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This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

thisdx7cartdoesnotexist.com

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Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#12

It .. asks me to download something when I click generate. Is that supposed to happen? Running: Firefox: 76.0.1 (64 bit) I thought it was going to be a picture of the cartridge.

Not a picture, it's an actual cartridge ROM image for use with a DX7 synthesizer!

Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#13
This is very cool, well done!

I wonder how far we are away from the following:

1. Being able to use a GAN to be able to give a synth an input sound (i.e. a reece sound from a dnb track) and have it generate a patch that matches it.

2. Being able to do 1 but apply it to a whole Ableton project. The interesting thing about Ableton is that they're actually XML files under the covers.

Even if you couldn't get close, it would be fascinating to see how an AI would design synth patches for subtractive synths.

Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#14
post #6

Can someone give me a short explanation as to what this is and why it is significant? It looks quite interesting. I am basically looking for the ELI5 because I have never heard of a DX7 before and I don't know what the file that I was prompted to download was about.

It appears to generate ROM (cartridge) images, which I'm guessing are sound patches, for a vintage Yamaha FM synthesizer -- A model which was extremely popular and ubiquitous a few decades ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_DX7

Notably, there are a crapload of software synths emulating DX7—as exemplified by the two mentioned on the page—and at least some of them accept patches in its native format, so apparently there's an ‘ecosystem’ of sorts of these patches floating around.

Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#15
I sorta wonder if this can be generalized to, say, some number of oscillators (i.e. if there's three in the synth then extra three in the model are considered disabled and we have a subspace of parameters), and to a bunch of common parameters like wave shapes, ADSR, the algo, the LFO. Because I noticed DX7 patches available on the web, but my particular DAW ain't got six oscillators and I can't even imagine what to do with that many of them.

(Though personally I don't believe that we should accelerate the exhaustive search on the musical space, but the geek in me can't help pondering about this.)

Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#17
I had no idea what a DX7 cartridge was, but out of curiosity I clicked the "Click here to generate" link. It immediately downloaded a file.

I'm sure you have no malicious intent here, but my immediate reaction was that it's a virus or something bad. I immediately deleted the file. The experience felt like one of those scammy popups that initiates a download.

You should really put a label or something to indicate to the user that clicking the link is going to download something.

Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#18

This is very cool, well done! I wonder how far we are away from the following: 1. Being able to use a GAN to be able to give a synth an input sound (i.e. a reece sound from a dnb track) and have it generate a patch that matches it. 2. Being able to do 1 but apply it to a whole Ableton project. The interesting thing about Ableton is that they're actually XML files under the covers. Even if you couldn't get close, it w…

you'll be pleased to find out that we are already able to do your first item - https://fo.am/activities/midimutant/

Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#19

I had no idea what a DX7 cartridge was, but out of curiosity I clicked the "Click here to generate" link. It immediately downloaded a file. I'm sure you have no malicious intent here, but my immediate reaction was that it's a virus or something bad. I immediately deleted the file. The experience felt like one of those scammy popups that initiates a download. You should really put a label or something to indicate to t…

This appears specific to your setup and testing process. I tried this with several browsers, and this did not occur for me.

Browsers: Firefox, Chrome, Edge

Perhaps you're referring to the link on the website which says "Click here to generate Cartridge!"?

Which follows the somewhat expected path for the picture context.

Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#20
First of all, fantastic tool.

Second of all, to folks that are trying to figure out how to give this a go: Open up your favorite DAW (try out Reaper[1] if you don't have one yet), download an install the fantastic open source DX7 emulator plugin Dexed VST plugin [2] and have fun.

In my opinion, FM synthesis is one of the finest things in life I've ever experienced. I never understood the whole culture around an emotional attachment to one's guitar before I realized how closely I could bond with my FM synthesis instruments. It was about five years ago when it started to feel a bit more like an extension of my brain and less like a tool. Now, I've always been an FM8 person myself because of the envelopes, but obviously the DX7 shaped synthesizers have the superior library.

I'm always overjoyed to see projects that get more folks into the joy of music with FM synthesis.

[1] https://www.reaper.fm/

[2] https://asb2m10.github.io/dexed/

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