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.

Daniel

September 14, 2012 @ 4:19 pm

A reply to Peter's post about not liking the the envelope controls.
I feel quite opposite, the initial attack and attack time is a rare feature and actually pretty cool. Baiscally you can adjust the slope of the EG's start point and how long attack time you would like, Pretty neat, furthermore the level of the attack is also adjustable.

5x attack+decay+release time is also great :)

Daniel

September 14, 2012 @ 3:52 pm

The CS series has really unique filters, I only tried the CS10 and it is a joy. Never had any problems with it. I simply love this synthesizer! Even if it's only 1 osc. It has lots of bass power. It's a Keeper

Peter

May 29, 2012 @ 7:50 pm

At first i was a little disappointed. With the single osscilator and monophony it seemed limited sound-wise. But with some effects and through a nice amp this thing sounds very good indeed. Lots of character. No "cheap" sound.

The only thing i don't like is how the envelop controls work on the filter section. "Initial level", "Atack Time" and "Atack Level" controls, they're not intuitive.

See mine in action here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0-c0IpKZGc

MedIcI

May 11, 2012 @ 5:43 pm

I hear one of these used in The Alan Parsons Project- iRobot and found one at a garage sale so i pluged it in to my adapter for the laptop and used it for my music.

Kevin R. Marshall

March 13, 2012 @ 4:47 pm

FYI: If anyone is looking for one, i have a CS-10 in very good condition for sale here:
http://www.houseofsynth.com/yamaha-CS-10-mono-analog-synth-for-sale

Regards

<987654321>

 

Post Comment!

Your Name: (Required.)

Email Address: (Required, not published.)

Image verification: (required)

Message:

 

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.

I have read and understand the posting rules.