It is ironic that one of the most popular synthesizers on the market today, Yamaha's DX7, is one of the least understood, as far as programming is concerned. People who can work with a Fairlight in their sleep (and regularly do) are often as baffled by FM programming as the next man. For most people, programming a DX7 simply means 'modifying' its presets and consequently we are hearing the same DX7 'noises' popping out from all corners of today's music. A short while ago, I had a look at Howard Jones' DX7, and you can imagine my surprise at finding every one of its internal memories were the same as the day he bought it (though the DX itself wasn't... ).

With the advent of MIDI and the interfacing possibilities it opened up to computer based instruments, what many people did was to link two DX7s together, and mix the modified presets together thus producing their own original sounds with the accurate harmonic qualities the instrument has to offer, yet with the richness of dual VCO or DCO synthesizers. In fact, Howard Jones (forgive me for mentioning him again) did that throughout his first LP, and played both DX7s from a Prophet T8's wooden, weighted keyboard.

However, after only a short while such a set-up no longer became necessary as Yamaha themselves produced a keyboard in which were two DX7 sound generators with full performance control memory (meaning you could also store things such as Poly/Mono, AfterTouch Sensitivity, etc to be recalled with the patches themselves), and a wooden, weighted keyboard which also 'felt' after-touch for every key individually. They called this the DX1, and it was primarily designed as a flagship for Yamaha's range of pro keyboards; however it also had a flagship's price tag of about £10,000.

The majority of the cost in producing the DX1 was tied up in its keyboard. Not only would the quality of workmanship not be out of place on the finest £25,000 grand piano, but also the precision necessary in producing a keyboard with circuitry for sensing after-touch on every note is extreme.

This leads me to explain where Yamaha's latest FM keyboard, the DX5, fits in. In a nutshell, the DX5 can be looked upon as either identical to a DX1 in every respect except for not having its weighted keyboard and the omission of the displays; or as two DX7s in a single unit with a 76-key keyboard, programmable split point and complete performance control memory.

The physical construction and appearance of the DX5 is in keeping with its price, ie somewhere between the DX7 and DX1. The function switches for programme, etc, are the same as found on the DX1, and happily the DX5 does not sport any of the DX7's ghastly pressure pads. The DX5's switches are certainly worthy of a sentence or two, as not only have they a very positive 'click', but they also have integrated LEDs which indicate their on/off status.

Communication

In the centre of its front panel is a liquid crystal display, a little longer than the DX7's, and this is its only means of communication with the outside world. One of the more welcome additions to the DX1 was its extensive displays for showing envelope shapes, algorithm configurations, etc, thus simplifying the programming process. I was therefore a bit disappointed to find only this single LCD display on the DX5; however one has always got their CX5 computer with its parameter displays to fall back on...

Going from left to right, on the DX5's front panel we find four sliders — Master Volume, Balance (between the two channels), Portamento (short>long), and Data Entry, which also has two buttons for fine adjustments (+1/-1, Yes/No, On/Off). Then come operator select switches, as are found on the DX1. These give fast and accurate on/off switching of the DX5's 12 (two lots of six) operators.

To the right of the operator selectors are the bank selectors for the voice memories. Each of the two lots of 32 voices are divided into four banks of eight; the top row of four to channel A, and the bottom row to channel B. The top four dual function switches of the eight bank selectors double as algorithm select, feedback level, operator output level, EG select (either for output level for each operator or for overall pitch), and the bottom four are for operator pitch, coarse, fine or detuning for either fixed or ratio tuning.

The locations for these functions are infinitely more sensible than the way they were laid out on the DX7, where the most important switches (operator output level for example) were stuck out of the way amongst the relatively unimportant ones. Here on the 5, at least we've got the tuning switches separated from the rest, and the other most frequently used switches are above them in their own little group. Even more sensible is the use of individual switches for each stage of the envelope generator (again as on the DX1). These are the eight switches located immediately below the display whose primary function is the selection of the eight voices in each of the four banks. The bottom eight voice selectors are also dual function doubling as keyboard scaling selectors (once more giving you one switch for each part — Left Depth, Left Curve, BreakPoint, Right Depth, Right Curve, Rate Scaling) the remaining two switches being for keyboard sensitivity to velocity and amplitude modulation.

