A question from Turkish M3 owners

[zubair]

All Turkish musicians,

I am a big fan of your music, please kindly click on the following link and let me know what is the model of the Casio mounted on the top and give me a quick suggestion of what gear should I buy apart from that to get the same sound from my M3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=vUjLJGIjfWk


Thanks in advance

[MidiLech]

zubair, I've seen these vids on youtube before also. Pretty astounding musicanship.

I believe that these guys are using the Casio CZ-101 as a controller for these leads. Sometimes they're using it as a tone source and other times they're just using the pitch bender on the CZ with the keyboard of another instrument. I guessing the reason why must be because the CZ101 has half size keys and perhaps a half size pitch bender also and this makes it easier to get that "glitchy" kind of articulation.

I know nothing about turkish music but am definately a fan of these performances.

Here's a vid where you can cleary see the CZ101 in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YpTnReb08w


Here's another where you can hear the CZ voice..it kicks in around :45

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-iQPnE6cTs

Notice it's non subtle 80's type synth tone. Still a great performance.

[zubair]

Thank you very much for the quick reply,

I found that using the CASIO, they gain a control of two parameters at the same time, portamento and attack. I did what I could to use the ribbon or pitch bend on the M3 and get the same articulations, unfortunately nothing worked, so we need the help of a turkish pro like Nedim who runs basaristudios.com to explain us the mystery.

[MidiLech]

Check this link out:

http://www.tonetweakers.com/images/used ... 01.5_j.jpg


Here you can see the layout of the pitch wheel and the portamento button. From what we can see in the picture, I think that what you posted about portamento and attack translates into using the pitch wheel to set the pitch that a note begins with before bending into it's steady state as well as being able to quickly switch portamento on/off with the same hand.

Watching these guys really highlights that the old humble CZ ($400 USD in 1985) is a good example of what he now call a "performance" synth. I'll bet any of these middle eastern musicians armed with a CZ can take down anyone. Take that Jupiter 80!

Post back if you learn anything from Nedim, I'm very interested in how this music is performed. Despite what I said about the CZ I believe 90% of it is just good musicianship. These guys are probably especially good at responding to and changing pitch very quickly in a musical way. This is a skill that most western keyboardists lack as their instruments and musical forms tend to have fixed pitches. Supposedly Middle Eastern music is at least quasi microtonal too so that's at play also.

Anyway keep us posted on what you find out!

[Vangelismusic]

Well, the CZ101 is just a preference for some musicians, nothing really magical about it, but it all comes down to the technique and you can use any controller you like.
You are right on the money when you say that it sometimes is used for a sound or combined with another synthesizer like the M3.

[BasariStudios]

Hi Zubair, as they said, it is the CZ101, the Standard on the Balkans, it is
a synth that NO musician will go on a gig or live without. It is used as a
controller but also its sounds, its sounds are unique Clarinets and Violins
that can probably be recreated elsewhere but i havent heard yet.
It is a very unique PD (PhaseDistortion) Synthezis based machine and it
can make some sick Oriental Sounds...also CZ1000, 3000, 5000 AND 1
can make the Sounds...listen you this Greek guy, the Sounds are from the
Top CZ1 keyboard, not from Triton:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07ciiilP ... re=related
The CZ it has YET the BEST Portamento till today of all Synths, one of the
biggest reasons why we use it downthere. It is used in almost every production
of any studio album, it can be recognized in thousands of songs.
I changed over 10 of them thruought my musical career. CZ and Prophecy
are mostly the ONLY word you hear from our musicians and some Middle East.
Now, the Pitch Band the way it is and the Portamento button right on top
makes it not one of but THE BEST KEYBOARD EVER! This will be a statement
from 90% of people who had it or used it. I am also very familiar with its
Synth engine, which is easy but very complex and can do sick stuff.
You see it in almost every YouTube video but dont be fooled thinking that
they use it as a controller. 90% of the Sounds Amza plays on it come from
that not the Triton, he usually plays the Triton on its keys. Now theres
another trick, a lot of musicians run the CZ thru this box:
http://www.korg.com/px4d
And then this synth probably beat ANY existing Synth today for our Solos.
The Sound of the CZ runs thru the Pandora's Box, the box itself has
7 FX processors chained and its all the best Korg FX. Its sick.
On my site http://www.basaristudios.com/sounds.html you can hear stuff.

[Vangelismusic]

If Casio is the BEST synth for solo, then I guess you don't need a KRONOS, why spend all that money when you can have a CZ101 for 100 bucks?
The DX100 has the same portamento,but the Casio cost less back then that's one reason it's popular.It doesn't matter what you have, these musicians that are playing these things are very talented people and it's in their culture with this style of playing.

[BasariStudios]

Ela Vangelis, you are right...there is never a BEST TOOL...BEST TOOL in this
case a Keyboard is only the one that people make THE BEST out of it, in this
case the CZ101...DX100 has the same Portamento and more Complex
Synthezis but it still never made it as the CZ did.