So far so good but support?? Not really....
As one other reviewer essentially said, this ain’t the CZ I know and love. If they came out with a reasonably faithful recreation that would accept sysex dumps I’d pay again for it. Look at KQ Dixie which sounds great and imports thousands of DX7 sysex files. Plus there’s an online random patch generator. Such an app based on the CZ would be awesome!
Has anyone found a way to contact support? I'm enjoying it so far but getting random crashing when loading user presets. I haven't found any link to support which is the downside of using apps created by the big companies. With the smaller ones you're likely to be able to speak directly to the dev. Otherwise it's great.
Has anyone found a way to contact support? I'm enjoying it so far but getting random crashing when loading user presets. I haven't found any link to support which is the downside of using apps created by the big companies. With the smaller ones you're likely to be able to speak directly to the dev. Otherwise it's great.
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Where is the electric organ?
I purchased this app solely for the electric organ that the original had but I don’t see it on this APP. Is it not The app.
?
?
CZ-101 Revisited!
I used to have the CZ-101 back in 1985, and regret selling it ever since... then THIS came along!
Nice to revisit the odd plucky sounds, the crazy multi-stage envelopes, the otherworldly pads.
Nice work, Casio!
Nice to revisit the odd plucky sounds, the crazy multi-stage envelopes, the otherworldly pads.
Nice work, Casio!
This app has potential
Great sounds can be achieved with this synth emulation. However it does need a bit more to turn it into a 5-star app.
1. Enable velocity to be played with the screen keyboard
2. Allow user to create folders, with 2 columns in a wider preset list
3. Fix the non-responding keyboard on lower part of the keys
4. Allow more precision when changing envelope parameters
1. Enable velocity to be played with the screen keyboard
2. Allow user to create folders, with 2 columns in a wider preset list
3. Fix the non-responding keyboard on lower part of the keys
4. Allow more precision when changing envelope parameters
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Great emulation of an often overlooked classic synth
I had a CZ-1000 back in the day. Really liked the custom sounds that could be made with it, but programming was rather tedious. This app makes programming fun and adds some great internal effects. Having a blast in nostalgia-land recreating those great old noises.
Now for the quibbles:
I've only been noodling around for a couple of hours so I'm sure there's more to learn and explore, however the latency with a MIDI controller is bugging me. There does not seem to be a way to adjust it. The app also seems to only have four notes of polyphony when utilizing both oscillators. Mono mode is cool, though. CPU is easily maxed out with chords on sounds that utilize all of the internal effects which introduces audio drop-out and ugly digital distortion. Really wishing for MIDI learn so those awesome envelopes could be controlled easier with perhaps some more accuracy.
Still a great, unique sounding synth that brings back fond memories. Glad I got it on sale as it is still pricey for some of the limitations as synth-apps go. Updates seem to have slowed to few and far apart, so it is likely my wishlist will go unfulfilled. Two stars off as it is an average UI for a premium price. Full price would have ticked me off with the short falls.
Now for the quibbles:
I've only been noodling around for a couple of hours so I'm sure there's more to learn and explore, however the latency with a MIDI controller is bugging me. There does not seem to be a way to adjust it. The app also seems to only have four notes of polyphony when utilizing both oscillators. Mono mode is cool, though. CPU is easily maxed out with chords on sounds that utilize all of the internal effects which introduces audio drop-out and ugly digital distortion. Really wishing for MIDI learn so those awesome envelopes could be controlled easier with perhaps some more accuracy.
Still a great, unique sounding synth that brings back fond memories. Glad I got it on sale as it is still pricey for some of the limitations as synth-apps go. Updates seem to have slowed to few and far apart, so it is likely my wishlist will go unfulfilled. Two stars off as it is an average UI for a premium price. Full price would have ticked me off with the short falls.
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Glad I got this one on sale
Good synth esp if you like the OG CZ but for me I’d have been upset if I paid the full 19.99 it usually costs...
buggy, could use updates, zero support 😡
CZ synths are wonderful and this is a nice emulation from the actual company. 8 stage envelopes rule.
