Yamaha CS-50

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The CS-50 was released just ahead of its famous big brothers, the CS-60 and CS-80. The CS-50 looks like a scaled-down version of the monstrous CS-80, and it is! This will benefit those who crave the famous classic Yamaha synth sound without the struggle of lugging around the 215 pound CS-80! The CS-50 weighs in at about 100 pounds. The CS-50 is also just 4-voice polyphonic, and lacks the quality weighted 61-note keyboard of the CS-80. The CS-50 has just a 49-note standard keyboard. It does feature pressure (aftertouch) sensitivity route-able to several destinations, however.

The CS-50's sound is unmistakably related to other classic CS-series synthesizers. At just four voices with one osc. per voice and lacking warm filters (at just 12dB/oct) the CS-50's sound can be thin. There are 13 preset sounds of various instruments and synth sounds but, unfortunately, no on-board memory storage for your edited presets. At its low street price, the CS-50 makes a great way to get your hands on these classic sounds without going broke! It's too bad their tuning is just as unstable as the other CS-series synths. It's housed in a built-in travel-case like the other (big) CS-synths. It's been used by Men Without Hats and Herbie Hancock.

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Demos & Media

Yamaha CS50
by
SyntheticMachines
Yamaha CS50 demo (HQ)
by
Thomas Faurby
ManualDownload the original owner's manual from SoundProgramming.net.

Specifications

Polyphony - 4 voices, monotimbral
Oscillators - Four (1 VCO per voice)
LFO - One
Filter - 12 dB/oct lowpass and highpass filtering
Effects - None
Keyboard - 49 keys (pressure sensitive, route to various destinations)
Memory - 13 preset, 1on panel
Control - None
Date Produced - 1977

Resources