VZ-8m versus VZ-10m

What are the differences between the VZ-8m and the VZ-10m?

Clearly the VZ-8m has half the polyphony, and a much simpler/smaller front panel making panel editing more complicated.

The VZ-8m also appears (one ebay sighting so far) much cheaper than the VZ-10m.

For guitar the 8 voice polyphony would be fine (apart from cutting off long decays I suppose), but do the modules have layering modes which would cut polyphony by half?

While it appears that the VZ-10m is the better option in general, the VZ-8m has a "guitar synth" mode, although I don't know what that does. Also, the VZ-8m has some more advanced panning options than the VZ-10m, though again I've only seen this mentioned, and don't know what the details are.

The VZ-8m is also smaller, and takes up less space. Which is one reason why I'm not planning to buy the VZ-1, even though they seem an awful lot of synth for what they sell for.

Any info/advice?

I had both the VZ-1 keyboard and the VZ-8 module.

It comes down to this- you will probably just end up playing the presets. It is such a pain in the ass to do something simple, like editing envelopes, that you wouldn't ever do anything like program a sound from scratch.

In my case, I did a grand total of one sound that I programmed. It took the whole evening. I did a lot of multitimbral stuff- stacks and splits- this is pretty straightforward from the front panel.

Of course, you may be able to find a computer editor to make this easier.

The good news is that all of the sounds that Casio released on cards, etc are probably still floating around the net. There are some really great, unique sounds that this thing can do.

The casio CZ101 I had once upon a time had the same (I believe) 8-stage envelopes. I loved them. So much better than standard ADSRs, or even the DX range envelopes.

My plan was to write a computer editor.

No VZ in the "collection" here, but a friend has an 8M. Here are some links that might provide more insight, etc.:

http://www.sonicstate.com/synth_reviews/vz10m/1/

http://www.sonicstate.com/synth_reviews/casio_vz8m/

http://web.archive.org/web/20040209013923/http://www.steveandsally.freeserve.co.uk/casio/

http://web.archive.org/web/20021221171248/www.steveandsally.freeserve.co.uk/casio/patches/

http://www.vintagesynth.com/casio/vz1.php

http://web.archive.org/web/20051202045539/http://www.chat-page.com/easyveezee/

http://web.archive.org/web/20051202045130/www.chat-page.com/easyveezee/archive.html

http://synthzone.com/midi/casio/vz/

http://www.sequencer.de/moogulatorium/casio_cz.html

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/CZsynth/

I have a VZ-10M that I bought many years ago as a "workstation" for editing sounds, arranging patch order, etc. for the Casio PG-380 guitar synth which had a built-in VZ synth module, but no editing capability. At one point I was tempted to get the VZ-8M for it's guitar-synth option, but I never did. I think what this provided was a mode that was optimized for the sounds being controlled by a guitar rather than a keyboard.

As far as the 8M being much less expensive than the 10M, I don't know about that. The 10M usually goes for around $100 - $125 on the used market. Is the 8M that much less?

I never really used the VZ-10M all that much as a synth module. The programming was complex and different than the Rolands, Korgs, and Kawais I was used to at the time. However, it is capable of some interesting sounds if you want to put the time into learning and working with it.

I saw a VZ-10m sell on UK ebay for