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This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

thisdx7cartdoesnotexist.com

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Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#41

Post by raphlinus »

detaro wrote: post #40
yowlingcat wrote: post #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 emoti…

I wonder if someone has ported dexed to WebAudio or something and the page could embed it. Unrelated: I've played with Dexed a bit, but I just can't get over twiddling knobs on screen ...

https://github.com/google/music-synthesizer-for-android/tree... has an experimental port, but I'd consider it a starting point, not a polished web app.

ETA: there's also https://www.webaudiomodules.org/wamsynths/webdx7/ , but sound is pretty crackly on my setup :/

Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#42

Post by mortenjorck »

satori99 wrote: post #6
blendergeek wrote: post #5

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

The file format that it downloads (.syx) is a MIDI sysex or system-exclusive message file (https://www.midi.org/specifications-old/item/table-4-univers...). These are basically scripts of MIDI instructions that exist outside the regular note on-off messages, and can be used for a variety of things, in this case programming a patch in the DX7’s synthesis engine.

Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#43

Post by yowlingcat »

n3k5 wrote: post #28
yowlingcat wrote: post #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 emoti…

You don't even need a DAW. When I downloaded Dexed as an audio unit for my Mac (thinking “I'll have to try this later; at the moment I don't have enough RAM free to start a DAW”), I was pleasantly surprised that it also came with a stand-alone app. The Dexed wiki says there are such apps for Windows and Linux, too. Then I downloaded a MIDI file and used Audacity to play some of its channels into the synth. Super easy…

It's true! You don't technically need a DAW, but I just I like how easy a good one makes it to go from noodling around on an idea to having a full song. In my opinion, any of major DAWs (including Logic/Live/FL/Reaper/Cubase) gives you enough tools to put out really polished stuff if you want to start polishing your craft. I'm not sure if I've found an open source one I like to that level yet, though. Ardour seems really powerful, but I'm unfamiliar with it.

Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#44

Post by Dylan16807 »

hexaga wrote: post #27
anonymfus wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that is a common social vulnerability of the Hacker News crowd: if you give a link to some binary file for any retro system people here will install an emulator it runs on and execute it, ever if you say that it's actually a viral payload. For example: http://swiftlytilting.com/downloads/PCM.demo.wgraphics.zip (that is viral)

It is difficult to overstate how strongly I want to download and poke through that file, even knowing it's a bad idea.

Just unzip it and then cat the contents into aplay!

Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#45

Post by teilo »

I have KQ Dixie on this iPad Pro that I'm presently on. The sysex files generated by this website opened up directly into it, and it worked brilliantly. This is so cool. There's a lot of duds, but it also generates some very usable patches.

I actually have a DX7 sitting on my desk at work, although I only use it as a MIDI keyboard because I love the keybed. Dexed or Arturia is so much easier to program, and 100% the same audio, so I have no reason to mess around programming the real thing. When I did play it directly, I programmed it in Dexed anyway.

Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#46

Post by inetsee »

Years ago I had a TX81Z synthesizer unit. It was a rack mount unit (not a keyboard synthesizer; you had to use it with a midi keyboard). It was also an FM synthesizer with a fundamental difference; the DX7 used sine waves modulating each other to produce the sounds, and the TX81Z let you do the frequency modulation with sine waves, or triangle waves, or square waves, or pulse waves. You basically had an order of magnitude more flexibility in creating sounds, and an order of magnitude more difficulty. Some people were able to create some really interesting patches, but I never got good enough to create anything remotely interesting.

Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#47

Post by nobleach »

teilo wrote: post #45

I have KQ Dixie on this iPad Pro that I'm presently on. The sysex files generated by this website opened up directly into it, and it worked brilliantly. This is so cool. There's a lot of duds, but it also generates some very usable patches. I actually have a DX7 sitting on my desk at work, although I only use it as a MIDI keyboard because I love the keybed. Dexed or Arturia is so much easier to program, and 100% the…

I've owned multiple DX-7s (only first gen... I've always wanted to buy a DX-7IIfd). While I liked the feel of the keys, I couldn't get passed the MIDI implementation not sending the full 0-127 velocity. (Yamaha implemented a 0 to 100 range because the MIDI spec wasn't complete at the time of production). When I'm actually using it as just a keyboard to play, it doesn't seem to matter... it's only when I'm using a different sound source.

Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#48

Post by SmallPeePeeMan »

blendergeek wrote: post #5

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.

> have never heard of a DX7 before

Whoa

Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#49

Post by yowlingcat »

yowlingcat wrote: post #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 emoti…

Other things I like about FM that I was just thinking about:

- It's super CPU efficient on modern hardware, so you can use as many instances as you like.

- You can use it to do reasonably convincing physical modeling of many real instruments (or at least the start of it)

- There is little phase smearing or analog noise.

- Even for percussive instruments, you can tune and shape harmonic boundaries so that your instruments gel in the mix.

- Building instruments through sine wave decomposition/recomposition encourages bandwidth efficient sound design and instrument arrangements. They sound sweet to the ear, and instead of using the full bandwidth of a sawtooth or square wave, you can use the first few partials (or a couple choice ones) to sketch out the idea of one without taking up all of the space the full thing would.

- (At least with FM8), The multipoint envelopes editor is as flexible as a DAWs automation curve editor. It uses a zoomable spline based UI that feels a little bit like using Illustrator's pen tool.

- (Matter of taste) It's really easy to get retro video game sounds, so composing with these instruments always triggers pleasant nostalgia for me, even if I'm not writing VGM. This is not a surprise.

- Yamaha's sibling OPL/OPN (YMxxxx) series is responsible for powering sound synthesis in the Sega Genesis, MSX, Sound Blaster and sound cards and arcade game systems of the 80s and 90s.

If I can make a synesthetic analogy to a physical material, it's a lot like silicone. You can make it lifelike, almost unsettlingly or cartoonishly so. It pairs well, and fittingly, with the 80s and the 90s.

Re: This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist

#50

Post by a_t48 »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #32
munsters wrote: post #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 t…

I think people are talking about "Click" differently. - There is a click on the link on this page that leads to the webpage. Nothing is downloaded at this time. - There is a click on the target webpage "Click to generate cartridge". Those who know what DX7 is, who are presumably a target audience, would understand this will generate a file. For those who do not know what DX7 is or what's happening, well... why are yo…

There have been a bunch of these sites that were images, before. It's not unreasonable to expect that it would generate another image and display it.
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