DX7 is 40 years old!

[elsongs]

6 hours ago, eric said:

but I found a shop in London with a couple of DX7IIFDs and their floor models had COMPLETELY DIFFERENT sounds loaded into them. I was kind of floored by the variety of sounds. It was kind of unorthodox at the time, though I finally convinced the keyboard salesperson that he needed to let me take a blank disk and copy these sounds...we finally agreed upon a dollar amount that was equivalent to $50 USD. I still have this disk somewhere (I think I hand wrote "British DX Sounds" on it). I also have copies of most of my Sound Source Unlimited sounds.

 

 

Love the pre-download days! 

After I got my DX7, I remember going to music stores with a RAM cartridge in my pocket. If I came across a floor DX7 with different patches on it than the factory set, I'd stick my RAM cartridge in and save whatever patches I liked. 

[Chummy]

I had a DX7IIFD with the infamous e! board back in the... well, 2018   

Out of the few vintage synths I used to own, including: Jupiter 6, MS-20, Poly-800, Soviet Analog keytar synth (forgot the name).

The DX7 was by far the most musical sounding to me, the most inspiring, and the one I kept coming back to the most. Happy birthday !

 

[The Real MC]

Never was a fan of FM, but I have to admire Yamaha's determination and long term outlook to make FM a profitable and practical synthesis.  It was the right product at the right time.  The DX-7 may not had been a piano or Hammond, but Yamaha delivered what customers had been demanding and left its competitors in the wake of the dust.

[DaveMcM]

I loved the DX7. The store I worked at long ago (Denny Heglin Music in Covington, KY) was a Yamaha dealer. Before Yamaha shipped the first units to the United States, they brought keyboard salesman from all over the country to Orange County, CA for an introduction and training on the DX-7 and FM in general. Gary Leuenberger and Bo Tomlin ran the session. It was intense. Here was a totally new way to mold sounds. There's more than just the FM-EP and percussive type sounds that can be created.

[ABECK]

19 hours ago, Chummy said:

I had a DX7IIFD with the infamous e! board back in the... well, 2018   

Out of the few vintage synths I used to own, including: Jupiter 6, MS-20, Poly-800, Soviet Analog keytar synth (forgot the name).

The DX7 was by far the most musical sounding to me, the most inspiring, and the one I kept coming back to the most. Happy birthday !

 

The bitimbral ability of the DX7IIFD to layer or split sounds was a huge improvement.  That alone would have probably been enough for me to have not sold my original DX when I did.  

[Reezekeys]

22 hours ago, Chummy said:

I had a DX7IIFD with the infamous e! board

 

Was the E! board for the DX7II different from the one for the original DX7? I put one in my orig DX and remember it adding a ton of features, as well as a much-expanded voice memory. No complaints from me.

[DaveMcM]

1 hour ago, Reezekeys said:

 

Was the E! board for the DX7II different from the one for the original DX7? I put one in my orig DX and remember it adding a ton of features, as well as a much-expanded voice memory. No complaints from me.

I had upgraded my original DX-7 with the E! board. I had met the guys from Grey Matter Response at NAMM. Brilliant to say the least. I had also upgraded the LCD to a backlit version. I also had the TX816. I used an Apple IIe and software called DX Pro to edit the modules. I still have the software but the IIe is long gone. I had some incredible sounding programs. I really wish I still had that unit.

[Jim Alfredson]

The Yamaha DX7 was my first synthesizer. We were poor. Very poor. My dad was a musician but he left performing behind in the early 80s and started his piano tuning / technician business. Things were really tight financially for a long time. Somehow he bought a used DX7 in 1987. I don't know how much he paid for it, but I remember him bringing it home along with a Fostex 4-track cassette recorder because he wanted to make what he called 'space music' or ambient music like on the radio program Hearts of Space.

 

I was utterly fascinated by the DX7. And since it was my first synth, I had no preconceived notions of what a synth should be, so I just learned how to use it, how to program it, how to sequence it with our C64 (wowsa!) and how to make music with it. I loved it. I still have cassette tapes of the 'music' I made on it; nothing but bleeps and bloops in those early days as I am completely self-taught and it took me awhile to figure things out.

