Yamaha DX7II VSTi

[chk071]

"lacks the liveliness"

That means it stays in tune

I'm glad my software sounds so lifeless then.

[Kaboom75]

u-he Bazille is the FM king but it's not a DX7 clone. You can get very DX7 sounding presets for Zebra.

[SODDI]

u-he Bazille is the FM king but it's not a DX7 clone.

That's an interesting claim, as Bazille doesn't seem to be released.

[Bronto Scorpio]

u-he Bazille is the FM king but it's not a DX7 clone.

That's an interesting claim, as Bazille doesn't seem to be released.

The beta version has been available for free for several years now though.
There is a DX7-ish sound somewhere in this old demo:

Cheers
Dennis

[SODDI]

I don't know much about the DX7 but Nemesis sounds really nice, believe me.

Another unreleased synth. And no one at Tone2 will even talk about the scientific synthesis method it employs. Cause it's sooper-dooper secret, shhh.

So the standard for a multi-op FM synthesizer is still FM8.

NI could do a few things to improve FM8, and not just slavish imitations of the DX7 functionality. Better GUI for the op edit windows, with op, op mods and envelope displayed in a single window. More mod assignments. More single-cycle waveforms for the ops. Heresy of all heresy, a filter section. More FX.

Including a "warming" distortion to emulate the analog outputs of the original DX7.

[electro]

I do not think you can make a Yamaha DX-7 emulation better than the FM8.

Thanks a lot Mr Dragon and Ingo

Nori did an awsome soundbank for the FM8, also on our site ( and did some presets for the Yamaha Hw units, as I did some )

Well, I still have a Dx7IID, a TX802 and a TG77 ( Xpander of the SY ), and the closest in the sound, atm, and ime, is certainly NI FM8. Not only does it have the exact same parameters set, but the import will also get you the closest to the Original Dx patches.

Imported patches on FM7/FM8 can sound drastically different than they do on the Hardware DX7. The patches with more harmonics make the difference more obvious.

[dreibel]

I owned an actual DX7S for many years, which I used as my main controller keyboard as well asa tone generator. I loved that synth. Then I got FM7 and later FM8 - and they sound pretty amazing. I traded the DX after I discovered it didn't put out the full 0-127 velocity curve I needed. (I think the full velocity was up to 100).

One thing to remember - FM7 and FM8 are not emulations, they're actual Frequency Modulation synths, just with more operators and filters. This allows you to not only recreate the classic FM sounds of the Yamaha but other sounds that synth was never capable of like super-lush pads.

I've also owned a DX100 and DX11 keyboards, which were 4-op as opposed to the 6-op of the DX7. While not quite as detailed as the 7 models, they were capable of good sounds - and they're much easier to program. I used to spend hours with the 100 and come up with all sorts of wild patches (I realized that the operators work like organ drawbars, and that combined and changing the pitch was like a multi-voice chorus pedal). I still wish I had that DX11, it was perhaps one of my favorite keyboards.

[SODDI]

I wish I had never sold my TX81Z. Only 4-op, but capable of incredible brute nastiness. It was my go-to bass for ages.

[beely]

I owned an actual DX7S for many years, which I used as my main controller keyboard as well asa tone generator. I loved that synth. Then I got FM7 and later FM8 - and they sound pretty amazing. I traded the DX after I discovered it didn't put out the full 0-127 velocity curve I needed. (I think the full velocity was up to 100).

No - the *original* DX7 had a keyboard that wouldn't output velocity of over a 100, due to IIRC Yamaha misinterpreting the (very early) MIDI spec.

The later DX7S and DX7II output the full velocity range just fine - in fact, they have my favourite synth-action keyboards I've played to date. It's apparently *supposed* to be the same keyboard assembly Korg used in the Wavestation, but I had both and mine felt rather different - the WS is a bit clacky, noisy and lumpy, whereas the DX7S/II was just really good...

[PietW.]

I do not think you can make a Yamaha DX-7 emulation better than the FM8.

