The CZ-5000 was Casio's top end machine before the CZ-1 delivering 8 note polyphony via 16 oscillators. It has a great little on-board sequencer/arpeggiator in it & it offers a form of multi-timbrel functionality via its keyboard split feature.... If you see one in the secondhand ads check 'em out, cos they are cool underated synths.
Derrick May said of the CZ-5000 in a 1990 interview: "I'm into keyboards that everyone else slags off....I tell you one keyboard I used to use that had some phenomenal bass sounds: The Casio CZ5000...I had some fierce bass sounds on that which I used on some tracks that I never released"
Kevin Saunderson also used the CZ-5000 to create the original Reese bass sound!
Basically these CZ Phase Distortion synths have an interesting sound generation system and the 5000 had 8-stage envelopes via 2 oscillators. Nice detune functions, ring/md etc...
These are the sorta synths that if you can grab real cheap are full of waves & you can get creative... multi-timbrel too.... also features Ring Modulation/noise/portamento and glide.
If you want to get into classic Casio CZ sounds but don't have the hardware you can use Plugin Boutique's VirtualCZ Synth available here - This plugin can load and use actual Casio CZ patches so can also act as a librarian software for the physical hardware units: https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/4-Synth/1158-VirtualCZ
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