 

We eventually sold it in 1992 or so along with an Ensoniq ESQ-1 that my dad had picked up somewhere. I really liked the ESQ-1 but we only had it for a few weeks before he decided he wanted to sell the whole rig and buy a Yamaha SY77. I was all in on that idea!

We drove to Detroit on a school night (my poor mother; she must've been livid), which is a good 3 hours round-trip from where we lived. We arrived at Crazy Eddie's to buy a floor model SY77 with cash. Eddie told my dad that the unit was at the warehouse and that he'd take payment now and we could follow him to the warehouse. My dad said, "I have a better idea. How about you go get the keyboard and we'll wait here." When Eddie refused, my dad walked. But Eddie stopped him and did what he asked. So we didn't get home until like 10pm and I had to go to school the next morning. My parents let me have 30 minutes under headphones with it before I had to turn it off and go to bed. Man, that entire day in school was like torture. All I wanted to do was get home and PLAY that thing!

 

Anyway, I still own the SY77. I came into an original brown DX7 a few years ago. A friend traded me some organ lessons for it. He bought it brand new in 1984 and used it on gigs, paying his way through college. I'm happy to have one again. It was like reuniting with an old friend.

 

I think it's hard for those that weren't there at the time to understand just how revolutionary the DX7 was. And of course I was just a kid. But with that one synth I could at least approximate the sounds I heard on all my favorite records. My dad had sold his B3 years before so the DX7 organs were my first taste of a 'Hammond like' sound. I didn't get a real tonewheel until my junior year of high school, when we were given an M3 by the school.

I could go on and on.

[elsongs]

5 hours ago, DaveMcM said:

I loved the DX7. The store I worked at long ago (Denny Heglin Music in Covington, KY) was a Yamaha dealer. Before Yamaha shipped the first units to the United States, they brought keyboard salesman from all over the country to Orange County, CA for an introduction and training on the DX-7 and FM in general. Gary Leuenberger and Bo Tomlin ran the session. It was intense. Here was a totally new way to mold sounds. There's more than just the FM-EP and percussive type sounds that can be created.

I guess you can tell people you're an alum of DXU!

[AUSSIEKEYS]

On 12/5/2023 at 8:44 AM, dazzjazz said:

As a 16 year old, I went to the launch of the DX7 in Sydney. It was demoed by an American guy whose name I cannot remember. There were a lot of professional musicians in the audience, and everyone’s jaw hit the floor. Still feels historic.

 

I was there too.

 

My jaw was trampled on. That wasnt your foot standing on it dazz?

 

If i remember rightly it was at The Music Man? I think in York St.

 

I went to a number of different releases and i cant remember which stores but The Music Man rings a bell as i had done all the design and artwork for the store and also for the single cover and promotional stuff for the band the RAZZ (american jazz standards and swing). Who the principal of the store (Con Westerberg) was a member of. I think the band was based at the store. 

 

I remember taking a used synth as part payment for the store artwork. I think it was an older Acetone synth precursor of Roland (Ace Tone PS-1000?)

 

Does The Music Man ring a bell?

 

Edit: ive just googled and found my single cover i did may have been 1981 so before this so may have been a Juno 6 or 60 or Korg Poly 6 release there? I remember buying my Korg Trident after seeing the Poly6 release.

 

Anyway curious dazz if you can remember which shop You saw the release? Sydney in those days was great for keyboard releases.

[dazzjazz]

1 hour ago, AUSSIEKEYS said:

 

I was there too.

 

My jaw was trampled on. That wasnt your foot standing on it dazz?

 

If i remember rightly it was at The Music Man? I think in York St.

 

 

Anyway curious dazz if you can remember which shop You saw the release? Sydney in those days was great for keyboard releases.

It was in North Sydney. It wasn’t a store IIRC, maybe a hotel or similar. 

