Yamaha CS30L

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"The Yamaha CS30L is as close to a modular synth as you can get. Though she can be coaxed into creating simple leads and basses, this synth is frightening! She makes a beautiful piece of furniture and is responsible for absolutely bizarre/unique noises. I really cannot emphasise that enough: you can record truly disturbing noises from her! The cross-modulation capabilities are able to be stacked, this means that you can have VCO1 as a source for Ring Modulation on VCO2, then VCO2 can be used to frequency modulate VCO1. The ability to produce a feedback loop by plugging a lead from the headphone output into the audio input, results in further mayhem. You can affect the LFO speed (which goes well into audio range) with any of the 3 envelope generators, which is brilliant for producing dropping pitch drum sounds.

Because of the vast palette of sounds on offer, I have found it difficult to be creative with her in a productive way. My experience of being sat down at the CS30L, is to slowly coax ever more awkward noises out of her, entranced. I almost always end up putting the portamento on the maximum time and playing the highest, then lowest keyboard note in slow sequence, listening to the sound develop and evolve in a hypnotic state. This may be helpful to you... I don't appear to be able to walk the line of subtlety and instead end up creating noises of the apocalypse rather than music."