Casio • FZ-1
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).
Surprisingly 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.
The Hohner HS-1 is a German version of the Casio FZ-1. Only its case is light in color. This version has been used by Coldcut.
I think the last time I turned it one was a few years ago; maybe 2005. It worked great! You can see pics of it still sitting on a stand but not being used in the studio: http://atomic.speculation.org/Graphics/2 009-09-09%20Calgary%20Music%20Studio/
The downsides are that the backlights fail on all of them (they use an EL Foil that over time, deteriorates).... They're very difficult to replace!!
Another common fault on them is floppy disk drive failure. Unfortunately the drives use a Shugart Buss and not the now common PC-AT Buss.... So you can't just swap the dead floppy drive out. and getting hold of an HD shugart buss drive is impossible. The drive controlers also have a habit of failing. If you buy one second hand, make sure all this stuff works properly!!
This is - all in all - a very musical synth/sampler, and stuff you do with it tends to mix well with little eq-ing, and just generally sounds gritty and pleasantly real, as opposed to today´s compressed-bloated sound.
Maybe this won´t be noticed by all, but if you care about your tone, you won´t go amiss with this one- and yes, i remember all the flak i got for it being a "Casio" back in its heyday... :)