[dazzjazz]

Here’s a close up of Col Nolan’s DX7. It’s a strong contender for the most beat up unit in the world that still works. It has Robin Whittle’s Real World Interfaces upgrade kit in it, which allows for full MIDI velocity amongst other things. I really haven’t had a chance to do much with it. The keyboard needs an overhaul - I’m not much of a tech so it may never get done.  Perhaps it’s time I learnt! 
 

Col was a fabulous musician but he never looked after any of his gear. It often failed on the gig as a result. 
 

 

[CEB]

The membrane appears to be in amazing shape considering the rest of the board.  Been replaced I guess???

[AUSSIEKEYS]

58 minutes ago, dazzjazz said:

It was in North Sydney. It wasn’t a store IIRC, maybe a hotel or similar. 

 

Thanks mate might have been a hotel. I frequented Turrumurra music and the Lombardis had one of their stores on the north side. Smaller shops that might had needed to hire a bigger venue.

 

Do shops now a days still do these things. Probably not due to internet coverage.

 

Edit: it may have been from yamaha direct rather than a shop. A lot of music corporations were located down the northern beaches such as Roland. Maybe yamaha itself hired a hotel venue

 

Man you got me racking my memories

[Jim Alfredson]

This plug-in is insane in terms of emulating. He just released a SID emulation as well.

 

 

[zukskywalker]

Thanks for this Time Machine! Suddenly I find myself thrust back into the 80s DX and SID in one discussion??

and OMG Plogue! Nicely done.

side story. I too was dirt poor, but crazy ambitious it must have been 1981 or thereabouts that I walked into a studio at 19th and M st. NW in downtown dc that was built out of unobtainium. The whole place was one giant synclavier and it was utterly stunning. But also utterly unobtainable.

around the same time came the fairlight (also unobtainable). Then came the DX.

and for the adventurous the SID.

 

glory days for the not rich!! I still have both.

[wineandkeyz]

I picked up a used DX7 in 1986-87 and kept it for about 10 years. I never got the hang of programming sounds from scratch, but Yamaha used to send out a (monthly? quarterly?) user's magazine called "After Touch" that included new patches you could program in. As I recall, one was a pedal steel patch that, along with an outboard chorus unit, was very useful. I also picked up a number of 3rd party patch cartridges for it.

One thing that impressed me about Yamaha at the time was how they supported the original DX7 by offering user-installable upgrades for features they had added in later models. So I bought a backlit display and a new operating chip that allowed you to store all the parameters for each patch. IIRC, originally you couldn't store data like mono/poly mode, portamento, etc., with the patch.

I ended up selling the DX7, owners manual, case, all the cartridges, and my stack of After Touch magazines to a local startup church.

[ABECK]

Aside from the contentious EP patch, this might be a good time to celebrate some of the other DX/FM contributions to popular music.

I was a big fan (pun intended) of the sound used in Fleetwood Mac's Big Love.  In the latter part of the choruses, there is a clav like patch used in a funky, descending line.  Great use of the technology, without overwhelming the song in FM tones.

 

Of course, now that I listen to it more critically, that could be something like an ovation....shit, I could be wrong.  

 

 

[eric]

18 minutes ago, ABECK said:

Aside from the contentious EP patch, this might be a good time to celebrate some of the other DX/FM contributions to popular music.

I was a big fan (pun intended) of the sound used in Fleetwood Mac's Big Love.  In the latter part of the choruses, there is a clav like patch used in a funky, descending line.  Great use of the technology, without overwhelming the song in FM tones.

 

Of course, now that I listen to it more critically, that could be something like an ovation....shit, I could be wrong.  

 

 

I'd forgotten this song. Christine McVie (RIP) has her DX7 atop a single tier setup Invisible keyboard stand, which is about as '80s as it gets. That clav sound does sound very much like DX7 and similar to the one in Money For Nothing (though I think Guy Fletcher's sound was a bit more metallic).

[Paul Woodward]

A few more in context: 

 

 

[kpl1228]

The core of my 80's live setup. Eventually liked the live performance layout of the DX so much that I eventually got KX88 and KX76 as controllers. Despite the obvious misery of programming and live editing with a stupid data slider and tiny (unlit) screen, the DX7 was indeed THE warhorse. Dependable and if midi'd with an analog synth to make up for the lack of analog punch, quite potent for just about anything.

