Casio Groovebox - electribe 2 competition?

Re-Member · Post by **Re-Member** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 7:51 pm

d2ba wrote:silly toy that will bomb for sure
its the worse industrial design i have seen for years

One major problem I see with the design is that if you tried to angle it upright, it would be tilted to the side due to the shape. But hey, maybe it comes with a clip-on neck strap so you can wear it like Flavor Flav.

TechnoMusic · Post by **TechnoMusic** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 9:13 pm

The keyboard that it steals the synth engine from actually sounds pretty good. For my if the unit has the ability to tweak the effects parameters in more detail than the emx (especially the reverb) then I think Ill definitely give it one a shot.

Re-Member · Post by **Re-Member** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 9:30 pm

Yeah, I've played on the newer Casio synths and they are indeed great budget instruments. I'm totally jealous that there wasn't anything like that around when I was a kid. All my parents could afford to get me was the Casio Rapman, haha! Later in my teens, I got a CZ-101 and CT-301 cheap at a pawn shop were I thought were pretty cool. I'm certainly not bashing Casio here for the sake of doing so, they do make some great instruments, but this has got to be one of the weirdest design choices I've seen in years. They should have aimed to make it more like the Roland MC-09 or something.

etnate · Post by **etnate** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 9:38 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZZPKoMf6fc Promotional demo, a little bit of it in action.

jiggityj · Post by **jiggityj** » Wed Jan 07, 2015 9:56 pm

etnate wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZZPKoMf6fc Promotional demo, a little bit of it in action.

The jog wheel one has my attention. Hope its not just a controller.

Spheric El · Post by **Spheric El** » Thu Jan 08, 2015 7:47 pm

Impractical unless playing Lego with stepson.
It looks terrible (redness)and takes up too much table space.
E2 all is forgiven.I don't care how good it sounds..

sauce · Post by **sauce** » Thu Jan 08, 2015 10:49 pm

Re-Member wrote:I'm certainly not bashing Casio here for the sake of doing so, they do make some great instruments

I agree. I used to have the full line of pro Casio instruments, set up in one corner of my bedroom.. My full studio was on the first floor; I had the Casio setup just to noodle around with and as conversation piece. I had the FZ-1 sampler, RZ-1 sampling drum machine, FZ-10m, CZ-1, CZ-101, CZ-1000, CZ-230s, CZ-3000 and CZ-5000, all sequenced with an Alesis MMT-8.

The FZ-1 sampler was the most amazing sampler of its time, no kidding. Better specs than any of the Roland or Emu samplers. It had 16-bit sampling when everyone else had 12, plus an additive engine, stackable oscs and warm filters.

Ted3000 · Post by **Ted3000** » Thu Jan 08, 2015 11:44 pm

sauce wrote:I used to have the full line of pro Casio instruments, set up in one corner of my bedroom.. My full studio was on the first floor; I had the Casio setup just to noodle around with and as conversation piece. I had the FZ-1 sampler, RZ-1 sampling drum machine, FZ-10m, CZ-1, CZ-101, CZ-1000, CZ-230s, CZ-3000 and CZ-5000, all sequenced with an Alesis MMT-8.

How did you get along with the CZs? I've always been curious about them.

Spheric El · Post by **Spheric El** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 12:32 am

I too love the FZ10m. It's my favourite sampler -but my floppy disc drive doesn't work proper. I would love to get a hard drive sorted for it.
I also have a CZ101 .Its worth the money,sounds good. But the memory doesn't save sounds very long if its not plugged in. Maybe the internal battery needs replacing..

sauce · Post by **sauce** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 1:34 am

Ted3000 wrote:How did you get along with the CZs? I've always been curious about them.

I loved them as simple, effective synthesizers, but they were never really my go-to synths or anything. They were very similar in character and sound to the Yamaha DX-series presets.. The super FM crunch was not so possible with them, but the bells, basses etc. were so similar. I suspect the Yamaha DX-99, 27 etc were created to directly compete with the CZ price point.

sauce · Post by **sauce** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 1:38 am

By the way.. In this super-short video you can see the seamless workflow and also the size of the unit, which is quite small:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6dizbodRA0

Also, it seems to suggest that only 4 bars are possible. In this video you can see her demonstrate many of the *over 100 on-board performance effects* (!!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oOh0g-fOoU

roblabs · Post by **roblabs** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 5:33 am

roblabs · Post by **roblabs** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 5:34 am

EDIT Double post, delete pls

roblabs · Post by **roblabs** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 5:47 pm

I had a CZ101 but sold it last year. The sound was great but programming was tedious.

Buska · Post by **Buska** » Fri Jan 09, 2015 6:28 pm

I dig the design, something different to liven up the room. Also this thing can use samples too

I kind of already have my heart set on the ESX2, so if this is REALLY good I would maybe sell the EMX2 and get this. I reckon I will sell the EMX2 eventually but most likely only to exchange it for a second ESX2..

I'm finding the workflow of the EMX2 amazing but the sound engine a bit limiting, itching to load up samples. The ESX2 is going to be pretty amazing.

I may even keep my EMX2 for the drum samples and just use it for that, I'm treating it as a training tool for the ESX2 so I can jump straight in on day one