By the 1970s, Yamaha knew synthesis was the future of the pro keyboard market. Prior to the CS-80, they had stuck two rather different toes in this water: the compact, monophonic SY-1 and the titanic GX-1. The latter looked like a large console organ with three manuals and pedals, and only a few major stars ponied up the $60,000 price. But those stars included Keith Emerson, Stevie Wonder, and John Paul Jones, and they loved theirs. The “concept car” was a success, and it was time for the production model.

Yamaha released the CS-80 in 1976, beating some major American polysynths to market by a year and more. It shoehorned the same voice architecture and circuits as the GX-1 into a more transportable (200 lbs.) design that folded into its own road case. At $6,900 it was by no means cheap, but even after other synths made polyphony and multi-oscillator sound lighter and more affordable, the CS-80 was still considered a Rolls-Royce of analog synths for accomplished musicians.

Where most other pro-level polyphonic synths’ voices ran two oscillators into a common filter and VCA, the CS-80 opted for two complete, parallel synthesis chains: VCO, VCF, VCA, and touch response settings for the keyboard. In a way, this made the CS-80 the first multi-timbral poly synth, though you could only mix the two timbres, not split them on the keyboard.

The CS-80 found itself in the hands of many now-iconic artists including Tony Banks of Genesis and Peter Gabriel in his solo work. Michael Jackson famously played one himself on “Billie Jean.” Toto used a CS to great effect on the keyboard solo of “Rosanna” and the “Dune” soundtrack. But it was Greek composer Vangelis who would truly immortalize the CS-80 in the scores to “Chariots of Fire” and “Blade Runner.”