REFACE CS Portable Analog Modeling Synthesizer

Honestly, really amazing keyboard in my opinion. Having bought the Reface CS, I'm loving the versatility and portability of it. It's very easy to just pick up and play, especially if you consider buying it with the Yamaha Keytar Attachment (which I did). In which if you do, gives you the ability to walk around and stilll play. One thing I really enjoy most about it though, is the aux port. Pair this up with an iPod/mp3 player of some sort, and you're good to go. Personally what I did, is grabbed just a bit of white velcro, and attached a small mp3 player on the very left side. This way, you have an option of keeping things like backing tracks/songs to jam to easily accessible to your Reface. In general, I'm very new to Piano/Keyboard/Synths and was previously messing around with a Rockband keyboard, using a 5Pin MIDI to USB connection to access VST's (sounds) from a couple demo's of DAWs (Ableton/Bitwig Studio). But if some people are saying "this" is a toy? I'd highly disagree haha. The Reface does not at all feel like a flimsy piece of plastic, with mushy keys. Unlike the Rockband Keyboard.. I can understand how some people might not like the minikeys, but as a newcomer. I really do not see any reason why they would be such an issue. Maybe for someone with much larger hands? But then again, not really because the keys are definitely still wide enough to fit most fingers. I think generally, most people are just way too used to full size keys and are frustrated in adjusting which shows in their reviews. To that, I don't think I'd call that a "fair" review at all, because if you did adjust I don't think it would have even been an issue. Aside from all of that, a plus side to mini keys I'd say, is you can stretch farther to reach other keys. I can see how with some practice, having that extra reach can really benefit your playing. Also, if they did actually decide to fit full size keys onto this, there would most definitely be less range, or the Reface would just end up being larger. Which wouldnt be cool in my opinion, because the fact you can even still play this on the plane if you wanted is pretty amazing. Other features/things to keep in mind: - Battery Operated (6AA Batteries, which last around 5hours. Better to use Rechargables. I use Amazon's High Capacity Batteries, paired with a Panasonic BQ-CC55. You definitely wanna make sure you have a good charger, so you can help preserve the life of your batteries.) - Comes with an AC Adapter (if you do not want to use batteries.) - SPEAKERS (They can be very loud, and the bass response is incredible for how small they are. I'd still be cautious about "blowing" them though. Since every speaker does still have a chance to break, the more you push them to their limits.) - Soundmondo (Works best with iOS devices. But is also bleeding edge technology so it may be a bit buggy sometimes, just keep that in mind. Also make sure to use a printer cable if connecting using Windows/Android, you'll have the most luck with that.) - Yamaha's MD-BT01 (Bluetooth connection for iOS apps/soundmondo.) - Headphone jack (Pretty standard, just make sure you have a 1/4" plug/adapter for your headphones of choice.) - The CS is the only one without velocity sensitive keys (Not sure why this is, but it is velocity sensitive over MIDI.) - The CS has no onboard patch memory (Soundmondo allows you to save patches on the app/website, so not a huge deal. Plus, if you wish to perform live I personally feel like it's much more entertaining to see someone who knows exactly how to create a sound all from memory, on the fly. You also learn more about Synthesis as a whole i'd say.) - They can all be paired with an expression pedal (The Yamaha FC7 I believe) Obviously each Reface has some varying degrees of features, but one common theme between all of the Refaces, is being able to fine tune the sound, and play around with it anywhere you go. Basically, whichever Reface you choose I really don't think you can go wrong. $300, is also honestly the best price you could probably ever ask for in something like this. There is absolutely nothing out there like this. Would be cool to see more of these in the future.

