To quote räuberhöhle , ‘This Casio’s not just a toy’. This casio is the final gauntlet that casio threw down in the 80’s with the taunt of -

‘you think we make toys eh? You are nothing Mister Roland-san - we’ve been shaming your synthesiser butt since the seventies with our cunning sound technology at department store prices, now with this device our supremecy of synthesis can no longer be denied … feel the power of my VZ-10m, bwoahahahahahahahaha’

A year or two later the other instrument manufacturers replied…

‘How dare you shame our noble enterprises by creating products without market research. You have been punished with crushing financial loss and put back into your place as a lowly manufacturer of calculators and
toys. You shall never again aspire to rise above your station and attempt creative works of musical engineering. We have destroyed you and all like you.’

And there, my friends, is the final chapter of the decade long saga of the Casio Corporation where noble engineering and a belief in the ability of a corporation to uplift the human soul gave rise to products that were designed and sold for reasons beyond profit.

The VZ synth broke them, and the executives at Casio have learnt the lesson and shall never again return to those distant times. So Casio fanboys thinking how easy it would be for Casio to make a rack mounted phase distortion synth or a vowel-consonant synthesis workstation, think
again. Times have changed, there is no going back.

What is the VZ-10m? It is the rack version of VZ-1 keyboard, The other instruments in the VZ series were the VZ-8m, a smaller and arguably more useful rack module and the PG 380 guitar -
with the VZ synth engine built into it and able to accept ROM and RAM (so stupidly rare they might as well not exist) cards from the VZ synths.

The VZ is a synthesiser.

I’ll repeat that. The VZ is a synthesiser, it synthesises sounds. It does nothing else but boy can it synthesise. There is no sequencer, arpeggiator or effects on it. It is a very serious instrument, it is old and quite unique.

The VZ is also scary. Very scary. It’s reputation precedes it … inpenatrable programming, dry sounds and an evil black push button exterior. Be brave, face up to your fears, look the snake in the eyes and learn to love it.

Switching it on and choosing a preset must be done in recognition that this machine is an artifact of the late 80’s. The musicians who had money in that time were ponytailed deadshits who made gawdawful drippy noodlings over the sounds of humpbacked whales, er humping, so wealthy middle aged american women could have something to listen to while they aligned chakras. The genre was called ‘New Age’ and it sucked. The VZ-10m in it’s virgin preset state is best pictured with a dream catcher tied to it and an incense stick in one of it’s rack ears.

And this is good. ‘Have you taken leave of your senses man?’, you cry. Bear with me. Listening to the presets of the VZ-10m I came to the realisation that my most hated and most loved genres of music share the same sound sources. I’m talking tiki-lounge here, (er, most loved). Hoo boy, strike up the bongoes, grab flaming cocktails in bamboo glasses off the bamboo bar, sidle up to Martin Denny in your safari suit and tell him you have a box that will replace his orchestra.

Presets - we got kooky electric pianos, we got marimbas, gongs, bells, whooshy surf sounds, we got glocks, we got tinkly toys, we got the sounds of coconuts beings banged together. Man, just dig the names: ‘See God’ ‘Toy Bass’ ‘Peace Treaty’ ‘Festive Bell’ ‘Sunday Noon’, then the next day a ‘Pipe on Monday’

The VZ also can do analogue synth variants, sure they are digital sounding but wack ‘em through a filter and they ought to, at least in pastiche, represent synth lounge freakouts. Yes, there is something just a little bit ‘wrong’ about the VZ sound. It is brittle and digital and once you get out of the clear clean sounds of exotica you are in another land, a wasteland - a post apocolyptic wasteland. Industrial heartland.

Key selling features of the VZ are ringmodulations galore and digital overdrive, each sound is constructed from eight modules - each module has two oscillator lines - these oscillators can be modulated against each other. Combine this with Casio’s obsession of ADSSSSSSSSSSSSSSR style of envelopes, a zillion ways to layer the sounds with each other and you have an instrument that can at the sound of one solitary little note create a tone so mind blowingly complex you might as well give up on electro-pop and get that Australia Council sound art grant.

