The Yamaha CS15 Analogue Synthesizer from 1979 - a forgotten beauty

Published on Feb 21, 2020 Alex Ball

"I've had a dozen requests to cover this synth and I said I'd do it if I was able to get hold of one and I'm glad to say that that happened.

The CS-15 is a two-oscillator analogue monosynth from 1979 that has an awful lot more to it than meets the eye. The signal and control routing is so much more flexible than many other comparable synths from this era that command legendary status and so I'm kind of baffled as to why the CS-15 doesn't seem to be held in the same high regard.

What's so good about it?

Two great sounding oscillators with triangle, sawtooth and pulse and a crazy wide range from clicks to stuff only dogs can hear.

The LFO runs up into the audio range and so the pulse width and oscillator frequency can be modulated at audio rate for cool cross mod and pulse-width distortion FX. This can be done discretely to either oscillator to taste.

The filters - There's two and they're multimode / state variable! Contouring can come from either of the two envelopes and can be positive or negative and you can do audio-rate modulation of the filter because of that LFO mentioned earlier.

The VCAs - There's two (notice a pattern here) and they can have their own envelope contouring and/or be modulated by the LFO (again right into the audio range).

Envelopes - There's (drum roll) two! They're super snappy or long and loose as there's a switch to extend the time period from x1 to x5. They can be triggered by an external signal as well as the keyboard.

Signal Routing - VCO 1, noise or an external signal can run through VCF 1. VCO 1 and VCO 2 can run through VCF 2.

Rear Control - CV and trigger? Yep, there's two of each. You can control the oscillators and envelopes discretely (I don't know of many comparable synths from this era that allow for that that aren't modular).

Anything else? Yes; portamento, glide (positive and negative and discrete for each oscillator), pitch bend and dual or signal filter control in the performance section.

So what's wrong with it?

LFO can't be retriggered with note on or clocked, there's no oscillator sync, the filters sound great but they're 2-pole and don't self-oscillate, there's no global LFO control in the performance section and despite being able to make two entirely different sounds at once, there's only a mono output.

But all in all, it's a very versatile and powerful synth considering its era and the prices have tended to remain less than even the Roland SH-101 which is far more limited. It's certainly much cheaper than an original Pro~One, MS-20 or Odyssey that are held in high regard (I have all of those and love them too btw).

Anyway, I hope this answers the question for those who asked it."

Get Ready… New Elektron Teaser

Published on Feb 21, 2020 Elektron

"…to meet the Machines. 26.02.20"

New Machinedrum? Note the Musikmesse starts on April 1, so this will be announced just in time. SUPERBOOTH is set to start April 23.

BugStudio - Orgone & SynthVoice - 20/02/2020

Published on Feb 21, 2020 BugBrand

"Video recordings are always sporadic, only ever somewhat capturing the spirit of the moment! Here I was trying out the Orgone module from Batchas, played with pitch/gate/velocity from Keystep - the gate also then clocks a DDSR to generate stepped voltages into a Penrose quantizer to tune the SynthVoice (proto x 2). A few x-mod'ing VCOs provide some modulation through the patch.
[sure that description makes total sense!]."

myVolts featured on the Gemini Horror Show

Published on Feb 21, 2020 myVolts

"It is an honour to be featured on the gemini horror show. 🙏🏼🤩🙏🏼 One of those you could play on loop all day. 😎✌️ And the visuals 🥰 I'm not sure if we have ever explained our products so well.

What you got here is the volca dream team. 😋 #ripcordusb 9v+ #usb powering all 3 volcas, using our 1 to 5 volca splitter cable. 🌟 Then you have our passive (unpowered) #mickXer in red, with coloured cables, giving a sweet and portable setup. 🎶⚡🌟⚡🎶 #Repost @gemini.horror
• • • • • •
@myvolts sent me a bunch of goodies to play with, 1 cable powering all the volcas 🤤
#myvolts #korg #korgvolca"

Elektron Digitone 8-Voice Digital Synthesizer

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Roland JP8080 - Classic Virtual Analog Synth, Boxed & in Excellent Condition

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YAMAHA CS15D monophonic synthesizer

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Last Dream of Deckard

Published on Feb 21, 2020 trigg015

"I had this wonderful synth for 10 days and recorded this half an hour before the machine went back to it's owner..

What you are hearing are two layers of Deckard's Dream (one precrecorded, one live) with a slight touch of reverb.

I'm changing some stuff like oscillator tuning and LFO speed in the left corner during the recording which is unfortunately not really visible on camera :)"

THE QUEST FOR THE LATINUM OF NAZCA: Epic 1 hour Elektron Analog Four Mk2 Jam Improvisation

Published on Feb 20, 2020 Gary P Hayes

"Elektron Analog Four mk2 Odyssey. Continuous 1 hour live dawless jam / improvisation on #AnalogFour mk2 from an Initialised State

Composed & Performed © Gary P Hayes Mount Victoria Blue Mountains Australia recorded on #ZoomH6 no other processing"

How To Do Classic Raw Synthpop in 10 Minutes!

Published on Feb 20, 2020 Espen Kraft

"It doesn't take long to set up a rig for doing some raw classic synth-pop. Bass, chords and melody, as well as some drums is all it takes. The key is not over-processing and over-complicating it.

Download the song from Bandcamp here:"