MATRIXSYNTH: Unlocking Yamaha E70 organ into Yamaha CS80 synthesizer


Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Unlocking Yamaha E70 organ into Yamaha CS80 synthesizer


YouTube Uploaded by allvek597 on Sep 5, 2011
Re-Published on Feb 12, 2016

Update via e man in the comments: "There is no CS style VCO, it's just the VCF's and VCA's - the VCO's in the electronic design are what's used to clock the waveform data from the basic waveforms in ROM. It's like the Korg DW series, only analog on the VCF/VCA side. It has very little pitch control other than minimal glide (semitone range) and same for the vibrato (if even)... the source oscillators are purely phase locked digital constructs."

And: "There is no analog VCO in this entire synth, certainly nothing resembling the CS80 or any other CS synth - zip, nada, zilch - anyone telling you otherwise is trying to sell you swamp water. This is a giant polyphonic that has much more in common with the Korg DW series (also having crude basic waveform in rom), but very much lacking in it's ability to do any pitch control - what little there is, is a an digital approximation of minimal range. The only place you could add modulation circuitry to any great effect is the VCF and VCA section of the Orchestra Voices - pitch modulation is either limited global vibrato or equally minimal vibrato on the upper manual via wiggling the keyboard that drives a photovoltaic shutter combo, again going to a digital interface having little effect - even the glide is minimal and digital. You will never get anything properly analog out of the the Wavetable oscillator end as it's a giant digital construct with loads of sample and holds to distribute the wavetable rom voltages that approximate the basic synth waveforms (ramp, pulse, square). It's basically 3 waveform samples in ROM with very little control over pitch other than basic notes (the speed that the sample is read out from the ROM)."


The following is the original post starting with the video description:

"Mystery is resolved. Chopped and completely electronically modified analog Yamaha E70 organ into Yamaha CS80 synthesizer. What You see now is 2 fully programmable polyphonic synths 2 OSC's per voice + fully programmable 2 OCS's per voice monophonic synth in a body of Yamaha E70. Same P.A.S.S sound technology, same analog filters and same sound, same offspring of legendary Yamaha GX1.
Any questions, please visit www.alvek.us"


via this auction

"Here's one more organ from my collection: Yamaha E70 . What You see in the pictures is completely modified Yamaha E70 in body and electronically. Organ after chop work went 327lbs down to 130-140lbs(Yamaha CS80 is 242lbs) and under the hood all electronic carts are located pretty close to like inside of CS80. It's been a while people talking about E70 which has same P.A.S.S technology like CS80 and electronic carts, all wiring are practically the same like CS80. Yes, E70 has absolutely the same analog filters like CS80, same sound synthes and it does sound like CS80. This particular E70 has beed modified from organ into 2 and half fully programmable CS80. All presets still have same functions except FUNNYII preset green buttons. Those 3 green buttons(1 for upper, 1 for lower keyboard, 1 for pedal board or extra keyboard) function now differently. When You push FUNNY II E70 starts to work as most powerful and expensive programmable synth-Yamaha CS80. On left top of organ You see control box. The box has 3 sections: 1st for upper keyboard, 2nd for lower keyboard, 3rd for footpedal/or extra keyboard you can hook up. You can see all signs under the switches(3 waves forms sawtooth and 2 square waveshapes) and pots, they have same function like on CS80. So after all this E70 has 2 polyphonic 7 voices 2 OCSs per voice CS80 synths and one monophonic 2 OCS per note synth (pedal or extra keyboard which can be connected to E70 is monophonic, it's perfect for bass lines and pretty good even for leads as far as You will move 2 OCS slider from 16' up to 4'). Oscilators can be detunes between each other and between keyboard. Does E70 sound like CS80?. Yes, it does. Main different between E70 and CS80: no velocity and aftertouch on E70. Big flaw. On another hand You have 2 and half CS80 under the hood. You can build sound on upper keyboard and MIX IT with sound you built on lower keyboard. Also you can add organ/orchestral section(they all can be saved in memory-see small control panel on a botton of organ to left-very much the same look like on CS80) from upper keyboard AND organ/orchestral section from lower keyboard. Same thing can be done between lower polyphonic and monophonic keyboard/pedals: monosynth also can be played on first 2 octave of lower keyboard. Now You realize CS80 is kind of kind of behind! PLUS very powerful arpeggiator! and even cheesy drum machine and 100 lbs less. From control box You can see 3 cables coming inside of E70, each cable has 25 pins . The connector 9 pins in a middle of a back of E70 serves expression pedal. 3 inputs 1/4 on back are not hooked up. Could be 1/4main output(original main output on a bottom of organ)or sustain pedals-it's easy to hook up. Same about 6 inputs on control panel-they are not hooked up. It's your choice how to use them. I didn't connected any inputs for 1/4 jack, coz basically all extra functions are on control panel of organ. I don't play on stage, so I can turn on sustain effect simply by hand. The organ is absolutely stable in tune and doen't have overheat problems like CS80 Anyway, if you are still skeptical about what You read here, please check some INFO on line about unlocking Yamaha E70 and Yamaha CS80 both children of Yamaha GX1. And don't forget how much money you will save not buying CS80. Please check, read and watch all links below and You will see it's not a dream anymore. You can get 2 and half CS80 more than 4 times cheaper... compare to ebay price for last month. "

