Vintage Synth Explorer

Yamaha • CS-80

A very old and very huge (over 200 lbs.) classic synthesizer. Considered Japans first great synthesizer. It had some pretty amazing features for its time such as eight voice polyphony, patch memory storage and polyphonic aftertouch. It can generate great analog strings, brass, drones and pads with that instantly recognizable classic polysynth sound. No synth sounds greater. Some examples of its extremely fat sound can be heard in "Blade Runner" and "Mutiny on the Bounty" by Vangelis as well as "Dune" by Toto. The thing that really made this synth sound so powerful was its "natural" detuning....thus its brass and string sounds were unparalleled not only for authenticity, but for pure width! Unfortunately for the CS-80, it was released the same year as the more programmable and cheaper Prophet 5.

With two analog oscillators per voice, the CS-80 has the potential for some really fat sounds! A great VCF filter with independent hi pass and low pass resonant filters, a powerful ring modulator and plenty of modulation controls further enhance the CS-80's sonic potential. There are 22 preset sounds (6 user) selected from bright and ugly colored buttons above the keyboard. The keyboard is weighted and has a full 61 keys with performance controllers for vibrato, pitch, brightness and volume. Surprisingly there's also a long ribbon controller for the pitch-bending, located above the keyboard. There is no MIDI or cv/gate control. The only way to MIDI it is via a rather complex retrofit receive-only kit from Kenton.

It has been used by Vangelis, Chicago, Jethro Tull, Kraftwerk, Ultravox, Bon Jovi, Simple Minds, Paul McCartney, Michael McDonald, Brian Eno, Toto, Eddie Jobson, Doug Johnson (Loverboy), The Crystal Method, Jean Michel Jarre, Geoffrey Downes (Yes, Asia), Rick Wakeman, Stevie Wonder, Phish, Daft Punk, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and Tony Banks of Genesis.

Check out Arturia's CS-80V - an amazing, totally authentic and realistic software synth plug-in modeled after the CS-80, with major enhancements including stereo voices, non-drifting oscillators, advanced modulation abilities, MIDI/Tempo sync, patch memory, total recall, controller automation, and much more - all for less than $250!

VISITOR COMMENTS (27)

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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.

 

weekapaugrooven

Posted 3 days ago

This IS the greatest synthesizer ever made. Period. Long live the remaining CS-80's that are in existance today. If you own one, consider yourself lucky to have the fattest syntheszier ever created.

And just a quick note - Page McConnell from Phish does not use the CS-80, he uses the CS-60.

Mike

Posted 18 days ago

Lol i think this synth was used in the Theme for Scarface

weekapaugrooven

Posted 21 days ago

Possibly the greatest the synthesizer ever to be made by human hands. I have owned one of these for the last thirteen years and still find ways of getting new and dynamic sounds out of it. Simply beautiful. There's always the Arp 2600 and Korg MS-20 but those two were obviously made by aliens.

Scott

Posted 67 days ago

I wouldn't expect a plug-in to exactly emulate an old, classic synth but what no one has mentioned is that once it is placed in a mix, it would be extremely difficult for even an experienced user to say with certainty which one they were hearing.

And Eddie Jobson recently went out, using the Arturia with TWO Prophet T8s for controllers. There may be other people who know the CS80 as well as EJ but there aren't any who know it better.

Jim Swonger

Posted 86 days ago

I was able to get one of these keyboards for free, it was in a closet at a university and no-one wanted it. It is a blast to play with, though it does heat the apartment nicely and pitch tends to change a bit with temp.

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