Some things don't work right however. Envelopes seem buggy. Also it accepts midi program changes but doesn't reflect them in the program name. The mod wheel input doesn't seem to scale properly and it steps a lot. I also seem to get more stuck notes than expected.
Some of the limitations of the original are accurate I think but it would be nice to have a mode where you could go beyond them, or where envelope changes didn't step, for example. And Casio you just need to fix the annoying bugs which make it close to unusable sometimes.
Also support is a joke - it just sends you to the advertising page.
This app has a lot of potential but isn't there yet. Don't let it die Casio! A great app is waiting to be born!
Some things don't work right however. Envelopes seem buggy. Also it accepts midi program changes but doesn't reflect them in the program name. The mod wheel input doesn't seem to scale properly and it steps a lot. I also seem to get more stuck notes than expected.
Some of the limitations of the original are accurate I think but it would be nice to have a mode where you could go beyond them, or where envelope changes didn't step, for example. And Casio you just need to fix the annoying bugs which make it close to unusable sometimes.
Also support is a joke - it just sends you to the advertising page.
This app has a lot of potential but isn't there yet. Don't let it die Casio! A great app is waiting to be born!
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Pretty decent but overpriced
I've owned a CZ101 since 1986. I love this synth but was always irritated at the flawed hardware design where the internal memory always got "buggy" if you didn't turn the unit on every single day. After getting my iPad and seeing this app I was very excited that I might be able to replace using my hardware CZ.
First of all, $20 is way too much for this app when you can get Waldorf's Nave for the same price, and Thor & iProphet for even less. That being said, I partially disagree with the other review stating this is not a faithful reproduction of the original CZ. I pulled out my old data sheets & was able to create some of my old favorite patches pretty accurately. However it was very tricky since you have to draw the waveforms instead of programming them. This does make it more difficult to replicate. One does need a great deal of patience to program this app, so that's something to consider if you plan to purchase. Additionally, the other reviewer was correct in citing issues with crashing. For me this seems to happen most during editing/creating new patches. Definitely something Casio needs to address.
If it weren't for the aforementioned criticisms, I would have given 5 stars. Despite this I'm quite pleased with this app overall.
First of all, $20 is way too much for this app when you can get Waldorf's Nave for the same price, and Thor & iProphet for even less. That being said, I partially disagree with the other review stating this is not a faithful reproduction of the original CZ. I pulled out my old data sheets & was able to create some of my old favorite patches pretty accurately. However it was very tricky since you have to draw the waveforms instead of programming them. This does make it more difficult to replicate. One does need a great deal of patience to program this app, so that's something to consider if you plan to purchase. Additionally, the other reviewer was correct in citing issues with crashing. For me this seems to happen most during editing/creating new patches. Definitely something Casio needs to address.
If it weren't for the aforementioned criticisms, I would have given 5 stars. Despite this I'm quite pleased with this app overall.
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Casio CZ
Tends to crash after a few minutes, usually while editing a preset, annoying.
Sounds good, layout good, but really needs value boxes for editing parameters, touch screen editing of envelopes is nigh on impossible for exact values, prodding screen with finger is not always the best for editing synths, imo.
Mod wheel waveform selector display doesn't correlate with waveform sound.
Sounds good, layout good, but really needs value boxes for editing parameters, touch screen editing of envelopes is nigh on impossible for exact values, prodding screen with finger is not always the best for editing synths, imo.
Mod wheel waveform selector display doesn't correlate with waveform sound.
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Not a faithful reproduction and buggy to boot!
Was very excited to see an "official" CZ emulation from Casio! The demo video was not great, but nonetheless, I figured I would give it the benefit of the doubt. The CZ-101 was my very first synthesizer, and I still have a pristine CZ-1000 setup next to me -- safe to say, I have more intimate knowledge of the "CZ sound" than any other instrument in my studio!
First, the good stuff: The interface is nice, and grabbing the "handles" on the 8-stage envelopes is a nice idea. Being able to stack 4 voices is a great addition, and the factory presets (though paltry in number) are actually pretty nice -- production-ready even! -- and demonstrate what this synth is capable of sounding like.
