In our look at the second synth in the range from Yamaha, we take a look at the Reface CS an 8 voice virtual analog with the AN1x engine at its core, but it does it have a certain something?
This is about as close as you can get to the perfect synth - had one for 6 years and still love it! It's so tactile, fast and sounds great! It's just fun! Sure there are so many more powerful synths and better sounding ones but this is just so immediate and exciting!
I have a (clone) 2600, and VA wise a Micromonster 2 (excellent!!) and an Alesis Micron (incredibly incredibly powerful, triple osc, dual filters per voice each can be set to one of 17 types, etc) So I'm well covered sonically in hardware alone... but I really want a Reface CS for my kids to play with. Not to belittle it in any way, but I was playing one in a shop recently and as Nick shows in this video it is very immediately capable of awesome sounds and the fact you can't preset surf is a huge educational benefit. I cannot think of any other synth that is a perfect first synth, self contained like this. Batteries, speakers, play in mono/porta or poly, sweep the filter, make sounds. It's absolutely perfect. I'd definitely use it a lot myself :)
Years later this is still my first-stop synth because it is so fast to find great sounds and inspirational. Excellent choices by the designers in the multifunction controls. I use MIDI-OX for storing patches on my laptop but generally I start from scratch.
Great review as always Nick. Being a musician yourself, you brilliantly capture the essence of the synth that goes well beyond merely looking at the "specs".
I've had this synth for well over a year. Tinkered with it for hours on end. I haven't even scratched the surface, when it comes to sounds and sweet spots. I mostly use the supersaw, but then there's a universe of sounds in the rest of the osc-types. Best synth I've ever owned. It just has that certain 80s, lofi, analogue-esque sound. Bought it after watching this review, and never looked back. The Reface DX is quite lovely as well. Really taught me the ins and outs of fm-synthesis.
Thank you for the comment. I have the DX as well, a great FM synth! Now looking to add the CS to overlay sounds over my Roland Gaia SH01. The Gaia gets a little harsh (aliasing?) in the higher pitches, thinking this CS sounds a little smoother...what do you think??? Want to use expression pedal volumes on both the Gaia and CS to get a morphing of sounds too.
Great review, as usual. This synth sounds great and makes it really interesting that you can't save presets. I'm about to dig into the user manual to find out more info about it. Thanks for sharing Nick.
So for anyone looking at this now, I've owned one since they came out. Here is a quick review with the benefit of having used it gigging and so on for some time. Keys: personally I find them a non issue. They feel quite nice and after a little time there is really no problem at least for me. Synth: I love it! I'm actually amazed at how much it can do and it is extremely intuitive. I've been playing analog synths since the 70s and I actually got this because I didn't want to take my old Korg Mono/Poly on stage. I tend to play it monophonically more than polyphonically, but it is great either way and has a nice fat sound. MIDI: I have also used it extensively as a MIDI controller with a Korg Kross giving me a very very light and portable 2 key rig. It responds well and when playing a touch sensitive sound/module is a very responsive keyboard. Admittedly I used it for a lot of Hammond sounds which are not touch sensitive, but also Sax and strings and things that are touch sensitive and it was excellent. I don't love the MIDI connection. It works fine, but I worry about it eventually failing and I've had a lot of trouble finding if I can get a back-up. Also a bit of a pain because I use an ultimate support apex stand...the old model, and sit an ipad behind the CS for storing CS patches, and sheet music, and between the MIDI connector and the USB there's a lot of stuff to get in the way of the ipad. Patch Storage: yes it is a bit of a pain it is on an ios device, but since many of us use ipads anyway, it is pretty minor. The app works great though! Would I buy it again?: Yes I would. I honestly like the keyboard action better than the minilogue. It is definitely not as deep a synth, but depending on what you are doing musically that may not matter. It is so intuitive that it invites improvisation involving the control panel, and that was a big selling point for me.
