That syrupy sweet DX7 crystal piano sound

[Mister Natural]

I can get a great emulation of this tone in Dimension Pro

[aMUSEd]

I also feel that Fm7 and Fm8 are much thinner than the real thing. But i hope with Zebra3, will be much better in the FM part too.

When I first started using ACE, I made a few simple DX style sounds and they had so much more life than FM8... that was when I decided to take FM8 off my computer. I am not suggesting ACE as a substitute, but it showed me a vibrant sound that I wished for... I'll wait for an FM synth that has such a sound.

Yeah, the DX piano that comes with Bazille is probably the best I've heard. Really clear and solid sounding.

[aMUSEd]

My closest attempt with FM8 so far is a preset called "Rhodes A1" in the "Rhodes1.syx" file contained in the "SYX files" download here:
http://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/mth192/pages/html/dx7.html

To this i added the Dimension D Chorus from Empty Room Systems and the free TAL Reverb 2.
You could also try using 8 instances like in the original synth but a Chorus and Reverb seem to deliver the same if not even a better result.
In fact the detuning of the 8 units in the original synth seems to emulate a chorus and the panning is like a Stereo Spread which usually could be done with a Reverb and/or some Chorus FXs. The Dimension D Chorus got a beautiful Stereo widening effect too.


Ingo

I've been playing around with quite a few of those sysex patches since converting them to Nord G2 format - they are definitely a mixed bag and so many are dupes or very similar. Which ones are the standouts? Are there any classic patches I should focus on out of the hundreds of sysex files and thousands of patches?

[pdxindy]

Yeah, the DX piano that comes with Bazille is probably the best I've heard. Really clear and solid sounding.

Bazille is incredible sounding for FM type sounds... so full and solid!

[Sendy]

Yeah, the DX piano that comes with Bazille is probably the best I've heard. Really clear and solid sounding.

Bazille is incredible sounding for FM type sounds... so full and solid!

It's PD sounds are to die for as well. There's something about the clear "snap" of a PD waveform relaxing into it's sinewave state, like a coiled spring releasing it's energy. Totally different sound to a LPF (and that's a good thing!). Off to look for that DX sound now...

[Bhan]

Yellow tools free has a nice FM Rhodes.

[mkastrup]

Well i fired up my old Yamaha TX 802, its been put away for 15 years. Needless to say it didn't give me a warm welcome. None of the buttons were working but eventually i hit the damn thing so many times that the buttons started to react.

When i started playing the old bugger it was crystal clear to me that hardware FM just sounds different than the software variants. The 2 major differences are the low which is FULL in all sense and the attack transients.

A thing like attack transients are hyper vital for a e.piano patch. Knowing my TX 802 might die on me once i turn it off i decided to sample the FullTines preset.

I will release the sample set on www.xsynth.com shortly.

Here is a video i posted on Youtube a few hours ago:



I really tried to find a sample set of FullTines but could not find any. I would rather have had someone else do the job of sampling, but ohh well the burden fell on me, and i charge for my work

/Michael

[Lotuzia]

I dont find the FM8 so lifeless

[Gonga]

That's a great tune Lotuzia, and no, the FM8 doesn't sound lifeless. But it does lack the high end bite of the example Mike Kastrup posted just before it.

[pdxindy]

That's a great tune Lotuzia, and no, the FM8 doesn't sound lifeless. But it does lack the high end bite of the example Mike Kastrup posted just before it.

FM8 also lacks the low end of the Yamaha hardware synths

[Ingonator]

That's a great tune Lotuzia, and no, the FM8 doesn't sound lifeless. But it does lack the high end bite of the example Mike Kastrup posted just before it.

FM8 also lacks the low end of the Yamaha hardware synths

My Yamaha Motif Motif ES 7 got one of the best low ends of any synth i tried (except some real analog gear of course)...

Some people say that the successors like Motif XS and XF sound worse...


Ingo

[penguinfromdeep]

+1 to Mkastrup! Finally someone who really compares the hardware to software. Hardware FM just sounds different, no matter what the naysayers are saying! Ok, you can get adequate stuff of course with software dx7 emulations too and make great music, no problem. But for me and probably for some other people too software dx7 emulations so far just don't cut it! Please I wish some cool developer would make great hardware dx7 / tx7 emulation

[Lotuzia]

That's a great tune Lotuzia, and no, the FM8 doesn't sound lifeless. But it does lack the high end bite of the example Mike Kastrup posted just before it.

Thanks. Yes its just that : FM8 doesnt sound lifeless. Actually it can aslo do a lot of things an original DX7 cant. I dont say its better, and actually it sounds a bit different, more or less depending on the kind of patches you're after. But I'd still say

lifefull.

[Lotuzia]

+1 to Mkastrup! Finally someone who really compares the hardware to software. Hardware FM just sounds different, no matter what the naysayers are saying! Ok, you can get adequate stuff of course with software dx7 emulations too and make great music, no problem. But for me and probably for some other people too software dx7 emulations so far just don't cut it! Please I wish some cool developer would make great hardware dx7 / tx7 emulation

Hi Penguin,

Well there have been comparisons already, maybe not on KVR, but on other forums/sites. There have also been some comparisons between different Yamaha HW machines, and they sound more or less different as well.

The thing is that to sample and accurately render a simple DX, or an FM8, instruments, depending of the more or less complexity of the patch, it takes hundred of Mo for a single patch, and still you wont get the real time expression you have by playing the synth ( what is true for analog gear stays true for FM actually ) This doesnt mean you cant achieve some great patches by doing this, and you can also recreate the expression by using whats avaiable on board on the sampler/rompler. For the most gifted of s, you can also probably capture the "spirit" of the patch, but still, it wont be the real thing.

I agree that the software counterparts do sound more or less different, and it might have to do with the quality of the 12bits AD converters you sometimes found on these machines, as well as with tons of other criterias.

I still have the following machines in my studio : DX7 II, TX 802, and TG77 ( expander of the SY ), and each one has its own sound ( I got rid of my TX7 modules for example a long time ago because the noise floor was a bit too heavy for my taste, but I listened once to A/B test, and its true the TX7 seemed to have a much bigger/noticeable low end than the original DX, where they are supposed to be strictly identical, sound engine wise)

But all in all I'm quite happy with the FM7/FM8, its also really an FM beast and with it I could create some really inspiring -at least for me- instruments wich do have what I call this "special magic of FM". Then if I want to go back to some of my fetish patches I created for the other Dx, I can do it, so I understand that here, it would be like having "rich problems".

LtZ

[Gonga]

I agree completely. FM8 is a monster synth. And so is my TX-802

I do plan to make a recording with it soon that will demonstrate some of the other things (besides E. Piano) that it does uniquely well. Think Miami Vice.