Re: [AH] DX7 Vs...

From John Emond
Sent Fri, Sep 28th 2018, 22:02

Nice to hear some love for the DX9. I bought mine when they first came out. I=
t has a slightly more aggressive (more analog like) sound. It is really good=
 on bass patches and bell like tones. It=E2=80=99s also good for controlling=
 non-keyboard modules or keyboard impaired synths like my Microkorg.

Cheers,

John


> On Sep 28, 2018, at 5:55 PM, Florian Anwander <xxxxxxxxx@xxxx-xxxxxx.xx> w=
rote:
>=20
> Hello Marshall
>=20
>> Am 28.09.18 um 23:24 schrieb Marshall Craig:
>> I mean, can you have a sound in your head and begin to approximate it usi=
ng specific methods?
> I had a DX7 in 1984, for two weeks I only played presets. Then it took me a=
round 3 hours with the manual starting from the init sound to get an idea ho=
w one has to approach constructing sounds in FM. Since then I can make sound=
s in a DX, which I have in my head. It takes me about twice as long as with a=
 subtractive synth, but for many standard sounds still under 15 minutes (usi=
ng a hardware contoller).
>=20
> I don't understand FM mathematically, but I understand, that there aren't t=
oo many variations of sounds, and there are only a few important basic param=
eters. There is frequency ratio between operators, there is modulator level (=
with envelope) and you have to decide, whether your carrier operator runs wi=
th keyboardcontrol at audio, or without keyboard-control at low frequency.
> Algorithm variations are overrated. Of course they make a big difference i=
f you have a finished sound and change the algorithm.
> But for building sounds from the scratch, it does not matter too much, whe=
ther two parallel modulators go to the same carrier or to two different carr=
iers at the same frequency. The first will have a similar sound like Filter-=
PolyMod on a Prophet5. The latter one will remind simply two oscillators wit=
h VCF and VCA for each oscillator (like the voice architecure of Yamahas CS1=
5 / CS80).
>=20
> Thats it.
>=20
> Florian