Vintage Synth Explorer

Yamaha • CS-10

The CS-10 makes a great electronic, dance and trance musical instrument because it is analog, monophonic, has a really cool filter and is capable of warm bubbly analog bass and lead sounds. Its very simple design and layout with plenty of knobs allows for instant gratification! It has one oscillator and a switchable low-pass, band-pass or hi-pass resonant filter. The LFO can modulate the filter cutoff, volume, pitch and VCO. External audio can also be routed through the filter and there is portamento that stretches for one octave.

Although MIDI-less, the CS-10 does have CV / Gate which can be converted to MIDI using a proper interface, so the CS-10 works quite well both in the studio or for live performance. If you're into techno, dance or electronica then consider the CS-10 an inexpensive but worthy alternative to other more popular mono-synths. It has been used by Depeche Mode, Astral Projection, the Propellerheads and Moa.

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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.

 

VR Trooper

Posted 321 days ago

Picked one up today and been playing with it all afternoon, evening and night - a proper fun analogue. Sounds amazing, even got pulse width modulation which I wasn't expecting really - LFO routing is classy and great fun. Ability to mix external sounds as well as use them as a trigger e.g. you can plug in the output of a drum machine and use it to trigger sounds or pass it through the filter or both. Decay time on the filter and envelope can be set to 'Normal' or 'Time x5' for really long sustained notes that run into each other. Monster of a synth - I love it already!

Bo

Posted 326 days ago

Well...this is the farmost best solo synth ever (sorry Moog)! I had mine for years, until I had to depart from it. I bought it back a few years ago and I'm still a huge fan of this instrument. Tweak it right and you will hear...!

My CS-10 is "updated" with Kenton Pro Solo and their filter-midi-option. It works 100%!

If you find one for sale - buy it!

DnA

Posted 337 days ago

I've had many monophonic synths, and the CS-10 is my favorite. It's filters are super fast making it an ideal lead synth. Full envelope controls on both VCF and VCA allows for very flexible tone shaping. The bass is deep, full, and clean, which is why I prefer this synth over the Roland SH-101. The single VCO doesn't fatten up like a pair of sawtooths, but the CS-10's punchiness can't be beat. It also works well in jazz as it's capable of producing a nice airy lead that floats easily above comp chords. I usually use a delay pedal with this synth, and a good chorus really works well too.

Joe

Posted 388 days ago

Such a wicked little synth, I love the modulation routings and the multi mode filter of the CS range... So much so I brought a CS20m! :)

Syth man!

Posted 437 days ago

Best Analogue synth ever?!!! no.

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