Playing Yamaha CS-80 with elkorus and other chorus units

[gordon2008tk]

Wow... Just... Wow...

[audiotrax2000]

It's weird, the CS80 being THE analog beast, how much it sounds like what you can get out of a DX7. Especially when he leans into the brass sounds and opens up the filter. I have the NI FM7 and it's amazing how similar it is harmonically. Takes almost no CPU and sounds way closer than the Arturia CS. Sorry if this is side tracking the video topic.

[lownrgy]

@audiotrax2000 no.

[audiotrax2000]

@lownrgy: yes ;)

[lownrgy]

ok. i hope you have a point and try to compare these two yamahas with totally new perspective, as a previous owner of "mighty" DX7 IIFD im strongly against for your statement.. but have been wrong many times before (and i know original DX7 is the rad one), i'll open FM7 and check some CS-80 similarity, obviously need to route keyboard with polyphonic aftertouch to FM7, btw any patches to share?

[JohnnyTheWolfLupino]

Even without effects the CS80 still sounds like perfection.

[Andrij09]

Hello, what effector you use for chorus, you turn it on for example in 3:18. Thank you!

[kovalmoog]

@Andrij09 It is a Digitech DSP-256XL, it has a very good price-to-quality rate.

[revdom666]

First of all, the music you are playing is beautiful. Secondly, I never knew I needed a dedicated chorus machine till after seeing this video lol. Thank you.

[kovalmoog]

@revdom666 Hi, I'm Sergio, who are playing the CS on this video. Thanks, they are all just improvised phrases, nothing specific. And I'm glad you are re-discovering the chorus utility. The CS80 built-in chorus has a very unusual behavior. It is not the most standard chorus effect. The digital one (Digitech DSP-256XL) is very soft and standard, and the élkorus is a string-ensemblator chorus :) btw, the élkorus on this video is the revision 1. Right now we are designing the rev 3.

[RogueRotting360]

What's the name of the effect at 2:58 when he presses down on the key?

[Booger6995]

@RogueRotting360 Aftertouch. Not sure where he has it steered though.

[Gtechture]

@RogueRotting360

It sounds like the pressure is opening up the filter (eg. increasing the filter cutoff). This can be done on most synths by assigning pressure to effect filter cutoff.

[RogueRotting360]

@Gtechture Isn't there some oscillator sync too, besides the filter cutoff? That sort of growling noise.

[kovalmoog]

@RogueRotting360 Hehe... no, certainly not. The CS80 has not oscillators hard-sync. But, it is one of the future customizations I have planned for my beast (among others). By the way, this is not my channel (a friend's one) but I'm the guy playing the CS80 :) So, sorry about the late answer. The comments don't arrives to my own mail account.

[kovalmoog]

@RogueRotting360 Yes, it is the aftertouch feature. In this case it is opening the filter and adding a slow vibrato on both oscillators. In the CS80 the aftertouch is polyphonic, that means, each key has its dedicated aftertouch sensor and acts only on that active voice. The rest voices you are playing are not affected, unless you are pressing them as well. The polyphonic aftertouch is not so common on polyphonic synths. They usually has mono or "channel aftertouch".

[RogueRotting360]

@kovalmoog Ah cheers. The slow vibrato on both oscillators must be causing them to go into phase, with one acting as the master and the other as the slave.

I'm asking, because I've always wandered what that neat effect on Roy Budd's theme for Who Dares Wins. I always thought it was hard sync, but I could be wrong.

/watch?v=GfSCMWJOJUo

What does it sound like to you?

[petejt]

how does the Elkorus sound with an electric guitar?

[kovalmoog]

@petejt It could be very curious to test the élkorus with such sound source. I am the élkorus designer. One of our customers sent to me a short demo he did processing an electroacoustic guitar thru the élkorus. If you want I can send it to you. Write me at synthoma(at)synthoma(dot)net. Regards !

[ddelrivero]

beautiful!!

[sephardimm]

The elkorus make it sounds like a stringmachine.

[arkangelio]

Superb! Thanks for uploading man!

[MrFaceHead]

I wish they could put a perfect software version in a repro of the original shell, keys and interface. This is the best synth ever but aren't they notoriously unreliable?

[Gazdatronik]

@MrFaceHead More unreliable if you move them around a lot. Other than that, they are as reliable as any other complex thirty year old electronic device :)

[kovalmoog]

@Gazdatronik There are a very important fact to take account about the reliability of the CS80. All its internal card boards' wires (a "lot" of them) are soldered point-to-point. Edge connectors (or any other connector) were not used for any signal communication. The only connector inside the CS is the power supply output one. Synths like the Jupiter-4 or Korg PS-3100/3200/3300 are "very" unreliable because their connectors failures. Regards !

[kovalmoog]

@MrFaceHead Hi, and sorry for the late answer (1 year). This is not my own YT channel, but certainly that CS80 is mine :) About its reliability, its weakest point is (theorically) its Yamaha's custom chips (IG0015x) because they are impossible to find nowadays. However, historically the Curtis and the SSM's chips have shown to be less reliable than Yamaha's custom ones. Of course, the CS needs a technical maintenance from time to time. It has more than 500 chips in there. Regards!

[totto210]

yeah, is the best synt...

El mejor.

[NewShimmer]

Thanks for posting. You gave me some ideas of things to try with CS80V .

[Microsloth]

Wonderful instrument.

[pcma1970]

Amazing man

[thiagotecnico]

incredible detuned cs-80 warmest sound ever.

[alternativa7080]

Sergio, seria de agradecer una composición con estos instrumentos, eres un artista con mayusculas.

plasmas perfectamente la esencia de la música electrónica de los 70 y 80.

[Solaris1992]

amazing sounds! Only possible with the CS-80. Even without external effects sounds great!!! I love the CS-80. The best poliphonic synthesizer!!!

[mik300z]

Simply amazing, thankyou so much for sharing the sound of the majestic cs80 with us. Yours looks so clean too, unfortunately for most of us we can only ever dream of owning one, you must feel very lucky! The string section you play at 6;09 is beautful, I thought only the vp330 could do that

[kovalmoog]

The strings at 6:09 are the same ones from 4:50 but passing thru the élkorus effect. Then it sounds in a Solina's style. It is one of the élkorus features. Thanks for the comment. (Sergio)

[djmk1988]

WOOOOW! I would sell my liver for this! And it cuts my breath everytime i feel it in any Vangelis song......just divine !

[gavincurtis]

@djmk1988

Your liver usually has higher market value.

1) Do you drink more than 1 or 2 beverages each day?

2) Any family history of hemochromatosis?

[omissis75]

guitar1+clavi2, wonderful sound, even without vangelis

[gummybits]

whats the first melody from?

[moonscore]

A masterfully crafted machine. One of the finest that music has to offer.

[omissis75]

It's such a fantastic instrument, it leaves me breathless each time I listen to it , and it should be regarded as a engineering miracle, not just the front device played by Vangelis...

[gavincurtis]

It is an engineering marvel. The complexity is bewildering compared to any other keyboard (or electronic device for that matter) I have seen so far. The surface area of electronics is incredible.

I doubt they will make another machine like it due to cost.

Will be restoring an ailing CS-80 lost in storage for 25+ years. Will explain restoration step-by-step and calibration from power-supply to preamp (and all the boards in between); in a video series here on youtube very soon.