How bad does a CS80 sound without effects? 

If the Jupiter 8 and Oberheims are the gas giants of synths, the CS-80 is the Sun.

Even without FX, that single brass sound is phat

Excellent demonstration of how much effects impact the sound of a synthesizer. I think that a lot of people, perhaps especially younger folks, aren't aware of how much effects matter, and that most modern synths have effects built in, and that's the whole reason why they sound more impressive than a lot of the old stuff. Hook up a vintage synth, most of which were mono, and just play them dry, and they sound very lackluster. But then you throw on some external effects, and suddenly they open up and sound incredible, with a depth that would make many modern high end workstations blush. Even something very basic, like my Roland D-10, which could be mistaken for a toy when played dry, can sound like an absolute monster when running through a chorus and reverb.

Some holy grail synths in this setup! Amazing!

Oh FML that plucky sound around 6.32 with those FX just makes me twitch..... such a lush sound..#goosebumps

I'm certainly not going to argue with a gentleman who has a CS80, OB8, Jupiter 8, minimoog and an electric grand.

Amazing to see the channel grow... The Jupiter-8 is just so soft and sweet. It's wrong to choose a favourite, but that just warms me up. This CS80 is beautiful, thanks for keeping all of these working and more than that, playing them for us!!!

I have that same old Ultimate Support keyboard stand from the 80s lol 🤷🏻‍♂️😎 cool video 👍

Holy CS ness 😮. Beautiful, subbed

You my man are a real Synth Connoisseur!

Amazing ! Thanks for making, and sharing this video. 😎👍🏻❤

Very nice and interesting. And congratulations on your three beautiful babies btw!

Holy Vangelis! Those EFX plug ins are amazing! I need them soooo badly! :D And finally subscribed :)

You can definitely hear Vangelis and some of Blade Runner in his playing..👍🏻

A real CS-80 is the dream for me. I am currently running a Black Corporation Deckards Dream with the Chase Bliss CXM1978 as my Hardware option for this until one day when I get one. Great video.

Thanks for this! Answered my question perfectly ❤

Smashed a 1000 subs. Thanks for listening and doing this. Really good and as other say could listen for much longer. With and without effects was a good idea. It sounds epic!

You have wonderful gear and you sure know how to make it shine! I could listen for hours...more, please!

Thanks, it's great to hear with/without effects (and individual rows sometimes rather than both rows blended) to sus the true character of a CS-80!

Fantastic video,subbed!

Oberheim and Roland are great. The CS-80 plays in another league. It's more musical, more everything, basically.

What a collection of instruments!!! Personally, I am terrified by these super expensive vintage classics. One broken 40 year old capacitor, one puff of smoke - and suddenly an investment worthy of a small car is gone.

Some great synths there the Jupiter the OBX plus the CS80 would be nice to hear your recordings. Thanx again TAO from Sweden

I discovered this channel 10 minutes ago. Great! Some vintage synth has internal disalignment that makes them "rich" because of intrinsic modulation. Some others don't. Another perfect example is Elka Synthex, maybe my favourite ever. Since Synthex has DCOs, two oscillators of it don't drift. And don't modulate. Prophets, Obies and Jupiters are less sharp. So if you want to give some richness to some simple sounds to a Synthex or a CS80, you need some effect. Luckily every machine has its own personality! I am salivating seeing all of Jose machines in such good conditions!

That collection is as good as it gets on this planet. Excellent demo sir.

Thank you very much for making this video and the great explanation this explains a lot 👍

Some very nice gear there indeed and nice playing.....Just one thing, there's no mention of how expressive the CS80 is in terms of the weighted keyboard, the ribbon controller and that incredible ring modulator. However, I don't know why, but the CS80 just becomes another instrument when you add reverb! Good on you having such a magnificent collection of the behemoths from a bygone age! Kind regards, Mike

very honest & open minded review & demo, thank you

Another excellent video my friend!

Love hearing the real gear. It sounds sublime and lives up to its legend. What Im getting from this is its the inherent grit, almost slight harshness of the CS80 that cuts through when combined with effects like no other synth of its time. My fascination with the CS80 is now even more peaked. I have the Cherry Audio GX80 and it will be the closest I will ever come to it. Would be awesome to get your take in a comparison between the real deal and the plug sometime.

Dedicated on-board effects as part of a patch are awesome. It's like going from black and white television to color.

