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speaking of playing to no one...........


Delaware Dave

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OK, what is that monstrous Yamaha he's playing? New to me.

 

GX1?

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I'd never seen one before. Must have been a gap in my keyboard education.

 

EDIT: Wikipedia says "The GX-1 console weighs 300 kg. The pedalboard and stand add 87 kg, and each of its tube-powered speakers, four of which can be connected to the GX-1, weighs 141 kg (Which together equals a total of 951 kg, or 2096 lb)."

 

Later on, they call it a "roadie's nightmare". No kidding.

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Playing a sound check.

Harry Likas was the Technical Editor of Mark Levine's "The Jazz Theory Book" and helped develop "The Jazz Piano Book." Find 700 of Harry’s piano arrangements of standards for educational purposes and jazz piano tutorials at www.Patreon.com/HarryLikas

 

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Playing a sound check.

 

And a very well documented sound check indeed, with at least three cameras recording the thing for some reason. Listening over phones, there also appears to be some subtle overdubbing here and there to beef up the sound of the GX1.

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Dudes, the studio track is playing.

 

I had it memorized note for note, lick for lick at one time. The overdubbed tympanii during the groove are a dead giveaway, as is the note for note solos and the end when they abruptly cut away before the fadeout.

 

Notice when Emo solos on the top mini board that the keys also move side to side. Super expressive for the mono voice it controlled.

Moe

---

 

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It's a tight race re: which Yamaha made fewer of -- GX-1 or DX-1. The former cost as much as a house. The latter, as much as a car.

 

Presets were programmed by opening a little slidey drawer with a miniaturized set of all the knobs and switches. You picked presets by pressing the between-manual buttons, like pipe organ pistons.

 

For expressivity, in addition to the side-wiggled third manual, there was also a knee lever like old harmoniums (and combo compacts) used to have.

 

As I recall, Emerson's GX-1 was worn out / unplayable, and Jones called him up and said "I have this thing in my basement where I want to put a couch instead. Do you want it?"

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I was in England in, I think, 1983 - and I ran into a GS1 in a department store. I remember the little magnetic strips that had the patches. It was my first exposure to FM synthesis (I believe the DX7 came out a year later). I remember being quite impressed with the sound, which makes sense since I had only experienced subtractive synths up until then Prophet 5s and Oberheims mainly.

 

An interesting period piece which may have value as a collectible, but I don't think it can make any FM-synthesised sounds that a DX7 or any DX-modelled plugin can't make. Not to mention it's a preset instrument with a few performance controls if those magnetic voice strips deteriorate, or the mechanism that reads them fails, good luck.

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I believe there were a few GX-1s in Asia. Notably owned by a few musicians in Japan, and some in SE Asia and China (I think there was 1 owner in Indonesia, Im not joking).

The Yamaha E70 has similar sounds on board, and it is editable too.

It sounds more like an organ, but it still is nice. The GX-1 was used in ABBAs last albums from 1979-1983 a whole lot, even replacing string and horn sections which was impossible to do at the time for most people who only were starting to buy Prophet-5 and OB-X and CS-60 synths at the time. Unfortunately I cant think of other songs that have GX-1.

Heres a GX-1 demo with synth sounds

A little cheesy, but here you go.

Yamaha MX49, Casio SK1/WK-7600, Korg Minilogue, Alesis SR-16, Casio CT-X3000, FL Studio, many VSTs, percussion, woodwinds, strings, and sound effects.
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Some more GX-1

ABBA: Benny Andersson

The Day Before You Came:

Super Trouper:

Voulez-Vous:

On And On And On:

You Owe Me One:

Under Attack:

I Am The City:

Just Like That: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4gs7VNHuMJU

Hovas Vittne: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ODpYVFpCw0w

Theres a lot of GX1, Polymoog, CS-80, and OB-Xa for the synths. Mostly GX1 in these songs.

Yamaha MX49, Casio SK1/WK-7600, Korg Minilogue, Alesis SR-16, Casio CT-X3000, FL Studio, many VSTs, percussion, woodwinds, strings, and sound effects.
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