Edit: A rather long review but I just wanted to add that plugging it in sounds absolutely amazing. The speakers aren't super great but better than stock speakers on most keyboards especially for the size. Plugging it in to get the full sound with either a speaker or a audio interface is really where it's at, holy cow. This thing is the real McCoy, although the keys don't feel super great and are a bit small the sound that comes out of this thing is like I'm playing a real instrument which isn't the case for alot of keyboards. When it was $400 it was honestly a bit of a hard sell for me but $300 seems reasonable and ended up getting it. It has polyphony which alot of even some synths in this price range don't even have. The sound that comes out of the speakers isn't the greatest but is surprisingly good at the same time? Like if you truly look at where these are located, they must be tiny speakers on this relatively tiny keyboard they do output quite a bit. The main issue with the speakers is inconsistent volume levels, I find you need to tweak and find sounds that can work with the speakers some things like having distortion can actually get loud enough to hurt your ears a bit where some settings is completely unusable through the built in speakers for tinkering purposes. A fix may be to include a one knob compressor or a one button normalizer which could be nice for the other outputs as well but that aint happening now. Obviously it benefits being ran into better speaker or recording equipment but I've grown to really enjoying a keyboard that sounds pretty damn great without anything, like seriously it accepts 6 AA batteries so you can goof around with it and come up with melodies everywhere. Wish the batteries could last a bit longer but I've been only using it on the batteries and you should more than likely be plugging it more often when your home so you wouldn't have to. And let's be honest wishing the batteries would last longer has been an issue I've been having since I got my gameboy pocket roughly 24 years ago and every other device since. Do I recommend it well thats difficult. I primarily play guitar and by default bass guitar as well, and drums occasionally. I haven't played any synths or keyboards for a very long time so I wouldn't be the greatest judge but I can say if you want to add some synth to a song and want to just change some sliders to dial in the sound you want I think this is it and can't go wrong. There is so many sounds and places you can go with this synth, and you can get some real powerful stuff out of it. Can't comment on the looper I find it a pain to use put that could just be a feature of loopers in general having to time switching off record at the exact right moment. People say an issue they have is that it would be nice to save some presets that you can make and save for later while still being able to tinker and while yes that would be nice and coming up with an excuse not to have that feature would be dumb, I will do just that since like the fact that I'm forced to constantly sweep over the ranges to find new sounds and old ones but obviously the biggest issue this presents is if you came up with a song that required those exact settings you can't retrieve those exact settings. I mean you can write down the position the sliders are at too since there are hash marks on a piece of paper or as a note in your cell phone so meh? Any way you will be happy with it, if my stingy ass is actually happy with a $300 purchase for once I think you will be too.

I've been working with synthesizers for about two years now. I started with something really inexpensive and traded in and upgraded over the time period. I should have started with this synth. But, even with a little more experience with more sophisticated machines, this little synth is really one to enjoy! I bought this synth (my only Yamaha) over the holiday season because I wanted something portable that could be played on batteries. I can't believe how good it is for it's size and $299 price tag. I would say that this is the ideal learning synth if you want to get into synthesizers but have little or no experience. This machine has no presets (although you can acquire and save them; more about that later) so you must create your own sounds. Good thing that this machine has easily accessible and understandable surface sliders to tweak and a very appealing mixture of sounds can be had from this little synth. The adjustable effects are sufficient to create a nice mix of varied sounds without overwhelming the user. Although this machine lacks the sound engine of many bigger and much more expensive machines, it's still pretty darn good for its size and price. In addition to having the outlets to plug into an amplifier or headphones, the synth has a small built in speaker that you could use if you wanted to play but had to limit the sound. (note: the built-in speaker is the default speaker; to play into an amp or external speaker, you have to hold the first "d" key while turning on the machine). There is an apple app (maybe windows too) that can be used to save your settings into a computer or your phone (via usb cable). You can then import that setting from your computer or phone to the synth and play that setting without adjusting any of the sliders. The app also includes publicly available settings created by others that you can use. The app is very easy to use and really expands the usefulness of this great little machine.

