Yamaha CS80

Hi Mert,

> Have you got any idea why the great CS60 was not popular ever? With
> it's monophonic aftertouch, initial velocity, lovely ribbon
> controller , ring modulator and 8 polyphony, it should at least be a
> tough competitor against the Prophet 5.

It never was, just because when compared with a P5 the CS60 sounds extremely
thin, and it reveals its appeal on second sight only. With all its
idiosyncratic terminology on the envelopes, the rather under-achieving
filters, and its more "Japanese" sound it had no chance to woo potential P5
buyers who were accustomed to Mini Moogs and ARP Odysseys most of the time.
The P5 came up with that "American" sound which the CS60 just couldn\ufffdt do.
And you mustn\ufffdt forget that Yamaha had no real reputation for building
synthesisers at that time, people were rather suspicious of something called
"combo synthesiser", especially when their first encounters with
synthesisers bearing a "Yamaha" tag were the SY-1 or SY-2 (which are no bad
instruments, but a little flimsy when compared with its competitors from the
USofA). Even the GX-1 was passed off as an Electone organ, and this type of
poor marketing coupled with initially not very convincing sounds certainly
added to the fact that Yamaha didn\ufffdt have much success with their
synthesisers *before* they put out the CS80.

>
> I have owned a P5 for about 9 years and although it sounds interesting
> and powerful, the rough pitch and modulation wheels, rather poor
> keyboard and lack of velocity and aftertouch makes the precise
> controlling of musical expression quite impossible.

That\ufffds right, but at that time it was exactly what people needed. Not to
forget its biggest selling asset was its programmability. 40 patches versus
one on the CS60? Apart from that, people were used to Moog-style wheels, and
like Richard Luebbing once put it "people like Chick Corea were used to the
Moog wheels, so off went the ribbon controller". That\ufffds marketing. Read the
"Vintage Synthesizers" review of the CS80 in Mark Vail\ufffds book, it\ufffds indeed
very enlightening.

And it's limited
> polyphony makes the P5 a real looser against the CS60 at sustaining
> sounds. To me the P5 is not as musical compared to the CS60/80

I would replace "musical" with "organic" and I\ufffdd subscribe to your view.
Curtis- or SSM-based synthesisers tend to have a less animated sound because
they are more stable and more "phase-locked" while the CS60 or CS80 benefit
enormously from each oscillator card going its own way. Which might lead to
a minor reliability issue or two...

>
> The mighty CS80 makes the CS60 look a small limited synthesizer. But if
> we take the CS60 on it's own, it is an incredible synthesizer still.

Definitely. But we should bear in mind that both CS60 *and* CS80 are pretty
limited when compared to a Prophet 5 or an Oberheim OB-Xa in terms of
modulation and such. No VCO sync, no PWM through the EGs, no Polymodulation,
no unison mode, no autotune, no RAM memories. The CSs excel at expression,
richness of tone, and performance power but not in timbral variety. Like
Brian Eno once put it, "the CS80 has just six sounds on it, but these are
gorgeous".

>
> I am a lucky owner of a CS80. The CS60 is going to be my next purchase
> with it's easier portability for my stage performance.

Agreed, and the CS60 seems to be less temperamental when it comes to tuning
stability, probably because the internal cooling is more effective as there
are less components installed.

>
> BTW, I old my P5 last summer and never miss it.

I\ufffdd miss it, I know that, as they are both like apples and oranges :-). One
can do tricks the other can\ufffdt do. And I for one would love to add a Rev. 3
P5 to my setup some day or other. Just like I\ufffdd love to add an Oberheim Four
Voice to it someday...

Stephen.

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