Nice little board. I imagine having your ipod or camara avail to take a snapshot of the setting once you discover a great sound is another workaround. It could also be said that in the synth world, sometimes the journey between the the eve and destination of a great sound is better than the moment that you push the save button and that's what it's all about. Creating new sounds and having fun during the entire process. Great review SonicState...
Great, honest review as always - many thanks! These REALLY are not for me but its hard not to smile and be interested when Nick gets such wonderful sounds from a bit of gear, says he finds a review difficult as he is playing so much and that sounds just fall out of it! Perhaps in the 2nd hand market I may take a look...
"The trick with this is not to think it can make bass or lead sounds.....It's stuff in between", er it's an 8 note poly. It plays chords, does he? What other 8 note poly VA or Anoluges are there in the 300quid bracket. The Juno 06a has be shunned by many for not having 6 voices. Terrible review, check out Bobeats revisit for more of an insight.
@@dwaynecarroll6098 Each voice has its own amp and filter envelope. Great little synth tbh, can get excellent bread and butter sounds but also super weird tones too. Ideal if you don't want a big flagship poly sitting around
I have a DX and a CS. When I saw the CS I was like 'what's the bloody point?', then I played with one. I have quite a few synths, not a lot, but a few, and the CS is easily one of my favourites (the other being the Moog Mother 32). With both of these, there's just something about it, the sounds it makes, the way you interact with it. I think the CS is a really fantastic piece of kit. I have played a lot with the Arturia CS80 V and I'm convinced that the Reface CS has a bit of the soul in there. I am tempted to buy another and connect them so I can mix two synths like the CS80 :) I had some Roland Boutiques but I sold them, they seemed like toys to me. The Reface series are VERY WELL BUILT. And they keybed is the nicest microkeys I've played (I have a Korg Arp and a KeyStep, though I do like the keystep for it's utility, the reface keyboards are nicer). Anyway. Don't overlook this little guy. It makes nice noises and is really fun to play. I hate to say it but I enjoy it more than my Nord Lead 4.
I like it as well, but the one major gripe I have with it, is the major stepping on the pitch bend. I was hoping to play the Blade Runner main titles theme on it, but that long droptone Vangelis does, simply sounds crap on the Reface CS.
If you'd have to choose between a DX and a CS, which one would you prefer? I'm planning on getting one of them but I kinda don't want to get both (at least not initially).
@@theIpatix I have them both and I would say the CS, it is VERY versatile and it has a very nice filter. The DX is a cold digital thing which relies on Mathematical adjustments and is tedious but much more complex...so just keep checking videos.
@@omermesci5090 not toys but if my synths got lost I wouldn't bother replacing my JP-08. I don't mind the fiddly sliders but sonically it's not very inspiring to program.
I had a CS 50, in the late 80’s fabulous synth. Impossible to tour with, so used it for recording. This reface really captures the vibe of the old CS series, I love it.
It's like taking the ideology of analog synths, where good production doesn't start with a preset but with plain synthesis and then putting that into digital domain thus adding the option of using librarian software to store sounds. Simple and productive if anyone asks me.
I have one. Using the soundmondo site you can store presets. I've made about 60 -70 usable and difference sounds from it. Then they have variations within themselves, so it's not too bad. Easy synth get to know and learn from.
Really nice board and built quite well. Easy to use and record with. Really these boards just sound so good and the quality and build is just superb. Has FM capacity too. Very full and actually good for basses. I own a Minilogue (which is great too) but if you want basses and pad or that is what you are after for synth -pop or spatial atmosphere, I would purchase this instrument. Minilogue is great for effects and leads.
had a play on one of these today.. really intuitive and fun and sounded amazing. could care less about the limitations, no screen is a wonderful thing. if it was half the price i would have bought it on the spot. will wait for the drop.
I bought 2 reface CS's and synced them together....WOW great sound, great play ability with great program ability, my only warning is that this synth is highly addictive, I can't stop playing them.
