# Casio VZ-10M i also joined the pack that picked up a vz10m from sam ash lately. bought 2 actually, one for a friend who could use the voices. i do like it, so in spite of the comments below, i'd recommend it at the current price. there are a few things however that i'd like to have known ahead of time. so for the rest of you, here are my beefs (so far: i've only had it a few days now. i'm a terribly critical person when it comes to music gear i'm afraid.) 1. although some of the postings make it seem that the vz10 could be an enhances cz class machine, it is actually a completely different beast. some of the internal mechanisms for generating the sounds may be similar, but any hope of tapping the vast library of pd cz-? patches is in vain. i was most interested in the vz because i've always liked the guitar and flute sounds from the cz series, but no direct port of the particular sounds i like is possible. 2. the vz10m is not nearly as quiet as the cz machines. one of the cz's best features is that it is DEAD quiet. no such luck on the vz. patches that don't have a loud sustaining portion reveal a distinct fuzz or hiss as they decay, until some sort of noise gate or internal oscillator on/off mechanism kicks in. this is not too terribly bad, and in most music this noise would be masked by other instruments, but for sparse arrangements featuring just a vz voice it is noticable. 3. the manual is (IMHO) awful! a perfect example of describing in painful detail how to program a synth, with very little info on whats going on and why you might want to twiddle this or that parameter. especially considering that knowledge of the cz series doesn't help hardly any, this hurts. i have ordered an applications guide to the vz series that i hope will do better, but as it stands i feel completely on my own in figuring out how to achieve any particular sound i might be shooting for. (not that this is necessarally bad mind you. i might come up with a unique technique or two by not having been told how to do it 'right'.) (the application guide is by Steve DeFuria, keyboard mag columnist, writing with a (japanese?) fellow whose name i can't remember. don't have the title at hand either, but it's something like "power play vz1/vz10m"?) dan mcmullen, everex systems, inc., sebastopol, ca. (707) 823-0733 dm@everexn.com ...!{well!fico2,pacbell!mslbrb}!everexn!dm ... The VZ-10M has EIGHT stages which can be numerically and/or graphically edited. The sustain point can be positioned anywhere in the envelope as well as the end (i.e. one doesn`t have to use all eight parameters and waste time setting undesired points to zero). Are they "wonderful". Sort of. Actually programming them is a bit difficult -- the interface works on levels and rates (which is absolutely absurd IMHO). I would have preffered levels and times. Programming these is like defining a time function by manipulating its derivitive -- too indirect for me. Peaves... the envelopes cannot be looped -- they always finish!!!! What WERE the engineers thinking? Idiots... :-) ------------------ Paul D. DeFrain Purdue University