What's Happening On This Synth To Make This Sound?

S

SimonT

Member
Hi All!

Was watching a you tube video on the Casio CZ-101. Can someone explain what the person playing is doing, or what is happening at 1:21 of the video below?

Awesome effect, and it's used in a track I love, exactly like this. I just played the track and it's identical. Was this the only reto synth that could do this?

Thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9iIHNVh36A

EDIT:- I found a vst from Plugin Boutique called Virtual CZ. I presume / hope it can do this.
 
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You should be able to do it on your CZ vst emulation. It sounds like LFO filter sweep with a very slow rate.

GJ
 
No LFOs on the CZ101 - nor there's a traditional filter, but instead there's a DCW (Digitally Controlled Wave), that's sort of comparable to a lowpass filter. It actually controls the modulation of the waveform from sine to saw, but in practice it sounds like a filter...

The way the CZ envelope editing works - and what he's doing in the video - is something like this (forgive me if this isn't exactly correct, as it's been a few years since I had a CZ): the "WAVE" in the display means he's editing the DCW envelope. "STEP 1" means he's at the first envelope point - in other words, the attack phase. "RATE" is how quickly the it goes from the previous point to the next one, and "LEVEL" is the, well, level, the high point. I can't remember exactly how the "SUS" (sustain) setting works though...I seem to recall it allows you to sort of configure the envelope type by setting the loop point, in a way so you can get it to behave like an ADR, or ADSR or maybe even an ADSHR. But this is the part where my memory fails me. Anyway, basically he's just slowing down the rate with the env sustained between point zero (start) and the end of the attack phase (step 1).

Was that confusing enough? :)
 
Yeah, to clarify, I simply meant it sounds like it could be done that way (point of reference) and that the effect could be re-created with LFO and filter sweep; and also that if the CZ emulation is accurate, the effect should be able to be doable (not that the two things go together, necessarily).

I would trust Krushing's memory better than mine; the CZ uses phase distortions synthesis, and I haven't seen or touched one since they initially came out when I was in music retail in the early-mid 80's (both the synth and myself could be considered "vintage")...

GJ
 
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