ARTURIA CS-80V
Apr 1, 2004 12:00 PM, BY LAURA PALLANCK
After it modeled the Moog modular synthesizer, Arturia asked its users what instrument they'd like to see next as a soft synth. The answer was, overwhelmingly, the Yamaha CS-80, a first-generation polyphonic synth with plenty of credentials. As a result, Arturia created the CS-80V, which models the look and feel of the original instrument while adding all of the modern conveniences that you would expect from a soft synth.
The CS-80V can be used as a stand-alone synth, as well as in host programs that support VST, Audio Units, MAS, RTAS, DXi, RTAS or HTDM plug-ins. (Stand-alone mode on the Mac is available in OS X only.) You may be wondering what's so bad and beautiful about the CS-80 to warrant such a response, so before diving into the CS-80V's feature set, a bit of a history lesson is warranted.
YESTERYEAR'S MODEL
Although notorious for its weight (approximately 200 pounds), tuning instability (analog oscillators and heat don't mix) and price ($6,900), the CS-80 is legendary for its playability and massive sound. The artists who favored the instrument — Stevie Wonder, Michael McDonald, Kraftwerk, Herbie Hancock and Hans Zimmer, among others — could afford to hire teams of people to schlep the CS-80 around and keep it maintained. Because the instrument runs so hot, technicians usually set up a tent around the instrument to keep the ambient temperature stable enough for tuning.
As a keyboard instrument, the CS-80 was remarkable for its revolutionary use of velocity sensitivity and its polyphonic aftertouch capabilities (although as a MIDI-less instrument, it was unable to transmit either). This gave keyboard players a new level of expressivity. For example, the aftertouch capability meant that a player could vary the individual modulation characteristics of a note in a chord simply by pressing it harder. Such a feature was heady stuff in the late '70s.
In terms of programmability, Yamaha did its homework and delivered an instrument that was fairly intuitive to use. The instrument's front panel was designed to resemble an electronic organ, perhaps to ease the minds of technophobic keyboardists. Consequently, multicolored levers and buttons were present for just about any synthesis function users could imagine.
Centrally located were 24 presets that offered a variety of strings, brass, guitars, basses and keyboards and four sounds called Funky. If you wanted to store your own patches, you had to re-create the synth-voice settings using the tiny sliders located under a panel on the upper left of the instrument. This allowed you to save approximations — it was an analog instrument, after all — of as many as four sounds.
Technical aspects aside, what really drew musicians to the CS-80 was its massive sound. With 16 analog synth voices (divided into two groups of eight), a suboscillator, a host of modulation routings and built-in effects (ring modulation, chorus, tremolo), the CS-80 was capable of creating a rich, complex sound that few instruments can touch — even today. Needless to say, few regular musicians could get their hands on one, let alone own one, but most knew the sound. Consequently, it became an automatic wish-list topper for synth geeks.
ANALOG ARCHITECTURE
Arturia has done a nice job of re-creating the look of the CS-80, right down to the Tolex covering on the case. The pair of virtual fans spinning in the upper corners is a nice touch. The two rows of colored preset buttons are also present, though I couldn't find a list of the patches in the manual. Like the original, the CS-80V is eight-note polyphonic. Arturia uses its True Analog Emulation (TAE) technology in the CS-80V to better re-create the sound of analog hardware and to keep aliasing at bay.
One of the CS-80's important features was the ingenious implementation of several layers of bread-and-butter synthesis functions, which is alive and well in the software version. Two identical subtractive synth chains are used to create the sounds, each offering common elements such as an oscillator, a filter, an envelope generator and a voltage-controlled amplifier (VCA). The oscillator offers four waveforms, and you can use three of them simultaneously in a voice: a sine wave, a square wave and a triangle or a sawtooth wave.
