The CS01 is a very old but classic analog monosynth from Yamaha. Although originally designed for use by novice musicians or first time synth-buyers, the CS01 has been recognized by today's electronic musicians as one fat little bass machine with simple controls. In a nutshell, the CS01 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 CS01 is the perfect monosynth for bubbly and growling bass! It features a very nice 12dB resonant voltage-controlled 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 CS01 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 CS01 mkII is also identifiable by its black case with green letters.

Yamaha CS01 II

The CS01 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.

justin

September 4, 2009 @ 10:46 am

I think it has an arrangement like the JX3P, where a high frequency master oscillator is divided down digitally by the keyboard decoder and then put thru an analogue waveshaper to give the final audio. The only thing that justifies the VCO tag is that the high frequency osc is modulated directly by the LFO... Sounds very good regardless!

plikestechno

August 25, 2009 @ 12:36 am

The only thing I don't get is that if it's digital then how do you have adjustable PWM?

frazz

July 28, 2009 @ 6:31 am

I was looking around in my father and law's endless workshop and found a box with among other things a totally broken in half SH101 and a pretty badly bashed MS20 that he had taken out of the back of a crashed van of his musician mate's. he and i got bothof these sort of working

most importantly though, there was also a CS01 that just wasn't working and didn't catch my attention. Later on i stumbled on an internet review that gave the CS01 some kudos. fixing a battery spring got it going. What a nasty little treasure it turned out to be. It now lives on top of my Rhodes MK1 plugged into a proco rat and fender twin. SHEIT!

Chuck

June 4, 2009 @ 9:54 am

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

May 16, 2009 @ 1:47 pm

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



elang eby
Bandung,indonesia

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