Yamaha CS1x

this thing is so easy to use and its fun.
very easy to edit the patches .

has many built in effects. reverb, delay, ect. all the basics
no expansion that i know of.
full xg midi capabilities over 500 xg sounds
no sequencer just user and performance banks plus general midi.
you can edit all 128 performance presets
and you can just play the 128 user presets and the 128 general midi sounds

most of the sounds are decent for a synth that was made in 97.
works well for dance and techno.
on-board effects are pretty good not as best as yamaha could provide but still decent.
pretty good velocity and aftertouch

never had to call customer support

if it were lost or stolen i'd defenitly buy a new one
right now i want another
i only own yamaha cs1x and yamaha an1x
the cs2x is much better because it has twice as much presets that you can edit
trent reznor is the king of synth playing!

I use cs1x as a midi keyboard at sometime,it is good! I use cs1x as stand along piano keyboard is enough for me, with all of its Preset and muilt voice!

worse of its key touch(except its price_its is the cheapest one),fewer of it 32 note voice, and fewer of its 4.5M rom.
but if you have a computer with SB-live, it is not mind!

cs1x's voice is not best but afordable!
it's better for Dance and video post-production,very suitable!
it's effect is good also with a mic/line in,but difficult to adjust!
keytouch is not feel good!

I only depend on my CS1x, and I trust it!
I think that its knob is not easy to transport.It seems weak in hard roading!
Also, the blue body is prety on stage, and it is full of artist felling--the cs1x not only a instrucment!

on the www, there are many site about it!

I love my CS1x, I realy do not need other for my use! Either on performance and computer base production! It's full of Yamaha felling,better control than all of other syth!
it is suit for music beginner or fan, not face to an musician can play piano well! What is the type of you?
Important!!! It is the cheapest syth, What you can say any more of the feather?

overall, to use CS1x is not difficult. just tweaking 6 knobs and 2 pedals, you can edit many things. but it's 6-rotary switch-interface is little difficult to use before you familiar with it. but i think it's faster than other synth. manual is little humble. but Blue Book is great! some Performance presets is very good.

it has 6 Knobs! all 6 knobs is assignable for MIDI !! it can connect with 2 foot controllers. i made custom-knob-box and connect to foot-volume and foot controller connector. i get 2-more knobs!
wow! 8-assignable knobs!! wow, it's great!! i can control some soft-synth with these knobs.

i also own a JUNO-60. yea- that's right. JUNO has great warm voice. CS1x never can do that. but CS1x is NOT worser than JUNO. CS1x has his own voice between analog and digital soundscape. very good for experimental/ambient music.
if you find a 303-clone, CS1x is very poor. (hey, it's a CS! not a TB)
but it has 8-assignable real-time controllers. you can use these with Rebirth and emulating 303. Rebirth has fine voice, if you have a good soundcard.

case is weak. oh no... but other things are fine.

i dont' know -.-;;

i'll buy it or upgraded model(CS2x, CS6x, EX5..) again.
i play CS1x about 6 months. i also own JUNO-60, Kuzweil K2000, KORG X5DR.
i love CS1x. pretty blue-case, 6-knobs, SCENE-morphing, good sound...
it cost very cheap! i can't hate anything about CS1x
i compared it with MC303. MC303 has good drum, but... hey do you have a computer with soundcard? there is plenty of drum samples and sample based sequencer. use Fruity Loops or other pattern-based wave-sequencer. it sounds better than MC303!
i wish it has jog-shuttle, after-touch, multi-performance mode.

Samples goes along the gear maker not user.
I used randomize software to make presets,
because I had not overwiev of the vioces.

Much computing features, many controls,
Horrible possibilities
but I wish I had some good sound out of it!
I had not.

Not good - samples are tricky and dirty.

Somtimes some samples were not available

The knob I used was not reliable, but guarantee was firm an fast.

Sorry, I don' like CS1x. I feel like in a too small clothes. I want to go one way, but.. it's impossible. I want to find another... it is hard to find.
It is at most simple sample based with preprocessing of these, before the user can tweak them. So f.ex. it is sinus then internally modulated, but you can't change this modulation. You can add second one of yourself, many times there hindrances from many ways.
People read about so much knobs, controllers, filters, envelopes... but if you have bad basis you can't make a huge improvement.

