Yamaha CS-5

[untune]

Just picked up this little analogue monosynth from a local when it popped up on Gumtree. I'd drifted away from electronic music a bit but lately having gotten back into recording and really enjoying the process, I've been thinking about it again. Years ago an analogue synth was the holy grail but I could never really afford one, so when this came up I thought why not! It's certainly not the most versatile machine but it sounds great and is really good for bass, I have it sat on top of my Ashdown and I feel much better about that now - since the amp wasn't getting a great deal of use since I've been DIing everything recently.

It's in good nick for it's age, one or two scratchy pots and what appears to be a loose connection under a switch - nothing major. It's also drifted out of tune considerably and the pitch slider had to be lowered to get things in tune but the actual scaling of the keyboard note to note seems to be absolutely perfect (apart from the first 3 or 4 keys being ever so slightly sharp but not really noticeable - that might also have been the notes being too low for the tuner plugin I was using to cope with!). Not quite sure how to go about sorting that, I assume the whole thing needs to be re-capped but I'd be worried about messing something up... Perhaps a power supply cap needs changing to stabilize the voltage?

Either way it sounds really good, had fun fiddling around with it, wouldn't mind a CS-10 or 15 now Anybody else sporting analogue synths?

Edited December 2, 2012 by untune

[BigRedX]

I've been playing synths since the early 80s and have been through a vast selection of analogue and digital models. These days the closest I get to true analogue synthesis is the Korg Monotron and the Nord Lead. TBH after I bought the Nord I get rid of all my vintage synths because it sounded at least as good, was more versatile and a good deal more reliable in every way imaginable.

In the past I've owned various Roland synths from the humble SH09 to the mighty Jupiter 6, pretty much all of the Korg MS range as well as various less common models from Cheetah and Akai amongst others. Personally I don't miss any of them. I certainly don't miss the lack of memories the inconsistency of sound from one day to the next, the lack of consistent interface options (if any) of the pre-MIDI instruments and limited implementation of those with MIDI. The Nord outperforms them all many times over.

BTW don't bother with the CS15. I used to be in a band with someone who had one. It was nasty and thin sounding for the most part. Luckily he was able to px it for a Korg MS20.

[untune]

We had a few of the Nord Lead racks in the studios when I was at uni but I never really had the chance to play with them - I honestly can't seem myself getting anymore true analogue synths as the reliability (and size) is too much of an issue, but it's nice to have one for some genuine analogue sounds. I do have a Novation XioSynth which I bought a few years ago when they were released, but it has barely had any use - mainly because I found it really fiddly to adjust the patches and such having to work out how to get into various sub menus and such. That said it is very versatile and good fun. That's the one thing I really like about this CS-5 - straight to the point and simple to edit, a knob or a switch for everything and you can hear the difference straight away. I remember there was a little program developed by a French guy that mapped out every control for the XioSynth in a VST style interface and you could adjust everything on the fly with USB/MIDI but it didn't always work properly!

I'll be avoiding the CS-15 then, cheers for the advice

[BigRedX]

Just looked up the CS5, and it's not the model I was thinking of (CS01 - small keyboard plastic case), but a smaller less-featured version of the CS15, so if you like it you may well like the CS15. All I can remember was that the filter sounded very weedy in comparison to the Korg and Roland mono-synths of the time and performance controls were completely pants.

You should have another look at the Nord Lead. If you already have a MIDI keyboard the version 1 rack units can be picked up very cheap these days - try and get one with the full voice expansion card though.

[untune]

Ahhh I see - either way I don't think I'll be needing any more, just nice to have a little bit of history and it really suits the kindof music (in an electronics sense) I like. Nice to be able to stick an external input through it - I've got an old Casio keyboard that might sound interesting through it...