That said, it is NOT a good CZ emulation at all! I have a few go-to sounds that I tried programming from my old patch sheets and they sound NOTHING like the original versions. I am not talking slightly off, but rather *completely* wrong! (By way of comparison, Plugin Boutique's Virtual CZ VST application is almost spot-on compared to the hardware, so something is definitely amiss with this app.)
Though the methodology for editing the envelopes is good in its intention, it is, in practice, quite fiddly. You cannot hone in on exact values sometimes, and the handles frequently "lock" and become undraggable until you lift your finger and grab it again.
The app also frequently crashes. I experienced numerous crashes in the first hour of use when selecting an envelope to edit, when trying to save a patch, when trying to delete a patch, and when trying to select *any* user patch after that delete operation failed! Let me explain that last one better... I programmed a patch called "Harmonic Spectrum". Upon realizing that it did not sound the way I expected, I went into the menu to delete it from my user patches. The app crashed. When I opened it again, "Harmonic Spectrum" was now named "CASIO+a long string of random numbers". I tried selecting it. Crash! Restarted and tried selecting one of the other custom sounds I made. Crash! (And the option to delete any of the user sounds was now gone!)
I ended up deleting the app from my iPad entirely -- resulting in the loss of all my custom-programmed patches! -- in order to restore it to "normal" operation.
Very disappointed that I forked out $20 for this app. Maybe a future update will fix some of the stability issues after which I might trust it more. Fingers crossed that an engine update is in the cards as well, because while this synth "evokes" Casio a bit, it still doesn’t sound quite like a CZ. If it were $2.99 instead of $19.99, it might be OK, but for now, your money can go much further elsewhere.
First, the good stuff: The interface is nice, and grabbing the "handles" on the 8-stage envelopes is a nice idea. Being able to stack 4 voices is a great addition, and the factory presets (though paltry in number) are actually pretty nice -- production-ready even! -- and demonstrate what this synth is capable of sounding like.
That said, it is NOT a good CZ emulation at all! I have a few go-to sounds that I tried programming from my old patch sheets and they sound NOTHING like the original versions. I am not talking slightly off, but rather *completely* wrong! (By way of comparison, Plugin Boutique's Virtual CZ VST application is almost spot-on compared to the hardware, so something is definitely amiss with this app.)
Though the methodology for editing the envelopes is good in its intention, it is, in practice, quite fiddly. You cannot hone in on exact values sometimes, and the handles frequently "lock" and become undraggable until you lift your finger and grab it again.
The app also frequently crashes. I experienced numerous crashes in the first hour of use when selecting an envelope to edit, when trying to save a patch, when trying to delete a patch, and when trying to select *any* user patch after that delete operation failed! Let me explain that last one better... I programmed a patch called "Harmonic Spectrum". Upon realizing that it did not sound the way I expected, I went into the menu to delete it from my user patches. The app crashed. When I opened it again, "Harmonic Spectrum" was now named "CASIO+a long string of random numbers". I tried selecting it. Crash! Restarted and tried selecting one of the other custom sounds I made. Crash! (And the option to delete any of the user sounds was now gone!)
I ended up deleting the app from my iPad entirely -- resulting in the loss of all my custom-programmed patches! -- in order to restore it to "normal" operation.
Very disappointed that I forked out $20 for this app. Maybe a future update will fix some of the stability issues after which I might trust it more. Fingers crossed that an engine update is in the cards as well, because while this synth "evokes" Casio a bit, it still doesn’t sound quite like a CZ. If it were $2.99 instead of $19.99, it might be OK, but for now, your money can go much further elsewhere.
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iPad Pro
Just bought it because I I have a iPad Pro and Casio CZ-101, when will you support the iPad Pro.
Looks great.
Looks great.
IPad Pro support?
App was just updated but the developers had no clue about what Apple has been up to??
Not for the presets
Starts off weak due to the presets, but tweak sounds and put through some quality effects for some good eighties mix cutting sounds!
5 Stars if CZ101 Patches Import is added!
Good sounds.
Had two CZ101 in the 1980's + kept all the User
Patches I created as Charts and as Sysex dump.
