At the 2018 NAMM Show, Yamaha had an amazing piece of synth history at their booth, a CS-80 in mint condition.
Yamaha’s Nate Tschetter gave us a quick demo of the rare synthesizer, an overview of the CS-80’s architecture, and told us the story of rediscovering the instrument.
Beautiful instrument
Make a new one, but slimmer with wood side panels and MIDI.
You should have put the CS-80 back in the header for this one 😉
What is CS-80?
Yes, it is CS80.
CS-80:
https://www.synthtopia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/yamaha-cs80-640×880.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WOosx7ahpNo/VSHb9RhzQfI/AAAAAAAJd5c/AOivOQNUlXY/s640/1.jpg
https://elektrotanya.com/PREVIEWS/45612216/23432455/hangszer/yamaha/yamaha_cs-80_parts.pdf_1.png
They typically don’t anymore of course, but back in the ’70’s the SY-1, SY-2, the famous GX-1 and all the CS series used a hyphen. The practice was dropped starting with the SK series.
https://usa.yamaha.com/products/contents/music_production/synth_40th/chronology/index.html
Did you get that idea from the manuals in the top photo where the model is identified as CS-80?
That ”memory” – awesome, I had no idea! 😀
I have one of those original brochures (it’s not a manual). It was as close to a CS-80 as I ever got.
🙂
I’ve played a CS-80 in good shape, so I can easily relate to its famous rep. He’s right about it drawing from their (Electone) organ history. I played one of those, too and it included its own version of the pitch strip. The CS-80 isn’t a serious sound-design synth; its a mutant best suited to live playing. You turn the presets into the nearest form of what you like best about them. You really have to engage it like a piano or pipe organ, which requires hands-on skills few people develop these days. Its pretty far from a table bristling with Volcas and Minibrutes. It was a maintenance monster, too. Rumor has it that the repair bills put a few tech’s kids through school. Don’t hold your breath for anything near a physical recreation. It’d cost the GNP of a small country! The real world fix: invest in a good controller and go for a software option. The physical experience isn’t the same, but the sounds are pretty close to ‘true.’ I love the voice of the beast, for sure.
Wow! This might just be the only fully functioning CS-80 in the world. I wonder how this one compares to the one Arturia based their emulation on. I heard the CS-80V is not 100% accurate because they couldn’t find one in perfect working condition and had to make some guesses.
When is Yamaha going to make a replica for todays market? would be good as its the all time classic synth and nearly everyones wish list
Why they showed at NAMM? Hope this is not casual….
Make a volca version.
I wonder what the two extra knobs next to the foot pedal selector switches are for.
It may be what Nate mentioned early in the video regarding a modification.