Pulse-width modulation (PWM), which includes a dedicated multiwaveform LFO, is available for the square and triangle waves. This configuration lets you add motion to some waveforms and not others within the same voice. The LFO offers positive and negative ramp, sine, square, random and noise waveforms, and you have control of the modulation speed (which is MIDI-synchable), depth and width. The PWM LFO can also run in one of three modes: Trig, in which the LFO restarts its cycle each time a voice is triggered; Mono, which uses only the LFO of the first voice; and Free, in which the LFOs in each voice run independently.
The voltage-controlled filter (VCF) section is equally straightforward: The signal runs in series through highpass and lowpass filters. Each filter has Pitch and Resonance controls, and you can choose a 12dB (2-pole) or a 24dB (4-pole) response. The filter has an ADR envelope with controls for initial level and attack level.
The VCA section begins with the overall VCF level control. The VCF output is then mixed with the sine wave (the Sine control resides in the VCA section). The VCA offers a standard ADSR-style envelope generator and a master level control.
The Feet control, which sets the oscillator's pitch, is another indication that the CS-80 was designed with organists in mind: The settings were based on the acoustical principles in which pitch is determined by pipe length. Just like with the original, each CS-80V oscillator has an independent range from two feet (highest) to 16 feet (lowest), with subdivisions by octaves and fifths. Using the Mix control, you can set up interesting harmonic relationships between the two oscillators using the Feet control. If you want to add more strangeness to the sound, the Detune slider lets you incrementally change oscillator 2 by nearly a half step sharp or flat. The Mix and Detune sliders are MIDI-controllable, but, unfortunately, the Feet control is not.
And if that isn't enough, the CS-80V has a suboscillator that serves as a global LFO for the two synth voices. Ranging from 0.01 to 50 Hz, the suboscillator comes with the same waveform choices as the LFOs previously described and includes controls for adding modulation to the frequencies of both oscillators, their filters and their VCAs. Additional modulation routings are available through an easy-to-use matrix located where the CS-80's primitive patch-storage system once resided. There, you can set up 10 modulation paths using pull-down menus to choose from 12 sources and 40 destinations. Each modulation path has a dedicated Amount control, so you can scale the modulation response to taste.
LET THE KEYS DO THE WORK
To the right of the colored preset buttons are a host of keyboard-sensitivity controls that allow you to further enhance the playability of the instrument. The Touch Response module's Initial Tuning fader lets you determine the degree of velocity-sensitive pitch change that occurs when you strike a note. At its maximum setting, it adds a quick pitch bend into the note. The remaining three sliders in the module determine the degree to which aftertouch changes the suboscillator's speed and VCO and VCF levels.
The sliders in the Keyboard Control section are for setting key-following parameters. The Brilliance controls are for the filter response, and Level alters the VCA. Remarkably, you can set brilliance and level for the upper and lower parts of the keyboard independently so that you can program a sound that seems to get brighter the higher you play on the keyboard or vice versa. Nearby are global controls for modifying brilliance and filter resonance.
The ribbon controller was a popular feature of the original CS-80, primarily because of its unique behavior: No matter where you touched the ribbon, that became the zero point. It automatically latched to the note you were playing and changed the pitch from there. This allowed you to use the entire length of the strip to bend a note. This nifty feature is not part of the CS-80V, however. When you click on the strip, you get an immediate jump in pitch that reflects the lateral position of the point that you clicked. You can scale the degree of pitch change using the Course knob and turn it off completely using a button. If you don't want to control the ribbon with your mouse, MIDI Pitch Bend is conveniently mapped to it.
EFFECTS AND PEDALS
The onboard effects of the CS-80V include a ring modulator, a chorus, a tremolo and a stereo delay. The ring modulator has a dedicated two-stage envelope generator and controls for balance, depth and modulation frequency. The chorus and tremolo effects share a Depth and Speed control between them. The stereo delay, which seems to feature heavily in the factory presets, has controls for Speed, Depth and Mix. The MIDI Sync button sets the number of repeats as a multiple of the host application's tempo (if the CS-80V is being used as a plug-in) or the Speed setting.
The lower-left portion of the keyboard includes buttons for assigning MIDI Expression controllers to handle volume and filter shaping. Controls are also provided for setting the portamento, sustain and gliss characteristics of a patch.