Easy to rip on it 40 years after the fact. The thing was a godsend, especially on the plucked/EP front, in so many ways. Way lighter and temeramental than a !@#$%^&* Rhodes.

[JoJoB3]

Here's to another 40 of a synth sitting untouched in attics or closets around the nation!

 

[CEB]

Without the DX7 there would not have been a SY99 or EX5.  

[CHarrell]

On 12/4/2023 at 8:59 AM, Bill H. said:

But somehow American Music had connections, and I got one from them a few weeks later - plus a 10% discount! 

 

 

Wait, did you live in Seattle?

[ProfD]

1 hour ago, JoJoB3 said:

Here's to another 40 of a synth sitting untouched in attics or closets around the nation!

There's quite a few of them sitting in pawn shops and used gear music stores too.🤣😎

[Jim Alfredson]

On 12/13/2023 at 2:30 PM, kpl1228 said:

Easy to rip on it 40 years after the fact.

 

Like anything that was extremely popular and thus over-used / over-exposed, the hatred towards FM and the DX7 sound goes back a long way. The DX7 is the Phil Collins of synths. Every where in the 80s / early 90s, mocked and ridiculed in the late 90s and 2000s, and now finally appreciated again.

 

[Outkaster]

11 hours ago, Jim Alfredson said:

 

Like anything that was extremely popular and thus over-used / over-exposed, the hatred towards FM and the DX7 sound goes back a long way. The DX7 is the Phil Collins of synths. Every where in the 80s / early 90s, mocked and ridiculed in the late 90s and 2000s, and now finally appreciated again.

 

Excellent way to put it. 

[Bill H.]

On 12/13/2023 at 2:03 PM, CHarrell said:

 

Wait, did you live in Seattle?

From 1965 until 1984. Like I said, it was several lifetimes ago. 

[CHarrell]

12 minutes ago, Bill H. said:

From 1965 until 1984. Like I said, it was several lifetimes ago. 

 

Woooow. Well, maybe it would surprise you, maybe it wouldn't, but it's still the best gear spot in town!

[allan_evett]

Early DX7 owner here; sold mine in the early 90s.  Though I played the often overused EP sound (so much cover material essentially required that), I bought some 3rd-party sounds that emulated Wurlitzer EP and even acoustic piano capably (for the time, anyway...).  It sure beat hauling extremely heavy hardware to gigs. Except for rock gigs - especially with a long-term originals act, I left my CP70 in a friend's studio. My jobbing rig for several years was a DX7 with a Korg DW-8000 above. I preferred the DW for synth leads, strings, brassy stabs and so forth. And there were a handful of songs on which the DW's EP sound had more soul and warmth, at least to my ears. 

 

I was enamored by the 'doubled-up' sound capabilities of the DX7 II FD, but by that time had started using a 76-key Roland JX-10 on the bottom tier - MIDI'ing that to a Yamaha TX-1P piano module (which I still own). So I opted for a TX802, and ran it through  Lexicon LXP1 and LXP5 effects modules. It was my much-simpler version of the TX816 rack system run through higher-end Lexicon gear, something that I'd seen popping up in Chicago A-list session player's rigs. Still sounded great though; and I kept that combination til at least 2006. Got some insanely big sounds layering the TX802 with the JX-10, and later with a Roland MKS-80 (Super Jupiter module) and Emu Proteus rack - among other goodies.

 

It was truly the age of massive gear, between stacks of keyboards and racks that almost looked like telephone booths. But moving forward 20+ years, I recall when Tears for Fears went out on tour, a decade or so ago. Cj Vanston - a former 1980's Chicago session guy who was super helpful to me in learning synths - got the call to cover keys. Many of us were curious as to the contents of the gear rack(s) he might be taking out for that gig. IIRC, the rig turned out to be a Yamaha S90ES and Korg CX-3, both running into a pair of MacBook Pros that were set up to be virtual racks (via MainStage).