Introduced in 1979 as a more approachable entry into Yamaha's legendary CS series, this duophonic analog synth delivers the fat, organic tones of its bigger siblings like the CS-80, but in a compact package perfect for hands-on tweaking.
Dual analog oscillators per voice offer triangle, sawtooth, square/pulse, and sine waveforms across a wide six-octave range, complete with dedicated AR envelopes, sub-oscillators positioned after the high-pass filter for unique timbres, noise generator, and ring modulation. The standout multimode filter—low-pass, high-pass, or band-pass with resonance—shares the same sought-after circuit as the CS-80 and CS-70M, driven by its own ADSR envelope, while a versatile LFO with multiple waveforms handles five modulation routes for VCOs, VCF, VCA, or the whole signal path. Hands-on control comes via 36 knobs, 12 sliders, over a dozen buttons, pitch/mod wheels, and duophonic/unison modes on its 44-key (3.5 octave) synth-action keyboard, all housed in a sturdy 39-inch wide wooden-paneled chassis weighing 46 pounds. Connectivity shines with CV/gate I/O for each osc, VCF/VCA inputs, sustain/portamento/volume pedal jacks, headphone out, and balanced XLR plus high/low mono outputs—plus 20 editable presets savable via cassette interface.
Players love its big, evolving sounds for ambient textures and leads, praising the durable build, modulation depth, and CV flexibility as a rare, affordable slice of vintage Yamaha magic, though some note the LFO's fixed speed limits complexity.