Obviouslly, the operations are complex, and there need MUCH computing power, and many of them are fairly well implemented ( while oters are not). Yamaha made great computing job. Not musical, but computing. Consider a PC speaker, while it whistles it is great computing job. It is not great music. BTW CS1x whistles nearly in most of the samples. It is good in fast decaying notes, in fast rythm pieces. But i am not a thechno fan.

The complexity MAKES IMPRESSION for the first time synth user 'it's good one, modern, maybe i should buy this'. This impression is what Yamaha made correctly. But it's marketing, not music.

To this - much of the samples, which 4 make 1 performance are made for THE performance, not bothering if it could be used otherwise, possibly programing a beast. So are the samples architecture made. It is made for gear maker not for gear user. It is not fair. As with black Ford model T. It is convenient for manufacturerer. Usage of chaoticly spread voices is nightmare for me. (Scan several hundred to choose one suitable.)

The other marketing harsh and disgusting movement I don't like:
demo samples, which are not available from the face swithes. They are covered from public, but they are mostly much better than normal samples. Is it fair to feed the gear memory with trash?

So the CS1x is - it is NOT an improvement for me. Although I learned a lot what a synth can impress me in a wrong way.

I resign this gear.

It's very easy to use and i like it. This is myt first synth and it's good enough to me.

Only one performance-sound and 12 xg-sounds at once. It's not a good thing.

I don't know about the instruments. I think they're good enough.

So far no problems occured. (i have had it 2 weeks now)

I bought this as a used one, so i don't know about the Yamaha.

It's good enough for me. Ofcourse i'm a beginner but i think it's good one.

Had this Blue Baby, since it was released.
It is cheap, feels cheap and sounds cheap(the presets do).
But if you tweak the presets, you can get some allmost-killer sounds.
It is easy to use, never tried something that is more user-friendly.

The effects are good for the price. Allthougt use it ONLY in the PERFORMANCE MODE. I haven't even switched to the other mode in years.
IN PERFORMANCE MODE,you get ONE FAT sound with GOOD FX, and 12 not so fat sounds with only reverb & chorus.

The sounds are NOT realistic.
Piano sucks, the strings too, and the other "real" GM instruments are even worse. BUT! This sucker gives you good synth sounds!
So if you want some cheap techno gear, this is the cheapest and blue-est.It is sample based, so you can only select the sounds within the machine and change them a bit. It is FAR from Nordlead, ROLAND JP-8000, Korg MS2000, and all the other high end machines, where you can make your sounds from scratch.

No problem here.

The blue book & manual are good.

I LOVE it! It has a special feeling to it. BUT i am very uncertian about using it in my music. It simply sounds a bit too corny if not tweaked enough.

Fairly OK. Performance sounds are quite good but predictable and digital-sounding. Editing is quite easy once you are familiar with the matrix thingy. Manual is fine.

Polyphony is difficult to manage cos its 2 modes (performance and multi) are intertwined in an odd manner. Effects are varied but average. Midi-wise is OK (except for the performance vs multi thing). Enough knobs for some people but not for me. Keys are slightly too light for my liking. Good value for money for these feature though.

Sounds too predictable and boring. should forget about emulating 303 and analog stuff. Makes it sound like a toy. Needs time to synthesise and build up decent sounds. Not very analog-sounding. Filters are thin and do not give the extra squeal with resonance. In fact, for some patches, the filter only work for 50% of its range. Can't expect too much for its low price though. But again, I can get a Novation Basstation for the same price with much more expressiveness and fatter sounds and filters. Like the idea of the scene storage using the modwheel. OK for adding in bits and pieces for dance music but would suggest a higher range synth instead of this for the extra punch and fatness.

So far, no problem. But knobs and wheels have a toy-like fragile feel. Plastic case is cool but I wouldn't drop it from higher than half a metre. Since it's digital, gigging would be fine provided that you handle it with care and don't get violent with it on stage.