The chief benefit of a synth with so few - very well chosen and implemented - controls is speed. It's probably quicker to get great sounds out of this than even some basic monosynths, just because of the simple but effective controls. The effects sound pretty good too. The CS is compelling but minikeys for nearly £300, hmm....
Might be a reason why I'm able to make synthwave when sampling the Yamaha pss570 but can do nothing whith VST's i don't know what it is but i really, really hate virtual synthesizers because i have no hardware i can touch and they confuse me. Simplified controlls make it a hell of a lot easier for starters like me and also makes it less overwhelming. When compared to other synth with all of their knobs, faders, hell sometimes even with an additional screen and extra digital settings. That stuff is just so... Complicated looking if you'd give me the choice between another great synth with more options and "potential', the reface CS and the reface DX. All in the same price point... I'd take the CS also cause it can make some great sounds that don't require additional post processing (simplifying everything even more)
I bought one recently £217 new they are excellent,the more you play around with it the more you realise how brilliant it is .it's got a Juno 6/60 like layout which makes it very user friendly for me and the filter sounds very analogue unlike say the Gaia .if this had a simple arpeggio ,full size or slim keys, some memory slots for live use and keep it under 400 quid then this would fly.its ace
well, we can question about the mini keys and the price, but who can deny that this thing sounds well? In fact Yamaha hardly build instruments that don't sound good...
I had this same reaction to a Yamaha AN200 (based on the same sound engine). No matter how you tweaked it, there was always a great usable musical sound. If fact, I would say it was challenging to make it not sound good or musical.
Nick you are absolutely my favorite reviewer, great job as always. Thumbs down for the Reface CS, perhaps if they had skipped the keys entirely and made a module all knobs and sliders and switches it would not seem so lame. The Arturia CS-80 is fantastic and I would highly recommend it to anyone.
Thanks for review, very informative. Well, for me conclusions are same as with new DX: sounds nice, very musical indeed, but UI is not thought out properly. Key word here is shame, Nick repeated it many times though. And hey, where's MIDI Thru? Why it's absent on most of modern synths? Nobody needs to connect multiple synths anymore?
I drew a keyboard layout on paper (utter utter newbie here) whilst waiting 24 hr for delivery, even I know where to find the C keys! Initial idea was to explore 'Rhythm is a Dancer' ECDC etc. And I always wash my hands before handling the machine itself or the keyboard. Always been fascinated by waveforms, oscillators ie soldering up circuitry so I am so glad I got turned on to this. I even recorded last nights first effort, looper and massive delay recorded onto my v useful Olympus DM670. Goodness knows I've listened to enough Bach and Beethoven fr half a lifetime to get a bit of an idea, fugues next!
18:42 """Every time i start tinkering with something, I find a sweet a spot, I just wanna... play with and it just........... just takes u away""" hahaha listen to that part again I thought it was pretty epic like from a documentary hahaha :)
Now that I see how much variation it has in it, I'm even more annoyed by the lack of memory. It means that this would be nigh-unusable in a live situation, because I won't be able to recreate patches on the go. And I am not going to use the app. I don't have an iOS device, and even if I did I don't want to use one live. Too bad because it does sound pretty nice. If it drops in price over the next two years, maybe I'll think about it. For now the Audiothingies P6 is my analog emulation synth of choice.
I find the looper function better on the CS than on the DX, much easier to toggle the switch down than it is to target a led light tagging. You can use velocity out thru the midi controller to other keyboard, sound engine.
Great review, as usual Nick! I really liked the sounds at the end. I really like the range of sounds, the virtual analog engine, and the hands on approach of the CS. Unfortunately, for $500, you could get a MS-20 mini, which is real analog, or a JD-XI which has an analog voice and includes patch memory.
I bought this on the strength of this review. You can get very odd and idiosyncratic sounds out of it if you persevere with it, I like it as a newcomer to synths, it was a good entry to sound design.
