“- Emerson broke his first gx-1” Yep, that’s about right

"Yeah-ma-ha"

Actually, the GX-1 was a production model, the flagship of Yamaha's Electone electronic organ line and that is the market it was primarily aimed at, the professional organ market. Permanent installations in sports arenas, churches and the like. That is why the instrument came with its own custom set of speakers (not shown in the video). At some point someone in the Yamaha marketing department figured out they might be able to sell a few of these to really rich rock musicians, and they did.

Fun fact: The Soviets built a replica of it. They called it Gorky Synthesizer. It took them 5 years of reverse engineering until they produced a kind of modernized version which was easier programmable. Sadly this was only the private project of some Russian Air Force general. One machine ended up in Eastern Berlin after the wall came down and was sold in 1993 by a soldier who thought it was just an old organ. It still survives somewhere in Europe I heard from a friend of a friend. Probably the only machine of that kind.

In Through the Out Door is my favorite Zeppelin album because of Jones's great synth tones and playing on that album. This thing was a trailblazer, and the warmth that comes out of it is killer.

Fun fact: In a tour of RMVstudio, which houses the ABBA GX-1, the studio technician claim that GX-1 used by Led Zeppelin on their last album was actually Benny's, and they still have the Kashmir string sound saved on a memory card in the studio.

I had a temp job at Yamaha back in 1981 and ventured into the keyboard tech repair room a few times and saw this beast set up and didn't realize what I was looking at. I was more into their guitars at the time. Well anyway I was up close and personal with one of the ten made.

For how big and how rare the GX-1 is, it's amazing the number of musicians that got their hands on one. The video mentioned some and who were very important, but I can also add on Rick van der Linden of Ekseption and Trace, and Jürgen Fritz of Triumvirat. Rick recorded basically a GX-1 demonstration album in 1977 called GX-1 (what else!) and Jürgen used one on Triumvirat's Pompeii. I guess since Emerson was a big idol for Fritz that he decided to follow in his footsteps and purchase a GX-1. I'm not surprised to see those guys not mentioned given they're not a so recognized to the public in general. Much more recently Mattias Olsson of the prog rock band Änglagård acquired one and featured in his Roth Händle Studios. I believe his once belonged to Benny Andersson, which is hardly a surprise given both are Swedish.

The gx is POLYPHONIC. I see...

Was waiting for the aphex shout out

It's incredible the high quality of your videos! Congratulations, it's awesome to see this kind of stuff on youtube these days!

Both those pieces from 'All of my love' and 'Lay all your love on me' are always in my head and I used to hum it.. Such a valuable info guys! Thank you so much! Hugs!!! :)

Polyphonic, you're the real Dream Machine.

What Aphex Twin did with the GX-1 was SICK!

Love your video essays man! Thanks for all the effort!

One of my favorite new channels. Keep it up man!

I can't imagine how much work you must put in vidéos. Thx you for doing it!!!

Dude, your videos are pure gold 💗

Damn, this was a great video. Solid work, Mr. P.

You deserve so many more subs man :) great channel, keep it up!

Awesome video, as usual!!! Greetings from Brazil!!!

I absolutely love your channel man! So well written and produced. It's entertaining and educational. Love it. How do you feel about modern metal/metalcore/screamo type stuff? My favorite band of all time is Underoath and I truly believe that Aaron Gillespie is an individual worth talking about!

It was called the "Dream Machine" not just because it had three keyboards that allowed you to layer sounds on top of one another, but the nickname also came from the fact it was so heavy to lug around (especially with its available accessories) and thus too pricey (at $60 grand in 1976!) for most musicians to think of buying. Consequently, only less than 100 were known to have been made. If anyone finds a GX-1 today, expect to pay over $300,000 for one in good shape.

Keep making these!!

Dude thank you so much for this awesome video .

My guitarist used to own a Yamaha SK-50. It was a fun keyboard to play. You could definitely get GX-1 type sounds on the SK series keyboards because they share similar circuitry, that is if you're looking that sound but with a far cheaper alternative. We definitely didn't find much use for it in what we did musically. Otherwise we would've kept it, but it's certainly a super versatile polysynth.

