Two years on from its announcement, Behringer's take on Casio's CZ series of phase distortion synthesizers has officially landed.
Promising to replicate the sound of the CZ-1, a classic Casio phase distortion synth released in 1986, CZ-1 Mini is a compact and affordable instrument with a 27-key touch-capacitive keyboard, adopting the same miniature form factor as Behringer's Pro-VS Mini, Phara-O Mini and JT Mini.
CZ-1 Mini is built on a meticulous recreation of Casio's original synth engine and is compatible with the original synth's SysEx files, but it isn't a straight clone of the CZ-1. Casio's CZ-1 was an eight-voice polyphonic synth, but the Mini has three voices, and Behringer's version brings an analogue 24dB low-pass filter to the party.
CZ-1 Mini's two DCOs can produce the same eight waveforms that you'll find in the original Casio CZ series: sawtooth, square, pulse, double sine, saw pulse and three "resonant waveforms", shapes with simulated filter resonance that were designed to account for the CZ series' lack of a conventional filter.
These run through dual DCWs, or Digitally Controlled Waves, which control the amount of phase distortion being applied to the oscillators, before amplitude is shaped by a per-oscillator DCA. The synth is equipped with a recreation of the CZ-1's sophisticated eight-stage envelope generator, which can be used to shape the DCO's pitch, the DCW's timbre and the DCA's volume, creating complex and evolving patches.
Rounding things off, there's also a basic chorus effect onboard with controls for rate and depth and a vibrato with four shapes. The synth can be programmed via its 16-step sequencer, which has space for up to 16 patterns, and there's a multimode arpeggiator onboard too. As for I/O, you've got USB-C, 5-pin DIN MIDI in, a sync input and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Behringer CZ-1 Mini is priced at $89.
Find out more on Behringer's website.
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