Boy Meets Synth

I decided I wanted to learn more about how synths work. I can solder and replace tact switches and internal batteries, but the hows and the whys, well, they’re still elusive. I wanted to know more. I asked around on Facebook for a good starter synth and people suggested the Korg MS-10 and Yamaha CS-5, as their circuits are relatively simple. A CS-5 in bad shape came up on Yahoo Auctions for not much money, so I pulled the trigger. The CS-5 is a single-oscillator monosynth from 1978. It was released a year after its big brother, the CS-10 , and was likely intended to be one’s first synthesizer. As an entry-level synthesizer you could do a lot worse. Although it only has one envelope pulling double duty for both VCA and filter, it has mixable waveforms (sawtooth and square), as well as pulse width modulation. Of course, there’s only one LFO (for now) but with the CS-5 you get sample and hold, and it’s a great one to boot. But specifications don’t mean much if the sound isn’t there. H...

A while back I decided I needed a new mono synth. I love my Korg MS-20 Mini but it can be a tad, shall we say, aggressive. I forgot to feed it on time once and I woke up with a patch cable up my nose. The Yamaha CS01 is fun but it’s not my go-to synth. Actually it’s more of a forget-to-go-to synth, but I’ve talked about that before . And then of course there’s my darling Technics SY-1010 , but unless I need something vaguely sad, I probably won’t reach for him either. No, what I needed was an all-around mono synth, something that could handle bass, leads and effects, would sound good doing it, and wouldn’t eat up too much of my poor English teacher’s salary. I thought I’d take advantage of the city I live in and visit Korg’s showroom on the outskirts of Tokyo to do my browsing. Alongside their own gear, Korg also had instruments set up from the companies they distribute in Japan, namely Arturia and Moog, so I set about annoying the polite guy manning the phones in the corner for th...