The Yamaha Reface series seem to be very good little synths. I like the fact that there isn't any patch memories on the Cs, and no hidden menus etc. I've always made my own patches from scratch for years with VSTS, and never used presets. So this is the sort of instrument I would most likely go back to time and time again. My micro korg has great sounds but hidden menus and write protect is a bit off putting for me. The Mini keys are not much of a problem, I would probably just stick a midi cable in the back and sequence it anyway. The major downside to these little synths is the high price, if they took £100 of the asking price these things would sell like hot cakes.
Played one of these at KnobCon for a bit. Looks like a toy, feels really solid and sounds surprising -- it was my favorite of the Reface keyboards by far, and aside from the Korg Vox Continental, my favorite non-modular synth I tried. I just have to figure out how to fit one in my small studio space.
much better than the demo from the Yamaha rep last month, this is pretty nice - but again the price, it just seems too much given the rickety looking faders and no memory, some weird and nice sounds coming out of it though - I think a lot of people will like them in the end, but they'll wait for price drops - and that doesn't really suit Yamaha I think
Would love to see all FOUr of these Reface pieces put into one desktop module with all the controls and just use a favorite midi controller. That would be a sweet piece of kit. Love the sound and immediate control for the CS but the FM version would drive me batty with menu diving.
The Human League used a KORG 700 for bass sounds on ‘Dare’, so an MS-20 mini will get you close there. They also used a Roland System 700, so the Roland SH01A might be able to give you some of that flavour. For drums, use Linn Samples (easy to obtain). They had a Yamaha CS15, so this little synth above might work for that. Chord stuff is a bit trickier. They has a Korg Delta and a Roland Jupiter 4, and the Jupiter 4 especially sounds a bit unique. They’re very expensive, and the Roland JUO6A won’t really give you the same ‘70s’ quality. A second -hand Casio VL-1 is also an option for the lead sound on ‘Open Your Heart’ (flute preset).
It's worth noting there *is* velocity on the keyboard itself but it isn't connected to the synth engine, so you can indeed use the keyboard as a midi controller for other synths with velocity sensitivity
great review, nice little toy with solid sound but without onboard patch storage and deeper editing i'll be holding on to my $$. if they do a more robust version my interest will be piqued.
I can see using this as a performance synth next to a laptop but for that price I'd rather use a microbrute with effects. It does sound great though. What's the build quality?
Thanks for the review which tries to give a fair picture and show the potential of the sounds. However, as a very satisfied owner of the AN1x for almost 20 years, I can only frown upon the Reface CS. The AN1x has two oscillators with different wave forms, fancy osc sync options + FM, ringmodulator, several filter types, five envelopes and 2 LFOs. Not least, it has 61 full size keyboard (not the best quality, though but allows velocity and aftertouch), pitch and mod wheels and a ribbon controller, a step sequencer/arpeggiator and 3 simultaneous FX. And I could come up with a couple of more arguments, for example 128 patch memory slots ;). All of that for half the price of the Reface CS on the second hand market. Why would anybody buy the Reface rather than the AN1x? Maybe the overall sound quality of the Reface is better than the AN1x?
Curious, i see these Audio inputs on all the reface units, but noone has talked about how they can be used. Are they routed through filter or something, or is it just audio mp3 in for jamming.?. also, does it route through the stereo output or just into internal speakers? cheers
about the "aux in" audio input, I think that it serve 2 purposes: 1) merge external sounds to play along 2)when using the keyboard to pilot via midi an external module (like a Roland boutique, for example), make it also sound decently through the quite good quality stereo speakers. A good synergy of two very different portable instruments...in my opinion.
obviously when you are using the reface as a midi master and an external module as a slave, and you want to use the reface speakers, you have to find a way to mute the reface without using the volume controller (unless you want to merge the two sounds). With the reface dx you can set the volume of every operators to 0, with the reface CS I think you can use the filter: with other models I don't know, maybe it's not possible
Nice review, you've been doing some really great ones lately.... about this synth seems ok if want something small (buy used for half price in couple weeks). However just buy an AN1x for $350US!! You can still get new from that Japanese seller on ebay. Or just buy a nice used one, there's plenty of perfect condition used ones out there. Based on the same engine (which is sweet) but kicks the absolute daylights out of this toy featurewise.
