Members WhinyLittleRunt Posted May 8, 2004 Members Share Posted May 8, 2004 Hopefully someone can provide some infor for me on this one; I've searched the interent for what I thought it would be but came up empty-handed... I've always tried to recreate the trumpet/brass sound from toto's Africa, and yet every time I see the video the guy is playing a yamaha electric piano to make those sounds. I have researched pics and specs on Yamaha electric pianos but none ever came up looking like the one I've seen in the video. I thought it might be a cp-70 but it doesn't look anything like it. Controls look closest to a cp-80 but the one I saw was a wood finish. By the way, I'm not really going out on a limb to recreate the sound; I'm sure I can do it with any synth using a brass patch. I just wanted to know what the hell kind of Yammie piano that is in the video! Any help, I'd appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ChetSinger Posted May 9, 2004 Members Share Posted May 9, 2004 It may be a Yamaha GS-1. I remember that a GS-1 was credited on that Toto album. The GS-1 was a non-programmable FM synth that came out a couple of years before the DX7. It had a magnetic strip reader for loading pre-programmed sounds. It came in big wooden case, and could be confused with a piano. It, along with the GS-2, introduced the FM bells, brass, and EPs that we take for granted today. Although the GS-1 had a new sound, it was extremely expensive ($16,000 if I remember right), and didn't sell well. Chet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WhinyLittleRunt Posted May 9, 2004 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2004 Originally posted by ChetSinger It may be a Yamaha GS-1. I remember that a GS-1 was credited on that Toto album. Yup. That's the one. Looks exactly like the one in the video, I searched it out online. Cool, thanks bro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WhinyLittleRunt Posted May 9, 2004 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2004 I read up on it and it is actually an early DX-7 basically. I own a DX-7 and maybe I can get the DX Brass patch on my synth and play Africa for real Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members eric Posted May 9, 2004 Members Share Posted May 9, 2004 I'm pretty sure I read an article with Toto in Keyboard mag and the Africa brass pad was done with a Yamaha CS80. I'll look it up and let you know. Great song. Regards,Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WhinyLittleRunt Posted May 9, 2004 Author Members Share Posted May 9, 2004 It's funny you said that because I was thinking that they used a CS-80 also. It's when I saw the video and he was playing the gs-1 that I figured that it was used for that, seeing how he was playing the chords to the brass. If you do happen to find the article, let me know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Meriphew Posted May 10, 2004 Members Share Posted May 10, 2004 I think they used a Jupiter 8 pretty heavily around that time, though I don't know about that song in particular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members eric Posted May 10, 2004 Members Share Posted May 10, 2004 Here's the definitive scoop from Oct 82 issue of Keyboard mag Toto interview. Keyboard Editor: What else is going on in "Africa"? David Paich: The kalimba is all done with the GS1. It's six tracks of GS1 playing different rhythms. There's a high organ sound that's GS1, and I wrote the song on CS-80, so that plays the main part of the entire tune. Mystery solved! Regards,Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the_resonator Posted May 10, 2004 Members Share Posted May 10, 2004 i hear the raa-ainnn down in afffrica-a-aaaaaaaaaaa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members yelsou Posted May 11, 2004 Members Share Posted May 11, 2004 Speaking of TOTO here is an interesting tidbit, In an interview with Keyboard Magazine, David Paich and Steve Porcaro discuss how the keyboard solo in "Rosanna" was created: Paich: It's a combination of both of us playing. It's mainly Steve, but we both start at the beginning. When we were doing that song we found we had to put a solo in the middle of it. It was a question of what do we do now. Steve has always said we should use our imaginations. So I kind of started out with trying to incorporate everything we have at our home studio. Instead of doing a regular Wurlitzer or Hammond solo we decided to try different things. We started playing lines and finally sat down and Steve wrote out the initial basis for the solo that you hear now played mostly on the modular system. Porcaro: It's actually a hilarious story. We thought about how to do that solo for weeks, and it all came together one day at five in the morning. Paich: When you hear the opening lines, that's Steve playing a modular trumpet sound. Then we knew we wanted a sequence running down so I programmed a little thing into the Micro-Composer that Steve dropped into the solo. Then there's a Minimoog part, and at the end it's a combination of Steve and I both playing CS-80s, Prophets, a Hammond organ, and a GS1. Porcaro: There's even a line in there that was from an older solo that David did which I forgot to erase. It was a very pieced-together solo. It was a great example of what can happen when two keyboard players get together and start messing around with technology. You get stuff that you don't plan on getting. Everything was written out and then the written-out stuff was abandoned. It's the right combination of discipline and non-discipline. It's also a good example of what can happen when you're not stuck in a studio with a bunch of people hanging over you saying, "Okay, let's do the keyboard solo now." We did it at home, and I was able to spend a couple of weeks at it. The way it happened wasn't in the norm at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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