Korg Z1
The Z1 is like a polyphonic Prophecy in a workstation! It does all the analog sounds and more. This is a great analog modeling synth with 12-voice polyphony, thirteen waveforms, four LFOs, two resonant filters, two effects units and more. The ability to create unique sounds is endless. The factory patches could use some help, but overall the sound is very nice! It has a fully polyphonic arpeggiator that blows all others away. It has five preset arpeggio patterns and fifteen user patterns. Unfortunately there is no on-board sequencer. There is incredible real-time control available with knobs to control the two resonant filters, and a touch controlled 'XY' pad for tweaking patches in real-time. The Z1 is used by KMFDM, Gary Numan, LTJ Bukem and Orbital.
- Specifications
- Polyphony - 12 voices (expandable to 18)
- Oscillators - 2 osc (13 types including pulse, saw, tri, sine, organ, electric piano, piano, brass, reeds, strings, more) 1sub-osc, noise
- LFO - 4 LFOs; 18 waveforms including sine, tri, saw, square, sample/hold, stepped
- Filter - Resonant low, hi, dual band pass
- Effects - 2 effect units with 15 effects including Reverb, Parametric EQ, chorus, phaser, flanger, rotating speaker, overdrive, auto-wah, talkbox, decimator, compressor
- Keyboard - 61 keys with velocity and aftertouch
- Memory - 256 patches, 32 multis
- Control - MIDI (6 parts)
- Date Produced - 1997
- Websites of Interest
- Resources & Credits
Images from Perfect Circuit Audio.
Thanks to Jason Clubb and Scott Denison for providing information.
Errors or Corrections? Send them here.
BTW, I am going crazy with my Z1, as it doesn't seem to be able to save the effects settings. I turn them off and save and when I change patch and go back the effects are back! What am I doing wrong?
Sell it! This are too hard to find in a reasonable price nowadays, why? Ppl. who own them put this to a closet. :D
Now that i know synthesis, still not loving it so much, I know you can do anything possible with this synth but I rather use Absynth or something, or if I wanna tweak knobs i go for my nord lead 2x more of a playful and ludic synth.
What really annoys me is that everything is measured in -99 to 99, I mean for the filters page no Hz no nothing just -99 to 99. the envelope pages no ms just -99 to 99. that annoys me.
Never get why in the oscillator pages for the standard OSC, the sine and triangle waves are like at the bottom, pretty much hidden.
I feel like korg wanted to change the way synthesis was done with this synth and that's why it went out of the market really fast.
I had to part with this for spending cash and because I got weird about playing it as the band I did the most with it in, I got kicked out of...(plus it's really heavy, something to keep in mind if you wanna gig with this thing)