Yamaha REFACE CP Portable Electric Piano and Vintage Keyboard Sound Engine, Synthesizer

Product Information

Of the patches provided, you’ll find FM favourites such as brass, electric pianos and bells along with an echoing acoustic guitar, basses you’ll never lose in a mix, bright leads, snarky leads, weird digital gunk and even several convincingly dreamy pads. In other words, the kind of sounds that made FM a breath of fresh air when it appeared in the 1980s, aided and abetted by more contemporary efforts. While FM sounds considerably less revolutionary today, there’s still scope to explore. The phaser/chorus section is another either-or proposition, but that’s fine since adding both to an instrument tends to make things muddy. Here the chorus has a real richness with a lot of stereo width. The phaser is also gorgeous when paired with certain pianos, notably the Rhodes Mk. 1 for that trademark Steely Dan sound. Multi-Saw mode delivers EDM-friendly chord and lead sounds, with the Mod slider controlling the detuning amount and Texture adding a sub-oscillator. In Pulse mode, Mod controls the pulse width while Texture tunes a second pulse wave in semitone increments. In Oscillator Sync mode, the two sliders control sync tuning and envelope modulation depth, for recreating those vintage swept leads. The Ring Modulation mode, which offers a taste of some of the more aggressive textures of the CS-80, with the two sliders controlling the pitch of each of two oscillators for nasty, clangorous tones. Rounding out the options is a basic FM mode, with the sliders governing FM envelope amount and the tuning of the modulating oscillator. I was really impressed with all of the modes and was able to sculpt both traditional and exotic flavors quite easily, thanks to the twin macros.

reface - Downloads - Yamaha - UK and Ireland reface - Downloads - Yamaha - UK and Ireland

Architecture and Sounds.Of the four Reface synths, the DX is the only one with patch memory: 32 overwritable presets. Because of the intricate nature of FM synthesis, this is an absolute necessity. That said, it’s worth mentioning that even Yamaha’s 30-year-old DX100 offered 192 presets, so 32 seems a bit skimpy, especially in light of the sonic versatility.Reface CP - an emulation of vintage electric pianos. The CP has six sound models taken from Yamaha's CP4 stage piano: a Rhodes Mk.1, a Rhodes Mk.2, a Wurlitzer, a Clavinet, a Yamaha CP80 and a toy piano. [9] The keyboard has a maximum polyphony of 128 notes. The Reface CP also has an effects engine that includes drive, phaser, tremolo, delay, reverb and chorus effects. [12] Reface Capture– this is an iOS patch librarian. We could not test it, because it was not available in time for this review. Because the Reface CP has such a user-friendly front-panel, we don’t see much of a need for patch librarian. The CS is a modern, portable take on the old CS-80, and this was probably our favorite of the bunch. We dug the vintage vibe, and the physical faders that allows for ultimate tweakability. Like all the Reface units, it’s got two built in speakers that aren’t half bad for practicing, and it can even run on batteries. The CS in particular has a few handy on-board fx, which we enjoyed quite a bit. But most of all, we envision the CS being used for cool pads, phunky bass lines and by manipulating the various oscillator types, you can really hone in on textures and spacy lead tones that can make this particular unit an indispensable tool in any producer’s arsenal. It’s also has great playability. It’s a mini-keyboard, but it’s very sensitive and the CP’s sound engine responds beautifully to variations in how you play. Play the Rhodes 1 patch softly and the CP responds with delicate bell tones. Dig in a little, and the CP responds with brighter more metallic sounds. Soundmondo offers creative possibilities to create, share and discover sounds. The connection is established intuitively using a special Web MIDI technology for Google Chrome. As soon as a reface model is plugged in, it offers the possibility of direct synchronisation. Voices and set lists can be stored in a private area as well as shared with the community.

reface - reface CP - Yamaha USA

Cons: Probably the only one would be the three octaves, but this can be solve with an external midi keyboard. The effects are surprisingly good too and seem to be fine tuned for electric pianos. Very nice touch! Sonically, we're happy to report the Reface CP is pretty impressive. Sure, you only have a three-octave velocity- sensitive keyboard (though one that feels very nice as it stands) but connect a sustain pedal and a weighted controller and use it as a sound module and you'll likely be very happy with the all-round authenticity and response of the onboard pianos. As a Combo Piano, the reface CP offers six classical keyboard sounds with excellent quality thanks to SCM (Spectral Component Modelling) and AWM2 sound generation.

Interview: Richard Devine

Still in synthesizer mood, I fired up the white CS model next. It’s the one I was most curious about since, in my youth, the CS range of synths were amongst the first I could afford (I still have a CS30, which is silky, sweet and fabulous). Here the controls are neat and plentiful, a row of smooth, well-balanced sliders ideal for speedy programming — a concept heavily associated with the polyphonic CS models. Actually, the closest Yamaha parallel could be the enduringly cute CS01, although sonically the CS is no more based on any of these than on the underrated AN1x. Rogerson, Ben (7 July 2015). "Yamaha Reface: CS, DX, CP and YC mini keyboards revealed". MusicRadar . Retrieved 26 February 2023. AC adaptor*, MIDI breakout cable, Owner’s Manual, Warranty* *May be included depending on your locale Based on the FS action found on the flagship Motif XF, HQ (High Quality) Mini Keys provide premium feel and response for fast, accurate and natural playing.