Casio CZ/ VZ/ FZ - Pro Series

Hi all,

I have a VZ-10M but haven't been doing much with it because I am the
engineer that produced the HAWK-800 kit for the Korg Poly-800.

Let me give you a bit of an idea how difficult the task was.

I started the project late 2006. I began by determining if it was
feasible to change the hardware to use a larger amount of memory if it
was supplied to owners in some sort of a kit. I then moved on to
beginning to disassemble/reverse engineer the little 8K ROM where the
Poly-800 software resides. Although the Poly-800 is analog, it is
still mostly software controlled. About March 2007 I realized the idea
was very possible and I developed a prototype board. I then began the
tedious task of reverse engineering all of the 8K of software. Toward
the end of 2007 I had added quite a few new MIDI features including
SYSEX patch send and receive as well as adding MIDI controllers for
VCF cutoff, resonance etc. At that point I had enough interest from
Poly owners that I developed the printed circuit board, the
construction and installation instructions and MIDI implementation
charts etc. In March 2008 the kit was made available and about 25 or
so have gone out the door to happy Poly-800 fans. From March 2008
until now, I've developed MIDI NRPN control of parameter editing, two
new SLFO's are implemented, the well known modifications called FM-800
and Moog Slayer are now under envelope or LFO modulation control and
the list goes on. And the development is still underway as I am now
trying to develop a third kit that will fit into the Poly-800 MK2.

However, the Casio's CZ/VZ series are a completely different animal
compared to the Poly-800. But I'll have a look at the schematics (if
they're available somewhere) and see if I think it would be possible.
My thinking is that such a project (if technically possible) would
take around three to four years to make happen. I say that because of
my own experience with the Poly-800 HAWK-800 project and because the
Casio CZ/VZ series are a far more complex instrument.

Now where are those schematics?

Mike.


--- In CZsynth@yahoogroups.com, "F.Manduca" <resistenzaaoltranza@...>
wrote:
>
> Well, it would be nice if someone could help us mod this beautiful
machine......Even only getting more output level, with a better S/N
ratio....
> 
> --- Mer 11/2/09, jeff bornhoeft <jbornhoeft@...> ha scritto:
> Da: jeff bornhoeft <jbornhoeft@...>
> Oggetto: Re: [CZsynth] Has anyone ever tried to update this synth 2
make it  respond real-time to sysex?
> A: CZsynth@yahoogroups.com
> Data: Mercoledì 11 febbraio 2009, 23:38
> 
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>             Attempting something like this would probably mean you'd
have to have a
> 
> spare CZ synth to experiment on, as you'd need to be able to
update/modify
> 
> the firmware. I for one, am not willing to part with my CZ. I don't
really
> 
> know enough about electronics to be able to attempt something like that
> 
> anyhow. The Korg Poly 800 is an analog synth, which means
modifications like
> 
> that would be much, much easier.
> 
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> 
> On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 3:20 PM, dreamend <dreamend@yahoo. co.uk> wrote:
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> > Only someone should! (not me, I can't solder or program for peanuts)..
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> >
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> > but over at the korg poly 800 groups, there's people doing all sorts
> 
> > of crazy tweakifying midi updates controlling cutoffs and what not.
> 
> >
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> > We need to show the world how brilliant our beloved CZs can be.
> 
> > Imagine the wonderful feeling of raising the DCW envelope with a nice
> 
> > big knob (ahem).
> 
> >
> 
> > I think the value of these synths would go up a lot if someone figured
> 
> > it out. Well I think their value will go up in the future anyway, as
> 
> > they are lush and unique sounding synths....but real-time sysex
> 
> > control would just be to die for....
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> >
> 
> > C'mon CZ-freaks, let's get physical!
> 
> >
> 
> > P.S Sorry, but I have no clue about how hard this is to do or
> 
> > schematics or anything like that, so if I sound ridculously naive,
> 
> > please forgive me.
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>       Passa a Yahoo! Mail.
> 
> La webmail che ti offre GRATIS spazio illimitato, 
> antispam e messenger integrato.
> http://it.mail.yahoo.com/Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 
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