Based on the FS action found on the flagship Motif XF, HQ (High Quality) Mini Keys provide premium feel and response for fast, accurate and natural playing. In a sense, the whole Reface range defies expectations of size, scope and form. Each exudes quality and there’s not a duff-sounding or ill-conceived member amongst them. For me, the CP is the surprise gem — four great pianos and hands-on effects that work effectively throughout. Had there been an acoustic piano too, I’d have no choice but to declare perfection. Tearing myself reluctantly away from organising, I turned to the other end of the beauty scale. The aubergine-coloured DX has an authentic air of inscrutability compared to the rest. It’s the only one to have a display and patch memories — evidence that Yamaha haven’t yet found a way to make FM fast enough or accessible enough to manage without. The next effect can serve as either a tremolo or touch wah. Flavors of tremolo are tied to the preset: The Wurly, toy piano, and Clav modulation is a non-panning triangle/sine wave, whereas the Rhodes models pan in stereo, with an immediately recognizable square-ish wave. The CP-80 has a triangular feel, but also in stereo. The touch wah behaves predictably across all six presets, and delivers that “Higher Ground” wah sound on the Clav.

For example, the oscillator section is actually a five-mode tone generator that’s capable of an impressive array of sounds, thanks to a pair of “macro” sliders—Texture and Mod—that shape each mode’s character in useful ways. On the front panel are the Volume slider and the Octave switch, which has a center position and transposes the keyboard by plus or minus one or two octaves. Instrument modelsIncluded AC adaptor*, MIDI breakout cable, Owner’s Manual, Warranty* *May be included depending on your locale Vintage Keyboard Sound Engine with six incredibly detailed vintage keyboard types. Each keyboard type matches a carefully chosen Drive and Tremolo setting to provide an incredibly musical pairing. 128-note polyphony ensures dropout-free performance. No organ would be complete without a rotary speaker effect, which is here controlled by a small lever (or the modulation wheel via MIDI). The speed can be flipped from fast to slow, with realistic transitions built in and even a ‘stopped’ mode, where the movement is temporarily paused. Personally I’d have liked the ability to fine-tune the Leslie speeds and depth but as rotating speaker effects go, this one is highly credible. A looper is present here too, and it’s very similar to that of the DX, just without the benefit of a screen. The main limitation is that this looper must always start with a note and recording is ended by the rather awkward movement of the slider from record to play position at the correct time. Jenkins, Mark (2019-06-18). Analog Synthesizers: Understanding, Performing, Buying: From the Legacy of Moog to Software Synthesis. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-84437-9.

In theory, the CS’s eight notes of polyphony and effect processor should make it way more versatile than its diminutive form suggests. The oscillator section consists of just three sliders: Type, Texture and Mod, with a different-coloured LED to remind you which type is active. For each of the five choices, the other sliders shift functionality as appropriate. The bottom-most choice is ‘Multi-Saw’, with the Texture slider adding a beefy sub-oscillator and Mod introducing further sawtooth waves. Imagine the euphoric tones of Roland’s JP8000 Supersaw and you’re in the ballpark. Next is pulse wave, the sliders varying the pulse width and contributing a second oscillator, at various pitch intervals. You shouldn’t expect to simulate the frankly magical PWM of a CS01, but it’s a worthwhile source of square-wave fun all the same. Next up the ladder is a steppy and slightly pale implementation of oscillator sync. Perhaps I shouldn’t criticise its spiky tones too much; after all, sync wasn’t a highlight of previous CS synths either. The speakers will still be engaged if you connect cables to the L/Mono and R Outputs. If you want to disable the speakers, do this: This SOFTWARE may include the software or its modifications which include any open source licenses, including but not limited to GNU General Public License or Lesser General Public License ("OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE"). Your use of OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE is subject to the license terms specified by each rights holder. If there is a conflict between the terms and conditions of this Agreement and each open source license, the open source license terms will prevail only where there is a conflict. 7. THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE AND SERVICE Each keyboard measures 530 millimetres (21in) x 175 millimetres (6.9in) x 60 millimetres (2.4in) and weighs 1.9 kilograms (4.2lb). [5] [6] The Reface series uses Yamaha's velocity sensitive "High Quality Mini Keys", the same keys as those of Yamaha's Motif XF. [7] [8] [9] Each keyboard has three octaves (37 keys) [10] [5] and can interface with MIDI. [11] The Refaces have two watt speakers (in stereo), audio inputs and audio outputs. [12] After their announcement, the Refaces drew comparisons to both the Roland Aria series and Korg's Volcas due to their affordability and inspiration taken from their respective companies' previously released synthesisers. [13] In 2016 Yamaha released both a web app (Soundmodo) and a mobile app to facilitate sharing and saving of preset sounds on the Refaces. [14] [15] Models [ edit ] The CS-80: an inspiration to the Reface CS Cons: Probably the only one would be the three octaves, but this can be solve with an external midi keyboard.The phaser/chorus section is another either-or proposition, but that’s fine since adding both to an instrument tends to make things muddy. Here the chorus has a real richness with a lot of stereo width. The phaser is also gorgeous when paired with certain pianos, notably the Rhodes Mk. 1 for that trademark Steely Dan sound. The CS can sound impressive in many analogue roles and delivers a pretty solid bass end from its sawtooth and sub-oscillator combination. At times it did feel slightly underpowered — this wasn’t helped by occasional odd harmonics and aliasing. Some of the controls also exhibited noticeably non-analogue characteristics, notably there were nasty glitches upon swapping oscillator types. CP You may not initiate services based on the use of the SOFTWARE without permission by Yamaha Corporation. I got this for home recording. I've got Rhodes, clavinet, etc in my studio but I obviously can't bring them home every day.