This is an exciting escape from the overwhelming infinity of options in computer synths and midi keyboards, with a "dumb" mechanical interface and all-in-one type setup, with no screens or presets. It's just a self-contained instrument. Here are some things (some very nit-picky) I've learned so far: The 12V power plug is a common 5.5 x 2.1mm connector - so any 12V rechargeable "cctv battery" will power it. The looper feature is essentially a key-press / midi looper. So you're sharing the synth portion with anything looping and the timbre changes as you change it. It also outputs all the looping notes over midi. The oscillator sliders that effect pitches are all chromatically quantized, which is great for the square wave harmony osc, but feels clunky for FM and AM/Ring-mod. Interestingly if you feed LFO into the oscillator - you can notice it fading smoothly to places you can't get from the slider. Also curious - those same sliders have full 128-position resolution over midi (see below) and it's just the AM/FM waves ignoring/quantizing that extra detail. On the other hand, LFO (at highest speeds) and filter cutoff are also chromatically snapped, making it easier to match them to notes. Changing polyphonic to/from mono "un-presses" all notes and you have to let go and hit them again. Ideally if you're holding one note, it should seamlessly transition. If you smoothly vary the distortion effect depth, it quantizes and you hear a sound a bit like popcorn popping as it snaps past each step. The sliders do not output over midi by default. Soundmondo uses proprietary sysex messages to turn on slider midi output - which stays on until you power cycle the synth. Changing effects mode while playing mutes the sound entirely for ~0.5 seconds. The delay effect is strongly band-pass filtered giving a neat sound, but also limiting the range of notes you can usefully echo. The delay also has some sort of glitch in the programming causing very high frequencies to get chewed up (digital aliasing). So you can play a very high pitch clean tone into it, and the echo that comes back sounds like a small dose of gnarly low pitch FM mixed in. The effect is quiet enough that you won't notice in most playing, just during delicate high pitch parts the delay is unusable. All that said... all the good things about this that everyone else is saying are also true. 95% of this thing works really well. It's a blast to play with, and puts out an excellent diversity of sounds for a unit with nothing but 37 keys and 22 sliders. There's a lot that it doesn't do, but if you imagine stuffing all that into this thing, it stops being so portable and live-patchable.

All products in the Reface series from Yamaha are simply beautiful and will catch your eye. Reface CS Virtual-Analog Synth is no exception with its beautiful white body and elegantly designed sliders. Now, having used it for a few months now, I realize how limited it really is. I've spent countless hours with this keyboard. Love its portability and the fact that it can be used with AA batteries (better get some rechargeable AAs). Speakers are not great but are ok for solo practice and you can always hook up a decent pair of headphones. If you are somewhat new to synths and like experimentation, you will find this very fun to use. But after you get a sense of how it works and the initial hype starts fading, you start realizing how limited this product really is. I wish I had known this before I bought this keyboard: - Synths are way more fun with a sequencer, which this keyboard lacks - Midi phrase recorder is pretty much useless and setting the tempo correctly with the slider is a daunting task - Although sound experimentation is virtually limitless with this keyboard, after some time you might realize only a few sounds are really usable in your recordings or projects - Personally, only one of the 5 oscillator wave patterns really fit my taste (Multi-saw). - Included effects (chorus, delay, others,) are cool but you will likely end up attaching it to a more serious effects pedal for maximum enjoyment - Soundmondo site is a joke In summary, Yamaha did a great job with their industrial design, but that's about it. The competition (Roland, Korg, Behringer) offers analog synths for much less $ that include better options like sequencers, the ability to save your patches, etc.

Great analog synth! Can create countless bass lines, brass, wobbles, and more! Fun to just play with different settings and get inspired. Only drawback is there are no presets or memory (I knew that before I bought it), so I often take pictures of what settings I use and video of the sound. All in all, I am extremely satisfied with my first of many analog synths! The on-board speakers are decent. Haven’t used headphones with it yet. Portability is a good touch, but I’ve hooked it up via USB and into my mixer to record live playing as well as sending MIDI from my DAW, then recorded the raw audio back in while playing with the sliders to shape the sound.

