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Yamaha’s DX7 synthesiser changed modern music

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Re: Yamaha’s DX7 synthesiser changed modern music

#41

Post by ratww »

jdontillman wrote: post #31
Exmoor wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would agree that the DX7's sound is really dated has honestly really negatively impacted some of my favorite songs recorded in the the 1980's [0][1], but I really cannot think of an specific instrument as distinctive and widespread as it. The Telecaster and Stratocaster were very popular, but it's very tough to pick them out in a recording from other types of electric guitars. Hammond Organs are distinct and popula…

"Hammond Organs are distinct and popular, but nowhere near as ubiquitous as the DX7." Dude... There were about 200,000 DX7s manufactured. There were about 2 million Hammond Organs manufactured.

And Hammond Organs never went out of style.

...okay, maybe in the 80s. But in the 90s/2000s they were back in full force.

One of the best concerts of my life was The Mars Volta in the early 2000s, and Ikey, the keyboard player (RIP) left me speechless with his Hammond soloing.

Re: Yamaha’s DX7 synthesiser changed modern music

#42

Post by ratww »

alisonatwork wrote: post #30
scoopdewoop wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say that roland drum machines and bass synths would be up there, especially in the past 30 years.

I think the TR-808 is the only one that might qualify. Although there are loads of synthesizers that were extremely influential in the industry and are immediately recognizable to hardcore synth fans (M1, D-50, Prophet 5, TB-303, Minimoog etc), I doubt there are many that the average listener would consider to be "distinctive". This is what makes the TR-808 special, I think, even though there are lots of other drum m…

> I think the TR-808 is the only one that might qualify.

Only? No way! :D

The Roland TR-909 is also extremely popular and was considered the sound of techno and house even after the TR-808 started to fade outside hip-hop. In the mid-90s it was one of the first drum machines to start being cloned by new manufacturers due to the demand. The bass drum is still used as the foundation for a lot of EDM. It never went away... while the 808 which is back but was considered passé even in hip-hop for a short while.

The TB-303 Bass Synth is also extremely sought after. It was the sound of Acid House in the late 80s and was also a mainstay in the 90s for a lot of producers, even though it's limited. Today it's kind of a novelty but you still hear it in some tracks. More recently Behringer made a clone and Roland reissued it.

Both of those two got in the vernacular of EDM fans at the time.

Also the TR-606 has some cult status due to being used by artists like Autechre, Aphex Twin and Plastikman among others, which are sort of "musician's musicians" among the electronic music crowd, although it wasn't as famous as 303/808/909 among general listeners.

Re: Yamaha’s DX7 synthesiser changed modern music

#43

Post by ratww »

klodolph wrote: post #22
Exmoor wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would agree that the DX7's sound is really dated has honestly really negatively impacted some of my favorite songs recorded in the the 1980's [0][1], but I really cannot think of an specific instrument as distinctive and widespread as it. The Telecaster and Stratocaster were very popular, but it's very tough to pick them out in a recording from other types of electric guitars. Hammond Organs are distinct and popula…

I don’t think it’s that hard to pick out a Strat or Tele in a recording, they both have fairly unique sounds and the only guitars which sound like them are direct clones. At least at low to medium gain levels, but that’s where Strats and Teles are mostly used.

Agreed 100%.

Teles are easy to pick out in country tunes, and guitar-based country sounds very different when people use something else.

Same for Strats in blues-infused pop. I'm not a super fan but a lot of young people today would recognise the sound of John Mayer's clean Strat tones in pop-blues, for instance.

Re: Yamaha’s DX7 synthesiser changed modern music

#44

Post by ratww »

brudgers wrote: post #25
Exmoor wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would agree that the DX7's sound is really dated has honestly really negatively impacted some of my favorite songs recorded in the the 1980's [0][1], but I really cannot think of an specific instrument as distinctive and widespread as it. The Telecaster and Stratocaster were very popular, but it's very tough to pick them out in a recording from other types of electric guitars. Hammond Organs are distinct and popula…

The Rickenbacker 360 comes to mind in the context of distinctive guitar sounds.

I'd add that both the Rickenbacker 360 and the Rickenbacker 360/12 are very distinctive, each one in a different way.

Re: Yamaha’s DX7 synthesiser changed modern music

#45

Post by ratww »

ninjin wrote: post #17
httpsterio wrote: post #11

FM (frequency modulating) synthesis in itself was rather groundbreaking. Typically when we're talking about creating sounds, we mainly had additive and subtractive synthesis where stacking oscillators were used to shape sounds. FM uses oscillators to manipulate other oscillator's waveforms, which opened up a whole lot of new possibilities. The DX7 mainly was an affordable all-rounder that got loaded with a ton of alr…

Indeed, the Genesis (aka Mega Drive) brought a sound very different from what was around at the time. As an example, here is the rendition of the Battletoads soundtrack for the NES [1] which you can compare to the Genesis version [2]. Both by legend David Wise [3] of later Donkey Kong Country fame. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCFqF-IeeAk [2]: https://archive.org/details/md_music_battletoads/ [3]: https://en.…

For FM sounds I really enjoy the Neo Geo soundtracks of the 90s: Fatal Fury, The King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown.

They were a combination of FM and early sample chips, but all super tasteful (as far as 90s game soundtracks go!) and exploiting the maximum of the chips.

