Casio FZ-1 61-Key Digital Sampling Synthesizer with flight case

Description

Sonically, this unit is perfect. The body is in great condition, the keys show a bit of yellowing due to age.

The display has issues - the backlight no longer works, and the lower left section is broken. There are some sources and DIY hacks to get it replaced. This may not be the obstacle that it seems - it was almost impossible to edit sounds using the tiny display and there are several synth editing applications that will run under Hatari, an Atari ST emulator application.

This is a sampler for someone who's interested in taking on a project, and exploring a classic sound.

The unit also comes with a rugged flight case.

From Vintage Synth Explorer:

"The Casio FZ-1 is an impressive sampler/synthesizer keyboard from 1987. Its offerings at the time were very professional features. In an 8-voice polyphonic full 61-note keyboard synthesizer you get a 16-bit digital sampler with variable 9kHz to 36kHz sampling rates. 1MB of memory expandable to 2MB could provide a maximum time of almost 2 minutes sample time at 9kHz. Up to 64 samples can be held in memory and placed across the keyboard. Graphic editing on the big LCD screen provides intuitive and easier editing of your samples with tuning, truncating, looping and much more. It also has eight outputs and analog-like 8-stage filters (DCF) and envelopes (DCA).



The FZ-1 also has a built-in synthesizer section. It uses digital synthesis employing both harmonic additive synthesis and waveform drawing. Basic waveforms available include sawtooth, square, pulse, double sine, saw/pulse, random waves and 48 harmonics. The FZ-10M (pictured above) is the rack-module version of the FZ-1 with 2MB internal memory and XLR inputs and outputs. Dated by today's standards, the FZ-1 is a neat piece of Casio history to own but could never replace your current sampler. With the look and features you'd expect from a vintage pro-sampler, this Casio has been used by Underworld, Kronos Quartet, Dee Lite, 2 Live Crew, and Kitaro."

Ad ID: 1499596232