That Jupiter. Every time I hear a great Roland I just can't believe what they've let themselves become. The CS80 sounds great of course. Any effect can think itself very lucky to be allowed to work with such fine ingredients. And the Oberheim sound is just magic

Great video Jose. Thank you as well for demoing the Lexicon FX. It's a wonderful piece of software.

You have excellent taste for synths. We share many machines it seems The OB8 probably takes the crown as far as I’m concerned. It’s a majestic sound and quite a sophisticated synth too

This really brings me back to Keith Emerson in his prime

That’s beautiful! 😊🎶🎉🔥

Love the pictures on the wall :)

that's more than a studio... A museum...

I always hear a Shamisen type quality in CS80 sounds - i know how well regarded the CS80 is and how it has such a unique sound but, personally, i prefer the JP8 sound - warmer and more traditional synth sound to my ears.

That"s some magic sound right there.

Good thought to take this comparison. CS80 guitar preset just says play me.

Thanks for this video! I never played the real CS80, but I was never impressed with CS80 sound as sound, like with OB-X or OB-8, Jupiter 8, even Juno and other classic synths, that had iconic sounds. I was impressed with CS80 articulation possibilities and I always thought CS80 is mostly popular thanks to the Vangelis, because he mastered how to play it with all articulation possibilities that CS80 offers and colored it with plenty of effects. The rest of the well known artists that were using CS80, didn’t do many iconic sounds with CS80 (OK there are some iconic sounds with CS80, but not so many) and you demonstrated why.

My Casio sk1 sounded like a $40,000 synth with shimmer on it.

Sounds incredible, ❤😮

Thanks love your video

My Almighty Casio VZ-1 has no built in effects. But it is superb when external effects are used with it! Bought mine new in 1989! Still love it in 2023.

Anybody else disappointed that this is not just ten minutes of playing the CS-80 dry?

Sure, but the charm of the CS-80 was in the key velocity and (especially) the polyphonic aftertouch and how those control voltages could be applied across the parameters, which was unique.

Sounds awesome

Sorry, it sounds AMAZING even with no effects at all. BTW the boards you're comparing it with (Oberheim OB-8 and Super Jupiter) are the Ferrari and Lamborghini of synthesizers respectively 😂😂

Synths/Workstations/Samplers have had EFX built-in to them since the mid-late 90s.

3:38 - typical euro trance leads. CS80's "instant Armin van Buuren mode" activated.

The CS80 makes ME think of Toto and the ‘Thriller’ album, in addition to the great Vangelis. It sounds so damn good with your Lexicon 224 plugin!

For a us mortals there’s the Arturia products to experience the CS80, Oberheim and Jupiter 8! At least my budget stretched to a mint Fantom G8 and an FA07 which I midi together to get 256 note effective polyphony and some Roland authenticity!!

Should try an Alesis Microverb or Peavey Deltafex! 😅

If Behringer ever finish their clone I'll not be buying it. Not because I have a problem with Behringer but because if it's any good I would just end up channelling Vangelis! Same with the DD.

And a day later - you are 1.16k subs :-) So you gained more than a 100 in one day ... keep on creating the great content.

I remember trying a Yamaha DX-7 without effects, and noting it really didn’t sound anything like it did with bands like A-ha. But as you say, that was par for the course in those days. Tony Banks of Genesis was known for putting his keyboards through effects, practically from the start.

I think I might have watched my favourite RU-vid video ever just now!

Effects are definitely more effective (no pun intended) on thinner digital synths out there. I like to hard pan my DX7 with a nice, long reverb, and it sounds huge. A bit of chorus also can give a more reserved improvement.

That Oberheim sound is definitely sexy

Great idea for a video.

What we need is a VA, digital or analogue synth, where you can set each voice in a Poly patch differently. (I.e. like separate Monophonic voices in Combi/Multitimbral mode.) As you play, voice allocation re-allocates voices and constantly shifts allocation order. You can do this with devices like Sequentix Cirklon in PolySpread mode, or other less expensive devices.

The CS80 just sounds so organic and responsive, that is what the others can’t really do. Yes the Strings presets aren’t great, but most of the others (plus the panel sounds obviously) are in a different league. The effects are needed for that full Vangelis sound, but there is more to the CS80 than just that, although I think for most people, that would be enough!

came for the cs80 stayed for the cs80

I tend to think the less impressive a synth sounds raw then the better it will work in a musical context, even without FX.

