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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Posting Rules: Please keep your comments relevant! Do not post requests for help, do not use for sales, do not post unless you have something interesting to say about this instrument, or we may delete your post.

 

Howie P

Posted 229 days ago

Stevie Wonder used this extensively on his "Songs In The Key Of Life" and "Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants" albums.

FlametopFred

Posted 290 days ago

Another side development of this GX-1 technology resulted in the Electone flagship models, which are often overlooked. In tandem with the CS-80 was the E-70 which Pete Townsend used on some Who recordings. Similar models that share circuits and sounds to the E-70 include the E-50, the E-45, E-75 and D-85. (In the USA the model 7000 was made in America, as was the model 415) The nice thing about the Electone E-70 is that they can still be found and had for under $500 which makes for a nice alternative to the CS-80, and of course adding a synthesizer on top helps to recreate (some of) the feel of playing the mighty GX-1.

Micke

Posted 292 days ago

The mighty GX-1 has also been used by Rick Van Der Linden and the German prog/rock band Triumvirat.

Moogbass

Posted 351 days ago

One can listen to this beast here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLWH WhA2vxU

It's featured solo in the beginning. The natural delay of the arena makes for awesome listening.

kris bell

Posted 383 days ago

WOW! It's a fanastic machine. probably i should imagine the 'ultimate synthesizer' ofthe 70s maybe? Wish i had one of these beauties in my private studio.

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