Released by Yamaha in 1983, the DX7 is another one of those landmark synthesizers in the history of electronic instruments. Until the DX7 burst on the music scene, most synthesizers were all analog based. The DX was the first commercially successful digital synths. And boy was it every successful! Every keyboard player from guys playing in their garage to the biggest names in the music business bought one and before it was discontinued in the late 80's, the DX became one of the biggest selling synths of all time.
Dx7s Patches Sysex Disease
Of course, besides the affordable price, what made it so popular were the sounds that you could produce on one. It's digital FM synthesis was able to create a wide range of new sounds that you just were not able to produce on a analog synth. The DX is widely known for it's great rhodes electric pianos, bells, killer synth basses (the 'lately bass' being especially popular) and metalic type synth sounds.
The original DX7 was also one of the first synthesizers to have MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) included. It was released the same year as the MIDI spec and as a result has incomplete support for the standard: It only transmits information on MIDI channel 1, has no OMNI support for sending and receiving on all midi channels and will not send velocity data beyond value 100. Yamaha fixed all the midi problems and continued to make improvements with the updated DX7-II models that were released throughout the 80's. These included the DX7-IID, DX7-S and DX7-IIFD, which included a built in floppy drive and the TX802 which was a DX7-II in a rack with 8 outputs. The TX816 had eight DX7s in a rack mount, with individual MIDI ports and balanced outputs for each module.
Dx7 Factory Patches Sysex
Should be the same as the DX7, press FUNCTION (SPACE) and then Nr. 8 to switch from UNAVAIL to AVAIL to enable sysex. I also recommend bome's sendSX instead of midiOX. MidiOX is brilliant, but the default sysex settings can be a little fiddly. Here is a total of 468 soundbanks (14'973 patches) that I converted from the SynLib DX/TX Editor library (Marc Bareille's program) and organized in 32 patches standard sysex files (.syx - 4'104 octets). SynLib DX/TX Editor library (937 Ko). The DX Patch Librarian is a software tool that simplifers the creation and storage of the patches for the Yamaha DX synthesizers. The program also permits programming of TX and 8-16 expaansion modules without a DX7. You can attach a keyboard controller or external sequencer to the MIDI-In of the. THE OTHER CLASSIC DX7 PATCH!!!!! This bass was used as the MAIN BASS for SO MANY '80s productions. Listen back and you'll spot it easily. Again, this patch now has become a standard (FM Bass) and lives in all modern synthesizer workstations, of any brand. 16 BASS 2: Very nice and expressive fretless bass.
In 1988, in celebration of the company's 100-year anniversary, Yamaha released the DX7 II Centennial. It was a DX7 II FD with a silver case, gold painted buttons and sliders, and 76 glow-in-the-dark keys. Only 100 were made and were priced at US$3995. Definitely a sort after collectors item for synth junkies. Finally, nearly twenty years after it's release Native Instruments released FM7, which is a software version of the DX. This IMO is one of the few software synths which actually sounds as good if not better then the original and well worth picking up if your interested in FM synthesis and the type of sounds that can be created with it.
The DX7 II Centennial and TX816 Rack
Being that the DX had no sliders, switches and knobs like a typical analog synthesizer, it was very difficult to program. FM synthesis was also a much different concept in creating sound using sound operators, modulators and carriers which also made it difficult to work with. Fortunately, several programmers (including us) took the time to learn how to create sounds in this new format and a wide range of sounds soon became available for the DX. Several talented programmers also released computer editors and librarians for the DX which let you program new sounds using your computer. These were popular with computer systems like the Commodore-64 and Atari which were the mainstream computers at the time for running music applications. The company 'Grey Matter Response' also released the 'E' expansion board, which boosted the DX's memory and added a sequencer.