Thanks a lot Mr Dragon and Ingo

Nori did an awsome soundbank for the FM8, also on our site ( and did some presets for the Yamaha Hw units, as I did some )

Well, I still have a Dx7IID, a TX802 and a TG77 ( Xpander of the SY ), and the closest in the sound, atm, and ime, is certainly NI FM8. Not only does it have the exact same parameters set, but the import will also get you the closest to the Original Dx patches.

Imported patches on FM7/FM8 can sound drastically different than they do on the Hardware DX7. The patches with more harmonics make the difference more obvious.

That may be true but in a production no one hears the difference.
No one hears the grass grow.

[Ingonator]

I don't know much about the DX7 but Nemesis sounds really nice, believe me.

Another unreleased synth. And no one at Tone2 will even talk about the scientific synthesis method it employs. Cause it's sooper-dooper secret, shhh.

What's to misunderstand about a "teaser" like it was published for Nemesis. More details will follow soon enough.
All i could say is that it will include a few major differences to other FM synths and it is not thought as a FM8 replacement. Telling more is simply not possible without going into the technical details.

Anyway if Tone2 published previews the corresponding synths are usually at least a few months (or less) before release.
Nemesis will be the third new Tone2 synth within two years (both Saurus and Rayblaster published last year).

All their synths got specific features or technologies that usually are not included with the other ones (except that Gladiator could do the stuff from Firebird but that one is free now). They do not plan to do a "super synth" with all features included. Next one will focus again on a different approach (not exactly defined yet).


Ingo

[deastman]

I do not think you can make a Yamaha DX-7 emulation better than the FM8.

Thanks a lot Mr Dragon and Ingo

Nori did an awsome soundbank for the FM8, also on our site ( and did some presets for the Yamaha Hw units, as I did some )

Well, I still have a Dx7IID, a TX802 and a TG77 ( Xpander of the SY ), and the closest in the sound, atm, and ime, is certainly NI FM8. Not only does it have the exact same parameters set, but the import will also get you the closest to the Original Dx patches.

Imported patches on FM7/FM8 can sound drastically different than they do on the Hardware DX7. The patches with more harmonics make the difference more obvious.

That may be true but in a production no one hears the difference.
No one hears the grass grow.

I have to admit, I tried important the original DX7 factory presets into FM8, and some of them sounded pretty messed up... particularly the electric piano. I think this has more to do with NI needing to improve their importer, or making sure parameter values are scaled appropriately, rather than the DX7 just sounding "better" due to low quality D/As. Then I skimmed through the FM8 library presets and found a bunch of other electric piano patches, all of which sounded better than the original (at least in my opinion).

[SODDI]

I think another factor in the sound of the DX7 is that it was the most popular synthesizer in the world at one point and that there were probably thousands of third-party patches programmed for it in its heyday by programmers all over the world - most which may be lost in studio's dead equipment closets, but many of which you can still hear in everything from kung fu movies to English prog-rock.

Canto-pop was particularly fond of DX7 abuse and it's EVERYWHERE in Chinese pop culture of the 80s and 90s. I think that it is because it is particularly well suited to emulating plucked Chinese instruments like the pipa. I don't think a lot of it was the DX7's factory programs.



Find some of those old third-party patches and you might be well on the way to finding those DX7 sounds of your dreams.

[grabme]

If anyone is going to be that fussy about the sound then simply get the original DX7 or the module version, they are so inexpensive that its not worth complaining about.

Yes there are a handful of sounds that have that additional buzz or artifact on the hardware but for the rest of us, we will gladly open FM7 or FM8 knowing full well that they blow away the standard sounds you can get with just the hardware.

[electro]

I have to admit, I tried important the original DX7 factory presets into FM8, and some of them sounded pretty messed up... particularly the electric piano. I think this has more to do with NI needing to improve their importer, or making sure parameter values are scaled appropriately, rather than the DX7 just sounding "better" due to low quality D/As.

I don't think FM7/FM8 was ever intended to reproduce the DX7