Yamaha CS-20M: A gorgeous analog synth from 1979 + FREE SAMPLES!

[@CEVSE100]

I'm a simple man, I see David Hilowitz upload, I click, listen, learn & get inspired then head to make music afterwards. Bye youtube for now.

[@ingraban98]

Same here 🙂

[@EvanderTorres]

Bye

[@Jellolotl7468]

Same I just go to my Casio SK-1

[@jeremymetzger7969]

yeah always inspires me to get my ass off youtube and create

[@yourcitysleeps]

One of David's videos is why I dove headfirst back into music over the past year. I was going to sell all my gear and give up, but David changed my mind. So it's his fault 😎

[@prodthayerperiod]

the section with the presets is really touching, a very sweet way to remember the original owner, rip

[@tuisku444]

so cool to see you here :)

[@room34]

Oh wow… as soon as I heard this synth producing its "normal" sounds, I immediately recognized it. Back in college in the '90s, a friend and I used to record free improvisations on my 4-track cassette recorder. One time we snuck into his college's electronic music studio and made use of their gear, including a synth that sounded just like this. I dug out our old notes and sure enough, it was a sibling: the Yamaha 40M.

[@MathHammer]

What an amazing treasure to find presets programmed by your friend's late father still functional. The synth is wonderful, too. Uncovering and being able to listen to something programmed and stored by a person who has passed away is incredible. Thank you for sharing this and the sample set.

[@DominikMerscheid]

My plants would certainly grow listening to this track!

[@MiltRadford]

I'm now curious how many little know composers of academic or experimental music have websites featuring their works. The world needs more composers like Clayton Larson.

[@BrianNatonski-wt3mv]

I would HIGHLY recommend Louis Barren (or Baron?) who made the groundbreaking synth soundtrack for the 1950's sci-fi epic "Forbidden Planet", also Wendy Carlos, the classical music synth pioneer whose work was featured in "The Shining", "A clockwork orange" and the eponymous album "Switched on Bach". Great stuff from when synths cost $25,000😊

[@peraltarockets]

This hit a bunch of sweet spots for me: debugging, maintenance, and electronic music. Thanks.

[@leftthechatsound]

The quirks of these old synths are endlessly entertaining 🎹

[@LukeLockwood]

Man this channel just continues to be a hidden gem.

[@ssstewart1]

You are an absolute gift to the music scene. True dedication. You do things no one else can or would.

[@DonPiruflo]

Please, never stop making this content, this is one of my favourite KZbin channels ever

[@AlexBallMusic]

Charming demo. Beautiful instrument. Nice one for fixing it (albeit temporarily) too. I'm sure you know it, but check out the CS-70m if you've not seen it. The daddy of this specific range.

[@DavidHilowitzMusic]

Thanks! I was thinking about your videos the whole time I was working on this. :) I don't know the CS-70m. I will definitely check it out

[@galgris]

Amazing synth. Built like a piano, with love and attention to details. I got one this summer, from an old friend of the family. You just lose yourself in turning those knobs, feeling the warmth and depth in that sound.

[@safetinspector2]

What a fascinating device! Ever since stumbling on and enjoying the Korg DS10 analog ms10 emulator in the Nintendo DS, I’ve been fascinated by this period of “portable” analog synthesizers. Thank you for this video. ❤

[@user-mx6ho2mo8g]

Awesome synth! I have the CS15D, (the little brother) I love these woodpanels and the soft and beautiful sound of these! Also my mod wheel has some issues sometimes. Thanks a lot for the insight!

[@rhamlyn100]

Beautiful sounding synth.

[@Palooka37]

Just wanna say i think you totally undersold that decent sampler pack for this synth, it's incredible. Thank you.

[@Lorenzo_Strozzi]

dude. splendid track and inspiring story behind this beautiful piece of hardware.

[@nicojar]

David, thank you for your videos! I started learning music (piano + music theory, I want to compose) a bit short from two years ago, and your vids have added even more enthusiasm to my my little midlife endeavour. ❤

[@ossisuomalainen]

Just want to say that i love your style of making videos. If im having a rough day they always cheer me up. Downloaded your decent sampler earlier today and have been having a blast messing with it

[@DanielHolter]

What a lovely and thoughtful tribute to a friend and fellow composer... kudos, much respect! ❤

[@1969mew]

Love that final composition! And the synth, of course!

[@8bitpandastrike683]

Wow! What an amazing find. I love the sounds that come out of that beautiful machine. Great video and RIP to the creator, Clayton Larson.

[@danp420]

Thank you for all you do and all the free things you give us

[@andycordy5190]

Gorgeous. Thank you, David.

[@prodthayerperiod]

so lovely!

[@Skankphone]

@@prodthayerperiod hello

[@heartlights]

Great work, Auggie.

[@MusicalWizardryMarcoIannello]

Absolutely love this machine! Smooth leads and truly phat resonant basses!

[@oldmanthompson]

Wow that thing sounds beautiful.

[@finleymurdock4050]

I am so happy I came across this channel.

[@InFamousProductions]

great video bro, that synth sounds fantastic. and it's great to have a piece of the owner live on after passing to the next journey. and your song you composed is lovely.

