Casio CZ/ VZ/ FZ - Pro Series

Firstly, let me say that I've always been pretty satisfied with the
(marketing) distinctions between FM, PM, and PD synthesizers.
Since FM already had a long (since B.C. [Before Chowning]) and
illustrious history in radio (I don't mean a variety show!), and was
understood as a sine (cosine) wave modifying a sine (cosine) wave, and
there were lots of sources for printouts and graphs of the Bessel
functions, to help with understanding the sidebands generated, I think
 it would have misled me if Casio had called the CZs "frequency" or
"phase" modulation synthesizers.  The Bessel graphs don't help much
with PD synthesis!
Although, technically (so I've read), the DX7 and its kin use PM,
rather than the FM claimed, the Bessel graphs still help.
I guess that anything using a modulator and carrier that are not both
sine (cosine) waves could be considered PD, the way I think of it. 
So, I think of the TX81Z as a PD synth (this might be where I would
say the "FM" description is misleading; the value in the TX81Z comes
more from the complex waveforms available, rather than from the
modulation varieties).  I think of the VZs (which I love!) as PM
synths with PD abilities.  I also think of the Synergy as a PM synth,
although it has a non-sine wave available (a kind of pointy sine wave,
or over-inflated triangle wave).
I completely agree that the CZs are far easier to program than FM/PM
synths, but I think FM/PM synths are more "powerful" and "versatile"
than the CZs.  Please, don't think that I am putting down the CZs - I
love them!  I have a CZ1, 5000, and two 101s.  A CZ is my first
recommendation for a beginning synthesist who wants to learn to
program.  Most people can be having loads of fun programming a CZ in a
short time.
Even more interesting to me are the FM/PM synths, whose power remains
largely untapped, IMO, even with the thousands of DX7 patches
available.  Almost every time I sit down to program a DX7, or,
especially, a VZ, I find something I've never heard before!
I don't think of PD as dead, with used instruments constantly
available.  It's true that PD, in the CZ sense, is not being
developed, anymore.  But, fairly recently, Yamaha made the FS1R (16
operators, OK 8+8), which I have not plunged into programming, yet,
but the presets are worth current cost.

(enough, already! B^{)
- synergeezer

--- In CZsynth@yahoogroups.com, "Wilson Zorn" <wilson.zorn@...> wrote:
>
> The "phase distortion" name never made me blink, I never even
thought about 
> it.  And, to me, it sounds accurate. I'm NOT saying you're wrong,
what I'm 
> saying is that in terms of perceptions I never at all shared that
one.  So 
> that makes me curious; I know this is a tangent, but did others find
that 
> term off-putting or misrepresentational?
> 
> I'm very sad that PD died.  I love it, and that's even at the
limited state 
> it was left at.  For my ears, it was far superior to FM, and I also
found it 
> easier to make sounds in.
> 
<lots of noble discussion clipped>