"Emerson broke his GX-1..." That's apparently a bit of an understatement. According to Wikipedia, it got ran over by an "out of control" tractor. I'd really like to know the story behind that.

The guitar effects on ‘Fanfare For The Common Man ‘ were in produced by Greg Lake’s Alembic 8 string bass .

Cherry Audio has recenty introduced the GX-80 softsynth. This is a CS-80 clone that also includes many GX-1 extra features. So if you're dying to own one, than $50 will get you a pretty usable version of it. That's what 50 years of technology can do.

Why not play GX-1 sounds as background music...

Yes, the Zimmer one was ELP's one. My friend was drooling on it. If you need a GX-1 repair, he's the one you need ^^!

So that's how they got that 🎺sound on All of my Love! Great channel btw.

haha.... he said YAMaha.....

damn this channel is sooo good

Polyphonic has done it again! I learned something. Thank you

Nice video keep it up👍

cool video ! it was all new information for me. never heard of that thing before.

The synth is even more influential than the video notes, since it contained not only a CS-80 but an early version as well of the DX7.

Great video! It's hard to estimate how many were made given the fact that individual instruments changed owners more than once. There is a GX-1 in Yamaha's museum in Hamamatsu, I heard there is one in Tokyo too. Gordon Reid ownes one and I happen to know what he paid for it. I can tell you it was much less than 60 grand. The Shah of Persia had one (or was that an HX-1?), Cat Stevens used one but I don't know if he was the owner. You forgot to tell that it had a rhythm box. A very decent one. Listen to it on Rick van der Linden's GX-1.

I bought the Tuss album by Richard D James back when his label was still insisting it was someone else, but because he used that synth and he was one of the few people to own one people knew it was him. Now that record is worth like $300, so Id like to thank the dream machine for that one.

Was hoping you'd mention RDJ, great vid :)

It will always be about Fanfare for the Common Man and Keith for me. What a titanic sound he made with that thing. The other guys are awesome too, of course, as is the music they made with it.

EXcellent ... thanx for the class.

Great, informative video

It was also called the "dream machine" because of just how expensive the beast is!

Keep it up man this some good ass content

Amazing lesson 👏 bravo

Incredible video 😎

The thing you have to realize is that the GX-1 was incredibly advanced for the time of its creation.

If you want to get your hands on one, get the Arturia version of the CS-80. You'll love it! Of all the Arturia virtual synths, their CS-80 is my favorite.

What can you say Yamaha make great synths. There was so many good synths made in the 70s and 80s by Yamaha,Roland,pro one, emax,wasp etc. They was the best time for synths.

“Yeah-MaHa!” “Vye-braato.”

Would've liked to know how it works and why it is so unique in a more detailed way, instead of just you telling us who used it. But that's just my opinion, keep up the good work :)

i got goosebumps at abba ...i love your videos please make more

Great video man! The retro visual effect when songs played was a bit too prominent though

Yes Hans Zimmer did buy Keith Emerson's rebuilt GX-1. He doesn't have it anymore. Did a bunch of samples then sold it.

Love that Stevie Wonder story that opens this video! :)

I recommend doing a video essay on The Velvet Underground

It was really a development on from the equally legendary EX-42 electronic organ. You’ll find some vids demonstrating that here on KZfaq (e.g. Miguel Kertsman’s channel). What was a “synth” and what was an “organ”? Yamaha, being the consummate maker of musical instruments that they were, blurred the boundaries ...

This shit be lit yo' Keep it up dude!

mad props for the aphex twin reference

Nice video! Do one on Zombies Odissey and Oracle!!

Hey, great video! I would love to see a video on Vangelis or Jean Michel Jarre one day.

I don't even like Aphex Twin, but I'd be damned if I said that dude wasn't creative as hell with everything he did

Your channel is goiing to blow up

h yes, the album "The secret life of plants" is full of those GX1 strings. Lovely.