Update: new video and description in this post.











8 comments:

  1. Beautiful work. If you can make it velocity response and polyat, I am interested :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. A lot of the 'charm' of real vco synths is their ability to respond contiguously to everything that is done. The E series are digital sound generation from wave memory cards. Unless there are IG00153 vco's in place of that stuff then this is to a cs80 what a Kawai K3 is to a polysix basically. There's a reason the K3 sells for 100 or so and the polysix sells for 900 or whatever. All analog. Everything contiguous. The ability to portamento naturally between notes on the cs series. The slight drifting of oscillators creating a LIVING sound. The variation in EG lengths in the natural envelopes I might add. A living machine all the way around. Sure it's more maintenance but certain people who want precisely those things pay the price for it.

    To say something with digital tone generation is like a CS80 is missing a huge percentage of why people pay the bucks for a cs80.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the later e series are digital the e-70 is an analog design based off the gx-1 prototype. same as the cs-80 basically. the main differences between the e-70 and the cs-80 are the details of how you play it and the extras tacked on. the cs-80 has poly aftertouch and the ribbon strip as well as sliders/knobs per function that are realtime and more diverse modulation routings and sources. the e-70 adds the analog drum machine, pedals, and has a less complex analog synth engine, no aftertouch, no ribbon, and only a few sliders that respond in realtime. if you look at the vco design it's the same. that goes for the vca portion as well. the filter is low pass and single on the e-70 and the cs-80 is low or high and there's 2 filters per voice.

      the e-70 gets less because vangelis didn't use one and it weighs 200 pounds more and is less complex in synth architechture. it's basically 2 cs-40m synths and an analog drum machine and cs-01 with a log cabin attached.

      Delete
    2. There is no analog VCO in this entire synth, certainly nothing resembling the CS80 or any other CS synth - zip, nada, zilch - anyone telling you otherwise is trying to sell you swamp water. This is a giant polyphonic that has much more in common with the Korg DW series (also having crude basic waveform in rom), but very much lacking in it's ability to do any pitch control - what little there is, is a an digital approximation of minimal range. The only place you could add modulation circuitry to any great effect is the VCF and VCA section of the Orchestra Voices - pitch modulation is either limited global vibrato or equally minimal vibrato on the upper manual via wiggling the keyboard that drives a photovoltaic shutter combo, again going to a digital interface having little effect - even the glide is minimal and digital. You will never get anything properly analog out of the the Wavetable oscillator end as it's a giant digital construct with loads of sample and holds to distribute the wavetable rom voltages that approximate the basic synth waveforms (ramp, pulse, square). It's basically 3 waveform samples in ROM with very little control over pitch other than basic notes (the speed that the sample is read out from the ROM).

      Delete
  3. " if you look at the vco design it's the same. that goes for the vca portion as well. the filter is low pass and single on the e-70 and the cs-80 is low or high and there's 2 filters per voice. "

    You have no idea where you talking about, all rubbish.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is no CS style VCO, it's just the VCF's and VCA's - the VCO's in the electronic design are what's used to clock the waveform data from the basic waveforms in ROM. It's like the Korg DW series, only analog on the VCF/VCA side. It has very little pitch control other than minimal glide (semitone range) and same for the vibrato (if even)... the source oscillators are purely phase locked digital constructs.

      Delete
  4. Hello! Beautiful work! I have an E70 and it has issues with the key contacts. What can I use to clean them? Best Regards!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello! Beautiful work! I have an E70 too, and I’m having issues with the keys contacts. How can I clean them? Cheers!

    ReplyDelete

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