Less is more: Creating a song using only the Yamaha Reface CS 

Mono: MonoLogue, Poly: MC-101 Great vid btw, love these one synth tracks, nice track too!

JDXi so quick to put down ideas and tweak with its inbuilt poly sequencer.

I agree I use to make all my music on the korg M1 still use it love the sounds I just included some soundtrack software Great video

That would be my Access Virus TI

All of them

Hmm, this kind of makes want to try to make a drum kit out of bread :D

I have the reface dx and i love it. been thinking of picking up one of these to complement it

@@gizka6816 Definitely worth it if you can put up with having no presets. Just been listening to a bit of your ambient stuff. I like it. Will have a proper listen in a bit. We like that sort of thing here in Sheffield.

@@paulreynolds3582 glad you enjoyed!

Agreed if this had been full sized like a Juno 106 with patch memories. It would be considered a modern classic by now. Because the sound of this thing is OUT OF THIS WORLD.

@Brian Kelley I don't remember, I think like 300? I remember looking at one point and there were literally none in stock anywhere, except for one on reverb for which the seller was asking like 600. my advice would be to hold out until more come on the market

But that's just it. The REFACE CS is not considered.even a serious synth by too many. It garnered alot of dismissal.and hate upon its arrival in 2015. They cried it did not have reverb. It did not have full sized keys. It did not have presets. It did not have user memory. It wasn't touch sensitive. It had no onboard sequencer. And this and that. And that and this. All the time ignoring the most IMPORTANT things. 1--WHAT DID IT SOUND LIKE? 2--HOW VERSATILE WAS IT? And on those two counts it's second to none. And thats why it's still being talked about and continues to be used by new people 7 years later. When many of its contemporaries. Which had all the things I afore-mentioned. Have fallen by the wayside. Because they do not have that SOUND. That wow factor when you hear them. They cannot go from a thumping kick drum to a huge vangelesque pad. In a handful of slider movements. See at the end of the day. The SOUND is all that really matters.

Thanks :)

My pleasure 😊 And hope you can make the dream come truev!

Thanks ! ☺️

My pleasure :)

brooooooo, you shouldn't have said anything! lol

I don't know why people get hung up on this. If someone dislikes a video it doesn't mean the video is bad, just that for w/e reason it was not unanimously loved. And that's just life, 100 percent of the world is not going to like the same thing. Also it doesn't hurt the video if it gets some dislikes, all interaction is positive on youtube in terms of promotion. Granted, it is hard to find a reason to not like this video but don't let it bother you if someone doesn't.

"Don't need all the gear, just the know how" : perfect explanation of how making anything

One thing to dislike is the misleading title. He's not using JUST a reface CS, he's also using a DAW on a laptop.

Laptop 800eur DAW 300-500eur its not just a synth

It's the GREATEST. I cannot wait to show the world what I've pulled out if this AMAZING board. He is just scratching the surface here believe me. In 2023 I will raise the profile and must have factor of this little marvel. Like nobody has ever done.

Haha nice 😁 It is a great little synth, I hope you're all enjoying it !

They did years ago this CS is based on the same programming as the AN1X

@@jonathandent3445 The AN1X cannot sound as good as the REFACE CS. I owned one. And it always has that digital sound that you knew wasn't a real analogue. The REFACE CS has juicy filters that come as close to a CS10, Juno 106 or MOOG as is possible. Plus the AN1X doesn't have more hands on sliders than the REFACE CS. And it was over laden with useless presets and confusing menus. No the REFACE CS is a masterpiece. Yamaha kept it basic and simple to.keep the price DOWN. And gave it the most IMPORTANT attributes any great synth require. GREAT SOUND AND VERSATILITY. I would rather take two minutes to write down the settings for an amazing sound. That will be used over and over. Than press a save button for a so so sound that WONT. Understand that fast.

My pleasure :)

Lol I can totally hear it now in that bassline indeed 😅

@@Estuera Jonas.Many people would thank you for new classic trance tutorials.Will you make some soon?

I know Yamaha is reading along here (they are sharing this video on their site) so maybe we should start campaigning for a full size Reface CS. As already has been said by Marc in this comments section: - Double the LFO, Osc, filter and envelope section - Add an arpeggiator and/or sequencer - Make the keyboard full size and add velocity and aftertouch (and maybe a ribbon controller while we're at it) (If they could make it analog I'd also not complain...)

Thanks 😊

I can certainly recommend the CS. Its a very musical synth and it should go quite well together with the MicroBrute, expanding your sound palette.

I have a minibrute 2s and want a 1010music sampler, thinking of the bitbox micro, nice to hear of success with a similar setup before i commit

Thank you !

Taking a step back and focusing on just one instrument really unlocks one's creativity.

