Lou and Yamaha CS-15

Lou basks in the sun above a vintage Yamaha CS-15 synthesis. From synthguy216 on Instagram.

That’s what a sunny afternoon is for. Lou recharging next to my CS-15

https://www.instagram.com/p/CdEQoKeOBGb/

The CS-15 is not one I know much about, compared to some of the others in Yamaha’s famous CS series. A bit from Vintage Synth Explorer:

This synth really has its own sound. The CS-15’s got style. Built like a tank with a lot of nice knobs and best of all, not one but two of those funny sounding multimode filters…The best things about it are the flexibility of the VCFs and the routings to the filters and envelopes. You can rout VCO 1 to both VCFs and the VCFs to any of the envelopes positive or negative voltage. The VCFs are 12 dB/Oct and are switchable between low, band or high-pass. They are the key to the nice sound of the Yamaha CS family. Other nice features are noise, external-in for processing other sounds, LFO with Sample & Hold for those bubbling sounds and an individual auto-bend for the VCOs.

https://www.vintagesynth.com/yamaha/cs15.php

Make Noise, Mutable Instruments, Mordax, More

A beautiful black-and-white photo of a tabby cat in front of a modular system featuring modules from Mutable Instruments, Make Noise, Mordax, and more. I do like alliteration, but we do also see interesting modules from Noise Engineering and 4ms.

From hshmodular on Instagram. They also introduced us to Toulouse in this previous post.

Big Merp, Yamaha RX5, and Modular

Today we feature our very own Big Merp in the studio. He was assisting with our recent video on the Yamaha RX5 – specifically the “RX5USB” cartridge. We also one portion of our modular collection, including Metasonix modules, Rossum Morpheus, E350 Morphing Terrarium, Benjolin, Expert Sleepers, Sputnik Modular, Mordax, 4MS, Make Noise, Pittsburgh Modular, Koma Elektronik, 2hp, Folktek, and more.

This is the video we were working on at the time.

We also have a detailed tutorial for the RX5 itself

Elektron Analog Four and Octatrack

This cat has a pretty cool setup including an Elektron Analog Four – that’s one we don’t see as often – and an Octatrack. We also see a modular system, an FMR Really Nice Compressor, and the mixers and patch bays that are essential for any synth studio. From discotheque_sauvage on Instragram.

This is not the first time we have featured discotech_sauvage, their cat, and their Elektron instruments. Check out this previous post.