Yamaha CS-15D
A preset machine with a hidden panel voice. It's the odd duck of Yamaha's CS line, and it pays off for players who dig past the switches.
Overview
The CS-15D is a preset-type monophonic synthesizer. According to Yamaha's own product documentation, it carries 29 preset voices selectable with a flip of a switch, and those presets are freely mixable. You aren't locked into one sound at a time. Flip several switches and the voices stack. That one design decision separates the CS-15D from the stereotype of a preset synth as a one-trick box.
Then there's Channel 2. Yamaha's documentation describes the CS-15D as providing one panel-programmed patch on Channel 2, letting players "mix and match" a hand-dialed sound against the preset bank. In practice the instrument is half preset machine, half conventional programmable mono synth, and the two halves can be blended. That's an unusual arrangement for the era.
The CS-15D also plays well with others. Yamaha's documentation notes that two or more synthesizers can be cascaded through the TRIGGER IN/OUT and CONTROL VOLTAGE IN/OUT connections for additional voicings. That makes it useful in a multi-synth rig, since the CS-15D can be one voice in a larger system rather than sitting alone on a stand.
One caveat that comes up repeatedly in period materials: the CS-15D is frequently listed alongside its sibling, the CS-15, and the two are easy to confuse. They are not the same instrument. The CS-15D is the preset variant; the CS-15 is a different machine.
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