+Code Mode You know, I've never played with an AN1x, but it sounds like I might enjoy one. I cant believe that there wouldnt be a number of tweaks in the engine though - when I spoke to the product designer at BPM he said as much.
+sonicstate yes the An1x is a gem, they should have used that heritage for this one instead of pulling a Roland and putting an old name (JP-08) on something completely unrelated. I'm sure there's some tweaks and improvements but being more expensive it's an impossible sell for some.
It sounds pretty good but it may be too simple for the Sonicstate crowd. If you want full size keys though, you might be better off spending a little bit more and getting one of Yamaha's 1990" era synths Like the CS6x or An1x. There is no shortage of virtual analogs on ebay.
Total newbie here, first results last night incredible, looper and lots of delay. So today I drew up and pasted and printed three diagrams per page of the complete set of switches and sliders to capture the results. Will help me understand the variables and interactions.
The wole range of these are actually pretty nice, atr the time they got a lot of flack because they were going up against analogs from Korg etc, but time has evened that out
They've been looking intently at the Waldorf Rocket when designing that oscillator editing, that's for sure. Can't blame them though, it's a very clever design when you're trying to do most possible, with as little as possible. Very in tune with the small, portable and simple design. That said, i'm having a hard time seeing the CS' place on the market. For starters above mentioned Rocket, will do much of the same things, for half the price, with a more focused design, and a non-stepping analogue multimode filter. On that note, in this day and age, a stepping filter is quite the blemish on an otherwise quite capable synth engine. Considering how little programming it actually takes to eliminate to an acceptable degree, it's just plain lazy, and quite frankly points towards indifference. Which doesn't make sense when you look at the care and consideration that have gone into much of the design process - love or hate the end result. But then all of the Reface series have flaws that are borderline embarassing. Especially considering they also have brilliant design solutions that show real care. When the developers so clearly display the necessary competence, why those obvious, lazy and plain stupid flaws? Overall i've actually come to like the Reface series, but when you look at the stiff competition the CS is going up against, and what you get for that amount of money, i'm just not seeing it do very well.
Yeah, as many folks have already pointed out, compared to an AN1X from 15+ years ago, it just doesn't seem to be any sizable improvement on that older technology. For me, the AN1X still has some of the best synth brass sounds around, despite being VA. Again, sounds pretty decent, but the bang for the buck just isn't there.
Im considering getting a synth. I know nothing about them or the terminology. So this is polyphonic so I take it you can perform with one sound or instrument, loop it, play over the loop with another and another until you have an entire symphony playing? I thought I heard somewhere that you can't record them though. Does this device not have a native hard drive?
Wilderness Music yeah you totally could i don’t know why says it’s useless just dont try to loop any really complex to play stuff and it should be fine
@Luke Give me a looper over a 16s step sequencer any day....songs with a repeating one measure sequence is like hitting me in the head with a hammer :)
Does this mean that all of the limitations on this mean you’d recommend the DX over this? The DX may be able to do pretty much anything that “minimoogs” like this one can and then some.
10:05 Limited resources of a keyboard this size ?? Its not the 1980s anymore - you could fit a pretty powerful PC motherboard inside that case that would blow away most synths on the market. The only resources that were limited I imagine was the amount of money yamaha was willing to spend on the software development costs.
It always baffles me that if you use the looper and add Depth when using an effect the looper slows down. Come on, is it that CPU intensive to keep a clock on time? I assume the CPU is quite underpowered.