Then the next bunch of switches are a couple of rows whose primary function is as performance memory selectors. As I mentioned earlier, the DX5 has memory storage capability for all the performance parameters, and this is in addition to the straight-forward 64 memory locations for sounds. The performance memories will store which two sounds you want, where you want them on the keyboard (either layered, split, or single), the keyboard's split point, how much the performance controllers (pitch wheel, breath controller etc.) affect each of the voices, whether once of the sounds is to be used in mono or have portamento, etc...

The DX5 has 64 of these performance memories, divided into eight banks of eight, and here we are getting into multi-multi function territory as some of these switches can have as many as five different functions.

Select and assign

In the memory select mode they assign parameters for LEO programming, key synchronisation for the operators, transpose and voice name. Then in the function mode these switches are given two or three 'jobs' each. These are grouped under Tune (Master Tune and Dual Mode Tuning for detuning between the two sounds), Performance Memory Parameter (Poly/Mono, Pitch Bend, MIDI Output Assign, pedals and wheels, etc), Performance Memory Parameter (Split Point, Performance Name, After Touch Sensitivity, etc), Memory Management (Save/Load/Copy, Initialise, etc.), and finally MIDI (transmit, key status and a very useful MIDI On/Off).

Beneath the two job tables which display to the lucky DX5 owner these functions, are the two RAM cartridge ports. The DX5 comes with three ROM cartridges, two of which contain voices and one of which is for performance memory data. It is worth noting that the DX5 takes the same RAMs or ROMs as the DX7, and therefore your sounds will be not made redundant when upgrading from the DX7 to the DX5.

Below these ports are to be found the remaining switches I have yet to mention, and these consist of switches for cartridge selection, editing, edit/compare as well as selectors for keyboard mode — either single, dual or split.

That's enough of a run through of the functions to be found on the DX5. On power-up, several red LEDs illuminate thus informing you the beast is alive, and that it's ready to roll (proverbially speaking of course). The Yamaha bumf describes the DX5 as being "just right for successful DX7 users who want to minimise on-stage stress...", which can be taken literally, as the DX5 only weighs 10lbs more than a DX7!

After being accustomed to the tone of the DX7, the first thing I noticed with the DX5 was the slightly richer texture of the sounds, even in the single voice mode. There also seemed to be a slight reduction in digital noise emanating from the bassier voices.

When the two channels are brought in together, there is a strong sensation of 'the whole being greater than the sum of the parts', as they say. The combination (when layering patches) of slight detuning of the sounds with one another, as well as the increased power and harmonic control that 12 operators gives you, can be quite sensational.

When two similar orchestra string voices are layered together with slightly differing LFO rates and slightly detuned from each other, the acoustic realism inherent in digital sounds comes to life to an extent which could put many more expensive and complex pieces of equipment to shame. Also, with sounds which need extremely accurate keyboard scaling, being able not only to use the standard DX scaling, but also to scale between patches further enhances the possibilities for synthesizing acoustic pianos, or mixed cellos and first violins, for example. A great degree of realism can be achieved with acoustic piano in particular, especially since the DX5 has a six octave keyboard.

Although the keyboard itself is neither wooden, nor weighted (as on the DX1), it doesn't feel out of place in the content of this machine's quality of sounds and price tag. It can be split at any point and the point can be individually memorised for each of the 64 performance memories.

Conclusion

Although having performance memories from which to recall every possible combination of the DX5's settings might tend to make it seem like a keyboard primarily designed for gigging, I found the DX5 to be equally well-suited for studio use. In this respect I would even go as far as to say that this might be Yamaha's ultimate 'allrounder', enabling the gigging musician to bring the DX5 into a studio and accurately reproduce the exact settings at the touch of a single button.

YAMAHA DX5 — RRP: £2999.00