It was not until 1981 that Yamaha unveiled their first commercial FM synthesizers, trailing NED by three years. Named the GS1 and the GS2, these abandoned recognisable synth facilities such as oscillators and filters, in favour of frightening new things such as multi-operator equation generators, 30kHz data rates, and digital-to-analogue converters. What's more, despite offering just two-operator algorithms, the operation of these monstrously expensive machines (the GS1 retailed for £12,000) was a complete mystery to all but the most mathematically orientated. Not that this mattered, as neither machine offered editing, each being (more or less) a preset instrument, capable of playing only the 500-odd voices supplied by Yamaha on little magnetic 'lollipop' sticks. Yet the GSs were, for a couple of years, reasonably successful. Toto, for example, layered nearly a dozen tracks of GS1 on million-selling hits such as 'Rosanna' and 'Africa', and used two of them in their live shows.
There was a good reason for this success. The sound quality and playability of the GS1 was exceptional (and the GS2 wasn't too shoddy either). But, in an otherwise pre-digital world, for most players these were hyper-expensive oddities. It's thus no surprise that Yamaha sold only around 100 or so GS1s and, in all likelihood, few more GS2s.
