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Very nice monosynth that can sound sweet and wild at the same time. From 1978 but capable of sounds that put many virtual analogs to shame... Good about the CS15: - Trademark analogue stuff is all there: PWM, 2 VCO detune, triangle, square and saw wave, plus noise, -Two whole separate signal paths (2 VCO, 2 VCF and 2 EG). However, you can route VCO 1 to VCF 1 AND VCF 2 (with VCO 2 going through VCF 2 as well), then route each VCF and VCA to any of the two EG's - a recipy for very versatile sounds. EG's can be possitive or inverted. - Very intuitive and clear layout of the board. All the knobs feel solid, construction seems sturdy. Mine has a few scratchy pods but it's (almost) older then me, so I shouldn't be surprised... - Warm and fat sounding: not in the minimoog way but more alike ARP en early Oberheims. Filter is only 12 db but is thick and deep - does not have the shrill sqeak of Korg (MS20, Poly 800) and Roland (JX3P, SH101) - So far, it's quite stable in tune...
Lesser points of the CS15 - Only one LFO, but you can route it to PWM, VCO, VCF en VCA (or any combination of them) - 12 db filters do not have a very steep depth to them: if you want a very fast attack, you might still end up with a click at the beginning of the sound (in itself not an ugly thing, but you just might not want it). - Filter won't self oscillate (so far with me anyway) - people have made mods for this however. - No midi of course. You can trigger through the CV/gate ins but you need double triggers (for each EG). No CV for the filter however, but there's mods for that too. - No crossmodulation or FM capabilities - EG can be routed to VCF and VCA but not to VCO...
Have only had it for a few days but it's definitely a lot of fun to play around with. Has a certain sweetness to its sound (meaning: not extremely agressive). I would say it makes great bass, leads and drum sounds. Is probally less for SFX or anything that requires filter selfoscillation. Of course: monophonic so not much for pads. And no matter what the 1978 manual is trying to tell you: realism is NOT in the CS15 book...
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