[@the3dotsguy...610]

Thank you for your content. This is One of my favorite music related channel on youtube❤

[@jackroberts124]

I was just given a Roland sh-2. It rocks so hard. This is an amazing keyboard that you have

[@guitfidle]

Oh wow, what a cool synth!

[@1dkappe]

Another stupendous episode.

[@330f]

You make videos for the soul

[@RJ_Eckie]

That thing sounds really nice! And what a lovely tune 🙏🏻

[@lordflatworm]

This is an incredible find.

[@Shadas]

Totally increadible videos❤

[@DavidHilowitzMusic]

thank you!

[@BrianNatonski-wt3mv]

I keep hearing the Brian May composed FLASH GORDON soundtrack in this synth and wouldn't be surprised if it was in the studio when the film score was recorded.😊

[@JulGer1]

I also immediately thought Flash Gordon! This can't be a confidence.

[@BrianNatonski-wt3mv]

@JulGer1 yeah synths have a signature sound you can identify, I can easily pick out a DX7, OB-8, SH-101, Juno-60, that Yamaha has it too!

[@philmarsh5593]

Very very underrated. I have one and there's not a lot of love out there for this for some reason. It does quirky sounds better than the other monos I have. The patch memory thing is limited - you can't tweak a patch much once it's saved, as many of the controls turn off when you select a patch - there are performance controls that you can mess with but you can't write a patch, then edit that and create another patch easily (giving it memories meant some limitations in the internal architecture, I guess). I guess this was meant to be a replacement for the CS15 mono but that is far more flexible - The M series of synths (20M/40M/70M) were not looked on favourably at the time in the press (here in the UK at least) and seen as a back step after the earlier range. The 20-M is crazy big for a mono synth too, as you found out! :-)

[@BassicallyKiyash]

Return of the king

[@georgenelson9038]

2:47 is beautiful. Very BOC!

[@tolfred]

Great demo, I used to own this synth long ago but sold it due to it's size. You got some great sounds out of it! It sounds very old and nice, but it's very heavy and bulky and those side panels are ugly with imitated wood

[@fzaatar]

This is great! After playing with all the presets that you made, I loaded the last one that lets you create a new preset and made something really spooky. Not sure if it’s any good for music, but it could be for some scary scene.

[@meneerjansen00]

What a beauty.

[@mafhper]

That's why I leave notifications on!

[@texanfournow]

Very cool. Not quite a GX-1, but it has its own charm.

[@paulvogel6303]

Awesome

[@fredmassinger4855]

Very cool ! Merci beaucoup !

[@joegrint6280]

The sound reminds me a bit of my old Wasp that I sequenced using its associated Spider sequencer

[@Bloom-Band-b5u]

Dude Love your Stuff!

[@DavidHilowitzMusic]

thanks!

[@Bloom-Band-b5u]

@ OMG HE COMMENTED BACK AHHHHH

[@tipnring48]

I was craving more when your video ended. Any chance you will post the raw footage of the hour you spent experimenting and exploring? In the 8 mins of your video I was transported back to my 13 year old self and hypnotized by those sounds!

[@princepaul5557]

Interesting synth.

[@kaitlyn__L]

“At this point I forget I’m recording, and just play with the envelopes and filters” phew, glad I’m not the only one 😅 I finally recorded some videos I’d been meaning to do for months about some of my patches, but I’m sure there’s 5-10 minute sections where I just lose track of time and play without speaking!

[@PacoRobbins]

This has a very Minecraft-esque sound and I love it.

[@makerbotplanet]

Hey, I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere, but the CS-20M actually has an 8 step sequencer built into it, it's one of the earliest onboard sequencers. You missed it!

[@makerbotplanet]

Also: there are two slightly different colored knobs - white and yellow. For the presets, only one set of those is actually written to the memory, and the others are intended to be manually configured every time - which means that you weren't entirely hearing somebody else's presets, just part of them, and they were always meant to be dialed in at each session

[@enilenis]

I always hunt for Vangelis sounds. The closest I was able to get (since I don't have a Korg MS-20) was by combining cheaper Korg's, like NS5R with Strymon Mobius, Timeline and BigSky effects pedals. I love vintage, but I never liked the large footprint of modular analog machines. Plus, the beauty of FX pedals is that they're good for both, guitars and keyboards, unlike many synths that lack input functionality...

[@DavidHilowitzMusic]

Oh, the Big Sky is so wonderful for that kind of sound. It's true about the footprint. This thing is absolutely massive, and to think that it's essentially the smallest of this Yamaha range.

[@worse-than-gnomes]

Some of those stored presets remind me of the intro to “Bread and Circus” by PUSCIFER.

[@LunyaTheGay]

This music reminds me so of celeste

[@tolfred]

it's got a feature that is not very common on synths: you can blend in a sine tone for more bass paralell to the filter, if I remember correctly

[@TheRealVicthor]

Nice video

[@GornGornStudios]

thank you synth man

[@JayKaufman]

You can add MIDI to these via the MIDI2CV board and a good synthesizer tech. Mine has been MIDIed and allows me to even send MIDI CC to the filter! :)

[@comradestannis]

Subscribed and here for it.

