“This synth really has its own sound. Lots of nice knobs and best of all, not one but two of those funny sounding multimode filters. It’s actually a duophonic / bitimbral synth but you have to connect it to CV (Hz/V like Korg not V/Oct) to get the extra voice. Each of the two VCOs has its own CV/Gate control.
The best things about it are the flexibility of the VCFs and the routings to the filters and envelopes. You can rout VCO 1 to both VCFs and the VCFs to any of the envelopes positive or negative voltage. The VCFs are 12 dB/Oct and are switchable between low, band or high-pass. They are the key to the nice sound of the Yamaha CS family. Other nice features are noise, external-in for processing other sounds, LFO with Sample & Hold for those bubbling sounds and an individual auto-bend for the VCOs.
These have been used by countless bands: Astral Projection, Somatic Responses, Moog Cookbook, The Human League, and Vince Clarke. Rare beasts now and much in demand for those musicians looking to escape the ‘in the box’ experience of DAWs or want real analogue rather than virtual.
This item isn’t a time warp piece and so has lost the fader cap on the pitch control and the EG1 release slider stalk has broken off but I haven’t changed it as you can still operate it fine. This unit looks to have been recapped and is signed inside S. Barbieri.” Click here to visit listing on eBay
