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They don't make them like that any more: the Yamaha DX7 keyboard

kevinboone.me

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Re: They don't make them like that any more: the Yamaha DX7 keyboard

#181

Post by ncr100 »

bfmalky wrote: post #151
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #108

>These instruments were mostly of academic interest – I can’t think of any band that used one on stage (but I could be wrong). Very wrong. The Prophet 5, Oberheim 4/8 voice, Roland Jupiter 8, MemoryMoog, and especially the Yamaha CS80 were all available before the DX7, and very widely used on stage and in the studio. But they really were stupendously expensive - far too expensive for mere mortals. (There were also fu…

I'd also like to quibble with this assertion the author makes at the end of the article: > but almost all digital music production these days is based on sampling This is very much not true. Subtractive and FM synthesis are still very widely used.

Digitone 2 ($1k USD) just released this quarter, has a strong FM synth in a package with a few other rad synthesizers + killer sequencer.

Re: They don't make them like that any more: the Yamaha DX7 keyboard

#182

Post by coldtea »

teilo wrote: post #158
coldtea wrote: post #18

> With hindsight, the DX7 and its ilk look like a weird diversion in the path of musical progress. Operator synthesis makes no logical sense. It became popular because we had the capability to do digital sound generation, but lacked the technology to do it in a comprehensible, systematic way. So the DX7 enjoyed huge popularity for a few years, before fading into obscurity. That's a weird take. I mean "Operator synthe…

DX7s don't go for a high price. The market is flooded with them. If you pay more than $600, you paid too much. You can easily find one in the $400 range.

>DX7s don't go for a high price

It's a 40 years old digital synth (so trivial to replicate one to one), with no special hands on controls as a keyboard, and one with 150,000+ units sold, with about a dozen modern replications.

$400 would already be an impressive sum for such constraints.

But it regularly goes for 800+ in Reverb.com for example.

Re: They don't make them like that any more: the Yamaha DX7 keyboard

#183

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

nine_k wrote: post #54
ecocentrik wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The DX7 might be the best selling synth of all time. There's a lot of them out there.

They are still excellent midi keyboards, in addition to an iconic synth engine. So I suspect DX7s are more widely applicable, and thus are much sought after, which keeps the prices not very low.

The keyboard may have one of the best synth actions ever made - smooth but fast, mid-weighted, not at all spongy.

Re: They don't make them like that any more: the Yamaha DX7 keyboard

#184

Post by TheAmazingRace »

satori99 wrote: post #13

> The use of mathematics to produce sounds resembling real instruments quickly became obsolete once we could just go out and sample the real thing. Sampling is a boring, brute-force approach to sound synthesis, but it’s a relatively straightforward one, now we have the computing power and memory. I guess this is true, but the next thing to come along that made me leave the DX7 at home was an Ensoniq EPS-16+. https://…

Fun fact, one of the founders of Ensoniq, Bob Yannes, came up with the legendary SID chip found in the Commodore 64.

Re: They don't make them like that any more: the Yamaha DX7 keyboard

#186

Post by vvillena »

relaxing wrote: post #114
fuhsnn wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>poorly simulating a broad range of superior instruments Nothing touches FM's velocity responsiveness until physical modeling, it sounds lame when you get used to it, but the same thing is true to the romplers that replaced it. >Relating to it's influence on 80s music 80s is quite broad, claims like this basically just showed which artists the writer prefer. Personally, it's PPG and Moog.

> Nothing touches FM's velocity responsiveness ??? You can make any synthesis velocity responsive. Oberheim had it, there were Rolands in the DCO era. Vangelis mastered it on the CS80. The DX7 simply made velocity sensitive keys widely available, and critically Yamaha baked velocity sensitivity into every patch.

The FM trick is that the available parameters that can be modulated through velocity result in a wider range of tonal variation, where traditional subtractive synthesis is usually simpler, and velocity changes affect parameters that don't result in wide changes to the tone, such as volume or filter envelopes.

With FM, modifying an operator envelope can result in a completely different sound. A well-crafted patch that takes advantage of this, played by a good keyboardist, will feel alive, in a way traditional synths of that time couldn't achieve.

Re: They don't make them like that any more: the Yamaha DX7 keyboard

#188

Post by alterom »

coldtea wrote: post #182
teilo wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DX7s don't go for a high price. The market is flooded with them. If you pay more than $600, you paid too much. You can easily find one in the $400 range.

> DX7s don't go for a high price It's a 40 years old digital synth (so trivial to replicate one to one), with no special hands on controls as a keyboard, and one with 150,000+ units sold, with about a dozen modern replications. $400 would already be an impressive sum for such constraints. But it regularly goes for 800+ in Reverb.com for example.

> (so trivial to replicate one to one)

Good luck finding a 60-key MIDI controller with velocity-sensitivity and aftertouch for less than $200, and it's without getting into replication (of either the controller or the synth).

Re: They don't make them like that any more: the Yamaha DX7 keyboard

#189

Post by alfiedotwtf »

recursive wrote: post #43
alfiedotwtf wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can totally tweak the filter and amp of samples. Don’t believe be - run a sample with the LP turned all the way down :)

If the sample is the master output from the synth then the filter won't be the same.

Of course it won’t be the same, but the comment said won’t work not won’t be the same

Re: They don't make them like that any more: the Yamaha DX7 keyboard

#190

Post by alfiedotwtf »

thrtythreeforty wrote: post #155
gausswho wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be interested in physical modeling synthesis. It's got a long history. Here's a good run down: https://www.perfectcircuit.com/signal/what-is-physical-model...

Yes, I have a hobby of implementing physical modeling synths. I am off the deep end in digital waveguide synthesis, and I was curious about the FM equivalent.

I’m pretty sure my original comment was referring to a YouTube video I saw of physically modelling a piano on the Montage. Can’t find the video now though :(

… but if you’re into modelling… man, I’m hankering for an Erica Synth Steampipe! Just found out about them yesterday. Dear Santa…

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