The Casio CZ-5000 Is A MIGHTY Synth!

Oops, this video's gonna go live a day later than I planned... sorry about that.
The Casio CZ-5000 is such a cool and interesting synth. Although the Phase Distortion synthesis is a great feature on its own, the addition of that 8-track sequencer is killer. I wish Casio would do a modern remake of the CZ-5000. With a higher-quality screen, expanded patch memory, and velocity and aftertouch, a CZ-5000 revival would be amazing. Though I doubt it'll ever happen. But fortunately, we've got the original! Thanks for stopping by to check out this video. I hope you enjoy it, and if you do and you haven't already, please consider leaving a like and hitting "subscribe!"

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:46 Sound Generation
07:07 Factory Presets
08:22 I Call The CZ-5000 "Basically A Juno"
08:52 Sequencer
14:02 Wrap-Up
16:08 Outro

[UncleMilty]

Just found one of these in a thrift store in Arizona. It was marked $150 but that day all electronics were 75% off🤣 $38 out the door including an x stand. Nice video.

[nicpel]

I still have my old CZ5000 down in my basement! Spent so many afternoons after school playing with creating patches and recording stuff on my 8 track recorder and Casio drum machine...thanks for the trip down memory lane. I should really give it a go again; somehow through the years the memory stopped holding any of my programmed in sequences and sounds but otherwise it should still be in working condition.

[JorbLovesGear]

That sequencer is way, way more powerful than I thought. Great stuff!

[djelectricsounds]

I've got one of those, bought it back in 1997... Excellent for percussion sounds, and I always thought the bass wasn't good enough for electronic music... until a couple of years ago, when I put it through a cutoff filter in Ableton and it made it sound fantastic! Definitely a powerful synth, and I'll never get rid of it!

[stevew]

Very nice demo of wide range of CZ-5000 features. Good, realistic, honest section answering the question, "Should I get one?" at the end.

[molotulo]

Casio makes awesome/affordable instruments. I have my DG20 Digital Guitar...love it! Cheesy sounds, but totally fun and they run for decades...

[rpjmullin]

Had one back in the 80s..Weighed a ton but a good synth. Still have a CZ 1000 and the sz1 4 track sequencer that I used to programme it in step time as no quantize in real time mode..

[illustriouschin]

Sounds great, I can see why it is a cult classic! Thanks for the extremely well made review!

[SimpleHold]

It’s an interesting line from Casio. Like you said, I wish they were still making synths like this.
And yeah, congratulations on 3000!

[dmeetsbobo]

This is the synth that introduced me to sequencing and MIDI. Wish I had learned how to program it more.

[taloweryus]

The CZ-5000 was actually the first synth I ever bought way back when. I loved it and had lots of fun with it. Thanks for the great trip down memory lane!

[higgs.machine]

I've got my CZ-1 and CZ-101 on my jasper stand in the studio and they will probably never leave. Very underrated and can lose hours just patching around on Patch Base editor. I like to send my CZ-1 into my ZOIA pedal for FX, stereo modulation, filtering, sequencing, etc. CZ-101 is my main "noise" generator. You can get some wild sounds that go for days, which I also like to send through any looping gate or filter for some rhythm. Also super powerful ring modulation effect on these units. Great for buzzy OB like sounds.

[NeilVanceNeilVance]

You just reminded me that I have a CZ-1 in the attic, I totally forgot about it, gonna find it now thank you!

[brianbergmusic]

Thank you for challenging my opinions. Now I know that there is a monster in the history of Casio. If I was shopping for gear in the late 80s early 90s (and was especially keen about video game soundtracks), I would be crazy to dismiss this machine.
I have a different shopping list these days, but I would keep one if I found one in the attic.

[GettyUpGuns]

You’re the only person who’s made the patch making easy to understand

[molotulo]

Keytar Kris has a video about his Casio cx1000. Yes, I'm watching two videos at the same time...diggin' it.

[HighTreason]

Usually I'm not a fan of the "guy pushing buttons on the instrument for a quarter of an hour" style, but this was a fantastic demonstration. Well done.
The CZ-1 and CZ-5000 generally wind up being the workhorses in my music, pulling the bulk of the weight, to the point they often end up being the only synths in the song, even when it wasn't the original intention. Amazingly capable synthesis engine under the hood and, really, not even hard to use when compared to its contemporaries. I will always maintain that they utterly wipe the floor with the Yamaha DX line.

[molotulo]

I just subscribed...love your videos!!!!

[trevcoult]

Only just come across this. I bought a second hand CZ-5000 in the late '80s. Used to write songs using the sequencer, an RX-17 and nothing else. It was brilliant for its time and I still have it, though in storage. I used it so much I could do literally anything with it, but now I've completely forgotten it all!

[synthfluencer]

The CZ-5000 is a monster of a synth. It's heavy, it's huge and it sounds really awesome, much more like an analog synth than a digital one that it is. And there is this adorably fat chorus (that can be seamlessly mixed in rather than just switched on like the Juno chorus). I bought this synth "by accident" with intent to resell it but hell no; I'll never sell this thing! An absolute 80s icon! I much enjoyed the video and kudos for getting the idea of the sequencer I am still struggling with. The patch workflow also is somehow peculiar; I really recommend the VZV CZ Patch Editor (Windows app), also for loading patch sysex files (you can find numerous of them on the web).