Having tried my hand at recording music through Ableton Live, I discovered and have enjoyed DAWless jamming. My current setup is this synth, along with it's brother Yamaha Reface DX, both controlled by a Novation Circuit Tracks. I enjoy the Circuit Tracks not only because of it's tones and workflow, but also because of it's portability. It has it's own battery which makes it nice for carrying to the various synths I own. As time passed, I began to use the Reface DX more and more since it can take batteries as well. I wished for one like it, then remembered seeing this Reface CS. I got lucky and found this here on Amazon. I am no expert at electronic synthesis, but I've been at it for over 10 years so I have some experience. I find this synth to be the most approachable one I've used to date. While this means this synth isn't the powerhouse that others are in this price range, this synth is still capable of a wide variety of tones and sounds great! One nuance that plays strongly to this is it is easy to dial in some historic tones. For example, choose a sawtooth for this synth's oscillator, max out the Texture and Mod slides, open up the filter and dial in some Resonance, and presto! You've got the classic "Supersaw" tone from rock songs in the 80's! Now, since this is a Reface synth, it has the same features as the others: Tiny onboard speakers that are better than nothing, but fail abysmally to showcase these devices' awesome tones, mini 37 keys that I'm sure some would gripe about the feel (I'm fine with them...When I use them), and the odd mini SV port that splits into DIN MIDI in and out via an included dongle. While I run both Reface synths on battery power, I very much appreciate the fact that Yamaha also includes a DC power supply as well. Between this and my other pieces of gear, I have oodles of tonal flexibility. Since this synth can be hard set to be monophonic or polyphonic, even playing it unsequenced is easy. I also gratefully note that just like the Reface DX, this CS behaves perfectly fine being sequenced by the Circuit Tracks. I've been having a blast playing this with the Reface DX and Circuit Tracks and I can't help but wonder how my synthesis journey would have turned out had I started with this CS instead of a MicroKorg and Novation MiniNova. Those are excellent synths but have a steep learning curve if you're new to electronic synthesis. I take pride in the fact that I stuck with them until I figured out how to use them, but I wonder how different it would have been had I started with this CS, given how much more approachable it is. I have one major gripe with this synth though: Programming it is a pain!! I needed it to send and receive MIDI commands on channel 4. Since the Reface DX has a screen, programming that to channel 3 was easy. A quick internet search found detailed instructions for programming this CS via SysEdit commands by connecting it to a PC. I didn't want to bother with that, and kept looking. Thankfully, a gentleman on YouTube has a short, concise video on how to program the CS with regard to MIDI channels. It took me a couple of tries but I finally got this synth dialed in to send/receive MIDI on channel 4, and it's worked fine ever since. But, this is the most un-user friendly side of this synth. Finally, I haven't had this synth for very long, but I've had my Reface DX for a few years and even despite some rough handling and drops, it works perfectly fine, so I expect the same from this one!

I love this keyboard! I was a complete beginner, and bought it a few months ago to learn on and experiment with. It has been perfect for me. It's a blast to noodle around on and make different sounds and also works for focused practice. It's small and light and I love that I can take it anywhere. I'm amazed with all the cool music and soundscapes I've been able to produce. I highly recommend this simple, versatile and inspiring synth!

very pleased with the purchase. great synth at a great price. yamaha, you cant beat it.

