Yamaha GX1, CS-80, DX7, CX5, RX5 and beyond

 

In 1887, Torakusu Yamaha , a watchmaker turned surgical equipment repair mechanic, was asked to repair a schools prized Reed Organ. Seeing the instrument's commercial potential in Japan, Yamaha produced his own functional version of the organ within a year and then set up a new business in Hamamatsu to manufacture organs for Japanese primary schools. In 1889 he established the Yamaha Organ Manufacturing Company, Japan's first maker of Western musical instruments. From these humble beginning sprang what we now know as the Yamaha Corporation.

 

Their impressive range of electronic music equipment includes the world's first polyphonic synth, the GX1 in 1974, the ground breaking CS-80 in 1976 and the DX7 in 1983. The DX7 used a revelotionary new method called "Frequency Modulation" to create incredibly rich and complex sounds. The CX5  was an MSX music computer equipped with a multi-timbral FM synth and sequencing software and the RX5  is considered one of the drum machines ever built. If you see any of them for sale grab them quick, they're getting hard to find