis (the band), you've heard this little board.
it just sounds cool!

the sound is sensitive to a good, filtered power supply. if it's buzzing, get a different wall wart.

i leave it turned on all the time, else it forgets your patches. it probably
just needs a new lithium battery.
mine also tends to hang. :(
on the other hand, my cat tends to use it as a bed, and it's still ok after being jumped on
many times. :)

never tried..

it's rather like a moped.. it's FUN to play!... you'll just look kind of silly.
if this one ever dies, i'd get another the next day!