Casio CZ phase distortion in Kronos?

[KingKronos]

Apparently CZ phase distortion uses waveshaping.
PD is itself a form of phase modulation.
This is according to a post on Gearspace forum.

So the MOD7 engine can do phase distortion!

That brings Kronos synthesis engine types up to, what, 15 now?

[trancedelicbluesman]

As I understand it, fm and pm both modulate the audio wave at ninety or one eighty degrees to it and sound the same except in certain extreme circumstances; in fact, it has often been said that the dx7 really used pm.

But modulating between the two, now...

I'm still in the process of learning this stuff but I always thought the casio cz series had a distinctive fat pleasing sound.

(I had a chance to buy one last year, too, doggone it. Guitar Center often gets a bad rap for being lame, especially from keyboard players--and it IS lame a lot of the time (Moog is right here in town but the local GC hardly ever has any of their stuff)--yet still, Asheville is a musician's town and the darndest boards show up used at the GC here. But I digress...)

[KingKronos]

I also had a fancy for the fat little sounds on the CZ-101.
Not quite fm, but pleasing in its own way.

If you're into experimenting, try this in MOD7.
Call up an INIT Exi program.
Go to the Common/Program Basic page, upper left.
Change it from AL1 to MOD7.
While you're here, in the lower right, transpose Exi1 by -12.
I think waveshaping sounds best in the lower range.

Now on Exi/Osc/ VPM oscillator 1, top left, is the waveform Mode.
Change it from Sine, to Sine + waveshaper.

On the bottom left, you can check out all the Waveshaper Tables.
Lots of flavors here, almost like wavetables!
Some of my faves are the Mixtures, Resonant, Phase, Coccon, and 20 cycle.

Here's a tip to check out the range of color for each WS.
Touch WS Drive, then in upper right, change AMS to LFO1, Intensity +10dB.
Might want to go to LFO1 page and slow its frequency to around 22.

Now you'll get a nice wowow of all types of flavors.

Casio phase distortion on steroids!

[KingKronos]

Here's a CZ-1000 for $250, maybe lower if you haggle.
It's in pretty rough shape, but might scratch that itch.

https://reverb.com/item/40968414-casio- ... -more-love

But then again, why go Kia when you have a Mercedes.

[KingKronos]

If you're into experimenting, try this in MOD7.
Call up an INIT Exi program.
Go to the Common/Program Basic page, upper left.
Change it from AL1 to MOD7.
While you're here, in the lower right, transpose Exi1 by -12.
I think waveshaping sounds best in the lower range.

Heck, may as well pour a little more sugar on things for fun.
Turning on poly Unison widens things up a bit.
On Program Basic page, middle right, enable Unison.
Stereo spread to max 100, and detune around 18.

Enjoy!

[trancedelicbluesman]

If you're into experimenting

Nice detailed description, thanks.

[KingKronos]

If you're into experimenting

Nice detailed description, thanks.

No problem.
Somebody needs to stand atop the mountain and shout MOD7 ahoy!

To fatten things up, boost the Osc1 Feedback to 40-50.
More like Casio CZ now.

[trancedelicbluesman]

But then again, why go Kia when you have a Mercedes.

Yeah, really.

But they did have a nice CZ-1 a while back, and for a good price.

I could have also had an Ensoniq MR 76. I did think about it. Also a Kawai K5000W--I wish I had jumped on that one.

A week or two before I got the Kronos they had a Roland XP 30--I thought about that one too.

But really the place is kind of bare a lot of the time. They've only ever had 1 Kronos and 1 Montage. Not even a lot of mid priced boards usually. I really wonder what is going on there...

[KingKronos]

Also a Kawai K5000W--I wish I had jumped on that one.

There are a few oldies I always wanted too.
Had a VFX for awhile.

As for the Kawai synths, I believe MOD7 can mimic them easily.
I downloaded Kawai factory PCMs, but Kronos has more and better.
As for the additive portion, that’s a snap to set up.

Take a look on the Tone Adjust from a MOD7 init program.
Knobs 1-6 control the ratios for oscillators 1-6.
Guess what— ratios correspond to the harmonic series!
Additive synthesis merely adds harmonics at various levels to make sounds.
And sliders 1-6 already control oscillator levels.
They’re like draw bars on an organ, which itself is an additive synth.

Try it! Change the ratios on osc 1-6 to go from 1 to 6.
Osc1 ratio 1. OSC2 ratio 2. And so on.
To get sound, you’ll need to connect the OSCs to the outputs.
On the Patch Panel, osc1 already has a line connected to Output 1.
Do the same for OSC2... touch and drag to patch a cable to Output 2.
Repeat for all the OSCs.

Now you have a cheesy drawbar organ.

What does this have to do with the Kawai?
Well, we only have 12 sine OSCs in MOD7.
Kawai has up to 64, I think.
But it’s hard to hear past harmonic 32.
Let’s just use the even harmonics for a junior K5000w.

Change Osc1 ratio to 2, OSC2 to 4, etc.
Sliders dial in various colors now, albeit with only 6 harmonics so far.

Make another MOD7 for Exi2 (back on Common page).
You can then copy your Exi1 to Exi2 using upper right drop down.
Now change Exi2 osc ratios, continuing from where you left off.
That is, Osc1 to ratio 14, OSC2 to 16, etc.
Tone Adjust sliders only work for Exi1.
So you’ll have to manually adjust the Osc ratios for harmonic 14-24.
(Exi2 osc ratio on upper left, volume on lower right, of each VPM Osc)

Boom, you got yerself a 12 harmonic Kawai K5000w junior.
I could show you how to make a full fledged version.
But I doubt you ventured this far yet.

The point is, Kronos is a chameleon, a genuine synth emulator.
It can be a DX7, a Prophet VS, a Wavestation, a Kawai, a Casio CZ...

[pete.m]

Thanks for this interesting post, KingKronos - I'm going to try it out. One of the things that I love about the Kronos is that I've never quite been able to exhaust its possibilities.

[KingKronos]

Thanks for this interesting post, KingKronos - I'm going to try it out. One of the things that I love about the Kronos is that I've never quite been able to exhaust its possibilities.

Hope you have fun making new sounds!

I agree, Kronos has so much goodness inside.
As much tech as modern soft synths.
And yet its primary strength is playability...