Yamaha CS-80 VST

[BBFG#]

I did this on the Cherry Audio GX-80. The GX-80 is my favorite CS-80 emulator, but the Arturia one is also darn nice IMO.

great demo - and the parts all played great

however, sorry I don't like the synth sounds themselves, they sound flat and have the soft synth sheen, especially compared to the real thing


I don't think that cherry one is a great emulation. For me the Arturia, Xils and softube all sounds better

I could be completely wrong here, but I gathered some inclination about the CA GX not being an exact emu of the CS, but rather a combo of it expanded with the ideas of the GX-1. And once I adopted that idea then the sound of it really became something more than either of them. Comparisons are still fair but can also be limited by those 1:1 comparisons.

[Uncle E]

I wish u-he would go back to making emulations after releasing Zebra 3. The current CS-80 offerings are either too CPU intensive or don't sound quite right, imo. The newer Softube Models (80 and 77), for example, are out of the question for me due to their constant CPU load. I refuse to accept there is no better way to code it more efficiently.

I'm still loving The Eighty. The Softube sounds great and is warmer but The Eighty is better for those crisp, brilliant Vangelis-type sounds. I've since bought the SoundPaint library, as well, and it sounds like The Eighty.

[mi-os]

I wish u-he would go back to making emulations after releasing Zebra 3. The current CS-80 offerings are either too CPU intensive or don't sound quite right, imo. The newer Softube Models (80 and 77), for example, are out of the question for me due to their constant CPU load. I refuse to accept there is no better way to code it more efficiently.

I'm still loving The Eighty. The Softube sounds great and is warmer but The Eighty is better for those crisp, brilliant Vangelis-type sounds. I've since bought the SoundPaint library, as well, and it sounds like The Eighty.

I'm not sure about The Eighty. The brass seems pretty good, but i've PolyM and PolyKB and don't particularly like the presets or the GUIs. Creating my own presets would be very time consuming. I'm more into making music than sound design.

[mi-os]

Re the guitar/harp sound (whatever it is) from around 14:00 in the video. Did anyone manage to nail that sound on The Eighty? They sound so different. There is something off with mod/envs, idk. There always seems to be something wrong with envs especially.

[kraster]

Yeah. The eighty rocks. It just has a character that others don't.

It feels less clinical than the others I've used. The softube one like all their emulations is very precise but a little boring.

The Cherry and Arturia ones are very cool but again sound a little sterile.

I think the Xils one sounds a little rougher around the edges but unless you have live in maintenance real CS80s are prone to lots of inconsistencies.

[Examigan]

Re the guitar/harp sound (whatever it is) from around 14:00 in the video. Did anyone manage to nail that sound on The Eighty? They sound so different. There is something off with mod/envs, idk. There always seems to be something wrong with envs especially.

Yeah it sounds like the envs seem too closed down or maybe just not enough of the high end on The Eighty for that preset. I can hear the sound of the env easier on the actual CS-80. But I do have it on my PC and like it a lot overall.

[zerocrossing]

The truth no one wants to hear is that if you're not using a polyphonic aftertouch keyboard with any of these, you're a punk-ass baby who should put on a diaper and go to baby school and major in nap time. The plugin is far less important, though Softube's Model 77 is my personal favorite.

[mi-os]

No one wants to hear it because it isn't that important. Aftertouch is only relevant if you actually use it in a performance. The base sound of the synth is much more important, at least to me. Because my experience with PolyM and PolyKB, which don't sound much like their real counterparts, i'm sceptical about The Eighty, even if it's a bit closer this time. It's a shame Model 77 is a CPU hog and therefore of no use to me. I don't even think the Softube is any closer, but just a bit more pleasing sounding.

[Uncle E]

Model 77 is quite soft, which is not the sound I associate with the CS-80. Great sounding synth, it just doesn't scratch this particular itch for me.

[planetearth]

I did this on the Cherry Audio GX-80. The GX-80 is my favorite CS-80 emulator, but the Arturia one is also darn nice IMO.

great demo - and the parts all played great

however, sorry I don't like the synth sounds themselves, they sound flat and have the soft synth sheen, especially compared to the real thing


I don't think that cherry one is a great emulation. For me the Arturia, Xils and softube all sounds better

I could be completely wrong here, but I gathered some inclination about the CA GX not being an exact emu of the CS, but rather a combo of it expanded with the ideas of the GX-1. And once I adopted that idea then the sound of it really became something more than either of them. Comparisons are still fair but can also be limited by those 1:1 comparisons.

Both Cherry Audio and Softube made "hybrid" synths that combined either the CS-80 and GX-1 (as Cherry Audio did), or the CS-80, CS-60, and the CS-50 (in Softube's case). And honestly, that's what put me off them. I was hoping for something fairly close to the original. And even though I knew they'd all add something, I was a disappointed to find that "something" was a completely different synth (in CA's case).

Steve

[kraster]

Re the guitar/harp sound (whatever it is) from around 14:00 in the video. Did anyone manage to nail that sound on The Eighty? They sound so different. There is something off with mod/envs, idk. There always seems to be something wrong with envs especially.

The whole filtering section of the CS-80 is tricky because there are so many controls and a slightly unorthodox envelope.

As well as cut off and resonance for the HP and LP you have brilliance, keyboard control brilliance and initial brilliance.

Then the envelope has initial level, attack level, attack speed, decay and release.

The Eighty version of the sound in that video is way too dull and you'd have to play around with the initial level, attack level and attack speed to get that kind of ploink sound. To get more bass the usual trick is to set the HP filter very low and push the resonance.

[DCrown]

I like Cherry audio's approach the best by making asynth that's not exact the same as the hardware with a new flair and sound.
I mean, DX7 can be heard a million times in good productions back in the day, CS 80 left its mark, so something different, but still similar is very refreshing

[Cuauhtli]

I'm waiting for the VS80.

I've posted this before but Vangelis's assistant/or whatever once said that they cranked up the voltage on the oscillators or filters to get a more aggressive sound out of the CS80. It may be one of the reasons the emulations sound off to all of us.

[Examigan]

Re the guitar/harp sound (whatever it is) from around 14:00 in the video. Did anyone manage to nail that sound on The Eighty? They sound so different. There is something off with mod/envs, idk. There always seems to be something wrong with envs especially.

Does he mention which preset that is on the hardware? I dont think he does..
It looks like the 5th one in the bottom row.

[mi-os]

Re the guitar/harp sound (whatever it is) from around 14:00 in the video. Did anyone manage to nail that sound on The Eighty? They sound so different. There is something off with mod/envs, idk. There always seems to be something wrong with envs especially.

Does he mention which preset that is on the hardware? I dont think he does..
It looks like the 5th one in the bottom row.

I don't think he mentioned the name. It looks like both rows on the 5th column are active, right.

So far my conclusion is that all plugins are off. I suspect some sounds that are somewhat close can be made with other VAs as well (brass for example). The CS-80 has a mid-rangey/nasal but rich quality they all miss, not to mention the wrong envelopes.