Home -> Magazines -> Issues -> Articles in this issue -> View
Sight Reading | |
Yamaha DX7 Digital SynthesizerArticle from Electronics & Music Maker, April 1985 |
E&MM's resident FM expert, Jay Chapman, takes a critical flick through the pages of a new book intended to ease the programming on Yamaha's DX7 poly.
A book that aims to clarify the workings of Yamaha's DX7 comes under the scrutiny of E&MM's resident FM expert Jay Chapman.
We all know the feeling. You've got a specific, long-standing need that has to be satisfied, and as soon as something that might do the trick becomes available, you make a bee-line for it. It isn't exactly what you want, of course, but it'll do something approaching a good job. Such an object is Yamaha DX7 Digital Synthesizer by Yasuhiko Fukuda. It isn't really what you want because it's not the answer to all - or even most - of your pleas for help on programming the DX7. But you'll probably buy it anyway because the market isn't exactly overflowing with books on the subject of the DX7, and every little bit helps.
It's a large-format book of 139 pages. It's imported from Japan and costs £7.95 in the UK. The cover is strengthened and protected by a plastic coating and should stand a fair amount of wear and tear. And the outside third of most of the pages is given over to diagrams illustrating points made in the text: this is generally a good idea, since if you're trying to follow a sequence of parameter changes described in the book, there's a visual confirmation of the DX7 display at regular intervals along the way.
Now for some details. The book's contents are arranged into three chapters and a five-part Appendix followed by a 'Special Introduction to DX7 owners in the USA' (just what you've always wanted, eh? - Ed). Chapters 1 and 2 deal in some detail with the material covered by the DX7 Owners' Manual, ie. the concept of FM synthesis, the use of Operators, and a parameter-by-parameter exposition of what all the front panel keypads do.
Chapter 3, meanwhile, is about 'Making Original Sounds' and should be the book's crucial element. It consists in the main of examples of how to create voices, with comments on each voice's most critical programming details.
Part 1 of the Appendix deals with the mechanism the DX7 uses to generate sinewaves, and discusses the mathematics of how Operators modulate each other to produce complex output waveforms. Part 2, which is all of one page long, suggests possible solutions to mis-setting controls, or what to do if playing your DX7 results in no sound output whatsoever. Part 3, also one page in length, deals with the use of a Yamaha KX1 Remote Keyboard to control a DX7 (or two, or three), and this is followed by Part 4, which takes two pages (gosh!) to look at the DX7's implementation of MIDI. Part 5 (pages 99 to 110) lists the parameter data for the 32 internal voices supplied with the international (read 'non-USA') version: the parameter data for the US model's voices forms half of the 'Special Intro' mentioned earlier.
The main problem with Yamaha DX7 Digital Synthesizer lies somewhere between Mr Fukuda's ears and the translator's inability to convert a sow's ear into a silk purse. It's difficult to say precisely who's been responsible for what, but whatever the causes, the text is often misleading for reasons of inaccuracy, over-simplification or generalisation. Fukuda has a tendency to assume everybody's grasped a programming point after he's presented a shallow and ineffectual explanation decorated with a couple of examples. That's why Chapter 3 fails to live up to its promise.
Perhaps I'm being over-critical, but a technical reference book of this kind simply shouldn't contain the sort of linguistic ambiguities that abound in Fukuda's epic. The author - or alternatively, his translator - insists on using 'tickles' instead of 'modulates', and talks of 'a radical algorithm': does this mean some Operator configurations are more politically active than others? I hope not. And as for 'a confused voice'... well, words fail me. Confused readers are an altogether more likely prospect.
I thought I'd give what for me is the highlight (lowlight?) of the book a paragraph of its own. See what you make of this little gem:
"The DX synthesizer operates tone by increasing harmonics, and if the output level of Modulator which seems suitable is kept unchanged, even in the range of higher tones, and no change is made in the degree of tone change, then the tones in the higher range become unpleasant."
A chapter or two of that nonsense and your brain starts pleading for mercy, believe me.
On the bright side of things, Chapters 1 and 2 (as well as other parts of the book) do give blow-by-blow accounts of the use of all editing and function keypads which DX7 newcomers will welcome as a supplement to the Owner's Manual and the Dave Bristow booklet supplied free of charge by Yamaha in the UK. And if you aren't averse to the idea of applying a bit of mental perseverance, you'll find that Fukuda passes on any number of worthwhile hints to the would-be DX programmer: some of the information hasn't, as far as I'm aware, appeared in any other form anywhere else, and this makes interesting reading even if you've written a seven-part magazine story on how to get the best out of Yamaha's FM poly...
