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Kelly (controlvoltage@hotmail.com)
writes:
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Originally released in 1976, Yamaha's 46kg CS-50 wasn't largely appreciated after the release of its bigger brothers CS's 60 and 80 in '77. Adding to its unpopularity could also have been the introduction to the public of Yamahas own brand of strangeness in its implementation of proprietary terminology and control. After all this and 24 years, the CS-50 would be hard to reproduce for anything nearly as cheap as you'll find one for second-hand, so rather than contemplate its past failings, get your head around some of its rich leads and solid, animated basses. It's also good for experimental sounds with resonant (12db sounding) HP and LP filters. Also adding to the expressive power of this design was a pressure sensitive keyboard, with variable destinations and amounts. Seemingly only one oscillator per voice, only 4-voices and no Unison mode might be a tall hurdle to clear to bring this synth to redemption, but it has guts and in the end thats all that matters to the analog anorak.
Comments About the Sounds:
Warm when called for, or very thin and minute with its filtering engaged, the CS-50 has a distinctive Yamaha sound to it that can be identified when heard. While the presets aren't really very close to sounding as described, they are interesting in their own right and help to make up for the lack of a programmable memory on-board. Not being of a 'standard' design plan, the CS's in general were capable of creating a fairly unique sound space worth the time spent keeping them in tune.
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(Thanks to Kelly for this info.)
and Sabrine Dirksen for the pic
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Released: 1976 | 
