i am going to check one of these out,
one that a guy has posted on craigslist...
and am wondering what i might benefit from
keeping an eye out for while inspecting it pre-purchase.

thank you.

My most-hated synth. Don't dig the FM synthesis.

Always been curious about these guys.

They are the 80s tacky plastic sounding bad string sound synth. I'm sure a person can probably get something good out of these, but when you hear the shiny synth pads modulating behind mainstream rock guitar chords from the 80s and shudder, that's the DX-7. If the 80s bad synth sound is your aim then this is the synth for you. Of course "bad" is in the ear of the beholder.

yeah, but its also a versatile FM synthesizer with very wide parameters, from what I gather.

Yeah Teddy I'm sure my dislike of the DX-7 is based on hearing HOW it was used, since I'm not a synth player or expert. My knowledge of it is as a pad behind bad 80s hairmetal guitar chords. Ugh.

Word. I'm not sure tho, like zom said, it's synthesis potential might be kinda wack, too?

I played around with a DX-7 when they were new, friends had them, it was new technology and it seemed promising at the time, but I found FM synthesis, and the interface, to be difficult to program and the sounds never turned my crank.

They are going for cheap these days though.

I agree with Zom.

Similar review I'd give my roland "human rhythm composer" drum machine. ARGH.

What, the R-8? Ha. I bought one of those when they came out too.. two years later I traded it even for a pre-MIDI LinnDrum that I still have and like better than any other drum machine I've had. It's got sliders and pitch knobs for all of it's 8-bit awesome sounds.

yep, the r-8. Its all I've ever used. I've actually gotten really good at exploiting the 'bad' sounds and parameters for what you might call 'experimental music' or something.

Zom which LinnDrum?

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This one.

NIIIICE

WHOA. thats a nice lookin piece.

Get this.. it was selling for $99 at Music-Go-Round. I know the R-8 was worth more, but I found it useless, too many parameters and hard to program. I said fuck it, take this and give me that LinnDrum. It was like new and it had the "power tom" chips.. awesome 80s sound.

holy shit, i just checked prices, cuz I was skeptical abut the worth you alluded too, zom. The R-8 hs gone WAY up in value, wow.

curiously, i just purchased an R-8.
i find it to be extremely flexible and capable of some great things.
the internal clock is nicely funky, too. tight but not staccato.
would much rather have An Linn Drum, of course...but not really in the cards
at its current price...

Guess I''m in the minority, but I actually like the DX-7. Some sounds are def cheese, but I think it can make some pretty amazing sounds (ear of the beholder as someone said). If your looking to go on the cheap you might consider the rackmount TX81Z usually go for $75-80ish. Zom's right about the pain in the assness to program the thing, but the good thing is, since it was so popular, there's tons of patches out there that people have made.

Does the DX-100 hold up well at all?
As a kid my friend had one in the 80's.
It always seemed like the ultimate cool keyboard. But maybe
now it would just be cheseball 80's sounding.

Any synth can produce some cool sounds, certainly the DX-7 can, it's just that they're sort of hard to coax out of it.

I had one of these units in the mid '80s. Yamaha CX-5M music computer. It had a four-operator FM synth engine and a sequencer, but you couldn't use both at one time.. pretty useless. Anyhoo it had ROM cartridges and you could edit the patches using a computer screen, sort of cool.

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cheaper than the ebay listings.
I'm bust that thang out today and MAKE BEATS .

DX-7s are GREAT if you can figure out how to program them, and if you want to sound like Timex Social Club or any other 80's Jheri-Curl band.

after a couple a days o monkeying with this R-8,
i am beginning to notice how noisy the outputs are...
any suggestions (obtainable / executable for less than $50)?
compressors? phantom power on the mixer?

the best part about the dx-7 is that, when you play it, it makes you feel like you have a really awesome haircut

NIN would smash these (DX7s) on stage. It is 'their' only achievement.
))))>>>>|||\///\///uɐʇɐs\\//\///|||<<<<((((
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

I had one for a short time- mostly remember it being really heavy...didnt care so much for programming it with menu options.

now i have the soft synth version and love it -
random function works nice to get some interesting sounds.

FM synthesis is strange. it can get some really incredible sounds out of it. especially percussive. if you're looking for a good old fat sounding synth with rich analog bass abilities this is not it.

hahaha, brilly.

bump for reduction of line noise info...
is it just maxin' the module volume and turning the channel down on the mixer?
vice versa? compressor? no idea...

DannyH posted this on Feb 06th, 2010 at 09:43:02 am
Does the DX-100 hold up well at all?
As a kid my friend had one in the 80's.
It always seemed like the ultimate cool keyboard. But maybe
now it would just be cheseball 80's sounding.

I still have the DX-100 I got in 7th grade. It was my ultimate cool keyboard back then and I nerded out on it for years. In retrospect, it was really unintuitive and clumsy to program and the sounds were never as warm as I wanted them. Now the sounds are ok for certain things. It still gets used as a studio lark now and again.

Must stress: Yamaha's implementation of FM synthesis requires an investment in time and effort that is not justified by the results unless you have no job or romantic interests.