Yamaha CS-5

I had only worked with an analog one time before buying this thing. I figured it out in about two hours. There isn't too much to it, you just have to fool around a bit.

I was extremely happy to have a analog of my own, but I was kind of displeased with the fact that it is monophonic. The foundation sound is kind of Nintendo-ish.

Fooling around with the cutoff freq and eg depth prooved to be most fun. I'd like to use it in a build for some house or trance. However, I do believe tooling with the LFO and LFO speed could provide some more Drum and Bass sounds. Of course this item would be fun for any electronic music.

I thought that it might be a bit banged up because i found it in a flea market, but I found a set of head phones there and it seemed to be in perfect working order... a bit dusty, but after I clean it up(and got high on Pledge) ever thing was fine.

Never dealt with them.

This is a great instrument for a beginner in the analog world. I'm also sure it's fun for veterans too. Everything is pretty plan and simple. This analog has proven to be a great buy for the price. I think I'd probably be willing to pay more, I'm just glad I got a deal.

Just loads of knobs and a very simple and easy to use layout. (VCO to MIXER to VCF to VCA) all clear and legible and a doddle to use. It makes on the fly sound creation very enjoyable.

Monophonic. It's analogue so no, no effects as we know today!! There is no onboard sequencer. There is a pitch bend slider. No wheel. So when you implement pitch bend you have to put the slider back to 0 (or the middle) again for the sound to go back to its original pitch! Primitive but different!! The keyboard, well mine anyway, is 100% meant for 1000 mile an hour synth solos. Extremely light but with a very positive sprung feedback (if that makes any sense!). Pulse wave modulation and LFO knobs help distort and fatten the single oscillator sound. External signals can be filtered as well.

Portamento is superb! Absolutely rock solid. Because it is single oscillator the sound can generally sound weedy compared to Moogs etc. BUT, with the level of digital signal processing today you can get it to produce lovely organic basses and whistling square tooth solos. In fact the square tooth doesn't need any processing really! I see no reason why the CS-5 can't be used in dance or techno music. It is able to create most of the standard mixed modulation sounds that we are used to hearing with analogue it just doesn't have the depth of sound on it's own, but as I said, put it through a signal processor and you really don't need a moog.....really!! Now for #50 (in 1989) that can't be bad! If you listen to many digital sound generators today, you'll notice that 80% of the sounds produced are relatively thin and weedy when the signal processing is turned off. Need I say more?

100% dependable. 11 years I've had mine and it's like a solid rock!! No problems moving it or changes in temperature. It's a real workhorse!

Never needed customer support so I cannot comment

Music is ultimately a personal thing. For synth lovers the CS-5 offers instant sound expression. Realtime, raw, analogue control which when harnessed correctly can produce some fantastic results! A basic sequencer would have been nice but there is the CS-10 for that. You pay your money..........If you want to create an instant bass or lead sound yourself then the CS-5 delivers satisfaction. You can get the synthy sound you want or close approximation in a real short space of time without messing around with multi-LFO oscillators and 3 million filter permutations. Combine this with what today's audio technology has to offer and you can have lovely analogue sounds in your mix at a lovely price, not a ridiculous used Moog price!! It's not too big and not too heavy and for the price you can get one today for around #100, don't pay anymore!

knobs knobs knobs...

for a mono synth, it is exactly what it is.
with a little play you can get many aesome sounds.

great expressions.
It is very cool mono synth with its own personality sound.
It is not a moog...so what ?
I've got a mini and it is a different sound machine than this one.
However, You can get this one for around 250-350 these days.

like anything else from Yamaha
this synth was built like a tank.

Yamaha always were the best in support.
I never had a problem with my CS-5.

If you find one in good condition - grab it
they sound great and you can use a midi to CV etc.

Very easy to use as all controls are analogue knobs. No presets or memories are available and I don't have a manual.

Single oscillator (square or sawtooth + noise), monophonic.
No MIDI but GateCV and Trigger in/out.
Sine/sawtooth/sample+hold modulation applicable to cutoff, pitch and/or amplitude. Modulation speeds upto around 40cps which can give an interesting ersatz ring modulation effect.
This synth does feature an external source input which can be routed through the filter (which has high/band/lowpass capabilities). The relative amplitude of the input signal can also be used to trigger the envelope. With a little experimentation this can be used for gating effects, eq-ing the input signal as well as more dramatic filtering and modulating effects.

No onboard effects, velocity or aftertouch.
For realistic instrument sounds or fat techno sounds don't bother. If however you want to broaden your musical horizons a bit I'd strongly recommend the CS-5. The filter when applied to the internal oscillator does have a sweetly weedy sound which appeals in an unassuming way. A noise source is also available for mixing with the oscillator output. Very smooth portamento which always ends up where you want it (unlike korg's analogues).
Output not at all noisy.

Considering age etc very reliable.

Not applicable.

This synth is worth at least twice what I paid for it, I've used it constantly for years for filtering drum machines, treating samples, generally messing up other sounds. With a bit of imagination and experimentation the capabilities of this instrument are enormous. I wouldn't be without it.
Useful note for buying secondhand: If a knob on the top right of the control panel marked "initial level" is turned full-on the synth will not stop making a noise. Try doing this to make it appear broken and get a reduced price. Don't try this on someone who is familiar with the instrument though:).

No patch memories, just some knobs, which makes programming fast and easy.

CS-5 is an analog monophonic synth with only one oscillator. There is a multimode-filter, one envelope, an LFO and a VCA. The modulation routings are limited. Is has a three-octave keyboard and no MIDI, but CV-connectors.

The sound is a typical one oscillator analog sound, but not so good as in Moogs. The sound is thin and doesn't seem to have a character at all. However, as the filter has also a band-pass and a high-pass modes with a resonance, this expands otherwise limited possibilities.

No problems so far.

There is nothing special in this synth. It makes some nice effects, but I wouldn't pay much more than 150USD for it. One oscillator Moogs and Arps are much better sounding, so look for them unless you want special effects the multi-mode filter provides.