Yamaha CS80

Yeah, that was loads of fun David.  I am glad you could make it out.  We all learned a ton about tuning the beast!!  Can't wait to see Shawn's finished CS80.

To: yamahacs80@yahoogroups.com
From: david@...
Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2008 12:28:10 -0800
Subject: [yamahacs80] CS80 tuning party!!
















  


    
            Hi everyone.



Well, yesterday may have been the first time a bunch of people got 

together to learn to tune a CS80 since some training sessions at Yamaha 

thirty years ago!



Scott (who's in this group, and whose CS80 I added the Kenton MIDI kit 

to), wanted me to clean up a few voices that had drifted a bit since I 

last tuned it (a little over two years ago).  He figured we'd make it a 

party, and invited a couple of other CS80 owners, including Shawn from 

Analoghaven.com and Steve. It was a little crowded in Scott's studio 

loft, with the ton of gear he has (and the Obie 4-voice wasn't even 

there!), but we managed.



It took a long time, partly from schmoozing, partly from letting 

everyone try tuning a voice card, and a lot from a D'oh! moment: Scott 

has the MIDI in of the CS80 hooked up to a Kurzweil MIDIBoard. It's a 

great setup for recording poly-aftertouch performances on his Mac and 

then controlling the CS80. However, the spring-loaded pitch and mod 

wheels of the MIDIBoard don't have a dead zone and don't always go back 

to zero. Apparently, during our pizza break after the first four voices, 

the wheels got hit, and the pitch-bend was slightly off for the next 

four sets of cards.



In the end, it was all in tune. I think we also came up with a very nice 

and fast tuning procedure which I'll write up in the next few days.  

Looks like I may be putting in a couple more Kenton kits in the near 

future, too.  Then we have to get all three MIDI-ed CS80s in one room, 

played from the MIDIBoard, plus Scott's Obie 4-voice via a Doepfer 

MIDI-CV interface. I think the sound will violate several international 

weapons treaties!



David


      

    
    

















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