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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Steve Cooke

Posted 316 days ago

Like the previous poster, I sold my CS-01, in the mid-90s, and have regretted it ever since. It was my first proper synth, bought second-hand around 1985. A major step up from the Casio home keyboards I'd had before that. Lovely sounds, though I perhaps didn't appreciate them as much as I should at the time, given that the DX7 and other digital synths were all the rage around then and analogue sounds were going out of fashion. What was awkward, though, was the fact that there was no way of saving patches on the CS-01. The only way of keeping track of them was to make photocopies of the patch chart, pencil in the settings for each sound you'd developed, and then manually adjust the sliders each time you want to change patches. Certainly not very practical during a gig, though you got quick with practice.

Anthony Murphy

Posted 381 days ago

I received one of these as a birthday present in 1983 (?), had it until early 1990s, should NEVER have sold it back then (when I needed- or thought I needed- the cash more than the synth)- one of my great regrets! An excellent little synth, a great way to learn about analog synthesizers. Keeping an eye on eBay for one!

Paul Jonson

Posted 389 days ago

I bought this as my very first synth in 1984 and to this day it plays like new. I ues it alongside my microkorg and together Im like Gazza Numan in Wembely 1981...hahaha...

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