Synth Site |  Yamaha |  CS-1X

Matt Dula : Very nice analog sounds and easy programability, coupled with the price you will get it for if you look around make this a truly excellent machine. It does have a few quirks, such as only being able to use only one Performance Voice in a MIDI composition. But you do have access to all the "Material Voices", of which the Performance Voices are composed. These can be layered on channels 5-16, although you will not be able to use all the effects you ordinarily would in a Performance Voice. But what a small price to pay for great sounds, easy use, low price and the cool blue case! The knobs are are an analog synth fan's dream. I am extremely happy with the unit and would buy it all over again for a higher price. How's that for an endorsement? Yamaha should be paying me

Matt Hall (g5matth@cdf.toronto.edu) writes:
You've already got a bunch of really good information from the previous reviewer, but there are a few things that weren't covered that I've found after sequencing with the keyboard over the past while. The most important thing that wasn't mentioned is that all of the component sounds used to make up the performance sounds (the ones you play with in the store) can be accessed on channels 5 to 16. Sure they don't have all those cool effects you can put on the performances, but they do have some pretty sweet sounds and they definately ain't GM style sounds. Of course you can still apply the standard 4 controllers to these sounds (Attack, decay, cutoff, res).

Some other things I've noticed while using it are that its a bit of a pain to find what sounds you like from these component sounds as you've got to tell your sequencer to call up those sounds individually, so this can get tedious. Also, there is a break in the sound from the keyboard if you switch performances on the fly in a sequence. I've found that serious breaks can be avoided by offsetting your change commands from the start of a bar, but if you've got a bunch of pads or sweeps going it sucks to have them all cut for a split second.

Overall though I've been quite pleased, especially for the price.