I would echo the previous reviewer's request to add the importing of Factory and User Patches.
Some more Factory Presets would be good as would more Demos to show off what the App can do.
Had two CZ101 in the 1980's + kept all the User
Patches I created as Charts and as Sysex dump.
I would echo the previous reviewer's request to add the importing of Factory and User Patches.
Some more Factory Presets would be good as would more Demos to show off what the App can do.
Unusable in current state
App crashes regularly when adjusting parameters.
Love the CZ sound, but will be better when Casio can work out some bugs
Love the ideas behind this app, and the Casio tone. Have a CZ 101, and this is a great homage to that era in synthesis and the phase distortion sound. It is fantastic to be able to edit the 8(!) step envelopes with fingers rather than having to painfully push in the values with the data buttons, like on the original.
I also love that they made it 4 CZ's in one, multi-timbral. Being able to play along with a song is cute, as is being able to play with a friend. The MIDI worked the second I plugged a keyboard in, fantastic.
I like the faithfulness to the original didn't stop them from adding some basic effects.
At this point in the app's development it is very unstable (on iPad Air, iOS 8.3) however, when editing and saving your own sounds, particularly in the envelope section. I made a basic square wave sound to save as a starting point for other sounds in the future, and it either crashes most of the time when I try to load the sound, or when I try to open an envelope window. In addition, some of the envelope controls don't act the way they should, sometimes the envelope won't affect the sound the way it should, like it gets stuck.
I also love that they made it 4 CZ's in one, multi-timbral. Being able to play along with a song is cute, as is being able to play with a friend. The MIDI worked the second I plugged a keyboard in, fantastic.
I like the faithfulness to the original didn't stop them from adding some basic effects.
At this point in the app's development it is very unstable (on iPad Air, iOS 8.3) however, when editing and saving your own sounds, particularly in the envelope section. I made a basic square wave sound to save as a starting point for other sounds in the future, and it either crashes most of the time when I try to load the sound, or when I try to open an envelope window. In addition, some of the envelope controls don't act the way they should, sometimes the envelope won't affect the sound the way it should, like it gets stuck.
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Nice.
It could use a little UI help. Something doesn't feel quite right about the way this thing is organized. I can't even put my finger on it, which unfortunately means it isn't one thing, but rather something about the way the overall UI scheme works, at least judging from past experience and experiments.
More than that, though: I dearly wish they'd taken the time to include a few more patches, many more even. There's something about the workflow of patch building that isn't working for me. I feel like I might be able to get the hang of it with examples to work off of that demonstrate a yet wider range of what's possible with the sound engine. However the list of included patches is actually alarmingly scant. This will take some significant work to make a patch list out of.
More than that, though: I dearly wish they'd taken the time to include a few more patches, many more even. There's something about the workflow of patch building that isn't working for me. I feel like I might be able to get the hang of it with examples to work off of that demonstrate a yet wider range of what's possible with the sound engine. However the list of included patches is actually alarmingly scant. This will take some significant work to make a patch list out of.
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Not bad, but not quite.
It's good to see the old CZ in virtual form. It's not a bad start, but it is not a good emulation of the original. The envelopes have bugs. 1) the taper drops off to quickly. The envelope step and end do not operate properly. I hope there is more improvements in store for this app.
Pretty good, however Voiceover accessibility needs some work!
This is a great synth! The sounds are very good! I like that you can use a midi keyboard to play, and it works great with my Casio CTK 3200. Only concern I have is that the app is not fully functional with Voiceover. Please fix that. Also, it would be cool if you had a sound module app.
True to CZ, but needs more for a $20 price
((March 17 app update: nothing substantially new :( — Still 4 stars, but at least it's being updated.))
My original review from February seems to have vanished (?), but after another month of using CZ App extensively, I came back to update my review. Still 4 stars, because it is truly an awesome recreation in software of the CZ hardware (very close to the CZ-3000 and the CZ-5000, with a bit of CZ-1 thrown into the mix). But I want to see more!
