Yamaha CS60 Synthesizer


The Yamaha CS60 is a delightful monster. It has an eight voice polyphony, and about a dozen preset patches. Also, it has two user patches. The first user patch is defined by the 20 or so sliders on the unit's surface above the keyboard. The second user patch is hidden under an inconspicuous flip-up door, which, when opened, reveals a tiny replicate of those 20 sliders.

The unit weighs some 60 pounds.


A Dialogue
With
Top Notch Synthesizer Repair Guru,
Dolphin


[=Sign-on=] Dolphin (aroooooo@ese.UCSC.EDU) entered group
<*Dolphin*> Hi there - you looking at
<*Dolphin*> screen?????????????????????????????????????
[=Beep!=] Dolphin sent you a beep.
<*Dolphin*> I know how much you like beeps. :)
<*Dolphin*> The synth *is* the synth from hell I was talking about... over
<*Dolphin*> *200* pots in the damn thing.
<*Dolphin*> I refer to the yamaha.
<*Dolphin*> anyway, there is one board with no main osc, and one board
<*Dolphin*> with no lfo. many dirty cheap pots. :)
<*Umlaut*> hi hi
<*Dolphin*> See 4 previous msgs.
<*Umlaut*> wow
<*Umlaut*> 200 pots! are a lot of them for the presets?
<*Umlaut*> (the presets I dont much care about.)
<*Umlaut*> how many voices is the thing? 8?
<*Dolphin*> No, they are for maching the control signals to each voice,
<*Dolphin*> osc pitch and track, etc.  Ther is a net guy with info on what
<*Dolphin*> pot does what.. email sent..
<*Dolphin*> 8. yes.
<*Umlaut*> wow. so each of 8 voices has 20 or 25 trim pots?
<*Umlaut*> the mind boggles!
<*Dolphin*> 20 per voice board, 50 or so on other boards.
<*Dolphin*> I have all the voices tracking well, now, so repeated
<*Dolphin*> keypresses won't give random notes.
<*Umlaut*> ah. they were out of tune relative to each other?
<*Dolphin*> Another case of a japanese manufacturer getting their act
<*Dolphin*> together. After this one. :)
<*Dolphin*> yep.
<*Umlaut*> hahaha
<*Umlaut*> there is one model "higher" in the CS series: the CS-80.
<*Umlaut*> This is the CS-60.
<*Dolphin*> Nice unit however. I lik.
<*Dolphin*> like.
<*Dolphin*> I never lik electronics.
<*Umlaut*> thats good, especially when they are running.
<*Dolphin*> That is the floor model, I presume?
<*Umlaut*> I think its a similar design, maybe bigger.
<*Dolphin*> That is to say, console model.
<*Dolphin*> Yep. well. I'll know more soon.
<*Dolphin*> Do you know how to get slip or PPP running under Windoze?
<*Umlaut*> so what makes the thing so danged heavy?
<*Dolphin*> I bet thats not a one line answer. :) perhaps I'll go find a
<*Dolphin*> faq now.
<*Umlaut*> (and yes, its a one line answer: nope!)
<*Dolphin*> It has *18* circuit boards.
<*Dolphin*> Looks like an early transistor computer.
<*Umlaut*> ha ha ha ha ha! Its funny, because unlike the computers, we still
<*Umlaut*> *like* the synthesizers.
<*Dolphin*> And in spite of that, there is only simple envlope control.
<*Dolphin*> whatta nightmare.
<*Umlaut*> ? simple envelope meaning ADSR?
<*Dolphin*> I must admit its a cool synth.. noise in the V*O circuit is
<*Dolphin*> nice for wierd sounds.
<*Dolphin*> If several voices are sounding, additional notes cause V*O
<*Dolphin*> effects to go "universal"
<*Umlaut*> I dont understand...
<*Dolphin*> Lots of envlopes however.
<*Umlaut*> like LFO modulation?
<*Umlaut*> just one lfo?
<*Dolphin*> Hold 4 keys down. press a fifth. all envlopes on all voices
<*Dolphin*> are triggered.
<*Umlaut*> weird, is that a bug?
<*Dolphin*> Or something like that anyway.
<*Dolphin*> They just didn't want 40 circuit boards I assume.
<*Dolphin*> Its not a feature, however. :)
[=Topic=] Dolphin changed the topic to "Stamp out bloat today!"
<*Dolphin*> Untill later...
[=Sign-off=] Dolphin (aroooooo@ese.UCSC.EDU) just signed off.
8/27/95.21:12 - 8/27/95.21:23