The blue Yamaha CS1X

My first synth was a Yamaha CS1X. Blue and gorgeous. Playful, almost like a toy.

It could make one fancy sound and a bunch of regular sounds at the same time. That was it. With those constraints you had to be creative.

Today I can recreate any sound on my computer. All of them unique. Unlimited options. And now I need to introduce constraints to not get stuck. Four tracks. Eight tracks. No more.

I wish I’d kept that synth. It still sells for the same price twenty years later. But I worry the nostalgia would vanish if I actually used it today.

Better to live in that memory palace. Things that were nice. Constraints that were nice.