Miniature keyboard with satisfying touch and sound.
Yamaha reface keyboards are designed around the practical needs of contemporary musicians. The name of the series, "reface," is a conflation of the idea of reimagining and the legacy of Yamaha's many groundbreaking keyboard instrument interfaces. Among the innovations that it hearkens back to are the legendary CP80, DX7 and Yamaha Combo Organ. This is the reface CS, which has as one of its chief orientations the exciting timbres from the CS5 synth.
The reface Series is small. Incredibly small. But unlike miniature keyboard instruments of the past, the reface touch is satisfying and expressive, and the sound is nothing short of spectacular. The reface family of keyboards features built-in speakers and is battery operable so you can create on the go. An aux line in allows you to play along with MP3 players or whatever other audio device you wish to use. Add MIDI and USB connectivity, and the reface's capacity to interface with external devices is vast.Not just another monophonic analog clone, the 8-note polyphonic Reface CS™ five unique oscillator modules create an incredible variety of sounds from warm and fat analog to crisp and clear digital. The intuitive Texture and Mod controls take simple oscillator types and turn them into complex and sophisticated waveforms. Animate your sound with the simple but powerful LFO and EG and add depth, flavor and attitude with the onboard effect and filter. If you've got a song idea or want to build a performance from the bottom up, you can capture it using the onboard Looper.
For keyboardists and sound designers needing a huge variety of polyphonic synth tones, Reface CS is a mini-key synthesizer with heritage from the renowned CS and AN synthesizers featuring multiple oscillator types each with a unique character. Unlike synthesizers that only offer single synthesis types or only play one or two notes at a time, Reface CS features additive and subtractive synthesis and 8-note polyphony.
WebMIDI and the reface Keyboard
It had to happen, so it did. WebMIDI. And of course, Yamaha is one of the first to offer a way to use it. WebMIDI connects MIDI devices to the internet, allowing musical instruments to play online synthesizers, as well as save or share sounds. Reface Mobile Mini Keyboards can use WebMIDI to songs to YouTube (video) and SoundCloud (audio).
BROWSE shows all available sounds (currently thousands), and you can refine your searches using tags. Once you find a sound you like, click on it and hit SYNC. This will send the sound to your connected reface and show them you to move the controls on your keyboard to recreate the sound. How cool is that?
Features
Keyboard
- Number of keys: 37
- Action: Synth
- Key size: Mini
- Aftertouch / Velocity: Velocity (MIDI only)
- Key Type: Synth-type
- Number of voices: N/A
- Polyphony (max): 8-note
- Layers: No
- Split: No
- AUX input: Yes
- MIDI Connectivity: MIDI In/Out
- Line output: Yes
- Line input: Stereo
- USB Connectivity: Yes
- Headphone jacks: 1
- Pedal inputs: 1 (volume)
- Storage type: External (iOS and MIDI)
- Expandability available: No
- Recording/Playback: MIDI phase looper
- Rhythms: Not applicable
- Preset songs: Not applicable
- Display: None
- Effects: Yes
- Built-in speakers: Yes
- Pitch bend/Modulation: Pitch bend
- Other controls: 14 sliders
- Reverb: Yes
- Chorus: Yes
- Delay: Yes