Introduction

Arturia established itself as the pre-eminent analog modeling virtual instrument company with their release of the Moog Modular V. Based on the success of that product, they have seen fit to take on another classic analog synthesizer – Yamaha’s venerated CS-80 – and bring it fully forward into the 21st century. The CS-80 was lauded for its unique sound and (often simultaneously) derided for heft. The original instrument was a mammoth, weighing in excess of 200 pounds and also carried a (largely undeserved) reputation for going out of tune at the drop of a hat. The price of the original kept the masses from being able to enjoy this synth. But none of that kept rock gods and top-flight film composers from waxing rhapsodic about it. In a magazine interview, Vangelis was quoted as saying; “The birth of the CS-80 has given me a great hope over the development of synthesizers, due to its unique capabilities in the realm of musical expression. Tough luck, it is the only synthesizer to have this expressiveness since 1975.” Arturia aims to change all of that and more.

In this review I will take a high-level view and evaluate their success in taking a classic to the masses. As with my other instrument review, I’ll refrain from listing and describing all of the CS-80V’s numerous features, but rather leave that task for the product page at audioMIDI.com. I’ll check into some of its standout features with a few small examples and get into some of the nitty gritty that sets this instrument apart – both from other “modern” virtual synths as well as its hardware-laden forbearers.

First Impressions

I ran through installation and brought up the instrument in standalone mode. To my surprise, the first patch was “hot” enough to immediately overload my sound card’s output and create some nasty distortion. I reset the master volume level and attempted to save the preset in the same location, which it would not allow. I could save the modified patch as my own, but not overwrite the preset. While I found this to be a tad bit annoying, it dawned on me that the biggest improvement over the traditional analog synthesizer might indeed be the simplest. Anyone who has had experience with classic analog synths will appreciate the ability to save changes as a new preset. I zipped through a few more factory patches and tweak them to save as my own, then closed the standalone version and quickly jump into my main sequencer, Cubase SX 2. The CS-80V is even more fun as a VSTi plug-in. I really got a kick out of the ability to capture slider movements through VST automation – more than with any other virtual synthesizer in my collection. The CS-80 had the ability to radically change the sound with the adjustment of a few front panel controls. In fact, Arturia has a video clip of Vangelis doing just that with the original – and the virtual version does not disappoint. Having the capability to take those front panel adjustments and record them (as well as the ability of Cubase SX 2 to tie or disconnect automation to events for copy and paste throughout the piece) opens up the creative possibilities in ways that no one could have imagined in 1975. A person can freely record an experimental session, and find a particularly inspired section and set it up for use, and can repeat it throughout the composition as necessary. This is where the present meets the past, and creating music gets really exciting.

I also spent some quality time with the stereo delay, chorus and tremolo functions, and found the ability to sync the delay to MIDI to be a lot of fun. The chorus and tremolo functions have a unique character that I can only assume is an emulation of the hardware version. They certainly don’t have the feel of other chorus and tremolo functions I’ve used – and perhaps that’s more to the point. This is not “just another integrated effect”. It’s part and parcel to the character of the original CS-80.

The other left hand controls will take a bit more work for me to get a handle on their utility. The porta/gliss function is apparent enough, but the sustain still had me confused for a bit. As it turns out, the “sustain” affects the release portion of the envelopes – again as the original functioned. If you look at a picture of the front panel, you will note the yellow color of that slider and how it matches the color of the “R” slider of the various envelopes. In fact, other sliders on the front panel have color-coding that attempts to clarify what functions may relate or have similar function in various areas of the synth. This may seem confusing at first, but will quickly begin to make sense and will aid the user in understanding where controls are most likely to interact or relate in some fashion.

Performing Under Pressure

One of the principal features of the original CS-80 was the ability to modulate a sound produced in each key of a chord – often referred to as “polyphonic afterpressure” or “polypressure”. Listen to this audio example to get an idea of the sound:

CS-80V polypressure example (96kbps mp3)

This is an exaggerated example, but it illustrates a capability that made this synthesizer unique for its time. Keyboardists raved about the musicality of the CS-80, and key-based touch response was one of the primary reasons. However, polypressure remains a scarce capability. Even today, keyboards that produce this type of control are “as rare as hen’s teeth”. I use an old musty Kurzweil Midiboard that dates back nearly a decade. It has the ability to switch channel and polyphonic afterpressure off and on – and the CS-80V was my first good reason to turn polypressure on. But, even if you don’t have a keyboard with this capability, most professional sequencers will allow you to create this data with relative ease. Check out this screen shot that I grabbed from the Cubase project used to create the example mp3 above. Anything that I create with the Midiboard can be drawn by hand in the Key Editor’s controller lanes. Bear in mind that if you’re keyboard produces channel aftertouch – and your sequencer records it – any polypressure events that are created afterward will be ignored, as the CS-80V gives precedence to channel aftertouch.