Here’s the thing: I don't have any hope that Casio will ever go "back to the future" (like Moog, Korg, Dave Smith, etc.) and re-release a physical PD-based CZ synth, but this app is a perfect opportunity to release the ultimate CZ — the CZ 10000?? — one that has the portability of the CZ-101, the power of the CZ-1, a sequencer like the SZ-1 or the one built into the CZ-5000, and a drum machine like the RZ-1. Yamaha's Synth Arp & Drum Pad, and their Mobile Music Sequencer apps are outstanding in this regard (and very useful for Casio hardware!), and Casio needs to meet and exceed them.
Further, there’s no reason that this app shouldn’t add MIDI *out*, to enhance all the CZ hardware synthesizers still out there. This app ought to communicate with the hardware, allow patch editing on the iPad (and how about the iPhone??), and send those patches back to the synth. With the right features and external hardware, CZ App could act as a MIDI controller for a number of Casio keyboards, and be a MIDI sequencer for all of them. Owners have been using external patch editors for the CZ synths for decades on Ataris, Amigas, Mac and PC. It’s time for Casio to step to the plate with its software solution.
Easter Egg: I hooked up my CZ-230S to the CZ App as a MIDI keyboard controller. I changed the patch on the 230S, and it changed the active patch on the CZ App! Weird thing is is that the display of the parameters in CZ App don't change, but the tone does. I'm going to have to do some more experimenting to see what's going on (and bring the 101 and 5000 into the fun, too. But there’s something there as a “hack”, so it would be nice to see Casio polish the feature and roll it into an update. And the CZ-230S with its “hidden” editable 4 patches is just another reason this feature should be added to CZ App.
These things are what would make CZ App worthy of 5 stars at $20. It’s a 5 star app already, but it really needs more features (and about 70 more classic preset Casio tones) to make it 5 stars at this price. Until then, 4 stars, simply to encourage Casio to “go further”. For now, 4 stars, Very Good.
My original review from February seems to have vanished (?), but after another month of using CZ App extensively, I came back to update my review. Still 4 stars, because it is truly an awesome recreation in software of the CZ hardware (very close to the CZ-3000 and the CZ-5000, with a bit of CZ-1 thrown into the mix). But I want to see more!
Here’s the thing: I don't have any hope that Casio will ever go "back to the future" (like Moog, Korg, Dave Smith, etc.) and re-release a physical PD-based CZ synth, but this app is a perfect opportunity to release the ultimate CZ — the CZ 10000?? — one that has the portability of the CZ-101, the power of the CZ-1, a sequencer like the SZ-1 or the one built into the CZ-5000, and a drum machine like the RZ-1. Yamaha's Synth Arp & Drum Pad, and their Mobile Music Sequencer apps are outstanding in this regard (and very useful for Casio hardware!), and Casio needs to meet and exceed them.
Further, there’s no reason that this app shouldn’t add MIDI *out*, to enhance all the CZ hardware synthesizers still out there. This app ought to communicate with the hardware, allow patch editing on the iPad (and how about the iPhone??), and send those patches back to the synth. With the right features and external hardware, CZ App could act as a MIDI controller for a number of Casio keyboards, and be a MIDI sequencer for all of them. Owners have been using external patch editors for the CZ synths for decades on Ataris, Amigas, Mac and PC. It’s time for Casio to step to the plate with its software solution.
Easter Egg: I hooked up my CZ-230S to the CZ App as a MIDI keyboard controller. I changed the patch on the 230S, and it changed the active patch on the CZ App! Weird thing is is that the display of the parameters in CZ App don't change, but the tone does. I'm going to have to do some more experimenting to see what's going on (and bring the 101 and 5000 into the fun, too. But there’s something there as a “hack”, so it would be nice to see Casio polish the feature and roll it into an update. And the CZ-230S with its “hidden” editable 4 patches is just another reason this feature should be added to CZ App.
These things are what would make CZ App worthy of 5 stars at $20. It’s a 5 star app already, but it really needs more features (and about 70 more classic preset Casio tones) to make it 5 stars at this price. Until then, 4 stars, simply to encourage Casio to “go further”. For now, 4 stars, Very Good.
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