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Average rating:
3.9 out of 5
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Brilliant, bloody brilliant!
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Cute keyboard. Does wonders for the aesthetics of my studio. Sounds good, too, specially the pads, lead synths and the electric pianos (in performance). In contrast, the basses, guitars and drums suck !! The tr-808/909 samples are lame. And the arpeggiator is nowhere near as versatile as the MC-303's. The GM/XG mode is OK for SMF playback. The rimshot is way too soft, although the volume can be adjusted via NRPNs. The guitars are a joke. Good controller keyboard features. The pitchbend and mod wheels are fat, there's an upraised lip for an SU10 or a QY22/70. The LCD display is too dim !!! In all, I think this is one of the best budget keyboards around, better than the XP10 and the X5. It doesn't sound as solid as the QS6, but for dance / techno, this blue puppy rules !!
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I've had my CS1x for 6 months, and I love it. I like dance music - trance, techno and trip-hop mostly, and that's why I bought it. If you're a synth snob, don't bother - it's not the Nord lead. But at an average price of US$600, it kicks. Sounds: lots of good performance sounds, and somewhat less good material voices (for multi-timbral setup). Nice acid sounds. Some good basses, but only in the performance mode. Drums are not bad - out of all my gear my favorite kick is a tweaked version of patch user/128. Material voice drums are not bad at all. Some very interesting spacey pads, but some weak ones too. Not interested in XG sounds. Using the knobs, you have lots of realtime sound control - in fact it's a very editable synth for a preset-based model. Filters are fairly good and the built-in FX are not bad at all. LFO tweaks sound cool, but unfortunately not syncable to... MIDI: OK. You really need a sequencer to get the most out of this. You can get 4 performance voices going, or 1 performance and up to 12 material voices (the basic samples for the performances). I usually play a lead sound on the performance voice, 5 or 6 drum tracks, a pad or two, and two slightly detuned acid voices playing the same riff, and some bass sounds (check the sub - very useful). Multitimbrality and timing response is good, even with all channels going and each one receiving a controller message most of the time. Bad stuff: channels sometimes go silent for no apparent reason, forcing you to change patches or reset. Usually this happens when I am operating too many MIDI controllers at once on one channel (3+) or tweaking really wildly :-( the manual is accurate and complete, but very unhelpful - get the Blue Book from the Yamaha website. On the whole I think it's a good dance box, great for a beginner (me last year) and surprisingly versatile. The arpeggiator is neat, but not well implemented in MIDI, so I don't use it too much. It's fairly rugged, but the knobs can get a little worn - the filter knob feels a bit the worse for wear, but what a lot of wear it's had The keyboard itself is very nice for a "spring" type. My friend has a Nord Lead and loves it to death, but she still thinks a *lot* of the CS1x. I haven't persuaded her to swap though :-0 If you're in the market for your first synth and like dance music, you should seriously consider this - great bang for the buck. I'm just about to collect my new Roland 505 ( B-D ) but I expect that I will still use the CS1x a lot. Maybe a bit more in fact, since I won't be asking to swallow as much MIDI as I do now - I can go back to concentrating on the fun features :-) Alternatives: the 505 for almost double the price (but what a dancefloor monster), or an EMU Orbit for about $800 if you don't need a physical keyboard/knobs.
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I really like this keyboard. Sure, it isn't true alalogue, but for the price, it comes REALLY close. I use this synth alongside an MC 303, and nothings better for the buck.
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Good sounds... BUT:
For self made sounds you need in a the midi channels
1, 2, 3 and 4 in a external sepuencer. All other midi channels con only be used
for GM sounds!
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