There was a replication of this synth in Las Vegas at Madame Tussauds inside Venation Casino. It was maybe 2007 and The Stevie Wonder wax figure was displayed sitting on the synth.

Could you put a list of the albums, songs, and artists mentioned in the description of the video? That would be super helpful, thanks!

what a nice expression SynthSoundScape is

Love your vids. So much Canadian goodness Yeahmaha

In 1980s I have noticed the name 'Electone GX' on certain album's description; now only I realize that it meant Yamaha GX-1.....

I look forward to your video on The Doors.

Announcer: "A ribbon controller..." Editor: *Zooms in on literally the most empty part of its face.*

Can you do a video about atomic platters? I feel its a genre of music everyone should know about.

The way you pronounced Yamaha makes me think of Fargo. "Go Bears"

Jesus, now I actually NEED to experiment much more with my Cherry Audio GX-80 virtual synthesizer...

Keith Emerson dubbed the GX-1 the roadies nightmare as it weighed over 600 lbs and was stressful to move.

Impressive you managed to make that without saying the word Electone or mentioning that its an organ lol

John Paul Jones used the GX-1 at Knebworth, but on the 1980 Tour Over Europe, he used two Fairlights. Jonesy sold his GX-1 to Keith Emerson.

Great!

Was it also one of the first programmable synths? The buttons up top looks like they can recall saved voices? That would be a HUGE asset for touring musicians of the day!

Thank you for a great video! Next time though? It's YA-MA-HA, not JEM-aha!

Just listened to ELP's Fanfare for the Common Man.. And that keyboard instrument sounds so "warm", so "real". I don't know... like it was an actual musical instrument of some kind. Nothing that came after it to this day has the same musicality, breathiness, ooomf. I don't know how else to describe it.

What is that percussive sound in the right channel that can be heard in the entire video?

"One of the most important synthesizers ever made"........well, yes and no: It was technologically important in the sense that it paved the way for other polyphonic synthesizers but it was too expensive and too rare to be of artistic importance. Even though Emerson, Wonder, and Anderson used it frequently it is still only a very small fraction of the 1970s synth scene.

How does these suggestions pop up, but you had me at all the keys, switches, buttons, and knobs.

Yemeha! What a pronunciation!

The tuss is my absolute favorite

Richard has recently given his GX1 to Colin Fraser, the guy who created the CIRKLON sequencer. Nice gift. Goes to show how much he fucking loves his CIRKLON...

Quick note, In Through The Out Door was not Zeppelin's Final Album, as it was released in '79. Coda was released in '82, 2 years after Bonham's Passing. It was released due to the large amount of bootleg recordings, Jimmy Page said "Coda was released, basically, because there was so much bootleg stuff out. We thought, "Well, if there's that much interest, then we may as well put the rest of our studio stuff out."

He would go to collaborate with Ray Kurzwiel in developing the first Kurzwiel keyboard the first attempt at sampling

A friend of mine had a GX-1, he bought it at a garage sale. (No joke!) Somehow the Yamaha store here acquired one & it was 'supposed' to eventually be sent back to Japan, but never made the return trip. My friend bought it & sat on it for 20+ years. Eventually decided to offload it & ended up in negotiations with a relatively unknown synth-nut named Pete Townsend!! Sadly, Pete found another one closer to home & didn't buy my friend's unit, but it was eventually sold to an anonymous U.S. collector.

Japan's children's organ group JOC used this many times in their compositions during the 70s.

I love your channel Man!

One thing you got wrong (cant blame you cos its truly obscure) - several dozen of these were made and they were prominent in Yamaha's recording facilities in Japan. However only a handful were ever exported. Weirdly several to Australia.

Greg Phillinganes brought me here! Shout out to the Quest Love Supreme Podcast!!

Stevie!!!

Oh wow. Your channel is awesome. As a synth-nerd, instant subscribe! :)

I think you should do a video on the Prophet 5!

Where can I find that B&W graphic shown in the video (at 6:54 and other places) that names all the different controls?