BTW, it may be rare like Kawai SX240's are rare, but it's not really
RARE
The CS-70M (M is for memory) came out in 80/81 to replace the CS-80.
It has very little to do, in the way of sound generation and user
interface, with the CS-80. It was basically Yamaha's Prophet 5.
Pretty useless- haven't seen one since '82. Right around this time
the GS-1 & GS-2 came out which lead to the CE-20, DX-1 (nice machine!),
the DX-7 and therefore the end of useful synthesizers from Yamaha.
If anyone wants more info just ask.
David
Yamaha CS-30...
The CS-30 ? I have one of them....
However, there are at least four major drawbacks:
Peace.
Janne Lappalainen
Turku, Finland
I have had some marvelous sounds out of the FM, but the oscillators (on my
one anyway) do not track evenly. So, my wonderful sound is out of tune
within a few keys. I plan to have a sampler as my major purchase this
year, so maybe I should have the CS30 sent out to me (it's in New Zealand),
as I can sample the sound. A cheaper alternative would be a Korg MS20.
(I've seen them going really cheap, e.g. 80 pounds, anyone know what these
machines are like? Having a patch-cord machine would be dead sexy). What
about a Roland SH-2? One of the local shops claim they're going to be
getting one soon.
Unfortunately the sound is IMHO a bit thin compared to Minimoogs, Monopolys
etc. One of the VCA's has an additional input for the sine wave from
VCO1, which can fatten the sound, but it still doesn't have "IT" (whatever
"IT" is).
Ross-c
Comments on Yamaha CS-50
Sorry, but you've got the chronology (and technology) wrong:
Around 1975/6 the CS-50,60 & 80 came out. They all share common
electronics.
Around '77/78 the CS-5, 10, 15, 20M & 40M came out. These were all
Mini-Moogish lead synths ranging from the CS-5 (2 octave, 1 note, no
memory) to the CS-40M (2 note, RAM based programable presets).
It looks impressive and weighs a lot.
The underside is made of wood !!!!
It has a weird quasi-user-hostile interface when it comes
to making sense of the signal path and routing, but,
eventually you get used to it.
CS30 Architecture
It is a monosynth with basically two independent VCO->VCF->VCA lines. But
there are lots of opportunities for mixing between the lines. There is a
lot of semi-patching ability using input switches. It has FM (no-envelope),
ring modulation, noise input on one of the filters, and processing of
external sounds from mic etc. The FM is a control on ocs 1, RM is a
control on one of the VCA's. It has a sequencer, which is an 8-stage
variable step-speed analogue, I would classify it more as a second,
programmable-step LFO. It has three envelop generators (ADSR) with a lot
of choice how you modulate what with which envelope generators. You
have five virtual envelope generators, but two of these are inverted
versions of the other ones. You can switch the input of the second
filter to be the high-pass of the first filter, giving complex filtering
abilities.