More GX-oscillator fun
Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2019 2:49 am
What began as an alternate version of my earlier emulation of the Yamaha CS70M with the simple Saw/Pulse switches replaced with the multi-wave/filtered wave style oscillators like the GX-1, turned into a full-blown hybrid of the CS70M and CS-80, with the addition of GX-style oscillators.
The CS70M was Yammy's last analog synth for many years (came out just before the release of the DX7), and was almost a CS-80 with full patch memory, splitting and layering. But to get all that, it dropped a few functions.
- The series HP > LP filters (filters switched LP or HP).
- The 'Initial Level/Attack Level/ADR' filter EGs (standard ADSRs instead - some saw this as an improvement ).
- The two 'channels', I and II, are not accessible at the same time; one had to software-toggle between them and use the same panel controls - yuck!
- No Velocity and Aftertouch control of the two channels' filter cutoff and volume (Brilliance' and 'Level').
- No Velocity control of anything!
- LFO target switches rather than individual levels for each.
- No ribbon pitch controller (regular P-Bend and Mod wheels).
- No Keyboard scaling.
It did however have a few things CS-80 did not:
- A second LFO with dual outputs; one controlled by the mod wheel, the other by aftertouch (very nice).
- The other LFO had a dedicated AR envelope to sweep rate (partial stand-in for the CS-80's odd-ball Ring Mod), or be used as a direct CV for any combination of VCO, VCF, VCA or PW (also very nice). This LFO could also have it's output increased by the mod wheel.
- A built-in sequencer (yawn).
- Patch layering/unison/keyboard splitting.
- Regular P-Bend and Mod wheels.
- A butt-ugly panel.
So what I tried to do with Yumaha CS75M g (between 70 and 80, with a g on the end, get it? ), is combine most of the stuff from both synths, plus the GX-1 style oscillators (hopefully without making the GUI too crammed and cluttered), and with all controls visible on a single panel. To boot, it has a panel and slider style/colors of the CS-80.
To add the CS-80's individual level controls for each LFO target, 'ghost' half-knobs have been added to the target On'Off buttons (it's nice to be able to toggle individual modulations OnOff without disturbing their levels; something you couldn't do on the CS-80).
In addition to the GX-style oscillators, it has the GX-only capability of inverting the VCF envelopes.
The stepLFO can operate as a single 16-step or two seperate 8-steps.
Comes loaded with crude approximations of the CS-80's preset 'Tones' and a couple of my own.
I tried like blazes to give this the same keyboard split that kortezzzz ironed out for me to use in T-forTwo, but I just couldn't get it to work - my hunch is that it's to do with the two channels sharing the stepLFO, but that's just a guess.
Since I'm not a great fan of sequencer-style music, I'm thinking of doing a version of this with a long, looping (Frippertronics-style) Delay plus Martin's MVerb 7B in the panel space occupied by the stepLFO. Or maybe the Delay plus a simple graphic EQ, so one could produce something similar to Eno's Discreet Music using a single plugin?
The CS70M was Yammy's last analog synth for many years (came out just before the release of the DX7), and was almost a CS-80 with full patch memory, splitting and layering. But to get all that, it dropped a few functions.
- The series HP > LP filters (filters switched LP or HP).
- The 'Initial Level/Attack Level/ADR' filter EGs (standard ADSRs instead - some saw this as an improvement ).
- The two 'channels', I and II, are not accessible at the same time; one had to software-toggle between them and use the same panel controls - yuck!
- No Velocity and Aftertouch control of the two channels' filter cutoff and volume (Brilliance' and 'Level').
- No Velocity control of anything!
- LFO target switches rather than individual levels for each.
- No ribbon pitch controller (regular P-Bend and Mod wheels).
- No Keyboard scaling.
It did however have a few things CS-80 did not:
- A second LFO with dual outputs; one controlled by the mod wheel, the other by aftertouch (very nice).
- The other LFO had a dedicated AR envelope to sweep rate (partial stand-in for the CS-80's odd-ball Ring Mod), or be used as a direct CV for any combination of VCO, VCF, VCA or PW (also very nice). This LFO could also have it's output increased by the mod wheel.
- A built-in sequencer (yawn).
- Patch layering/unison/keyboard splitting.
- Regular P-Bend and Mod wheels.
- A butt-ugly panel.
So what I tried to do with Yumaha CS75M g (between 70 and 80, with a g on the end, get it? ), is combine most of the stuff from both synths, plus the GX-1 style oscillators (hopefully without making the GUI too crammed and cluttered), and with all controls visible on a single panel. To boot, it has a panel and slider style/colors of the CS-80.
To add the CS-80's individual level controls for each LFO target, 'ghost' half-knobs have been added to the target On'Off buttons (it's nice to be able to toggle individual modulations OnOff without disturbing their levels; something you couldn't do on the CS-80).
In addition to the GX-style oscillators, it has the GX-only capability of inverting the VCF envelopes.
The stepLFO can operate as a single 16-step or two seperate 8-steps.
Comes loaded with crude approximations of the CS-80's preset 'Tones' and a couple of my own.
I tried like blazes to give this the same keyboard split that kortezzzz ironed out for me to use in T-forTwo, but I just couldn't get it to work - my hunch is that it's to do with the two channels sharing the stepLFO, but that's just a guess.
Since I'm not a great fan of sequencer-style music, I'm thinking of doing a version of this with a long, looping (Frippertronics-style) Delay plus Martin's MVerb 7B in the panel space occupied by the stepLFO. Or maybe the Delay plus a simple graphic EQ, so one could produce something similar to Eno's Discreet Music using a single plugin?