Casio CZ/ VZ/ FZ - Pro Series

Part of the difference is that FM (assuming sine wave operators) has a hard time making the sort of broad-spectrum sound (like a saw or square wave) that we've come to associate with analog synths.  Phase distortion offers the possibility of broad-spectrum waveforms and pseudo-filtering while still allowing plenty of FM-like tones.  

To: CZsynth@yahoogroups.com
From: wilson.zorn@...
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:55:12 -0700
Subject: Re: [CZsynth] Re: CZ-Synthesis



















    
            I wouldn't doubt that FM or PM has broader capabilities (I think that 

phraseology is a bit more clear than "powerful", if you don't mind) than PD, 

although I wouldn't like to really say it's more versatile in effect on a 

listener.  But the latter is purely aesthetic, and so I do emphasize that 

it's "to my ears" rather than any more general statement.



----- Original Message ----- 

From: "synergeezer" <synergeezer@...>

To: <CZsynth@yahoogroups.com>

Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2008 2:05 PM

Subject: [CZsynth] Re: CZ-Synthesis



> 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>

>

>

> ------------------------------------

>

> Yahoo! Groups Links

>

>

>

> 




      

    
    
	
	
	
	


	


	
	
	
	
	


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