Yamaha CS70m - review and deep dive 

You are right, I make it seem like the monos came first and then they evolved into polys, but they all appeared pretty much at the same time. Yamaha was big into organs and they had all the mono and polyphonic technology already developed. Chronologically, the "non-M" (M is for Memory) synths are purely analog without any digital control and they all came out in short succession around 1976-77. The "M" line introduced digital control and memory and those came out at the end of the 70s and the 70M was last in 1981, only to be slayed by the DX7 shortly after its release. Fun fact - Yamaha also produced a motorbike of the same name as a synth, the cs5, which came out in 1972! Im also into bikes so I remembered there was a cs5 in the early 70s, but it wasnt a synth but rather a bike! Appreciate your comment - I will pin it to the top to make sure the time-line is clear.

Thanx man!

Thanks Matt!

Hi Wayne thanks for watching my video. Yeah the name of the channel is Golt! - run a search on RU-vid for “goltsynth”. Here is a link to the video where he describes the inner workings of a Yamaha CS-type VCO with a schematic: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-f0dO7kHlamQ.html It starts around the 15minute mark. Hope that helps! And as per usual a shmeless plug - subscribe & hit the bell! 😀

These CS-series synths are very special sounding indeed, they dont compare to anything modern today. Deckard’s Dream is the closest. Thinking that Yamaha made them based on their organ technology is also quite mind boggling.

as it is the sequencer is pretty much useless to me.

what is the "sensitivity" button for?

Thanks a lot man! No way to mod that - its ancient firmware 😅 replacing the magnetic drive with a USB sounds like an interesting idea but I doubt its possible - its not only about the drive but also about how to output the data in a format that the synth understands…

The sensitivity is for the aftertouch

I started making compatible magnetic strips for the CS70M...inexpensive way of storing your created voices.

Precisely. Write writes patches to memory slots and store stores patches to magnetic strips.

imo its closer to the cs80 than the cs60, overpriced is really a relative term. A lot depends on the condition of the synth, how it was serviced and maintained. The ring modulator is pure magic.

@@ksmusiclounge1648 Yeah, the ring mod is cool but you can get it in a CS40M for 2k if you really need crazy ring mod sounds.

True, the cs40m is a sleeper. Have a vid coming up on her soon! Stay tuned 😜

Had a 15 and didn’t love the sound of it for mono synth duties. Could make huge sub-bass, but other than that it didn’t hit the spot often enough so after 10 years or so i sold it. I think the CS oscillator works much better in a synth with polyphony. Somehow the tone works better as a chord and texture machine than for leads and such. Obviously sounds great as the basis of pads. That said the CS40m sounds great as a mono synth. Very fat. Completely different sound from the 15. I would guess they used a different filter design maybe?

Yeah I addressed that in the pinned comment already