Haven't tried yet.

If it were lost, I would not buy it. In fact, I might celebrate over the space I save in my studio and would save up to buy a Nord Rack 3 (coming soon!). Bought the CS1x when I was poorer and could not afford higher end gear. Used to own a Juno 106 which detuned and died. Currently own an MPC 2000XL, a Novation Basstation,a Prophecy and recently a JP8000 to replace the Juno. Am bored with the CS1x though I still like its colour. Sounds wise, I'll give it a miss cos it loses out compared to my other gear.

Yamaha made the right decision to stop its production because it is way down the bottom of the virtual analog synth market now. It has served its purpose when it was first released and became a top-seller(many top bands bought one; e.g. Underworld). For the moment, musicians who are less particular about sounds and want to make mediocre-sounding dance music can get one.

I needed a synth for techno-ish stuff, not that I'm a keyboardplayer, I play guitar and sing gothic music. Thus, I needed something for inspiration. Although, I wanted the KS2000 by Korg my budget didn't allow this to happen. As I bought my CS1x used, the owner before me smoked the manual. However, it's rather straightforward when just fooling around with the sounds. For being a guitarist I kinda consider this synth ok in my book.

I don't know any tech stuff about the CS1x, except its limitations when i comes to using the multilayered sounds with MIDI. What was it, just 2 at a time? Ok, I've seen there's ways to work around this limitation. However, I'm not using it for MIDI.. *shrug*.. The presets is rather dull and 90-ish, but with a little tweaking you can get something useful out it the CS1x. I like it. But only due to the fact that is was sooo cheap!

As mentioned the sound is kindof 90-ish, but if you're into tweaking you can get around it, creating new interresting soundscapes. I'm considering it more useful when playing ambient music than techno, as almost each pattern is familiar... You've kind of heard it before. But then again, for the price it's a knockout! However, the bread and butter sounds are lame. But that's not what I bought it for. It's nice to have them there anyhow. ;)

Yeah sure.. no probs.

No manual yet and I do not think that Yamaha will send me one either. ;(

If it was stolen, I would buy something else. I see the CS1x as somehting very disposable. Its fun, it looks nice and its tweak-friendly. If you get it cheap buy it.

The CS1x is pretty easy to use right off the bat, although getting familiar with it helps a lot. it's definitely a synth that "grows with you", so as you get better at using it, it opens up more and shows more options. I found the program CS1x-Edit, which allows you to interface with the CS1x via midi on a PC (it's on the yamaha UK website), and it opens up a lot of possibilities as well. The editor isn't necessary, but it makes learning the menus on the CS1x's lcd screen easier, since you have more viewing space on a computer (and most people are better with mice than with lcd menus and buttons).
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Editing patches is simply moving the knob to the right line and changing the values; piece o' cake (although it takes a while to understand exactly what the values you're changing do :) ).
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The manual isn't the best, but it gives you info about the synth, beginner info, and has another user guide with the patch banks in lists. The *REAL* useful book is the CS1x BlueBook, also available (for free) from the Yamaha UK website, as it contains every little bit of information you'll ever need to know about the CS1x. It even includes all the basic info about the different effects, different analog modeling and waveforms, and basically everything. It's even worthwhile if you don't own a CS1x =)

There is at least 4 voice polyphony. I'm tempted to say 16, but i don't have that many fingers on one hand, and it's hard to test using just speakers (since it expresses sounds pretty well). Some other reviewers claim that it only has monophony, which is wrong. There is a switch in a menu (and it's labeled right on the CS1x "poly/mono") for switching back and forth between mono and poly. Why would you want to switch? Well you can't use the arpeggiator if you're using poly! =) You can save the mono/poly settings for each patch, so you don't have to switch back and forth (which is nice), and can keep each setting individualized for each patch.
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The CX1x has a ton of effects; I could list them all out, but i'm pretty sure there's info on a Yamaha site somewhere. Plus most of it can be done real-time, which is definitely a plus. It reminds me of a mix between the LCD knob synths and the LED menu synths, mainly because all of the effects can be seen just by looking at the synth, and by turning a selector knob to the appropriate menu-line, and punching a button selects the effect. Easy as pie, but enough variety to keep the keyboard fresh.
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There's plenty of midi action, and I often interface with my keyboard using my PC via midi, since it's kinda fun =). There's velocity, knob stuff, menu stuff, basically everything you can alter on the CS1x can be sent via midi. Of course, you have to have something else that can interpret the same data, but that's not the CS1x's problem ;). There's no aftertouch, but I don't mind (can't miss what you don't have!). There is an onboard sequencer, and I know it's pretty flexible because of the demo songs. There are a lot of instructions on how to use it in the BlueBook and the regular manual, but I've never had the need to, as I do all of my sequencing externally.

