Several weeks ago I bought this Casio VZ-1 and haven't had the chance to dig into it until I woke up and did it at 2AM this morning. The edit mode is not as difficult to use as many online reviews would have you believe. It makes perfect sense in the Casio way of thinking, which is to say it works well for this unusual synthesis engine. What is inconsistent on an annoying level is the value slider. On some values it doesn't do anything and you are forced to use the increment/decrement buttons. Otherwise getting around isn't too bad. I got stuck with the modes when it came time to save a patch. Play mode is the correct mode for saving an individual patch. I had to go look that up in the book...
As with the CZ-1 the VZ-1 hides a surprising range of possibilities. The limited amount of waveforms is deceptive because each base waveform can be dynamically altered by the waveshape of another module or combinations of modules. The 3 interactions between modules or within a single module are highly flexible allowing Mixing, Ring Mod and Phase Mod with each controlled by the DCA envelopes. Again Casio kicks many other synth makers in the teeth with its beautiful multistage envelopes with graphical editing. Serious power in them.
Traditional modulation possibilities are improved over the CZ series by including Tremelo in addition to vibrato. These seem to be patch level and affect all modules at once but where they become interesting is in combi mode. There you can assign the same patch twice for instance with stereo routing and then use an assignable wheel to vary the glide of only one of the patches which then sends the rates of the tremolo/vibrato in each patch at odds with each other. Pretty insane stuff can happen here especially with the modulation waveform set to square wave!
I have only created one single patch and then built a combi with two of that same patch and I am amazed. Considering that I am really unfamiliar with this machine and only scratched the surface of its editing I came up with this crazy, dynamically distorted and discordant sound that totally blew me away.
I have had but a glimpse of what can be done with the performance mode and the power on tap there is almost mind boggling to me. This is where the true beauty of this synth lies due to the enormous amount of flexibility in the performance mod matrix. In Casio terms this is called effects. Stupid way to describe what is essentially a modulation matrix of performance control sources that can manipulate patches in an almost object oriented manner.
You may want to get in line to offer verbal abuse for this statement but this is perhaps one of the awesomest Industrial Music synths I have ever tried. No shit!
I have to audition some musicians this weekend who want to work with HP9 but I plan to put aside some time to slap a demo together to back up my bold words. You shall see and maybe even agree after hearing it do its thing.
