A while ago, I made this cable to drive my Yamaha CS-10 CV Trigger using my Arturia BeatStep Pro.
It's a bit unusually made and takes advantage of the way the Yamaha CS line of synths do "Trigger out" but it's easy to make and works just fine!
PotatoCad schematics folllows :)
NB: I recently found something nice about this cable: it can also be used to loop the CS-10 audio out back into the filter. Just plug the blue 1/4 inch jack into "external input", the orange one into "output" and the BSP end into your mixer, set "Ext" mode and tweak the corresponding potentiometer to taste :)
Hello
ReplyDeleteDoes it convert regular S-trig signal sent from the BSP into negative trigger (which the CS 10 expect) ?
Basically it uses negative voltage coming from the "trig out" jack thru a resistor to pull down the trigger when the BSP does not assert it, so yeah I guess it does what you think!
ReplyDeleteWonderful ! Thank you, Gligli !
ReplyDeleteBy the way, to be sure : do you have the BSP gate out set as "S-Trig" ?
ReplyDeleteHi, Cant get this to work..? There is no sound at all after I connect the trig out part kf the cable. Has anyone got this to work?
ReplyDeleteI recently made a cable like this for my CS15D and it works. Since I’ve got two input trigger channels but only one output, I had to make both channels use the same trig out (the blue in the picture), using a separate resistor per channel.
ReplyDeleteHey man, do you need two of these cables?
ReplyDeleteI had one made, gate to trigger gets sound/envelope but pitch to key volt in does nothing. I want pitch change too, so do I need a second to ‘split’ from pitch to key volt in; to key volt out?
Hope you understand my query; there’s got to be a way to send pitch change aswell as trigger surely.
You need this for the TRIGGER part only, it seems.
DeleteThe pitch aspect you control with a Hz-Volt controller (or MIDI to Hz/Volt converter)
Would this work with the rather odd (even amongst CS family) CS-20m and CS40m?
ReplyDeleteAccording to the manuals, these synths are expecting to be 'Note Off' at +3v to +15v trigger voltage, and 'Note On' at 0v to -10v, as I understand it.
The Trigger out from these CS synths is 3v Note Off, and -7v Note On
I've been using a Doepfer offset module to get me to these Trigger voltages (from BSP etc) but if your simple cable mod would work, that'd be great to know!
Delete(:
I have had no success with this cable, professionally made for me, tried with keystep 37 and beatstep pro, and with cs10 and cs15d. Wonder what might be wrong..?
ReplyDeleteDo you get any response with just a cv/gate cable, so you can see the CS-10 can receive?
Deletehey I have made this cable and when it initially didnt work i went through a little troubleshooting pathway that might help. you will need a cheap multimeter and need to know how to measure resistance and check continuity.
ReplyDelete1- make sure keystep firmware is up to date
2- make sure keystep is set to transmit Hz/volt for pitch
3- make sure keystep is set to transmit s-trig for gate
-at this stage everything on your keystep should be right
4- use multimeter to check continuity between 3.5mm sleeve and 1/4inch trig in sleeve
5- use multimeter to check continuity between 3.5mm sleeve and 1/4inch trig out sleeve
6- use multimeter to check continuity between 1/4inch trig in sleeve and 1/4inch trig out sleeve (if you have passed 4 and 5 this step is a redundant double check)
6a- confirm that you do not have continuity between any of the sleeves and any of the tips
7- use multimeter to check continuity between 3.5mm tip (coloured orange in diagram) and 1/4inch trig in sleeve (also labelled orange in diagram)
8- use multimeter to measure resistance between 3.5mm tip (coloured orange) and trig-out tip (coloured blue). This should read something close to 3.9kOhms within the margin of error of the resistor
9- use multimeter to measure resistance between 1/4inch trig-in tip (coloured orange and trig-out tip (coloured blue). This should read the same resistance that you got for step 8.
At this stage everything on your cable should be right
Next check connections:
10- 3.5mm keystep pitch CV goes to 1/4inch “key volt in” on the CS-10
11- 3.5mm keystep gate CV goes via custom cable with the labelled orange end to the 1/4inch “TRIGGER IN” socket on the CS-10 and the blue labelled 1/4inch end to the “TRIGGER OUT” socket on the CS-10
12- set the CS-10 trigger mode to KBD-M (I think S works too) but not EXT
13- make sure no keys from the CS-10’s keyboard are pressed down
14- make sure the cs-10’s envelope is not in hold mode
At this point if all of these steps have been passed then the keystep should control the cs-10 and any midi message from a computer that goes to the keystep should be passed on to the cs-10.
If this is still not working then I think you have a problem with your CS-10. I haven’t had to go this far but I would think about measuring the trigger out voltage and trying some systematic diagnostics to make sure the cs-10 is receiving data (as another person has posted above). If either of those are not working figuring out how to fix/adjust it would be the next project.
Good luck and hope this helps to identify the issue. When I went through this I found I was shorting my trig out signal to ground (because I am still working on being neater). Getting it working really takes this hugely underrated synth to another level. And we are very fortunate that Gligli has shared this solution.