Vintage Synth Explorer

Yamaha • GX-1

The GX-1 was Yamaha's first big polyphonic analog synth, and it was a beast! Considered the predecessor to the CS-80 (another huge poly-synth), the GX-1 featured a triple-tiered keyboard, pedalboard, ribbon controller, eight polyphonic voices, chromed pedestals and a $50,000+ price tag! OK, so it wasn't designed for your everyday musician - less than 10 were ever made and have been owned mostly by legendary synth/keyboard players including Keith Emmerson, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, Rick Wright, George Fleury, Richard James of Aphex Twin, ABBA, and Hans Zimmer who bought Keith Emmerson's.

Although it may look like an organ at first glance, it's all analog heaven inside! The two main keyboards have 61 (velocity sensitive!) keys each, and are supplemented by a smaller (3/4 scale, pressure sensitive) 37-note keyboard and a 25-note pedalboard at your feet - 184 keys total! Eight voices of polyphony plus an additional monophonic are available and can be shared and layered or split up among the different keyboards. There are also organ-style drawbars and a ribbon controller for tweaking the sounds. Additional programming buttons are hidden away under drawers and panels on the front-panel.

The GX-1 used two analog oscillators per voice which are pretty much the same one's used later in the CS-80, along with a mild 2-pole VCF filter, standard LFO and some ADSR envelopes. The GX-1 also had two "swell" pedals and a spring-loaded knee controller. It was truly a lush synth for its time, and its frequent use by many rock-legends helped cement its place in history as well as pave the way for the legendary CS-80.

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Sean

Posted 16 days ago

"Keith Emerson that he bought John Paul Jones's GX-1 to replace his own"

True.
Then Keith sold this GX1 to Hans Zimmer, who in turn sold it later. Quote from H.Z. himself : "I just sold my Yamaha GX1 because I have a great remplacement with Arturia's CS-80V."

Sean

Posted 16 days ago

"While I've never played one, I've listened to 'Pirates' quite a lot and tried to emulate those sounds without any great success. And I have seen Keith Emerson (who I hold in high regard) say, "nothing else makes THAT sound" - and I believe him."

Actually, on the recent Emerson & Lake US tour, Keith used the Arturia Origin to recreate the GX1 sounds for the 'Pirates' intro (sounds kindly re-programmed by Drew Neumann).

Scott

Posted 104 days ago

Jim, the beauty of music and instruments is that everything is subjective. You are absolutely entitled to your own opinion. While I've never played one, I've listened to 'Pirates' quite a lot and tried to emulate those sounds without any great success. And I have seen Keith Emerson (who I hold in high regard) say, "nothing else makes THAT sound" - and I believe him.

Even if evaluated only as a "test bed", the fact that it paved the way for (my personal "ultimate" synth) the CS80 makes it worthwhile.

If you search the net for GX1 Gentle Giant, you'll find an amazing two part article by a fellow who found one in Australia, bought it and had it moved to England, quite an interesting story.

John Bowen

Posted 171 days ago

I remember reading in Keyboard Magazine in 1988 in an article interviewing Keith Emerson that he bought John Paul Jones's GX-1 to replace his own that was badly damaged after being struck by a tractor on Emo's farm in England.

Gavin

Posted 226 days ago

Wow. It is a silvery silky smooth console with a lot of buttons and keys... last thing I remember when stepping in......

A true transporter of time.

Incredible.

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