CS80 tuning party!!
2008-02-17 by David Rogoff
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
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