The dominant word you hear in synthesis is ‘authentic’. Which is a damn shame when words like ‘beautiful’, ‘inspiring’, ‘unique’ are there for the taking. ‘Authentic’ is judgemental, analytical, it’s the very opposite of ‘unique’ as some other thing has to be referenced to authenticate the thing in front of you.
Fair enough – you want to know where you stand in a purchase or a decision. Where you are on the map. But once that’s settled it’s not the most inspiring place to be.
Due to Alex Ball I’ve been looking at some unusual synthesisers – just in terms of their sales and reputation. There’s endless reproductions of Yamaha’s successful keys – the CS80 and DX7 are all over the virtual shop. But a CS30? You’re not going to see that any time soon – hell, even Behringer has no vapourware for that one. And then there’s the Roland SH series. Every damn vendor has a virtual Jupiter 8 on sale – but did you ever see a SH-7? Why do we keep getting the same keys over and over? Sure, Behringer has an SH5 in process for 2026 or whenever, but what about a VST for the meanwhile?
Two virtual synthesisers from two different authors are available. They are are not accurate. They are not authentic. But they are fun, and perhaps at times ‘beautiful’.
The Yumaha CS30L+.
https://kbrownsynthplugins.weebly.com/
K Brown has a large farm of virtual instruments – a mirror maze in which two or three different keyboards might be mashed together, or cut in pieces. It’s a bit like The Island of Dr. Moreau, there’s all kinds of animals cut and spliced – even other people’s VSTs.
Within this web of surgery is the only CS30 VST I know. He doesn’t claim accuracy, but that the controls are consistent with the rather unusual original. Yamaha’s CS series came before the current industry standards – the CS80 and CS30 both have odd controls, odd arrangements of components. Brown has re-arranged the interface to be a bit more logical but you’ll still be lost for a while.
Yamaha wanted the synthesiser to be as modular as possible. Two oscillators, filters and amplifiers but able to be patched in a bewildering array of pathways. The VST keeps all of this madness and so even if the virtual components are not authentic, the way you use it is close to the original and inspires a very different way of working.
UPDATE: A “CS300” has just appeared in the last few days, which looks less like the CS30 but keeps the same flow. I’ll have a closer look ASAP.
The VST is polyphonic but you can make it mono if you like. To check the accuracy and get the feel there’s a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y0YlFwFGrg
The KRAKLI SK-7
https://www.krakliplugins.com/
Ian Webster has a smaller but perhaps more organised farm, which includes an emulation of the SH-7 (PC only). It’s not clear whether it’s intended as a facsimile or a tribute – there’s no manual or notes included. But given it’s made in SynthEdit I guess it’s based on standard modules. Whatever the case this VST has quite a character – it squeals and blurps and grinds and makes all kinds of lovely noises.
The hardware SH7 has an odd layout, including an oscillator split in two – one part organ, one part synthesiser. This seems to be in place, plus the VST organ has two waveforms where the original has only one. The filter also has three different modes which sadly have no description. The SK-7 is not a clone of the hardware but it has a similar spirit.
Also polyphonic but can be made mono in the same way. To check the accuracy and get the feel there’s a video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjKOazsT5l0