Hi from another Jose who loves synths! 🤩

When I started playing, I had no effects, other than tremolo in an amp. Not even reverb. The very nature of how analog synthesizers create sounds was enough. Things you needed to add effects to a guitar signal to do - distortion, modulation, sustain - were just inherent aspects of a synth: a saw wave or square wave are distorted sine waves; vibrato, tremolo, PMW, oscillator detuning are modulations; release envelope is analogous to what people are trying to accomplish with reverb/delay pedals with guitar, and attack envelope requires a volume pedal or swell effect to do on guitar. To me the synth has always been an effects machine, capable of creating completely unnatural, unique sounds. Other than maybe a little delay, no one back in the 70 really “needed” to add a ton of effects to make their synths “useable”. That idea that good synth sounds are supposed to be huge, washy, ambient, cinematic soundscapes became more of a thing in the 80s and 90s. I don’t think most people would suggest that Stevie Wonder’s 70s synth tones were “bad” or unusable because of their relative dryness. That’s my two cents anyway.

What a magical room full of the greatest synths ever and a man play them well ✌️

My Waldorf M has no built in effects - and it still sounds fabulous. The core sound is simply fantastic - and then when you do add effects, well WOW!.

What a funny idea for a video!

Even though a half naked dude in tights is somewhat distracting, this video is very inspiring.

The CS-80 has guts that the Oberheim and Roland cant replicate. They are static. In a mix the CS-80 sound cuts right through a mix. It has guts. If you want something that can make a hit that resonates on radio or other ways of listening, it shines through. The aftertouch obviously is a big part of the CS-80 and is like an articulated effect and is so intuitive as you play it. It suggests ideas and directions a composition can go and offers up possibilities to the ear. All three are great, maybe just apples and oranges. I have approach my two 80's completely different than all other synths and it shows in the results. There is just something about its punchy squealy sound that is just sits right. I wish everyone could spend some time on an actual one. You develop a playing style specific to it. Thank you for putting out a video.

Prince wrote a song about the CS-80 - Nothing Compares to You. 🙂

Your room looks like heaven to me 😊

A good synth is nothing without its effect. It gives so much extra character to the sound, like a protagonist that needs his world to live in. btw, if you made samples packs, I'd 100% want them

Honestly, all watching this video did for me was boost my GAS for an OB-X8, and now, the Lexicon reverb plugin. But definitely, hearing just a note or just a chord on your Oberheim just makes me want to grab me an OB-X8!!!! Also, hearing the Jupiter 8 just boosts my GAS for a GrooveSynthesis 3rd Wave (the VA engine is CRAZY!!) and/or a System-8, but moreso a 3rd Wave. On the other hand, I could get the Roland Jupiter synth model for my Fantom-06 if I really want a Jupiter-specific tone on a budget I'm glad you didn't play a Minimoog because I've played one and I'm trying to kill my GAS for it and tell myself "I DON'T NEED" one, which is true. I don't need one, and I'm gonna leave it at that. The CS80 never moved me because even if I did crave it's sound, I wouldn't want to pay today's used market price for one even if I could actually afford it, which I can't. However, that Lexicon plugin sure sounds good on it! That reverb tail is INSANE!!!!

Any tips on the Jupiter patch you play? I've been messing in Arturia Jup-8V trying to match it and can't nail it. It's so simple but I'm missing something!

the Rush song was The Camera Eye

Hi, thank you so much for sharing your noodlings with the Mighty Eighty. I have to comment, though, that if we only use the presets in it to determine its abilities, then it is indeed a quite disappointing, buzzy, whiney synth. I personally HATE most of the presets in mine. The challenge the 80 presents is the fact that its filter is, effectively, somewhat of a bandpass one, and both HPF and LPF are affected equally by any voltage used to modulate them, but the cutoff in each can be individually adjusted, like the Korg 700s.. That is why I use almost exclusively the programable presets in the cute little box at the upper left or the main panel, and by doing so it’s easier to tame the HPF. With PWM and slight detuning you add chorus and motion to the sound as well. I have then put it side by side with the Matrix 12 and JP-8, and it can definitely hold its own. Otherwise I would have already dumped it on Reverb and bought me two Schmidts! You can definitely get lush pads from it w/o drowning them in reverb or chorus. I only use a splash of reverb. Chorus can be overkill. Mine is currently getting repairs, but as soon as I can get I will record a few samples. The brass can be HUGE. Finally, the CS-80 was not made to sound like the others with which we are comparing them. Its filter is 2-pole, BPish as mentioned above, and with high Q it sounds very vocal and gets a massive low end. I can make it sound pretty close to my Prophets and OBs, but I can’t do viceversa. I think it would be perfect if the amount of CV could be individually titrated for both HPF and LPF, like in the MS-20. Now that would be quite the mod project, wouldn’t it?

