■Part of the CZ synthesizers series based on digital synthesis PD-Phase Distortion - inspired by Yamaha FM technology Yamaha DX7. The CZ-101 is the portable version of the series with minikeys (same as cz1000)
■ system and 8 bits CPU UPD-7811G-120 manages up to 8 voices polyphony based on PD synthesis. A basic patch is composed by 1 or 2 DCO (or LINES) which are detunable digital sinewave-cosine oscillators (digital waveform stored in ROM probably IC MB83256pn26) processed by logic mathematical operations.
■PD - PHASE DISTORTION process periodically distorts the phase angle of the oscillator altering the harmonic content, consequently creating new rich waveforms (8 to be precise).
The pattern of the distorted reading phase angle determines the DCO, while the amount of distortion of the reading phase angle (the depth) is determined by a dedicated EG DCW (Digitally Controlled Wave) which transforms the harmonics from pure sine to full distorted wave (99 stepped values).
■ each DCO is composed by 1 or 2 rich harmonics waves out of the 8 available.
The second wave follows the first one for each periodic cycle, thus creating even more waveforms. However there are some hardware restriction: it it not possible to mix 2 waves from group 2 thus following this rule, it is possible to obtain 33 combinations.
■ PERFORMANCE the 2 DCO lines can be set to 4 different path modes:
- line 1 just DCO1, 8 voices polyphony
- line 2 just DCO2, 8 voices polyphony
- line 1+2 DCO1 + DCO2, 4 voices polyphony with detune
- line 1+1 stacks 2 times DCO1, 4 voices polyphony with detune
In addition various playmode functions:
- portamento time
- monophonic mode
- key transpose
- bender range.
■ ENEVELOPE 3 EGs for each line DCO (6 in total):
-EG DCW PD: 8-stages + 8 levels + 8 sustain points that determines the level at which a sound is held as long as a key is pressed
- EG DCO pitch: same structure as DCW
- EG DCA amplitude: same structure as DCW.
■ LFO a single delayed amplitude modulator for DCA 1-2 at same time.
The LFO features variable depth and 4 available shapes: sine, saw, square and ramp
