Yamaha reface CS Compact Synthesizer

The Yamaha reface Series offers the classic sounds of the 70's and 80's in 4 super compact and individual instruments.

The reface series is based around 4 Legendary Yamaha Keyboard ranges; The CS series for classic analogue Synths, CP Series for Stage Pianos, EY Series for Combo organs and and the DX series for Digital FM synths. All featuring the same basic compact chassis, they each have their own flavour with both styling sounds, and internals taken from their original ancestors!

The reface CS

The reface CS is based on the Yamaha CS Analogue synthesizers from the late 70's and early 80's that featured the AM1X Resonance Filters. It has a tremendous range of versitility, capable of being both mono and polyphonic, and it's suited and booted with all of the great synth controls you need to create some breathtaking tones from the classics to today's synth tones.

It's a serious beast with monsterously low bass tones and self oscillation down from 100Hz that will make your speakers go wild!

Looks Like a Toy, Behaves like a beast

At first look, you may be fooled into thinking that the reface pianos are somewhat of a toy. With their super compact design mini keys and in built speakers, it does seem reminiscent of a few mini-starter-keyboard instruments that i grew up with in looks.

HOWEVER, in terms of both sound quality,playability and features, the Reface series completely blows those keyboards out off the water!

Thanks to its internal circuitry the sound is warm and rich and has all the artifacts and intricacies of the original. If you wanted, you could plug the reface into a larger rig and just use it as a compact top quality sound module for a larger keyboard with fully weighted keys.

Mini Keys, Mighty Control

With mini-keys becoming more prominent in a range of keyboards these days, many players have been disappointed by their lack of playability and responsiveness compared to a proper keyboard action. Having been used to the proper hammer action of a real piano myself, I have in the past sometimes wondered whether mini-keys is that one step too far!

What's great about the reface key bed is that you'll find that the Mini-Keys are like none that have been before. The keys not only feel better to play, there's a huge amount of expressiveness and sensitivity that is sometimes lost in other mini key setups.  In a reface promotional video a reviewer remarked “It seems like a piano player actually made the keys”!

There is obviously a reason why Yamaha decided to use mini-keys on the Reface series, and as soon as you start taking that keyboard out and about, you really start to see the benefits of its compact nature. Whether your on your (usually dull) train ride to work with some headphones on or your sitting in a park with your mates on a sunny day, you can make awesome music and be creative.

The reface slogan is "Your Sound. Any Place, Any Time". This really sums up why you should get a reface. It's a no-brainer to easily perch somewhere in your performing rig to add an extra layer, or one of your main creative outlets when you're out and about. reface is more than just a toy, it offers a powerful collection of instruments that you can take wherever, whenever! 

CS Control

The reface CS comes with a wide range of controls to help you shape your perfect sound. Featuring a comprehensive LFO that will go fast enough to completely destroy the tone, 5 oscillator types with modulation and a unique to Yamaha texture control which behaves differently according to what oscillator you are using. On top of this is the more standard controls of cutoff and resonance and an Amp/Filter envelope generator. 

The reface CS comes equipped with 5 different effects with depth and rate controls that you can choose from to affect your tone. These are;

• Distortion 
• Chorus
• Flanger
• Fazer
• Delay

Loopers Delight

The reface CS also features a in built looper so that you can play around and get some ideas together and jam. Combined with it's fantastic portability, the reface CS is a powerful music making tool when on stage or on the go.