Yamaha CS-60
Short description : Eight voiced polyphonic analog keyboard.
Used by : Jean-Michel Jarre, Kaipa
Sounds : Strings 1 and 2, Brass 1 and 2, Flute, Electric Piano, Clavicord,
Harpsicord, Guitar 1 und 2, Funky 1 and 2.
Production period : 1977 ( ? )
Numbers made : ?
Keys : 61
Description : This is in my opinion one of the weirder keyboards in the studio. Big and heavy, colourful buttons and a general sound that in my opinion hasn´t aged all that great. It is the little brother of the CS-80. It has 12 preset sounds and a small trap door in it´s left upper corner which is a copy of all the sliders on the front. By setting them to your taste you will have your own preset sound that you can easily switch to whilst playing live for instance. Some of the features that do make this synth interesting is the polyphonic aspect, the aftertouch and of course the very expressive ribbon controller.
I bought this synth from Johan Ringblom. One of the reasons I bought it was that it was too heavy to carry down the stairs and we were too lazy because it really really is heavy. The other one being that I was intrigued by the polyphonic aspect of the keyboard. One interesting fact is that Pineforest Crunch actually borroughed the keyboard when we recorded Watergarden in 1998 but never found a good place to use it.
So far it has been used on a couple of recordings. One being a Devi-track where we used the ribbon controller to create a Theremin like effect on a melody sliding freely between notes and the other one being Brighteye Brison where we doubled an acoustic piano part.
I must admit that I haven´t messed with this one as much as I should´ve…
Nanook
