The Eighty by Xils Lab: Has the Vaunted CS-80 Finally Been Captured?

Written by Bytemapper

Ask enough retro-inspired producers who the greatest musician to record a synth line might be, and you’ll get a slew of answers. However, I’ll bet confidently you’ll have quite a few folks citing the scores of Chariots of Fire and Ridley Scott’s seminal cult classic, Blade Runner. Now, Vangelis was a titan of a musician, melding modern technology with the Western canon of musicality. 

However, few pieces of equipment are as cherished as Vangelis’s Yamaha CS-80. Introduced in 1977 and boasting eight voices of polyphony, the market hadn’t truly seen something like the CS-80 as the centerpiece of a new sort of band. Software emulations of this 1977 classic are nothing new, with the likes of Arturia, Memorymoon, Softube, and Cherry Audio taking a swing in recent years. The Eighty isn’t like the rest though, and I’ll make my case soon enough. If you haven’t heard of Xils Lab, then this is the perfect time to acquaint yourself with these masters of software instruments. 

All The Weight, None of the Back Problems 

Yes, you’ll find the Blade Runner Blues Brass sound in here, and it’s handled exceptionally well. On a set of monitors, it fills the room sonorously, acting almost like a syrupy bed of oscillators whirling together when mashing out a minor chord. The CS-80’s unorthodox layout of two separate layers is accounted for, and you’ll want to get to know these. 

You’ve got a trio of oscillators with the basic waveforms, saw, pulse, and triangle. Each oscillator can experience some frequency modulation or you have the global ring mod. While many software devs like Softube are content to stay in the realms of hardware’s limitations, you’ve got a whole extra signal path to tweak and rely on for your sound sculpting. 

The ribbon controller is modeled, and readily MIDI mapped to whatever control surface you’re comfortable with. I use my MacBook’s trackpad, if only because the pitch wheel on my controller seems like a poor choice for something with such finesse at play. 

The oscillators can feel almost thin at first, but detuning brings out the width and solidity of the sound. Each synth has a pair of filters, high-pass and low-pass, to sculpt the sound to your liking. This is primeval subtractive synthesis, well before the more comfortable confines of the later Moogs and Rolands codified East Coast Synthesis. 

Everything is readily readable, which is an impressive feat given how challenging making your first preset on the CS-80’s architecture can be. The filters are soft with the right envelope at the helm, making for warm and soft swells and pads. Strings, brass, and even some of the sounds of a combo organ make The Eighty an utter treat to play. 

This sounds and responds like an analog synth. The oscillators run whether you press the keys or not. The filter never gives the same precise, replicated response twice. Even next to my own hardware analog filters, it has a sense of vivaciousness you only truly get with a select developers. 

The Sound: Does It Do Toto?

The Eighty’s home is the bread and butter sounds of yesteryear. You can certainly put it to good use in modern dance genres. However, I wouldn’t play at making this the low-end focus. The Eighty is happiest in the midrange, with pads, keys, and leads all doing quite well. You can certainly dial in serviceable mid-basses, plucks, and growls, but I’d prefer 24dB filters all things said. 

I’m not nearly as precise on the keys as David Paitch, but I’d say The Eighty could easily fill in for the hits of Toto’s time in the sun. It is unabashedly retro, but this is a sound that quite a few folks covet. 

Now, I make no pretensions or assumptions about the CS-80’s sound in a physical sense. I go off demos online, blind file tests, and so forth. The asking price for the real hardware is out of the price range of a father of 3. However, this sounds close enough to the real article to my ears that I would more than go out of my way to suggest it over the alternatives. 

I’ve heard no shortage of praise for Softube’s Model 77. As a fan and long-time user of both Model 82 and Model 84, I know they can nail the sound of a synth’s character and response. I’d put The Eighty right alongside stalwart emulations like Model 84, Diva, and Repro-5 as embodying the very essence of a true vintage analog polyphonic. 

It sounds killer, to cut it short. 

Is It Worth It?

I’ll level with you folks right now. If you see it on The Laboratory, it is worth your time, energy, and disposable income. I come from a school of thought that sees the benefit of every piece of equipment you haul into a studio. Things have a purpose, however niche that may be. The Eighty is a workhorse, plain and simple. It is the boutique guitar in the recording studio you’ve booked time at to cut a serious demo. 

The 199 Euro asking price is steep, sure. However, I think the level of quality Xils has brought to the fore is the magnum opus of their output. PolyKB-III is a masterstroke I’d put on the same level as anything from u-he any day of the week. Xils-4 is an utter delight that is like trying to tame chaos with a beautiful spring reverb. 

The Eighty is something above their previous output, and something I’ll say gladly. I wholeheartedly recommend it, it is light in use with multiple instances, something even older synths like Omnisphere and Serum still struggle with. The included effects are superb. It is a lot to learn if you aren’t content preset surfing, but I’d say acquainting yourself with its operation is worth the time. 

In short, I’d say this is a must-have if you’re on the hunt for a polyphonic synth.