From jeanniel@merle.acns.nwu.eduMon May 1 10:02:43 1995 Date: Mon, 1 May 1995 10:58:16 -0500 (CDT) From: jeanniel@merle.acns.nwu.edu To: analogue-owner@hyperreal.com Subject: Could you please upload this to AH machines (CS80 info) Hi, I just thought it'd be a nice addition to CS80 Music Machines archive. I could not upload it myself. So, could you please do it for me. Thank you, J:L --------------------------------------------------------------------- Yamaha CS-80, (not counting modular synths), is the heaviest, most knobs, most complete, most fun synthesizer ever built. We're talking 171 knobs! 50 switches! No LCDs, no menus, no MIDI! If you are a fan of progressive music you have heard this keyboard. The first U.K. album is all CS-80. Patrick Moraz used it a lot. All of Emerson's stuff around Work Vol I was the custom GX-1, which is 2+1/2 CS-80 in a large cabinet. They were built from 1976 to about 1979 and sold for $7000. The CS-60 is sort of 1/2 a CS-80 and a good source of spare parts if something ever went out on the CS-80. 2 banks (layered) of 8 voices. Each voice has VCO (oh yeah - except for the keyboard scanning chips the thing is completely analog) with sawtooth, sine, variable pulse width with PWM, high and low-pass filters with resonance, envelope generators for VCFs and VCA. The keyboard is a 5-octave weighted action (not quite piano, but close) with velocity and polyphonic pressure sensing! The velocity can be used to control the volume, filter cutoff, and pitch-bend envelope. The pressure can be used to control volume, filter cutoff, LFO to VCOs, LFO to VCFs, and LFO speed. This board was the first one to try to have it all! The is a long ribbon controller along the top edge of the keyboard for pitch bends. Whereever you first touch it is the zero point and then you slide your finger for bends. Or you can hold one finger down and tap another for hammer-trill effects. One cool thing is that bending up gives you a range of 1 octave while bending down goes infinite octaves! Down to zero hertz! Other polysynths from the period (Prophet-5, OBX, Jupiter-8) cant do this because they have exponential VCOs, while the Yamaha's are linear. There is also a center-detent pitch knob that can be used like a pitch wheel. The LFO has sine, square, sawtooth, variable width pulse noise, and external (jack on the back). It can go fast enough for raspy, FM-like effects. There is also a ring modulator for bell or space sounds. It has it's own envelope generator that controls the speed. Off to the left of the keyboard there is the sustain (really envelope release) /portamento control. Sustain (in addition to the setting in the preset) can be switched with a foot switch. What is very cool is sustain mode two. In most synths, you can't have a long release on a polyphonic lead sound because you end up with a blur of notes. In sustain mode two hitting a new key, after letting go off all keys, kills sustaining notes. This lets you play sustained chords and leads together, an effect unknown to any other synth! The portamento is polyphonic and can be switched from a foot pedal. It can also be switched into glissando mode in which the notes glides in half-steps as if you are playing very fast chromatic scales. Also in this section is the chorus/tremolo unit that can give various stereo chorus and leslie-type effects. There are 14 presets for each layer. Eleven of these are fixed, short of changing resistors on an interanl board (actually not very hard). One preset chooses the front-panel knobs (one set for each layer). Two others choose the "programmable presets." These are 4 (two for each layer) sets of miniture knobs that are under a fold-up panel! Yes, even the memory is analog. The keyboard is built into a heavy plywood case covered in tolex with chrome corners. A removable cover protects the unit enough for most moving around (not enough for shipping!). There is also a clear plexiglass music stand. I've got the original owner's manual and the service manual xeroxes which has very complete schematics and wiring diagrams and tuning/ alignment procedures. Here's a reply I clipped from the net of a guy answering someone's questions who knew nothing of the famous CS-80: ---BEGIN QUOTED ARTICLE--- The *sound* of the CS-80 is unmistakeable: the lush, organic washes, bizarre internal modulated clangor, etc etc etc...trademarks found on recordings by everyone from Pete Townshend (see "Let My Love Open the Door" on *Empty Glass* for lots of CS-80-age) to Eno to Garth Hudson to...well, let's just say that they were a hot high-end ticket around 1976-79. Yes, you only have four presets and yes, there's these weird cheezy factory things like "Funky 3" and "Flute" and such that don't sound a lot like what they say they are...but don't look at them as being what they say. Look at them as ingredients, and the row of little tabs just above the keyboard is Your Waring Blender. This unit has *wild* modulation, global filtering (yes, filtering *after* the patch's *own* filter setting!), *polyphonic* aftertouch, and mixing between sources (either in tune or with patch II detuned) that make programming this synth somewhat confusional at first, but when one gets the hang of it, a *joy* for patch tweaking during live playing. Oh, and that controller...one of the nicest weighted keyboards I've had the pleasure to play...*plus* the wild ribbon controller, a super-fun pitch bend/tremolo/detuning/whatever device! >What is the best way to ship it? In truth, laying flat on something fairly vibration-cushioned. Do not use the casters on it; they will knock this thing out of tune faster than you can say "Hans-Joachim Roedelius". And remember, this thing weighs a whopping 220+ pounds...I think you'd have to go with motor freight. But *don't* ship it standing on its back end...the trimmers get put into a vibration-prone position when you do that, and it knocks the individual voice VCOs out of whack. >Would anyone want to buy it if I decide not to keep it? Buy it? Son, there's people who'd *kill* you for this thing. It's a legendary synth. Don't sell it before you play it for a while, though... since if you play it, you won't want to sell it! >Thanks for your help! No prob...I figure after hunting for one for about 9-10 years myself and being successful with both finding and using one, I could pass along a smidgen of info about the CS-80. _END OF QUOTED ARTICLE____ -- +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | THIS TRANSMISSION WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY BIONAUT JEANNIE! | +-----------------------------+-------------------------------+ | jeanniel@merle.acns.nwu.edu | telephone connection rejected | +-----------------------------+-------------------------------+ |||||||||||||| Have you hugged your moog today? ||||||||||||||| +-------------------------------------------------------------+ (c)(p)2001 In labyrinths of coral caves