This is a synth built from the ground up for distortion and ring modulation. Like the CZ series with the instant ‘noise’ and ‘ringmod’ buttons - there aint anything like this that has such blatant disdain for the Yamaha FM attempts of hi-fi ‘real’ instruments or cocks a snoot all things warm, fat and analoguey. For those who dig these sounds there’s a email list called ‘Digital Hell’, a place where the VZ is the mighty prince of darkness dressed in an immaculate suit.

If you are trying to make genre music that isn’t EBM-tiki then this is definately not your instrument. The VZ doesn’t replicate any ‘classic’ synth or sound - it is a casio, it is doing it’s own thing and that is cool.

Programming the little sucker (and did I mention it was little - okay it’s not its a full size two rack unit size module but hey it is one of only about five modules that casio made - and if you have a lot of casios, like *some* people do then you are thankful for one without the black and white flappy bits), progamming is easier than legend has it. The casio way is logical, the manual is well written and comes with a good primer on what sound is, and there’s a helpful book for free on the net that is a good companion guide.

If you would rather be playing an instrument than programming it, which I presume is the case as that is a number one reason to be a casiolover, there are patches on the net.

‘Patches on the net’, that means computer (in my case a pIII linux-gentoo box) must talk to casio. If your chest is constricting and you are sweating then I feel your pain. Getting linux to up/download patches on any 80’s gear is … er … maybe I should be thankful I dont have a life. The VZ-10m however … hoorah! … the very first thing I have ever gotten my computer to communicate with. Easey Peasey Vee Zee.

The software I used was ’simplesysexxer’ - it is part of the overmind’s pro-audio overlay in gentoo, if that means nothing then your distro should have it, if not it ought to compile easily by hand. For other O/S’s I’m sure your way of doing it is much easier. (There’s also ’sysexxer’ that has prettier interface and instrument database - but I DID have to compile it and ’cause I run Jack and aint leet enough I couldnt get the midi working on it) GEEK MODE OFF.

The VZ-10m has two seperate outputs - I’ll route one out to my zoom tri-metal for adding non-digital distortion and other effects and the other one can run out clean, (the VZ can be 8 part multitimbral - responding to 8 midi channels). This configuration sums up my initial impression of the VZ - it can be pure tinkling bells and glorious pad heaven and it can be scary scary scary dirty hell. It does not do inbetween those extremes - but every other casio does!

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addendum:

Lowdown on the lowend:
The VZ is known for not having ‘good bass’. To be honest I don’t know what ‘good bass’ is having mainly played casios. I glimpsed good bass when I fiddled with a yamaha and a commodore64. The VZ does have good bass for a casio, the CZed is arguably better - I personally will be using the VZ for bass - live and sequenced as it is the only rack mounted casio up to the job. I read somewhere that the reason for the VZ lack of ‘punch’ is that a gate is applied on the output to reduce the noise of the machine, therefore reducing a little bit of the attack of the machine.
If you play/program a killer bass line, make a suitable patch and put a decent effect on it I’m sure this limitation will only be apparent to only synth snobs who don’t count anyways cause they won’t be dancing.

Backlight:
By this time (2006) the backlight will be dead. Mine was dead - and the fault it caused made the whole machine appear seriously dead. The screen was scrambled and emitted a whine - and more peculiarly when hooked up to a sound system the VZ emitted a loud screaming sound, and get this, even with all the faders on the desk down AND the amplifier turned down. It is an evil synth I tell ya. The fix was so simple - unplug the power lead for the screen (on the lower circuit board - its obvious which one it is).
A few years ago replacement backlights were available in England. Not sure if they are now.
(and isnt it a lovely soothing blue colour?)

Hohner:
Like the other pro-casios the VZ was sold in Germany under the Hohner brand (who may or may not have been involved in the development). The really really really cool thing about the Hohner/Casios is that they were white. I am tempted to become German, or at least spray paint my casio.