Other Features of Note

The CS-80V transcends the original in several important ways – and the Multi panel takes center stage in that department. Actually, this is in essence going back to go forward, as this draws on concepts from the parent of the CS-80, Yamaha’s GX-1. It had two velocity and touch sensitive key manuals as well as a pedal board similar to a Hammond organ. The CS-80V’s modern Multi section allows the user to set up four keyboard zones, each with it’s own MIDI channel (or OMNI mode), key range, voice assignment mode, and a switch to assign a zone to the arpeggiator. The other section of the Multi panel allows the user to assign each of the eight voices to any of the four zones, and select an individual preset sound, transposition, detune, volume and pan, as well as switches for porta/gliss, ring modulator, and FX. As is easy to gather, the possibilities expand geometrically, and the manual goes into detail on programming in this mode, with several tutorials in order to help the uninitiated come to grips with these features.

The arpeggiator is also a new addition to the CS-80V, and it has the capability to generate some astonishingly complex note patterns. There are a variety of controls that allow the CS-80V to completely change character, especially when synchronized to MIDI alongside the stereo delay unit. It’s a breeze to set up a Multi where the individual notes are slightly detuned and panned to different positions, and the delay throws the echoed sounds across the stereo image. And, if you play your cards right and voice the chord in a way that it cycles through the voices in an odd way, then you get the effect of pitches showing up with different detune values and different areas of the stereo field. It’s also relatively easy to set up a pseudo-analog sequence with the arpeggiator. Just set the arpeggiator to “notes” and use the Multi panel to set up the pitch selection, pan, detune, and other parameters. Take a moment to check out these two examples:

CS-80V pseudo-sequence example (96kbps mp3)
CS-80V arpeggiator example (96kbps mp3)

But even with these additions to the classic, Arturia saw fit to include a comprehensive modulation matrix that allows routing and scaling of many voice-level parameters and MIDI controllers to other parts of the sound. This remakes the CS-80V into a much more amenable and malleable instrument – both for the studio and the stage – and again expands the possibilities to vistas that CS-80 owners could only have dreamt about more than 25 years ago.

Wish List

But even something so praiseworthy can leave some room for improvement. First and foremost, I’d love to see the classic pitch ribbon function implemented in the CS-80V. In the original, the pitch could be modulated up one octave, and down to zero hertz. With proper molding of the ring modulator and the finger work on the pitch ribbon, you could get some really amazing results. The current implementation is acceptable, but I’d love to have an option to switch on a “classic” pitch bend mode and get back to some serious “old school” synth work. I’d also like to have individual virtual outputs for each voice, as well as the current stereo outs. This would allow the potential for some really funky surround routing in my sequencer, which would take the arpeggiator, ring modulator, and Multi mode into a new dimension. I’d also like to have the option to overwrite the factory presets, as some of the signals they generate are too hot to handle. My understanding is that the latest update to the CS-80V has made some changes to the presets, so perhaps they have taken care of some of those minor issues.

Summary and Conclusion

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m full on excited about this synth. At first I had my doubts, as the Moog Modular V was the virtual analog centerpiece of my studio. But the CS-80V has made me a true believer in its distinctive voice. Whether for studio or live use, you would be hard pressed to find a more responsive or expressive synthesizer. Of course, this newfound power does not come cheap, as the CS-80V can be very CPU intensive. But I consider its sonic potential to be more than worth it – and I am not alone. When reading up on the accolades collected on the Arturia website, I was struck by a quote from Academy Award and Golden Globe winner Hans Zimmer: “I just sold my Yamaha GX1 because I have a great replacement with Arturia's CS-80V.” That pretty much sums it up. For a well thought-out analog emulation that takes its musical capability several leaps forward, look no further than Arturia’s CS-80V.

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