[@corradomartinello]

One day it will be possibile to have a mono sound with portamento/glide on decent sempler? Congrats and thank you for all of your work man!

[@kiannaderi8374]

Thanks

[@Toon444]

Hi! Got a question. I've been watching your videos for a while and I'm thinking of dabbling my feet in music producing a little. You often upload these sound libraries, and I'm wondering if you can use them in any DAW like Ableton or FL Studio, or are they specific to one program? I don't know a lot about these kinds of things so I was hoping you could answer my question :) Thanks for the video!

[@grahamtruckel]

Dave's sound libraries are intended to be loaded into the Decent Sampler player, which he also created. The player is free as are most of his libraries, and can be loaded into any of the major DAWs. The whole concept is a wonderful gift from Dave to the music-making community and I for one am a big fan of his. Follow his link in the description to download this library as well as the Decent Sampler player. Have fun!

[@DavidHilowitzMusic]

thanks for the kind words!

[@Toon444]

@@grahamtruckel Awesome, thanks for explaining!

[@grahamtruckel]

@@DavidHilowitzMusic Praise where it's due!

[@afarfryproductions822]

Im curious how you learned so much about circuits and how to diagnose things like synths, guitars, amps, etc. Did you learn from schooling or experimentation? Im looking to get into this sort of stuff myself.

[@SisterRose]

I like that you just ended up making Celeste music

[@muskatmusic3927]

7:45 And here I caught a flashback from "Into Deep Blue" by Stratovarius

[@twjamjam]

David Hilowitz my beloved!!!

[@Disregardedinc]

Are you a big BoC fan? A lot of the synthy music you make kinda reminds me of them

[@twiff3rino28]

Japanese circuit boards from this era always had that look.

[@Shaderdiceblock]

Okay that’s going on my grail synth list

[@IsaacH-z1g]

Eurorack update please?

[@cheychc]

fun video!!!!!!!!!

[@Finetales]

I've wanted a CS20M ever since I found a demo of it on KZbin 12 years ago (kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHubaoaFm5ylbrM ). Great to see it getting some love!

[@marcdeschryver7687]

The CS20M and larger CS40M were both the smaller brothers of the polyphonic CS70M, not the CS80

[@studiosandwich]

nice

[@neilloughran4437]

Juicy and fat synth... simple but does what it does and sounds great. I really like the synths Yamaha was putting out around this era.

[@iwanovik8112]

Helo

[@ErickPonceMusic]

Hello, I wanted to ask for advice for new artists I just finished my first album and I don’t know what to do.

[@Filda846]

hey is there any playlist of the synth ambient song you use for these videos? they are really calming

[@DavidHilowitzMusic]

not yet, but i'm putting one together :)

[@Filda846]

@@DavidHilowitzMusic i am forever grateful to you

[@Grahamrobinsonvt802]

i will use the samples in in ANA 2 vst

[@agerven]

The CS-20M, a nice predecessor to the CS-70M, but certainly no real connection to the CS-80. If i had the money and the confidence (Yamaha) I'd go for a CS-70M, not a CS-80. There are enough candidates for a CS-80 already. Of course that is an epic instrument, but i prefer a real synth instead. But i like your video: one rarely gets a demo of these old synths! Thank you.

[@prospectnyc]

Any wave files available? The format in the download doesn't work very well. It looks to be a preset for a plugin instead of samples.

[@DavidHilowitzMusic]

I think this is the blog post you want: www.decentsamples.com/2024/01/24/q-is-it-possible-to-extract-the-samples-contained-within-decent-sampler-instruments/

[@pepuletrz]

lol...i know this thig..its great..i cant believe Behringer has not remade this yet..

[@Ififitzisitz]

WHERE CAN I FIND ONE OF THESE!!??

[@superburrito5635]

🎹 🎹 🎹 🎹 🎉

[@okej1011]

BOC vibes

[@EdgarRoock]

What's wrong with the people disliking this video?

[@gergelymate9889]

reminds me of sawer synth in fl studio

[@victorhugotoledocofre1366]

I was in the middle of watching your previous upload and I got bitch-slapped by KZbin with a "This video is no longer available". Wow, that was fast! Not even my gf went that far!! 🤣🤣

[@DavidHilowitzMusic]

Sorry, it's my fault :) I published the wrong version :(

[@victorhugotoledocofre1366]

@@DavidHilowitzMusic That's OK, Dave. What a beautiful, majestic piece of equipment, btw. Great content as usual! 👍

[@Liofa73]

Could just need some spray contact cleaner on the variable resistor. It's probably just oxidised. :)

[@DavidHilowitzMusic]

I tried, sadly the variable resistor seems like it's completely dead

[@Liofa73]

@@DavidHilowitzMusic -- That sucks.

[@wildmonkeymind]

Marble Madness vibes.

[@clemmcguinness1087]

Cooyill

[@MiltonGrimshaw]

If I lived in NY I'd offer to do maintenance on it for you for free, but the UK is too far.

[@NotAMathGuy]

Gives Lena Raine vibes

[@robertocaba5915]

Seems quite portable