Depending on the patch, the CS1x can sound really good. or it can sound really cheesy. Like most analog synths, it really depends on what YOU want out of it. There are a couple fun patches that sound really.. well.. fun! There are also some patches that mix a couple voices together for interesting effects (like I have a patch loaded right now called "children" that has a sustained piano sound followed by delayed strings, and it's very nice). But there are also the typical "cheese analog" sounds too. Low square and sine basses, high squeaky things, it really sort of depends on what you want.
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It's made for electronic music, although the bass sounds could easily be used for any type of music that just needs more bass. I doubt a purist would like using it, or someone who thinks that a guitar is the best instrument, but someone with a little creativity and an open mind can find a lot of uses for it. It's not a keyboard you'd use to look cool; it's a keyboard you'd use to make cool sounds =).
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As I said before, the velocity control is pretty strong, although the keys aren't weighted so it feels like a keyboard (good/bad, depending on opinion). It likes being played, and expresses itself well. Just using the presets makes this synth seem like a fun li'l synth, although it's not a piano.

Well I bought it used, from consignment, and it looks like the person(s) who owned it previously took good care of it. it's hard plastic, which is bouncy (i'd rather have it be plastic and flexible, which saves the insides, than sheet metal that allows the inside to bounce around while keeping the outside nice), and it's blue! I haven't played live, but I would be very comfortable using it live without a replacement or back-up synth. It's never crashed and never gone schizo on me, and it's been on quite frequently for the past 3 months.

I've dealt with Yamaha a little bit, and they've been very quick and friendly, even though the synth is discontinued now. They still supply free (in print even) bluebooks, and know about the CS1x pretty well. Plus I'm a Yamaha fan anyways ;)

If I lost this li'l guy, I'd look to get another one. It's a great price and I'd hate to spend more on a synth that does basically the same things (but looks different.. bleh!). I definitely got a lot more bang for my buck. I've had it for 3 months now, and I'm still in love with it. I also own an electribe-a and use a significant amount of software, but I mainly use the synth directly for its own sounds (recording the synth instead of using it for midi control). I had a choice between this and a roland something, and a yamaha dx7, and i'm very happy I chose the CS1x. It's attractive, it's easy, and it really does a lot. Some people are convinced that there's no good hardware available under 1000 dollars, but there are also people who realize that you can make amazing things on a small budget. I'm one of the latter :) The CS1x is pretty inspirational, although almost too much so; I tend to play around making little songs using different patches than sequencing a whole song, but that's mainly because my computer is slow. The arpeggiator is fun, especially at very high speeds and very low speeds (low speeds makes nice random melodies hehe), and is quite inspirational if used correctly.
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In the right hands, the CS1x is really a great synth, especially for the price. can't be beat for under 500 bucks!

It is quite easy to use, no probs at all. If You download an edotor from the net you get an excellent editing possibilities.

Nice effects, easy to use, excellent patch making possibilities.

Very, very many sounds - can access the material voices as well. All together over 1000 sounds. Great.
You can also download loads of nice sounds from the net.

Never ever had any problems.

It is definitely the best synth for this money, I have it for 6 months now and think it is great. I use it together with some software synthesizers and then it just leaves averything in the smoke.
Could have in-built sampler, but nowadays, if you own a good sound card and a good computer with appropriate software it is not important for a synth, you can do everything on the PC.