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The CS-40m is a duophonic (2-voice) analog synthesizer that was introduced in 1980. Although Yamaha had already conquered polyphony with their legendary 8-voice CS-80, the CS-40m offered a more affordable approach to something other than a mono-synth. It has a semi-compact 44 note (3 1/2 octave) keyboard, 36 knobs, 12 sliders and over a dozen buttons for easy hands-on performance and editing. There are also 20 patches of memory which can be off-loaded to cassette tape.

The CS-40m certainly isn't as phatt as the CS-80. In fact, the CS-40m is more like a 2-voice version of the CS-20m. Like most CS-series synths the CS-40m has two analog oscillators per voice. Triangle, sawtooth, and square (pulse) waveforms are available on each oscillator, plus there is a noise generator. There is also a simple AR (attack/release) envelope generator for each VCO.

The CS-40m has a multi-mode VCF filter switchable between lowpass, bandpass, and highpass filtering. Basic filter cutoff and resonance controls are here, but the filter's resonance can't be driven to self-oscillate. It does, however, have its own ADSR envelope generator for nice sweeping filter effects. There is a basic LFO (Low Frequency Modulator) for modulating the VCO, VCF or VCA. All these classic controls and features and sounds... you would expect wood panels... and there are! The CS-40m has been used by Electronic Dream Plant, Sneaker Pimps, Ultravox, Duran Duran, and Vangelis.

9 VISITOR COMMENTS

james pilcher

December 22, 2011 @ 11:30 am

stu - the gate in's on the CS series are S-trig, as in, if you short the contacts on the plug, the envelope generator should trigger. Whatever you're controlling them with might have a different trigger system. You could try plugging a guitar lead into the gate then manually shorting the contacts on the jack plug with something conductive to test them. I've done it to my cs-15 a few times when i was building a cv-gate controller for it, but even though i have no reason to think it can harm your synth, you would do this at your own risk.

Stu

December 18, 2011 @ 8:17 pm

so I've had one for about a month now and am really impressed. it make some wicked, far out sounds! theres a third env that can controll everything, even the lfo spd! i wish it were useful via cv but gate in for some reason doesnt trigger this feature. odd, gate in doesnt trigger the vco env on the CS15 either :( but for playing lead keys, this is quite possibly the coolest lil synth ive ever got my hands on!

GA

October 29, 2011 @ 10:26 am

This was my first synth back in about 1984-1985. I wish I had it back!

Akikaze

October 11, 2009 @ 4:27 am

There is only one VCO EG shared by both voices! The CS-40M sports the superb Yamaha ring modulation! I used it on my eighth album Music from the Mesozoic.

Andrew Beddoes

December 28, 2008 @ 6:47 am

A large, heavy, synth, but an unmistakable good looker. No touch response, but fun to program and play.

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