The CZ-3000 is very much like the CZ-5000, minus the on-board sequencer. Yet the CZ-3000 expands the Casio CZ series further into the professional arena. Based on the CZ-101 and CZ-1000 synths, the CZ-3000 adds many new features while retaining much the same sound and programming methods as the latter. The keyboard has been expanded to a full 61 note or 5-octave length and is capable of being split. As a side note, the CZ-5000 has an expanded waveform memory for even more sounds and thicker sounds. It's like having two stacked CZ-1000 synths all in one!

Casio's CZ series of phase-distortion digital synths make for a unique sound. After all, there are 8-stage envelopes and 2 oscillators per voice for a thicker tone. Their sound is similar to the Yamaha DX synths but is much easier to program. The CZ-3000 and CZ-5000 may be at the pinnacle of Casio's synthesizer line, and it is still a great low-cost means of getting into vintage digital synth sounds today. The CZ-3000 is not analog and has no filters. But many still find it useful where strange synth sounds are needed such as industrial and electro types of music.

Fred

March 26, 2011 @ 7:10 pm

A friend gave me one of these since it had fallen off a truck and was badly damaged.
I used Elmer epoxy internally to strengthen the cracked case.

I repaired a broken off PC board. I rebuilt the pushed in pitch bend wheels with metal, and now they're stronger than new.

A couple of middle keys were broken so I replaced them with ones from the end. I found some matching keys left from another synth, but had to cut like an F key down and glue it to make it a G key. It's on the end, so no-one ever notices the small gap between the keys.

Polished out scratches & it looks new.

Fred

March 26, 2011 @ 6:54 pm

Someone made a patch librarian for CZ's for Amiga computer. This gives you a visual display of waveforms and envelopes and you can draw waveforms or drag the envelope's vector points. It is amazing.

Find a cheap Amiga; preferably with PAL display; or else you'll have to scroll the extended screen. It may work with an Amiga emulator on the PC, but I haven't tried it.

Vocoda

December 10, 2010 @ 12:04 pm

I bought one of these back in the 1980s when they first came out. It was much cheaper than a Yamaha DX7 and, surprisingly, had warm analogue-style sounds, as well as the more "metallic" sounding stuff becoming popular back then.

With a bit of perserverance - and a little bit of luck - you can get some great sounds out of it. It's multi-timbral, too, but the output is only in mono, with the option of an in-built stereo chorus effect.

Great value, though, and good fun.

fengland

November 17, 2010 @ 3:52 pm

One of the best digital synths I think - it's warm and crunchy and fun to edit sounds on (as fun as pushing buttons can be) - it would sound amazing if it was velocity or aftertouch sensitive, even through an external keyboard, but it's still very useable if you like unique sounds and sits nicely in a mix with digital or analog stuff.

LT

January 21, 2010 @ 4:46 pm

I just bought a CZ3000 on e bay, talk about dirty pleasures, I wish I'd bought one years ago, great for ambient sounds, I like this synth enormously!

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