@@Estuera Absolutely! I recently finished a project in which I "only" used a Yamaha CS70M and a SK50D (sorry if that makes anyone drool) and overdubbed these in 2 single go runs. So basically 2 guys with 2 such sets could have done it all live. Hell, I didn't even listen to the first session when I recorded the second one. Still it sounds quite a bit like real music after some finetuning. :-) The results can be downloaded here: brassee.com/electronicmusic.html#tesseract

Hahah :D 'Only' a CS70M Going to check out your link ! :) A part of me really wants to buy a CS50, I've spotted it here and there and its the only member of the big CS monsters that still seems to be a little bit affordable. Who knows, maybe I'll do that if this channel ever hits 100K members to celebrate

@@Estuera Don't underestimate the CS70M. It is probably cheaper to get then a CS50 (still) anyway. For most people it would actually be the better choice then an early CS poly. It's much more stable and dependable and has all the features that became common after the Prophet 5. I might be sounding like a snob but what can most people do with poly AT and a ribbon (although I find them indispensible myself)? OK, you have to work a bit harder on a CS70M to make it sound sweet but as soon as you understand the programmable LFO with ring mod etc. you'll love it! :-)

It seems that the CS50 and CS70M are going for about the same rates. For some reason I was thinking the 70 would be a lot more expensive. It's a very interesting synth to say the least although I think _if_ I would every get one I would still go for the CS50 as it more or less half a CS80. But I wouldn't mind having them both :D (I just heard my wallet cry in the distance)

Enjoy !

Hope you'll have a lot of fun with it :)

Getting older is inevitable but you're never to old for music. Imo the most important thing is to enjoy the process of creating music and consistently keep on creating and especially finishing new things. Allow yourself to create 'bad' or 'mediocre' music. It's all a part of the process of getting better.

Agreed. Such a versatile synth that is basically one big sweet spot ! There is actually a way to save patches (if you are using it in combination with a daw). I made a video to show how I do this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8M5eKqy0850.html

Dank je ☺️

Want to hook it up again? It should always be the flagship in your setup. It's the greatest analogue based synth of ALLTIME. If people don't realize that yet. Many will by the time I get through in 2023

@@fender1000100 I mean, it's nice, but it's not analog (it's VA), and I do kinda like my Virus TI2 KB, Novation Supernova 2 KB, Yamaha AN1x, Virus Polar TI2, Roland V-Synth KB, Nord Lead 2X KB, Yamaha CS6x w/PLG-150AN, Korg MS-2000, Korg Radias, Waldorf Blofeld, JP-8000, SH-32, Virus Snow, Gaia, Korg Triton w/EXB-MOSS, Novation KS5, AN200, Virus Rack, Nova DT, X-Station 61, Alesis Fusion, and Waldorf Q just a little bit better (and those are just the VA / analog modeling synths). But yes. It's a really nice little VA synth. Though, the lack of onboard patch storage, the non - MIDI based phrase recorder, the filter / amp ADSR structure, and the battery choice (AA batteries shouldn't be used for this kind of power demand...they burn out too quickly) are all negatives. Still, the rest of the features and sound make up for a lot of that.

@@mc2engineeringprof Glad you got that off your chest and now the world knows...

@@mikethompson3305 I'm pretty sure you're about the only one who knows to be honest.

Thanks and welcome :)

In the end its indeed all about what you are doing , not what you're using to do it. (And the retrologue 2 is a very nice synth, been using it quite a lot myself :) )

@@Estuera I was "lucky" enough to really mess up installing the presets so every sound is totally from scratch. But I've done this kind of before with a jv1080 also. Amazing synth and incredibly versatile once you get into the operating system. You're right, it's about one's own creativity. The synth is just a tool at the end of the day. Great video. Cheers.

Not sure what exactly you are looking for but do not underestimate this synth. If you need any pointers or want to know if something can be done with this device feel free to ask.

Oh yes, make it full size . I'd say double the osc, filter and envelope section. Add a ring modulator. And polyphonic aftertouch 🤩

@@Estuera bouble osc even not necessary its fat anyway. But an arp would be my biggeat wish

Thanks :) The filter does self oscillate btw and it perfectly tracks the keyboard ;)

​@@Estuera My mistake. You're correct it does self oscillate. It could be the 18db character or that it's virtual but to my ears it sounds best just before that self oscillation threshold. The CS is an awesome synth, but the self oscillation is probably the only sound design feature I stay away from. I'll stick to my other analog polys for that, along with mono/unison sounds. This does mono sounds, but they don't stack voices like other unison analog synths. Neither issue I would classify as a fault. It is virtual after all, and considering the size of the control panel, they jammed an incredible amount of flexibility in sound design. It's far deeper than at first glance and whoever designed the interface did an incredible job. Been too long since I took it out of it's case. I'll have to break it out this evening.

The way it is done in this video is that I recorded the parts (usually 8 bars or less) in midi. Bounced those to audio in Cubase and used those recordings as building blocks for the track. In the Casio SA-1 video I made I did it the way you described because that 'synth' doesn't have any MIDI or sequencer on board. I played every part live and recorded and layered the tracks in the DAW (the traditional multitrack method)

It might be a good idea to setup a soundcloud with the tracks I created for this channel.