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

Fun and impressive from such a simple instrument.

Just to tease you a bit, the SX-150 is actually made in China, though
it is a Japanese design that comes semi-assembled with a $30 "Science
for Adults" magazine. (well it's not really an "Adult" magazine,
ahem... it's just written on a layman's level rather than a kids level)

There are a bunch of higher end Japanese magazines that come with
kits or collectables inside, though the one it comes in takes the
prize with other issues containing things like a dollhouse sized
working Theremin or a mechanical Edison style recording phonograph
that uses coffee cups, One good part is that the "gift" tends to be
good enough that bookstores keep them until they sell unlike typical
magazines.

Tomita, a CS-80 user (but I fear he might have sold his to make
room in his studio) is in the magazine.

The magazine has many neat rare synth pictures but conspicuously
absent is the Paia Gnome. While not a direct copy I'd call the SX-150
a "lite" version of the Paia Gnome since it is more a synth than the
better known Stylophone, which it also resembles. Paia of course is
still in business.

While I've not confirmed it, I suspect the SX-150 has the highest
number manufactured of any analog synth in history.