Dx7s Patches Sysex Reviews
Shortly after the DX was released, we bought one and started to learn how to program sounds for this amazing new synth. Throughout the 80's we owned pretty much every type of DX7 that was released and slowly assembled a large library of DX7 sounds. Our collection now has over 1000 programs included and is compatible with all the DX7 models. The sounds are available in system exclusive (.syx) or standard midi files (.mid) and can be downloaded from our web site when you order our free e-mail delivery. We provide the software with your order that lets you load in the sounds. All you need is a midi interface to be able to connect your computer to the DX. We also have a collection available in DX7-2FD format that we can send you on a floppy disk that you can load directly from the DX's floppy drive if you not set up to load in sounds via midi. Note: The DX7-2FD floppy disk library is set up differently and contains 18 banks of patches. Sorry, but the sounds are not available on the old DX7 cartridges.
Oh the fun day I’ve had. Yesterday I took delivery of an original DX7 (see disclaimers below) and obviously the default 32 factory patches aren’t going to maintain anyone’s interest for long. Hence the fun day.
Over the past six hours I’ve trawled around a bunch of great information spread across a bunch of locations, and have come up with this easy guide to transferring Sysex data to your DX7 from your Max running OSX (Catalina at time of writing).
First, some disclaimers:
- The DX7 I own is the original one i.e. a ‘Mk 1’ machine. These instructions won’t work in full on the subsequent models (DX7s, DX7 II, DX7 IIFD etc)
- The USB audio interface you use will play a BIG role in how successful this process is. I initially tried on a PreSonus Studio 1824c and it would not work – the DX7 froze every time I connected the MIDI cables up. I then tried the Komplete Audio 6 interface and it worked like a dream.
- Check the 5-pin DIN MIDI cables you use – if the below process doesn’t work this could be why if you’ve dredged up a 1987 cable from under the house.
- I only did this on a Mac – but most of the info is usable on other operating systems. I hear MIDI Ox is a great app for non-Mac users.
The process:
- Connect your DX7 and Mac. You need an audio interface that connects to your Mac and that has MIDI IN and MIDI OUT 5-pin ports.
- You need two MIDI cables. Connect one from the MIDI OUT of your interface to the MIDI IN of your DX7. Connect the other from the MIDI IN of your interface to the MIDI OUT of your DX7.
- Now you need to get your DX7 ready to accept the SysEx data from your Mac. There’s three steps (this handy video shows you the exact buttons):
- Press the Function Key then the ‘8’ button. If ‘MIDI Ch=1’ is displayed you don’t need to do anything, otherwise use the ‘Yes’ button or Data Entry slider to change it to 1.
- Press the ‘8’ button a second time. If the display says SYS INFO AVAIL you don’t need to do anything, otherwise use the ‘Yes’ button or Data Entry slider to change it to SYS INFO AVAIL
- Now press the green Internal Memory Protect button. If will display MEMORY PROTECT INTERNAL ON as the default. Use the ‘No’ key to change it to MEMORY PROTECT INTERNAL OFF
- For younger synth users it will seem strange that you don’t save these settings but they are now set up how you need them.
- Now you’re ready to transfer SysEx data.
- SysEx Librarian is the app you need on your Mac to do this, and here’s where you get it. It’s free!
- Install SysEx Librarian
- You now need some patch SysEx data to transfer. This is where the wonderful Bobby Blue DX7 page comes in. I downloaded the ‘All The Web Collection’. It’s a standard ZIP file – just unpack it wherever you want.
- In SysEx librarian, you can either drag the downloaded SysEx files straight into the window of the app or use the ‘Add to Library’ option under the File menu in the app.
- Important: the interface needs to be selected from the destination drop-down as shown in Figure 1 below. ‘Act as a source for other programs’ won’t work for this task.
- If you’ve imported more than one file, select the one you want and then click on the Play button.
- A dialog will come up showing that the transfer is happening. On your DX7 it will display MEMORY PROTECT MIDI RECEIVED.
- If you get an error, in SysEx librarian preferences adjust the transmission speed to be lower. I actually set it at 2% to be super-conservative.
- That’s it! Now press the green Internal Memory Select button and then the number button of your choice to see each patch,
I hope that’s of some help to you. If the transfer isn’t working and you’ve checked cables, tried a different interface etc, then you may have an issue with your DX-7. Have a deep search of the internet for that: there’s a thousand and one causes.
Enjoy! I’m off to look at some commercial DX7 sound banks