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G11 – U.K. CS80
Back in the early 80's, there was a band called UK. They didn't
have any hits, but old-school keyboard players remember them for a
certain synth sound used at the beginning of their track, "Alaska".
That was done on a Yamaha CS80, a classic polyphonic synth
which made its mark but was overshadowed by the Sequential and
Oberheim synths. The CS80 was big, heavy (amazingly heavy), had
ONE programmable setting (you lifted up a lid to reveal a
compartment containing a "mini-panel" where you set sliders to store
the sound) and a neat ribbon controller. One basically hoped that you
had a house gig for two months or more so you wouldn't have to
move it much.
The famous "THX" sound logo was inspired by the CS80's
"polyphonic sweep" created using a very long portamento time (you
can easily reproduce the effect by turning Assignable Knob 2 to the
3' o'clock position).
This voice includes aftertouch control of pitch modulation, and
ribbon control of pitch – just like the original CS80.
Yamaha CS-80 – in someone's 80's style rec-room..
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