I recently landed a yamaha dx7iid, wasn't sure if i was going to like it but once some reverb was added, it's amazing. I'm even learning to program it!

Hello Jose. Thank you for the videos on cs-80. I would like to recreate brass 1 and brass 2 patches of CS-80 on Arturia emulation and it would be great to see how the patches are set on the original CS-80. Any chance you could publish these settings?

Brass1+Brass2 is the present used for Toto's Africa!

I feel what makes the cs80 stand out is it doesnt sound like a proper synthesizer.. its something between an acoustic instrument and an organ sound which sounds super rough off the cuff but that roughness turns into some really unique thick and natural and raw quality with fx

@2:30 i was so struck by how the Jupiter 8 sounds right after hearing the CS-80...such a different presence with its own harmonic richness that on its own i prefer to the CS-80...even though the CS-80 has such an unequalled power apart from maybe the Oberheim

Well, many Junos and Jupiters have their own chorus, which became so legendary that it was released as a standalone pedal, soooo... yeah, I dare say they sound better out of the box.

I use Arturias V Collection 9.2 and love Arturias OB-Xa it's so much fun plus my favourite preset is Jump by VH of course, lol I took your advice and bought the UAD Lexicon 224 plugging and it sounds fantastic and well worth the $89. Cheers...

one thing I realized is being able to play two patches on a bitimbral synth or on two synths kinda makes CS80 unnecessary. the main unique aspect of the CS80 are the amps per oscillator routing - other than the poly at.

The Jupiter was the best raw sounding IMO and I'm not really a Jupiter 8 enthusiast

A big portion of the CS80's sound comes from it's polyphonic after touch. Neither the Oberheim nor Roland has that.

Thank you, Jose. This is just great! Is there any chance to compare any of your vintage keys to its software simulations?

Agreed. CS80 has no peer (year of creation) equivalent. Eddie Jobson chose the '80 because of its MASSIVE sound. Joe Zawinul chose the OB's because of their MASSIVE sound. Which one was better? Both instruments were inconvient, tempermental, heavy behemoths. Each musicians (in this example, right?) had a sound, a timber in mind and choice the instrument that was right for them. Some want a tele, some want an LP. I am a CS / DX7 fan, but I love those OBies as well!😂

Great video as always thanks! Could you please share the UADLexicon preset or settings? Want to try it out 😎 thanks again!

синтезатор монстр 👍🏻

Do you still have the CS-80? Could you share some short, one-note raw audio samples of each of its presets for harmonic analysis purposes?

do all cs80's have that buzz in the high end? still sounds great

Man man man wat is dit gaaf. Hoop dat ik ooit nog een cs 80 in het echt mag mee maken. Schijnbaar had mn maat Barry van Dirk Witter er heel lang een in de oude zaak in Amsterdam staan. Kwam ik pas later achter :(

That Jupiter 8 sounds amazing … I hear Michael Jackson Thriller Human Nature Tones

It's actually way more than needed. Unless you are playing Eddy Jobson's Alaska. Even a Minimoog needs some delay or reverb on leads. You are absolutely correct, synths did not come with effects back in the day. Listen to what a long reverb does to the eery dual portamento lead by an Arp Odyssey in Chick Corea's and Return to Forever's Medieval Overture. But, unless you are soloing by yourself, 20 to 30 second reverb feedback isn't going to work in an ensemble. Too many, as Rick Wakeman calls it, "annoying twangy things in bands." These instruments need to be heard.

For all haters: as I have previously opined, the CS-80 is badly misrepresented by its crappy presets. When properly tweaked, it sounds HUGE. No other poly that I have owned has its low end. I have owned 3 Jupiter 8s, and could never gel with them. Sold them promptly. I did this x 3 because I thought there was something wrong with the previous one, but soon I really understood the definition of insanity. I prefer the JX-10 by a mile. The Matrix 12 sounds huge in dual mode, granted. That’s 4 VCO’s per voice, mind you. Same for my Prophet T8 and my Chroma. I know I’m sitting on a huge gold mine, but have no desire to part with it. You know what it sounds like? Like a CS-80. Period. It’s a wonderful experience to play it: the majestic look. The smell of it. The key action. The response of the keyboard. Oh, and it has both tremolo and chorus built in; low-fi effects that make the character even more interesting and enticing. I don’t think it costs $80k, though. I bought my first one in 2006 at $3500, and my second (mint) one at $20k, but would never pay the stupid, exorbitant prices currently asked.