Pour moi il n'a que 2 (petits) inconvénients, les petites touches (si vous n'aimez pas, c'est dommage). Moi ce n'est pas ce qui me gêne. J'utilisais déjà avant un MK Mini de Akai donc je suis habitué aux petites touches. Par contre la pseudo prise mini-MIDI c'est vraiment une blague. Quel dommage. La prise a l'air si fragile que j'ai peur de la casser en la branchant. Mais mis à part ça (raison pour laquelle j'ai enlevé une étoile), pour le prix, c'est vraiment un synthé génial. Simple, pas d'écran mais des lumières de couleur qui clignotent de façon différente, habile et programmée pour vous faire comprendre que le synthé comprend bien les ordres selon ce que vous lui demandez. Les programmeurs ont fait du bon boulot. Autre plus : les sons. On va pas se mentir tout le monde achète un synthé pour les sons et là, on n'est pas déçu. Que l'on veuille reproduire du Toto, du Technotronic ou du Giorgio Moroder, là-dedans il y a tout ce qu'il faut. Pour vous en convaincre vous n'avez qu'à chercher sur Youtube toutes les personnes qui l'utilisent déjà pour se rendre compte que ce synthé va avoir très vite un succès fou. On y voit des gens reproduire toutes sortes de musiques existantes avec. Comme toujours YAMAHA a fait très fort. Même si contrairement au Reface DX vous n'avez pas des presets (des sons tous faits), mais avec toutes les différentes mollettes et potards, si vous êtes habiles et que vous les montez ou les baissez dans tous les sens, vous avez entre les mains un vrai studio d'enregistrement. Et bien sûr il enregistre vos prestations (grâce à un système multipiste virtuel assez habile qui conserve jusqu'à 10 minutes et 2.000 notes) : pas mal. Le métronome a un son aigu et très désagréable par contre mais fort heureusement on peut le désactiver entièrement. Mais n'oubliez pas de sauvegarder/exporter votre musique car quand on éteint l'appareil il oublie tout : sauf la disposition des leviers. Vous pouvez donc triturez les mollettes jusqu'à trouver votre son et si vous éteignez l'appareil et que vous le rallumez le lendemain, votre son préféré est toujours là (tant que vous ne rebougez pas l’emplacement des mollettes). Bref ce synthé est incroyable, par la qualité de ses sons d’abord mais aussi par la qualité de sa finition : mélange de plastique et de métal. Le tout est un peu lourd (2 kg) mais le toucher fait très pro. YAMAHA a fait ce petit synthé pour durer et ça se sent. C'est d'autant plus dommage pour la mini prise MIDI chancelante. Je soupçonne une nouvelle version de l'appareil qui corrigera ce petit défaut très bientôt. En tout cas moi je suis très satisfait de mon petit synthé Reface CS. J'achèterais peut etre le Reface DX ou le Reface YC plus tard, mais je sens que je ne vais pas me lasser de mon petit CS tout de suite. En plus il est vendu avec une version gratuite de 3 mois d'un séquenceur connu (Ableton Live) en version light mais surtout avec le générateur de sons logiciel Analog Lab d’Arturia qui lui rajoute en plus des sons d'une qualité encore plus incroyable, si vous le connectez à un ordinateur. Alors moi je dis Bravo YAMAHA, ça faisait 15 ans que je n'avais pas acheté un synthé de la marque. Le dernier que j'avais acheté m'avait coûté 500 euros mais me prenait trop de place (avec ses 61 touches de taille piano) donc ces versions mini sont une bénédiction aussi pour ceux, qui, comme moi, ont un petit appartement et une place qui n'est pas illimitée. Donc si les petites touches ne vous rebutent pas, foncez, vous ne serez pas déçu. La qualité YAMAHA est toujours là. Je reviens tout juste d’un magazin d’instruments de musiques parisien très connu (Woodbrass) et les synthés Reface de YAMAHA sont encore sur toutes les lèvres en ce moment même là-bas (entre ceux qui vantent leurs mérites et ceux qui rêvent toujours de s’en payer un bientôt). Une preuve qu’on n’a pas fini d’entendre parler d’eux et dans le bon sens je pense.

Incredibily Musical

Der CS hat die gleichen Vorteile wie die anderen Instrumente der Reface Serie (kleine aber gute Keys und Speaker, Batteriebetrieb, wertige Verarbeitung, ordentliche Effekte), dazu schreibe ich nichts mehr. Zwei zusätzliche Nachteile des CS haben mich zum Abzug von 2 Sternen und zur Rückgabe bewegt. 1) der Klang. Ich habe einige analoge Vintage Synthesizer und der CS klingt einfach nicht gut, viele Software Plugins klingen besser. 2) die (je nach Oszillator unterschiedlich belegten) Type und Texture Parameter (z.B. Sync, PWM, etc.) machen die Oszillator Sektion viel komplexer als bei den analogen CS Synthesizern der 70er Jahre, aber sorgen gleichzeitig dafür, dass man einen eingestellten Sound nie wieder reproduzieren kann, jedenfalls nicht ohne MIDI Sysex Dump, da der CS ja leider keine Speicherplätze hat.

If you're looking for a quality keyboard to experiment with basic subtractive synthesis, this synthesizer is very good for its price point. The quality of the sound is excellent and the actual sound design you can do on here is accessible to a beginner like me but also not terribly limiting. Mini keys can be a dealbreaker for some but if you like mini keys or are ambivalent about them, this key bed is fantastic quality and feels better to me than some cheaper full size key beds. I don't have any sort of electric/electronic audio setup to use with this keyboard, so one thing I would've liked is a standard headphone jack, but there's a stereo headphone jack if you have some nicer stereo headphones, and the speakers built in are really nice anyway. Great product overall