Yamaha DX7
A doomsday for analog synthesizers was the squeeky clean new DX7 digital synthesizer. Introduced in 1983, the DX7 quickly caught the attention of the synth market and became one of the all-time best selling synthesizers. The DX7 sported a slick new interface which consisted of two horizontal rows of "membrane" buttons, a small LCD display and a data entry slider. It was a clever design at the time to all that viewed it, and from a production standpoint, Yamaha must have saved alot of money with this simple layout, eliminating all that costly hardware. Nearly every synth manufacturer, eager to have a DX7-styled, cost effective synth, followed suit shortly thereafter. For an example look at synths before and after the DX7's release: Oberheim - OB-Xa and OB-8 before/Matrix-6 after, Roland - Jupiter's, SH's and Juno's before/Alpha Juno's and JX's after, Sequential - Prophet-5 before/Multi-Tracks and Split-8's after, Korg - PolySix's, MonoPoly's, MS-20's before/Poly-800's and DW-8000's after. Manufacturers dumped the friendly knob infested open-doored layouts for the DX-styled one data entry slider key-hole approach. They also dumped analog as well in favor of digital synthesis.
This has given the DX7 somewhat of a negative backlash in more recent years as musicians began to realize all these missing elements inhibited the intruments. Once again we find manfacturers including knobs and buttons on their instruments.
Average Advertised Price:
$250 to $500.
Jetboy's Humble Opinion Of Worth:
$350 for a good condition unit. There's just too many of these things to ask for more. A more logical purchase would be the TX802 rackmount, which is a multi-timbral DX7 for around $400, although I always liked the feel of Yamaha keyboards.
Jetboy's Review - A cool blast from the '80's past. Still capable of some groovy FM sounds. Makes a great additional low-cost unit to a larger synth setup.
Joe Quinn at qmprod@aol.com tells us the following facts: There are still numerous sounds that this old boy makes that I can't live without. Still great for layers and some nasty lead sounds (particularly with some distortion). It is still an integral part of my rig. The feel of the keyboard is still my favorite for a synth feel.
Fuse at www.thickliquid.com claimly states, as to not blow: I own a DX7IIFD, and for the $600 I paid for it, it was a great investment...does industrial type sounds really well, and for metallic sounds it's one of the best...dont look for analog sounds here, but if you need something to slice through the mix, this thing works great.
Tony Sharfman at vsharfma@mindspring.com max's our headroom with: A very enigmatic, immensly powerful synth. You really have to program it to see its potential. I've done everything from thick analogish swirling pads, to fat bases to hard metallic sounds. Very nice organs too if you're into that sort of thing. It even makes a very convincing piano sound. A true classic and very useful synth.
Phat Basedrum at v20@iname.com goes on a digital diet: I've bought a DX7 a half year ago and I must say that I am pleased with it. The DX7's got a solid keyboard and some sounds you won't get anywhere else (love that Tubular Bells preset). I mainly use it as a bass-source, I've converted the DX-100 preset "Solid Bass" to my DX7 and though it is a bit less noisy:er than the DX-100, it still stomps well! One bad thing though : I wish there was light in the display, hard to edit patches in the dark.
The later version of the DX7 - the DX7II, released in 1987.
