Back in the day, Yamaha's CS-80 set the bar for lush, expressive analog poly synths, and this pocket-sized tribute captures that spirit in a wildly portable package—perfect for sketching ideas anywhere without lugging gear.
At its heart is a virtual analog engine with one oscillator offering five waveforms: multi-saw for those huge supersaw pads, pulse with PWM, osc sync leads, ring mod clang, and FM for DX-like tones. You've got a punchy 24dB/octave low-pass filter that's self-oscillating and aggressive, paired with a snappy ADSR envelope that blends between filter and amp duties via a dedicated slider. Controls are all hands-on with 13 faders and knobs—no menus—plus Texture and Mod dials that add sub-osc, detune, or pitch effects depending on the mode, a triangle LFO routable to pitch, filter, amp, or osc, and a pitch bend stick. Effects include Delay, VCM Phaser, VCM Chorus/Flanger, or Distortion, each with dedicated Rate and Depth sliders (one at a time, no reverb). It rocks 8-voice polyphony (or mono with portamento), a 37-note velocity-sensitive mini-keybed, built-in speakers, MIDI phrase looper, audio in/out, headphone jack, and runs 5 hours on 6 AA batteries—all in a super-compact 2.4 x 20.9 x 6.9-inch body under 3 pounds.
Players love how it punches way above its size, delivering warm basses, evolving pads, cutting leads, and percussive hits that feel genuinely analog-inspired, with the knob-per-function design making live tweaks a joy. The mini keys draw some gripes for bigger hands, and no patch storage keeps it purely performative, but that's part of its charm for hands-on creators.
