Exploring the Yamaha CS-80
Description
The Yamaha CS-80 is one of the most iconic and revered synths of all time. It was one of the first polyphonic synthesizers on the market, and it boasted an incredible sound, expressive controls and an early example of patch memory. Despite its now legendary status, it was released in 1976 to a pretty lukewarm reception, regarded by some as being too heavy and expensive, and the patch bay system was seen as clumsy. The Sequential Prophet-5 was released soon after, and being much lighter and sleeker, it soon overshadowed the CS-80. Despite the Prophet-5’s greater popularity, the CS-80 was arguably a more expressive performance synth than the Pro-5; it had a velocity sensitive semi-weighted keyboard that had aftertouch, and a ribbon controller, which is still a rarity on modern synths. It was a favourite of Greek composer Vangelis, whose use of it in his score for the 1981 movie Blade Runner cemented its status as a classic synthesizer. It was used on 80s pop hits by artists such as Michael Jackson, Toto and Paul McCartney, and now its rarity and legendary status make it popular amongst modern artists such as Phoenix, Empire of the Sun, Aphex Twin and Squarepusher.
The CS Family
The CS-80 has its roots in an earlier synth, called the Yamaha GX-1, the grandfather of all analog polysynths. In 1973, monophonic synths were popular, however, artists were keen to play chords, and synth designers were keen to be the first to provide artists with a polyphonic synthesizer. Yamaha utilised new voice allocation technology to develop the GX-1 in 1973, and it boasted two 8 voice keyboards with two oscillators per voice, a monophonic single-oscillator keyboard, and a triple-oscillator monophonic pedal section for playing basslines with your feet. This added up to an incredible 18 note polyphony!
The GX-1 also boasted a rhythm machine, a ribbon controller, came on a pedestal, and cost $60,000 (about $320,000 adjusted for inflation). The GX-1 was released in 1975, and less than 100 were made. Because of its eye-watering price, only the biggest artists of the day could afford to use it, such as Keith Emerson of ELP, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, and Stevie Wonder, who called it “The Dream Machine“, and used it on Songs in the Key of Life. Some songs you can hear the GX-1 in are:
Led Zeppelin - Carouselambra
Yamaha GX-1
The GX-1 was succeeded by the CS synths, which utilised the technology of the GX-1 in more portable, affordable keyboards - at least by the era’s standards.
The CS-80 was released in 1976, and retains many of the GX-1 features, with just a single keyboard.
The CS-60 is a popular, lighter variant, featuring a full keyboard but just a single synth channel, as opposed to the CS-80's two independent voices. It was released in 1977.
The CS-50 is a scaled-down version of its big brothers. It has a smaller 49-note keyboard, only 4-note polyphony, and no ribbon controller.
The CS Family
The Yamaha CS-20M, CS-40M and CS-70M also shared the CS title, but feature very different interfaces. The CS-20M is monophonic, the 40M is duophonic (two notes), and the 70M is a powerful synth with 6 voices supported by 2 oscillators each. Also notable are the Yamaha SY-1 and SY-2, single-voice synthesizers derived from the GX-1 technology. They have the same colour scheme and sounds as the CS-80, only in a monophonic format. These pre-date the CS-80, with the SY-1 dropping in 1974, and the SY-2 in 1975.
Yamaha SY-1
There aren't many CS-80 software emulations; one is Arturia CS-80 V, which faithfully recreates the CS-80s interface and sound. Phoenix use the Arturia soft synth live, and Hans Zimmer claims he sold his GX-1 because he found the Arturia CS-80 softsynth to be an ample replacement. The CS-80 V plugin can also be heard in Tycho's Ascension, and Frank Ocean's Pyramids, where it provides the arpeggios in the bridge. A cheaper software option is Memorymoon ME80, and Windows users can use the free plugin 80-vox. Deckard’s Dream by Black Corporation is modern synth heavily inspired by the Yamaha CS-80. Although it doesn’t use any of the same parts, the Deckard’s Dream has the same architecture and features the same level of expression as the CS-80.
Deckards Dream, by Black Corporation
CSArchitecture
The CS-80 has quite an intimidating interface, which prioritises depth and expressiveness over user-friendliness. Unique features to the CS-80 are its dual channels and its performance controls located just over the keyboard for quick on-the-fly adjustments to both channels while performing. The basic architecture of the CS-80 is the standard Oscillator-Filter-Amplifier layout, however, the synth offers two independently programmable layers, with full controls for each layer, thus the entire synth architecture is doubled! These layers are called Voice I and Voice II. Furthermore, the filter section offers two filters for each voice, one low-pass and one high-pass, that can be used together for a bandpass effect.
CSVoices
At the centre of the interface are 28 colourful buttons that select preset patches, twenty-two tones for each section are presets, eleven for each oscillator. These preset tones are quite hit-or-miss but can make great starting points; Vangelis used the section I 'Flute' and section II 'Bass' presets a lot. There are four buttons labelled memory which load the patch memory settings, and two panel buttons, which revert the parameters to the manual settings. The patch memory settings are actually programmed by four sets of micro panel controls, found hidden under a panel at the top left of the synth. These are like mini sized panel controls, with mini sliders, which the memory preset buttons loaded. This is a somewhat crude method of patch storage, especially compared to the Prophet-5’s memory storage system.
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