So we end up pretty much where we came in. Even given the occasional unforgivable error and what I can only describe as a mildly eccentric interpretation of the English language, this book deserves to be on every DX owner's shelf - at least until somebody comes up with something better. And yes, I do intend buying a copy for my own use.
Yamaha DX7 Digital Synthesizer is available direct from Music Sales Mail Order (Contact Details).
BeeBMIDI (Part 3)
(EMM Aug 84)
BeeBMIDI (Part 7)
(EMM Mar 85)
Hands On: Yamaha DX7
(SOS Dec 92)
Load Baring
(12T May 85)
Load Baring
(12T Aug 85)
One For The 7 - DX7 Patch
(ES May 85)
One Off - DX7 Patch
(ES Apr 85)
Steve Gray on the DX7
(EMM Dec 83)
The Right Connections
(ES Oct 84)
The Synths Of The Year Show - Synthcheck
(IM Dec 85)
Understanding the DX7 (Part 1)
(EMM Apr 84)
Understanding the DX7 (Part 2)
(EMM May 84)
Understanding the DX7 (Part 3)
(EMM Jun 84)
Understanding the DX7 (Part 4)
(EMM Jul 84)
Understanding the DX7 (Part 7)
(EMM Oct 84)
Yamaha DX-7 Synthesiser
(MU Aug 83)
Patchwork
(EMM Feb 84)
Patchwork
(EMM Mar 84)
Patchwork
(EMM Apr 84)
Patchwork
(EMM May 84)
Patchwork
(EMM Jul 84)
Patchwork
(EMM Aug 84)
Patchwork
(EMM Jan 85)
Patchwork
(EMM Feb 85)
Patchwork
(EMM Apr 85)
Patchwork
(EMM Jun 85)
Patchwork
(EMM Jul 85)
Patchwork
(EMM Feb 86)
Patchwork
(EMM Mar 86)
Patchwork
(EMM May 86)
Patchwork
(EMM Jun 86)
Patchwork
(EMM Aug 86)
Patchwork
(EMM Sep 86)
Patchwork
(MT Nov 86)
Patchwork
(MT Dec 86)
Patchwork
(MT Jan 87)
...and 19 more Patchwork articles... (Show these)
Browse category: Synthesizer > Yamaha
A Sound Design - Design Studio Programs
(ES Jan 85)
Delirious Xcitement - Yamaha DX7S
(SOS Mar 88)
Double Take - Yamaha DX5
(ES Apr 85)
Expand your DX
(SOS Jan 87)
Hi-Tech Xpansion
(EMM Apr 85)
Pandora's Box
(MIC Oct 89)
Russ DX7 AI Editor
(SOS Apr 88)
Temperament
(MM Apr 87)
The Fifth Dimension - Yamaha DX5
(EMM Oct 85)
The Legend Lives On - Yamaha DX7IID
(SOS Mar 87)
Tips To Tame the DX7II
(SOS Mar 88)
TX7 - To The Limit
(SOS Jun 86)
Yamaha DX5 - Synthcheck
(IM May 85)
Yamaha DX7-IID Synth
(MM Mar 87)
Patchwork
(MT Feb 88)
...and 2 more Patchwork articles... (Show these)
Browse category: Software: Editor/Librarian > Sound Design Studio
Browse category: Synthesizer > Yamaha
Browse category: Expansion Board > Grey Matter Response
Browse category: Synthesizer Module > Yamaha
Browse category: Software: Editor/Librarian > Joreth Music
Browse category: Software: Editor/Librarian > Pandora
Browse category: Software: Editor/Librarian > - (No Manufacturer)
Browse category: Software: Editor/Librarian > Steinberg
Review by Jay Chapman
Previous article in this issue:
Next article in this issue:
mu:zines is the result of thousands of hours of effort, and will require many thousands more going forward to reach our goals of getting all this content online.
If you value this resource, you can support this project - it really helps!
New issues that have been donated or scanned for us this month.
All donations and support are gratefully appreciated - thank you.
Do you have any of these magazine issues?
If so, and you can donate, lend or scan them to help complete our archive, please get in touch via the Contribute page - thanks!