Vintage Synth Explorer

Yamaha • CS-15

This synth really has its own sound. The CS-15's got style. Built like a tank with a lot of nice knobs and best of all, not one but two of those funny sounding multimode filters. It's actually a duophonic / bitimbral synth but you have to connect it to CV (Hz/V like Korg not V/Oct) to get the extra voice. Each of the two VCOs has its own CV/Gate control.

The best things about it are the flexibility of the VCFs and the routings to the filters and envelopes. You can rout VCO 1 to both VCFs and the VCFs to any of the envelopes positive or negative voltage. The VCFs are 12 dB/Oct and are switchable between low, band or high-pass. They are the key to the nice sound of the Yamaha CS family. Other nice features are noise, external-in for processing other sounds, LFO with Sample & Hold for those bubbling sounds and an individual auto-bend for the VCOs.

The CS-15 is great for strange blips, bass and tiny highpass sounds. The ADSRs aren't as fast as the CS-10 but they are ok. A nice feature is the 'brilliance' slider that can control either or both VCFs. At their extremely low prices, the CS-15 is an analog that's definitely worth checking out for yourself. It has been used by Astral Projection, Somatic Responses, Moog Cookbook, The Human League, and Vince Clarke.

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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.

 

JOE

Posted 61 days ago

Another amazing mono synth from yamaha cs range. not as cool or ballsy sounding as the cs 10 for some reason? but has more available features such as an extra oscillator.i had a go of a moog little phatty lately and was fairly disappointed at the sound from it. compared to the yamaha cs the moog sounded slightly hifi and very clean for being analogue. the cs sonically blew the phatty out of the scene. i would really recommend the cs if your looking into buying a synth.instead of the cs15 try a cs 10 with an extra oscillator plugged in, wow!!!.

Mark

Posted 81 days ago

Just bought a week ago, really pleased! Crazy affordable and unique sounding mono synth with 2 tunable and very stable oscillators. LFO goes well into the audio range offering access to unusual timbres (ring modulator-type effect) as a result. Will never part with this instrument.

ktony

Posted 167 days ago

We have a CS-15, an MS-20, both still quite functional, and distinctly different in sound. (We also have a MonoPoly, which unfortunately has a sick keyboard.) To me, the character of the CS-15 can be summed up as "sweet". I've used it for some really nice treble lead sounds, with a combination of a positive envelope on one VCF, and a negative envelope on the other. It makes for an interesting sound which changes and develops.

MDSys

Posted 203 days ago

This was my first synth. I bought it back in 82 (and I still have it, my precious). Although it's not a milestone among synths, you can do alot with it. and it is very temreature stable, something that cannot be said about many BIG synths out there (Jupiter 8, any moog, Prophet,..).
I doens't have a really fat sound and the filters are only 12dB/Oct and aren't capable of oscillating,but still I think it is a good workhourse synth that earns your respect. I will never get rid of mine!

James Murphy

Posted 205 days ago

I've owned a CS-15 for about a year now, and it has treated me very well. It's surprisingly diverse in terms of sounds; makes super-fat baselines, bizarre and quirky fx, wonderful digital beeps and best of all sounds quite different to the other major synths of the period. Has some nice features on it and very easy to get your head around the controls. It's got major attitude and has a priceless character to the sound.

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