Diva vs Analogue - a real world test

[PatchAdamz]

I don't think many of us thought of the DX in terms of the coldness of FM, etc. First and foremost, it was a fantastic piece of equipment for gigging musicians - built like a tank and with a fabulously playable keybed.

When the DX7 was released, no one thought it was cold.
In fact, it became one of the highest selling synths ever made.
You heard it every where, all the time.

Interesting how the musical community was hungry for something less analog.

[Examigan]

I see your comparisons, but I have ACE, Saurus, Minimonsta, and others that I can use. I still don't have Diva, but for now it's ok.

[Examigan]

I don't think many of us thought of the DX in terms of the coldness of FM, etc. First and foremost, it was a fantastic piece of equipment for gigging musicians - built like a tank and with a fabulously playable keybed.

When the DX7 was released, no one thought it was cold.
In fact, it became one of the highest selling synths ever made.
You heard it every where, all the time.

Interesting how the musical community was hungry for something less analog.

+1

[braj]

I don't think many of us thought of the DX in terms of the coldness of FM, etc. First and foremost, it was a fantastic piece of equipment for gigging musicians - built like a tank and with a fabulously playable keybed.

When the DX7 was released, no one thought it was cold.
In fact, it became one of the highest selling synths ever made.
You heard it every where, all the time.

Interesting how the musical community was hungry for something less analog.

No, I remember people complaining it was cold. But at the time the analogs weren't considered classics and VCOs were notorious for going out of tune. Plus at that time as I recall the holy grail of synthesis was to replicate traditional instruments and FM did that for many things much more convincingly.

[wagtunes]

I was probably the only person who hated the sound of the DX7 when it first came out. I remember the guy at the store demonstrating the "Electric Grand" patch. This was supposed to sound like a grand piano? I had a grand piano in my living room and it sounded nothing like that.

And since I really wasn't all that into bell sounds, the synth just didn't appeal to me. Ironically, I bought it because everybody had one and if I was going to play in the band, I had to have one too. But make no mistake about it, I never liked the synth.

It's down in my basement covered with dust and that's where it'll probably stay.

[PatchAdamz]

I don't think many of us thought of the DX in terms of the coldness of FM, etc. First and foremost, it was a fantastic piece of equipment for gigging musicians - built like a tank and with a fabulously playable keybed.

When the DX7 was released, no one thought it was cold.
In fact, it became one of the highest selling synths ever made.
You heard it every where, all the time.

Interesting how the musical community was hungry for something less analog.

No, I remember people complaining it was cold. But at the time the analogs weren't considered classics and VCOs were notorious for going out of tune. Plus at that time as I recall the holy grail of synthesis was to replicate traditional instruments and FM did that for many things much more convincingly.

Right, plus the DX7 could do much more then bright electric pianos which it got quickly known for.
It could do great strings and seriously fat bass amongst other things.

On the down side, it was more complex and therefore more difficult to program.
Compared to analog it could be colder, but it dint necessarily have to be.

[braj]

I remember when the Roland D50 came out, to me that was the DX7 killer, though I could only afford a lowly MT32. Wag, you weren't the only one that disliked the DX7. The 80s got noticeably bleaker with the DX7. And it was all Reagan's fault, that bastard.

[Examigan]

The 80s got noticeably bleaker with the DX7. And it was all Reagan's fault, that bastard.

[zvenx]

I was probably the only person who hated the sound of the DX7 when it first came out. ......

Lol No you weren't!!!!!....
rsp

[ImNotDedYet]

I was probably the only person who hated the sound of the DX7 when it first came out. I remember the guy at the store demonstrating the "Electric Grand" patch. This was supposed to sound like a grand piano? I had a grand piano in my living room and it sounded nothing like that.

And since I really wasn't all that into bell sounds, the synth just didn't appeal to me. Ironically, I bought it because everybody had one and if I was going to play in the band, I had to have one too. But make no mistake about it, I never liked the synth.

It's down in my basement covered with dust and that's where it'll probably stay.

Anyone who thinks a DX7 is only capable of producing bell sounds or presets of "real instruments" that come kind of close to the real thing, likely hasn't taken the time to learn a bit about FM synthesis and/or can't be bothered to download a computer-based editor for the synth. If that same person is into wavetable synthesis, they're even more closed minded IMO, because FM gives you the ability to "create" your own very complex waves that a limited wavetable synth couldn't give you. And if you've heard comparisons between emulations such as FM8 to a DX-7, you'd know that while FM-8 gives you more capabilities, the DX-7's DAC makes them sound quite a bit different.

To each their own, but the DX-7 and FM give you so many sonic capabilities that are either quite difficult to obtain using other forms of synthesis, that you're really cheating yourself by not exploring it IMO.

[braj]

FM is great and all, but with FM (in the DX7) came a whole change in synths in general, we lost our knobs and sliders, presets became more important than deep knowledge and a connection to the instrument. Some people could program the DX7, but it was still a bear, and many people never did get past presets.

[trimph1]

That may be the reason for presets being the big sellers even today.

I still have a lot of different mags advertising nothing but DX7 preset packs.

[braj]

That may be the reason for presets being the big sellers even today.

I still have a lot of different mags advertising nothing but DX7 preset packs.

And as I recall those memory cards cost an arm and a leg too. Boy was it exciting to see floppy drives with 1.44MB storage, just WOW! That was so awesome

[trimph1]

That may be the reason for presets being the big sellers even today.

I still have a lot of different mags advertising nothing but DX7 preset packs.

And as I recall those memory cards cost an arm and a leg too. Boy was it exciting to see floppy drives with 1.44MB storage, just WOW! That was so awesome

Yep. Those were the days were'nt they?

[Hank the Knife]

Yeah, it took 5 minutes to copy a floppy