CS 80 sounds on a budget

[syntheticsolutions]

This is a bit of a strange post but here goes....

The CS 80 continues to amaze me, especially in the hands of Vangelis, (Blade Runner Blues WOW)

I have some surprisingly bladerunner reminiscent patches for the Juno 6 and I find the Space Echo's bring a lot of that rich atmosphere to synths.

The CS-15 seems to have some sort of relation to the 80, the envelopes and filters come close to that spacey, rich sound of the 80 but lacks the polyphony.

Does anyone know of any lesser known synths that are of similar greatness to the CS-80 < I know this sounds ridiculous.

Alternatively, does anyone have some rich, spacey patches that deckard himself would approve of for the Jupiter 4, Juno 6, Prophet 600 or CS-15??

[adhmzaiusz]

Go look for a CS50. Four sweet voices of the legend.

[tekkentool]

Electone E70.
CS50








CS80V? lql

[guillermotin]

Yamaha An1x, if carefully programmed.

[Bitexion]

On other synths, a couple of oscillators and a nice reverb will take you a LONG way towards the famours Vangelis sounds. I've made pretty good "Blade runner slow brass" sounds on anything from VA synths to real analogs.

[Alex E]

Arturia CS-80V

[syntheticsolutions]

On other synths, a couple of oscillators and a nice reverb will take you a LONG way towards the famours Vangelis sounds. I've made pretty good "Blade runner slow brass" sounds on anything from VA synths to real analogs.

Very true, I have managed to get very close to some of Vangelis' patches on the prophet 600 and CS-15

Arturia CS-80V

I am not at all into soft synths, they simply strip the soul from my flesh Not that i dislike the sound or anything, I just don't connect with computers in the same way that I do with keyboards I have tried making music on computers before and it just makes me really sad

Electone E70.
CS50

These look like some really cool alternatives, however, equally as hard to track down as the 80?

I like to think that whatever higher power is up there will somehow grace my palms with the real deal one day
Either that or I will have to start robbing banks on a daily basis

[gs]

If it's only the BladeRunner sound you're after, you've got a lot of options. I remember programming a perfect BR patch on a Korg DSS1, for instance. You can do that on a lot of synths....

But if you really want the distinctive sound of CS80 including stuff like its ring modulator, filter type, etc., then CS-80V, or a scaled down hardware version like CS-50 will do it.

[tekkentool]

I think the CS80 is remarkably overpriced and at best a collectors item now. They barely ever make their way into the hands of musicians who will use them seriously anymore for a variety of reasons. The cost is prohibitive, they are expensive to repair and I've heard somewhat fickle to tune and use (others say they're not fickle at all and hold rock solid).

The reason that vangelis' music sounds the way it does is because of the contents of vangelis' brain, not because certain synthesizers with certain mojo gives you a special sound.

Ask CS_TBL and he'll probably whip up a near perfect emulation of it on a f**k FM synthesizer anyway.

[Hybrid88]

Well I'd disagree and agree with some of that, it does have a lot to do with his playing style etc, but it's hard to deny that he would have sounded so unique without the CS-80.

I think the closest alternative for musicians that aren't millionaires these days would be the CS-50 or CS-60.

[b3groover]

I think the "Vangelis sound" of Bladerunner has more to do with the atmosphere created via effects. The reverbs especially. And isn't it true that the string sounds are from a VP330 and not the CS80? Add a sprinkle of Rhodes (again, drenched in reverb) and there you go.

The Andromeda can do both the classic lead brass sound and the strings. The onboard effects blow. Get a Eventide SPACE or something similar and go to town.

[pflosi]

+1 for the Andromeda, I've done some very Vangelis-esque patches. The ribbon helps a lot, so does aftertouch (a pity it's not poly aftertouch on the A6, but you can kinda "fake" it)

[Bitexion]

Yeah, you have to know something about how he used to play the CS-80. He didn't rely on envelopes to do all the "slow fading" work, he used the volume pedal actively. Also a heavy user of the aftertouch. He said in an interview that he plays with his entire body, not just fingers. (Sounds kind of nasty, doesn't it?).

The CS-80 has a unique kind of aftertouch, polyphonic AT. It means that every key has an AT sensor underneath, so you can accent single notes in a chord by pressing the key harder than the others. On a regular AT keyboard, all notes get accented when you press one key harder. Poly AT keyboards are extremely uncommon, I believe it's only included in a couple of synths, like the Ensoniq SQ-80. The SQ-80 is weird to play on, the poly AT uses a metal bar below the keys, so the keys constantly slam into the metal bar when you play, making quite a racket But it works amazingly well if you know what to do with it. I don't think there are any MIDI keyboards at all with the Poly AT feature?
I know most of the VA synths can accept poly aftertouch via MIDI though.

Mostly Vangelis used aftertouch for vibrato and filter cutoff at the same time. More vibrato for harder pressure. You hear it in his performances. Also the full-keyboard size ribbon controller for pitch control of entire chords. That could be emulated with a usual mod wheel with high range. We tend to forget that the cs-80 is a fully functional 2-VCO synth like every other, it CAN do more than those slow brass sounds. It's just that weird vintage organ look...

[Ashe37]

The CS-80 has a unique kind of aftertouch, polyphonic AT. It means that every key has an AT sensor underneath, so you can accent single notes in a chord by pressing the key harder than the others. On a regular AT keyboard, all notes get accented when you press one key harder. Poly AT keyboards are extremely uncommon, I believe it's only included in a couple of synths, like the Ensoniq SQ-80. The SQ-80 is weird to play on, the poly AT uses a metal bar below the keys, so the keys constantly slam into the metal bar when you play, making quite a racket But it works amazingly well if you know what to do with it. I don't think there are any MIDI keyboards at all with the Poly AT feature?
I know most of the VA synths can accept poly aftertouch via MIDI though.

Eonsoniq SQ-80, EPS, EPS-16, VFX, VFX-SD, SD-1, SD-1/32, and TS-10 all had Poly AT.

The only midi controllers with it i know of were the Roland A-50and A-80.

[synthparts]

The Rhodes Chroma also has the option of polyphonic AT thanks to the new CPS kit being made available. It also has a wonderful keybed with real wood keys and a very impressive 16-voice variable synth architecture...

As far as other CSs I've had them all and the one that can come closest to the CS80 is the CS70M since it has the dual patch layering capabilty (and can even do splits with 2 different layers on the top and bottom halves of the keyboard)...