Re: Yamaha’s DX7 synthesiser changed modern music

#46

Post by tgv »

davtbaum wrote: post #2

The DX7 can lay claim to being one of the most important advances in the history of modern popular music. Perhaps not since Leo Fender attached a pick-up to a six-string in 1949 Statements like this are, exaggerated, to say the least. While the DX7 is undoubtedly prolific in 80s pop, it was just a synth that was successful for its price point (and timing!) as called out in the article. Case in point that today, nearl…

The DX series is having a bit of a revival: Yamaha's Reface, Korg's Volca, and a few others. The DX are also in demand again: not so long ago I bought a TX7 for around $75, now they sell for $350. The DX100/DX27 is also desired by quite a few, it seems.

There are multiple reasons, I think: - analog got popular again because bands started using it again when the prices dropped (due to digital tech, of course) - classic synths are vulnerable, making them decent investement objects, thus pushing the price, and making them more coveted than they deserve - that left only cheap digital synths for players bands without money, much like the 303, 808 and 909 back in the day (speaking of synths that changed music...) - which makes them desirable for the trend-followers, like analog 10 years ago. - the DX series fits better in modern music than something like the early Roland romplers with their super-cheesy sound.

Re: Yamaha’s DX7 synthesiser changed modern music

#47

Post by alisonatwork »

ratww wrote: post #42
alisonatwork wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the TR-808 is the only one that might qualify. Although there are loads of synthesizers that were extremely influential in the industry and are immediately recognizable to hardcore synth fans (M1, D-50, Prophet 5, TB-303, Minimoog etc), I doubt there are many that the average listener would consider to be "distinctive". This is what makes the TR-808 special, I think, even though there are lots of other drum m…

> I think the TR-808 is the only one that might qualify. Only? No way! :D The Roland TR-909 is also extremely popular and was considered the sound of techno and house even after the TR-808 started to fade outside hip-hop. In the mid-90s it was one of the first drum machines to start being cloned by new manufacturers due to the demand. The bass drum is still used as the foundation for a lot of EDM. It never went away.…

I think this is where the conversation starts to get a bit far away from the original topic, which was about how the DX7 changed modern music.

I am also a big fan of electronic music and owned several of the x0x synths, but they're only really recognizable to people who are already into synths. Of course if you play an 808 and 909 next to one another, they don't sound the same. But if you play a random piece of music and ask a casual listener what drum machine it features, I don't think they would be able to tell you. (Unless, perhaps, it's an 808!)

Even something that synth nuts know to be as unique and genre-defining as a TB-303, to the casual listener it isn't distinguishable from an SH-101 or any other analog monosynth. People might know what an acid line sounds like, but they don't tend to have the same kind of ear that musicians do to be able to spot one synth model from the other in the final mix.

When I think about a synth so distinctive and widespread that it changed modern music, I think about something that average people who aren't musicians can identify. The DX7 might have been that, since it was the first synthesizer that really went mass-market. All the synths before that were "niche" instruments, but the DX7 made synth music mainstream, so perhaps it was very identifiable. But then the floodgates opened, so it might only have lasted for a few years.

The 808, though, I think a lot of people still really know and understand what kind of "sound" that is. But I could be wrong.

Re: Yamaha’s DX7 synthesiser changed modern music

#48

Post by spinchange »

davtbaum wrote: post #2

The DX7 can lay claim to being one of the most important advances in the history of modern popular music. Perhaps not since Leo Fender attached a pick-up to a six-string in 1949 Statements like this are, exaggerated, to say the least. While the DX7 is undoubtedly prolific in 80s pop, it was just a synth that was successful for its price point (and timing!) as called out in the article. Case in point that today, nearl…

Apple's Logic Pro User Guide page on FM Synthesis:

"The DX7, sold from 1983 to 1986, remains the most commercially successful professional-level hardware synthesizer ever made."

https://support.apple.com/guide/logicpro/frequency-modulatio...

How do you get good bells and brass or as punchy bass sounds from subtractive-only synthesis?

"According to Dave Smith, founder of the synthesizer company Sequential, 'The synthesizer market was tiny in the late 70s. No one was selling 50,000 of these things. It wasn't until the Yamaha DX7 came out that a company shipped 100,000-plus synths'"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_DX7#cite_note-:7-16

Re: Yamaha’s DX7 synthesiser changed modern music

#49

Post by noizejoy »

ksk wrote: post #3
davtbaum wrote: post #2

The DX7 can lay claim to being one of the most important advances in the history of modern popular music. Perhaps not since Leo Fender attached a pick-up to a six-string in 1949 Statements like this are, exaggerated, to say the least. While the DX7 is undoubtedly prolific in 80s pop, it was just a synth that was successful for its price point (and timing!) as called out in the article. Case in point that today, nearl…

Are there any reasons to use a full synth these days? I'm not a musician but I've been dabbling in digital audio on and off and I really like the sound quality of sampled instruments especially for Piano. I haven't used the original DX7 only a VST (Dexed) for it.

I much prefer using the Dexed VST software based synth for recording over a DX7. The sound is hard to tell apart, the DX 7 doesn’t have a good surface for programming, has a crappy midi implementation, and doesn’t integrate into a DAW as well as a plugin. Since the DX7 is digital anyway, you also don’t loose much real or perceived “analog warmth”.

Source: I have both.

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