With the arpeggiator, you can select the type of arpeggiated pattern — up, down, up/down, random and notes held — as well as speed, the number of octaves that the notes play through (one to four) and the number of times that each note repeats (one to four). The Hold button latches the notes you play, freeing your hands up for a bit of knob twisting. You can also sync the arpeggiator to the host tempo of a sequencer.
MANY MORE VOICES
The CS-80V can operate in one of two modes: Single or Multi. As you'd expect, Single mode gives you a single sound across the entire keyboard, just as the CS-80 did. It's in Single mode that you'll want to explore the 24 button presets. Multi mode lets you use several sounds simultaneously, whether split across four zones of the keyboard or layered. To switch between the modes, click on the virtual air vent at the top of the screen. When the vent is closed, you're in Single mode. When it opens for Multi mode, you'll see a matrix, which you can use to assign a variety of parameters to each of the synth's voices. These include tuning (course and fine), volume, panning, keyboard zone and each of the effects. In this section of the instrument, you can really get tweaky. By the time you reach this level of modulation, you'll need to crack the manual and get into some serious programming.
If you want to reclaim some of the screen space taken up by the CS-80V, click on the KBD icon in the upper-right corner. This reduces the size of the instrument by half while giving you access to all of the performance-oriented functions.
Surprisingly, for such a complex instrument, only a few things made me cranky. Turning the delay on while holding down a note often resulted in a click or a momentary interruption in the sound. Clicks would also appear when I switched between oscillator waveforms while holding down a note. In addition, the font that Arturia used for most of the parameters is difficult to read. Slightly chubbier lettering would be much appreciated.
A-LIST ONLY
Arturia brought in a number of talented sound designers — such as Darrell Diaz, Chris Laurence, Glen Darcey and Jean-Michel Blanchet — to create its factory patches. Unlike most synths these days, nearly all of the CS-80V's factory presets have something to offer. Sure, there are some turkeys, but with every synth parameter accessible from the front panel, changing aspects of a patch that you don't like is fairly simple. In fact, editing the more complex presets is a good way to learn the functionality of the Multi mode.
Standout presets include Blanchet's Tribal, an eight-beat sequence combining a tuned low-tom pattern and a stereo shaker part; the funky modulations of Diaz's keyboard patches; and the perky sequences by Laurence. Additional patches are available from Arturia's Website, some of which are offered only to registered CS-80V users.
The CS-80V also includes a collection of templates, which provide an excellent place to begin exploring the different aspects of the instrument. The templates are grouped by function, such as Effects, Envelopes, Filters, Sequences (with arpeggios), Splits and Waveforms. I found this to be a great way to get to know the untapped potential of the instrument.
In terms of sound quality, the CS-80V is absolutely divine. It's a first-rate analog-style synthesizer with a wealth of detuning and modulation possibilities that allow you to cook up truly retro sounds — if that's what you're looking for. On the other hand, thanks to the sequencer, stereo delay and multitimbral aspects of the instrument, the CS-80V can sound as up-to-date as your programming chops will allow. The filters have plenty of bite — so much so that you have to watch for clipping. And I particularly like the implementation of the ring modulator, suboscillator and Touch Response features, which enable you to add weird little subtleties to a sound.
The CS-80V is capable of so much more than its punchy horns; silky strings; and deep, evolving pads casually suggest. It's response, programming capabilities and overall sound quality make it a worthy contender for anyone's soft-synth wish list.
Product Summary
ARTURIA
CS-80V > $249
Pros: Excellent sound quality. Easy to edit. Plenty of modulation options. Great price.
Cons: Font and type size difficult to read. Clicking occurs when switching some parameters. Not all controls support MIDI.
Contact: e-mail info@arturia.com; Web www.arturia.com
System Requirements
MAC: G3/500; 128 MB RAM; OS 9/OS 10.2
PC: Pentium III/500; 128 MB RAM; Windows 95/98/2000/XP
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