This seems like a digital juno-6 synth functionality wise. Very bread and butter but useful none the less with some basic but useable capabilities and bits of uniqueness. It's a shame about the stepping in the filters. My first look at the thing, I was not impressed but after this review i am a little more curious. Price wise it is much more reasonable then initially rumored but still right on the edge of what I might consider to be acceptable for a synth of this caliber. Both the actual oscillators and filter don't immediately grab me but i am sure they would be fine for some basic stuff in the background of tracks. I think I might need to sit down with one of these to decide about it.
Now that this is 300 dollars, this is or Minilogue? Is the 200 dollars more on the Minilogue worth the screen, patch saving, true analogness, actual sequencer, and knobs(I prefer knobs over sliders) or is the Reface with the 4 more voices, battery power, more effects the best bang for your buck?
Isn't the AN1x engine like 18 years old by now? Surely it's a newly coded engine? Anyway, great review as always. It's always a treat to see a new review from trusty old Sonic State!
+SquareWaveHeaven Have you used an AN1x? Interface issues aside, it is still a great sounding VA and very, very convincingly "analogue" considering its age.
+BlakeCasimir Agreed 100%, there's only two VA synths i consider to have authentic vintage analog sound, and that's the an1x and Alesis Ion (micron/miniak). well nowadays actually I might be able to add the roland TB-3 and system-1 to the list tho. But that's about it
I'll say one thing. Yamaha needs to release this keybed on just a desktop MIDI controller, mini size/semi-full size or full size even. I've sold my reface couple years ago and got several midi keyboards over the years and NONE compared to the reface line's keybed. Such a great feel! I miss it, like alot... But don't want to spend on a full featured synth, just the keybed, and several midi funtions like usb/midi but also the classic 5 DIN Midi in and ports etc.... If Yamaha released a 'Reface Midi' controller, I would be soooo happy.
Mr. Sonicstate...Great demo -- it helped me to explore how this thing works!!! You mention an app that yamaha planned to make to save sounds...so you know where this is located? Thank you.
I like it. I have had it for few months. the only things are I could do without the looper on this model. I would have much rather have had a modulation wheel or lever. and five more waveforms instead. it would be much better.
I wound up selling it. i still have the eface DX but really hope they do a Mark 2 version of the Reface series with more features and sounds starting with those i mentioned.
I dismissed these, but this one is actually pretty promising. It doesn't do too much, but what it does it does well. Any synth with no menu system is a big win for me (although saving patches would be nice) I noticed in Canada they are actually priced at $500 CAD, was worried the exchange rate would ruin everything. That seems reasonable.
+Geardos I played the CP and DX the other day, and they are lots of fun. This CS doesn't compete will with the Roland System 1 considering they are the exact same price at $499.
+Altodon A I don't like mini keys, but I'd rather have the 3 octaves and superior build of the CS. The System 1 keyboard is awful to play, looks silly, and it's only 2 octaves. I admit I haven't spent a lot of time with the System 1, but I just get the feeling that the CS covers more sonic ground.
I like this synth, but even at current price of 249 Sterling, it is a bit expensive; I would want ti come down to 199 Sterling, the same price as the UNO
This thing should not sound as good as it does. I love my CS! At one point in time, I had an Oberheim OB-6, a Korg MS2000, a Roland Gaia, a Reface CS, a Novation MiniNova and and an Arturia Minibrute. I decided I could do with out the OB-6 and the Gaia.
+kvfive It seems expensive for what is essentially a cheap looking midi controller with a vst synth inside it. I wouldn't even expect stepping for less that 200.
I’d be interested in these Refaces if they came in small modules without a keyboard and speakers, but I’m not going to spend this much money only to have a whole series of mini keyboards.
I just revisited this review for some reason. Yes, I used to to have this little synth (I think I had the first batch in Sweden), but I ended it returning it after a day as it was just so uninspiring. Later I bougt a used one and used it for a few weeks before ending up selling it again. Now I watch this review, I remember why. This is just a neat shell containing the cheapest possible processor running a very simple (and unfortunately not-too-well-written) virtual synth software. Many free virtual synths in a computer, such as the u-he Podolski, shoots the CS clean out of the water.
