Yamaha CS40M
Category: Products / synthesisers / analog synthesisers
Added: 20-Dec-98 | Author: admin
New price: discontinued | S/H price: ???.. rare to find..
Company Link: Yamaha UK
Company Link: Yamaha manuals
Company Link: Yamaha dsp factory
Yamaha CS40M
Th yamaha CS40... released about '78, it's got 2 oscillators, and can be played as two note poly (duo-phonic), an LFO, a VCF, and a VCA - but in 'Unison' mode you can stack all 4 voices (for a monophonic fatter sound if you like).... So it'll do 2 note poly, with sub osc' in normal mode,Each VCO does sawtooth, square (pulse) & triangle wave & can be switched between 6 octave ranges and also has fine tuning... Then an OSC' mixer section adjusts levels between VCO1 and VCO2 in a regular style - The sub osc' does sine, up-ramp, down-ramp, square, and sample-&-hold and can modulate up into audio frequencies - each VCO has an simple Attack & Release EG.
There are two envelope generators, one for filter & amp which is a shared ADSR (Attack Decay Sustain Release) EG, and the simpler VCO EG as noted above.
The VCF is a multimode filter, and it switches from LoPass, BandPass, and HiPass, with a dedicated control for cutoff and resonance - You get a Pitch & Mod Wheel, and the Mod' Wheel can switched to select either VCO or VCF to modulate. Also the CS40M has separate CV & trigger outs for each voice and CV inputs for portamento, sustain, brilliance, volume and filter. - It also has high, low, and balanced outputs.
Never used this synth, but the CS30 was a big hit with 808 state a while back... dunno if they still use it - The CS's are cool well built robust units generaly, the filters are hard if you like, to my ears harder than korg filters giving them an aggressive edge if needed - comments please people if you use one.
Yamaha's M-Series brochure showing the range
Product Videos
Yamaha CS-40M
My vintage Yamaha CS-40M in action....
Product Manuals or Files
no user manual
Product Resources
Audio demo?
More choices in this product category from other manufacturers:
Category: Products / synthesisers / analog synthesisers
User Comments
Product: Yamaha - CS40M
Name: Petit Volcan
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Hobby-ist
Date: 01-Jan-02
If you need CS40M recording, i've got one ...
Product rating out of 5:  |
Product: Yamaha - CS40M
Name: Ronan O'Callaghan
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity:
Date: 24-Aug-02
This is a great synth, which I used professionally from 1980-82. At the time, the ability to save user patches was a huge advance,previously only available on the very expensive Prophet 5. There is lots of flexibility and some unusual features avaialble and two note polyphony is fantastic compared to monophonic synths.
Trouble is mine has been out of action for about ten years and I have never managed to get a circuit or service manual. Can anyone help?
Product rating out of 5:  |
Product: Yamaha - CS40M
Name: Oooooo
Email: No email added
Activity: Hobby-ist
Date: 03-Apr-04
Okay, I don't have one of these, but I do have a CS30L and a CS15D and I think they're both great!
Seems to me the old Yamaha CS series is really under-rated. I think this is probably because (except for the CS01 mk2), they only had 12db filters that don't self-oscillate, but they still sound good to my ears. I can still get some warm and very powerful sounds out of mine. Plus, even the CS5 and CS10 had multi-mode filters, which was a feature rarely implemented on lower end synths of the time. An excellent bonus in my opinion.
What the filters lack in self-oscillation possibilities is made up for by the excellent LFOs, which, on all the CS synths, go well up into the audio frequencies.
Okay, they're not the fattest synths, but they still have a rich analogue sound and compared to most other hard-wired analogues of the day, their sound creation possibilities were extremely flexible. They were clearly built with weird sound experimentation in mind!
My rating is based on my experience of the CS series in general.
Product rating out of 5:  |
Last added comment
Product: Yamaha - CS40M
Name: Analogue Crazy
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Hobby-ist
Date: 12-Jun-07
This is one of the most wonderful analogue synthesizers in the universe. The CS-40M is a truely powerful instroment with its 4 VCO's and complex modulation routings. The duophononic mode is great and in unison mode the sound is sooo huge. This is one fat monster. Yes the filter is only 12bd but it would not be a proper Yamaha if it was not. Remember, this is one of those awsome multimode filters and there are 2 shine waves bypassing the VCF to beef up the toppy sounds you can get in BPF and HPF modes. There is a very fast LFO which can drive sounds into total distortion. The modulation speed is altered here. There are two VCO's layed out on the pannel with 8 knobs each. The VCO's can be fine tuned and modulated by any of 7 sources. PWM is interesting. It can be controlled by the LFO but it can also be controlled by the envelope. This feature can also be found in the. Roland Juno-60. One thing that makes the CS-40M stand out from the crowd is the little AD envelope for the VCO's. This can sweep a VCO's pitch and control modulation speed. This is the envelope that can control PWM. The Ring Modulator is very CS-80 like and sounds amazing. This is not a cheap ring mod....this is a big expensive sounding one. The two ADSR envelpoes are very punchy. This makes the CS-40M perfect for basses and percusion sounds. There are also some great performance controls to the left of the 44 note keyboard. The pitch and modulation wheels each have a three way switch to direct the voltage. The modulation wheel is very sensetive. You only have to nudge it and the whole synth goes crazy! There is also portamento and glissando, a Brilliance knob, 2 sustain modes and the little unison button here. Last but not least....there are 20 memories! don't get too excited though because once a sound is saved you can not edit it. You have to create all your sounds from scratch in 'Pannel' mode. A few things are not saved into the memory - Unison, VCO tuning, portamemento or glissando, initial level and obviously volume. You can tweak the filter cut off with the Brilliance knob which can be useful.
As you can see i really love my CS-40M. Its an absolute monster.
| Product rating out of 5: |
'Yamaha CS40M'
Looking for the manual? - Check this page above under the heading: 'Product manual or files' - We might have it!
Note: To cut down on spammers, cookies must be enabled to post comments to this page.
Looking for the manual? - Check this page above under the heading: 'Product manual or files' - We might have it!
[back to top]
Total stars: 31 | Total votes: 10
160 other
products from
Yamaha
Thomann deals
