The instrument
The Hohner HS-2 is the successor of the HS-1, which is identical in construction to the Casio VZ-10M. The HS-2 is equivalent to the Casio VZ-10, and is a digital synthesizer and sampler with interactive phase distortion synthesis. This form of synthesis from Casio is similar to FM synthesis from Yamaha.
Details
The HS-2 is 16-voice polyphonic with a keyboard of 61 keys and a digital sampler of 16 bits, 1MB memory, expandable to 2MB for up to 64 samples. It also has eight outputs and analog-like 8-stage filters (DCF) and envelopes (DCA). One voice has eight independent oscillators. These can be connected in pairs for ring modulation or phase distortion and in turn modulate subordinate oscillator pairs. Unlike previous models, some parameters are interactive via MIDI, meaning velocity, aftertouch and two user-definable controllers can change the sound. The envelopes have key-follow and time-scaling functions and freely definable crossfades via the keyboard. The raw sounds go to two 16-bit outputs assigned to specific oscillators. Each oscillator can play either sine, 5 sawtooth or 2 noise types. Surprisingly the FZ-1 also has a built-in synthesizer section. It uses digital synthesis employing both harmonic additive synthesis and waveform drawing. Basic waveforms available include sawtooth, square, pulse, double sine, saw/pulse, random waves and 48 harmonics. (Sources: Amazona / Synth-db.com)