Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Yamaha CS80

Dear Synth Cognescenti,

Well, 10 years after I first fell in love with side 2 of Brian Eno's 'Before and After Science', and one year after my buddy established that it was actually possible to own one of these things, I finally managed to score my very own CS80. My holy grail! I'm still pinching myself.

Don't know much about my particular unit, unfortunately. Serial number in the high 1400's, surprisingly good physical condition. It had been living in central Washington state, bought at a surplus sale by its previous owner for $200 3-4 years ago. Suffice to say, I paid considerably more than that but I got it for an uncharacteristically fair price just the same. The seller was fellow musician who wanted the thing to be played rather than collected and so... mission accomplished.

Anyway, I spent the better part of yesterday cleaning it up and cataloging its problems. My tech is already bracing himself for a rough ride so I figured I might run a few things by you geniuses in the hopes of narrowing down the troubleshooting process a bit.

The most irksome and complex problem i'm having is with voice 8 and seems to be related to the velocity (Lev/Brilliance) as it's most noticeable on percussive presets like the Electric Piano. Check this out: when I hold down any key from F#4 or lower, and then tap a second key repeatedly to cycle through the voices, voice 8 is either very quiet (on keys in the lower register) or dead altogether (keys in higher octaves). For whatever reason, the problem only seems to affect the voice when I'm playing keys from C#3 to C5. Notes outside that range sound properly. And the problem is definitely specific to voice 8, as the dead voice only comes up when I'm holding down a key. Also note that voice 8 sounds fine when I'm playing non-percussive/velocity-dependent sounds.

I've got a few other relatively minor bugs--well, the aftertouch is totally dead across the board but I'm hoping that's an easier, more obvious thing to look into. And keys occasionally double-trigger voices--i.e. two voices are played in rapid hiccup succession--probably due to some old caps somewhere in the chain. If I wind up keeping this thing for the rest of my life, I will definitely look into re-capping, changing trim pots, etc., but for now I'll be happy just to get it working well enough to play it (it's practically there already) and maybe re-capping the power supply.

Anyhow--sorry for the long-winded first post! I look forward to hearing from you, and much obliged for any help you guys can offer.

Regards,

Ted

PS: Anybody got a spare set of legs??





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