Vintage Synth Explorer

Yamaha • CS-01

Yamaha CS-01

The CS-01 is a very old but classic analog monosynth from Yamaha. Although originally designed for use by novice musicians or first time synth-buyers, the CS-01 has been recognized by today's electronic musicians as one fat little bass machine with simple controls. In a nutshell, the CS-01 is simple to use and edit but still has some great features for any situation. It's tiny and portable, it has baby-sized keys and it can run on batteries, and there is a built-in amplifier and speaker which is quite fun.

As for sounds and synthesizing, the CS-01 is the perfect monosynth for bubbly and growling bass! It features a very nice 12dB resonant VCF filter. In addition to the oscillators' sine and square type waveforms there is PWM and noise. There are also LFO controls, glissando (like portamento), a typical ADSR envelope generator, pitch & mod wheels and even a breath controller input. A CS-01 mkII (pictured below) was later released by Yamaha soon after the original. It featured an improved 24dB resonant VCF filter with adjustable slider control over resonance instead of switchable on/off resonance as found on the original. The CS-01 mkII is also identifiable by its black case with green letters.

Yamaha CS-01 mkII

The CS-01 may look simple or toy-like but it is still able to create cool little analog bass blips, bass lines and bass bubbles that are just perfect for today's electronic musicians. It has been used by the Dust Brothers, Underworld, OMD, Richard Barbieri and Chick Corea.

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Posting Rules: Please keep your comments relevant! Do not post requests for help, do not use for sales, do not post unless you have something interesting to say about this instrument, or we may delete your post.

 

Chuck

Posted 30 days ago

Interesting, how the silk-screening on the front clearly reads "VCO" but inside is a digital wavetable chip. At least the other CS series keyboards are all analog.

elang eby

Posted 49 days ago

yes this little machine have great big sounds...i love it...



elang eby
Bandung,indonesia

Mezzo

Posted 64 days ago

Always thought of this as a toy. Plastic case, built in speaker, batteries and small keys. But it is a real synth and could make some usable sounds. The eg is a pretty quick for punchy bass sounds and the filter is ok (I had the 12db version). Other synths I was playing at the time eclipsed this one so I don't remember it as fondly as some. I still don't think I'd drop $100 on one. Maybe $50. These used the standard Yamaha breath controller BC-01. I think there were red ones as well

babams

Posted 112 days ago

i have 2 yamaha cs 01.but i cant find my another equip..i mean breathe control for yamaha cs 01..would u like to tell me where i find the breathe control...

thanks
best regard

babam from indonesia

Andre

Posted 129 days ago

I saw a video of this lady using it and she had some sort of whistle-like device plugged to it and she was blowing into it

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