Boards of Casio

Posted by ambionix on September 24th, 2026 Available in: English, Español, Français, 简体中文, 日本語, 한국어

While I was developing the CZP-1—which started as an attempt to recreate the Casio CZ-101 experience directly within a web browser—I came across a fascinating YouTube video by oliveoil22. This sparked an immediate challenge: How could I replicate those specific tones within the CZP-1 environment?

Fortunately, oliveoil22 had made their CZ-101 patch data available to the public.

🛠️ Setup Guide: Loading the Patches

Before you begin, please ensure your hardware is configured correctly:

Device is NOT in silent mode.
Patch JSON file is downloaded to your local directory.

Follow these steps to get started:

Navigate to the Library panel.
Under the Banks section, use the dropdown menu to pick an available empty slot.
Click the Load bank from JSON file button.
Select the file (typically found in your Downloads folder).
Once the bank data is updated with the Boards of Casio patches, go to Programs and pick your desired sound.

How to Play

You have several options for triggering the sounds:

Method	Description
On-Screen	Use your mouse/touch to hit the virtual keys.
Computer Keyboard	Map your QWERTY keys to the synth.
External MIDI	Connect a physical keyboard for a professional feel.

Note on Fidelity: The CZP-1 does not currently feature the post-processing effects used by oliveoil22. Because of this, there are some audible differences, though the core sound remains very accurate.

💾 Data Management & Persistence

The CZP-1 utilizes browser storage to keep your loaded banks intact.

Persistence: As long as you aren't using ~~private/incognito browsing~~, your banks will be remembered across different sessions.
Cross-Tab Sync: Data is shared across all open CZP-1 tabs. While they share the same bank data, you can have different banks or programs active in each individual tab.
Cleanup: To clear a slot, simply use the Remove bank button.

🌐 Sharing Your Creations

Sharing sounds is seamless and doesn't require manual file transfers. While JSON files work, you can also use URLs.

The Process:

Create your custom sound.
In the Library $\rightarrow$ Programs section, click Share.
The URL is instantly copied to your clipboard.

Since no sound data is actually stored on the server, these URLs are lightweight and can be sent between any device. For more details, refer to the Introductory Blog Post or the comprehensive CZP-1 Manual.

🤖 The Technical "Magic"

The journey from a YouTube video to a playable web synth involved a bit of modern alchemy. The original data from oliveoil22's Google Drive was in a .syx format (System Exclusive MIDI data).

I provided this data to the Claude AI instance that had previously helped refine the CZP-1 audio engine. In just five minutes, the AI converted the complex MIDI data into a usable .json format.

The Workflow:

In terms of mathematical approximation, the sound quality can be viewed as: $Sound_{CZP1} \approx Sound_{Original} - Effects_{PostProcessing}$

{
  "bank_name": "Boards of Casio",
  "source": "oliveoil22",
  "format": "JSON",
  "converted_by": "Claude"
}

"If you tried to achieve this in the ~~before times~~, it would have been absolutely mind-bending stuff."

Credits: A huge thank you to oliveoil22; all credit for the quality of the patch data belongs to them.