I actually have an extremely MINT DX7 mk1 with the Special updated ROM. I bought it from a guy in Austin about 10 years ago. He bought it new in 86 right before the MK2 came out. So it sat in a closet from 86 until I bought it in 2009.

I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I am constantly paranoid I"m going to scratch it or mess it up. F#$%ing OCD about it.

Mine is quite beaten up but it works just fine except for the data slider. I need to replace it. Tried cleaning it but it didnt work.

It sure looks utterly mint out! Mine looks utterly unmint, got it from the local electronics recycling depot for free 13 years ago!

Nice!

The build quality of the MK 1 is pretty impressive. Even compared to other gear from that era. Apart from the overall sturdiness and the fantastic keyboard, mine seems amazingly durable. I got mine about 10 years ago too, in decent shape (not mint), messed with it occasionally for a few months and then it's mostly been in a cardboard box in my cupboard for many years. I took it out again about a year ago, worked like a charm. Only used it for one weekend and just left it standing next to my berdroom wall uncovered. Inexcusable, I know. Then a couple of weeks ago I just wiped off the dust, plugged it to the wall, waited a few minutes, turned it on, and again it worked perfectly just as it did 10 years ago! The data slider and everything. Maybe sounds even better now

I found this a little while ago. Didnt have the funds at the time otherwise it would now be in my possession
Yamaha DX7 1984 owned since new original manuals, cartridges. | eBay

Hypersynth just released a very interesting memory card which is able to store up to 100 banks without the worry of battery life and data loss. It's also available for the DX7II/D-50 and upcoming for the DX5/DX1. Also a display for the card.

It's great to see that they're going active, still waiting for the 64bit version of their cool SIDizer and Oresus synth.

Uncompressed

Second half uncompressed

I've never used a real DX-7, but imported the same DX-7 presets to both Dexed and DX-7 V and found some wonky patches on Dexed that didn't sound wonky on DX-7 V, I preferred by a small margin the DX-7 V but don't know why.

A similar scenario for me was to compare CZ-101 to VirtualCZ VST, the actual patches sounded identical(apart from 1 or 2 wonky) but the hardware had a muffled/murky(noisy?!) sound against the clean VST, I actually preferred the VST and sold the CZ-101.

There are a lot of subtle differences that are apparent on the spectrogram, but they don't seem to be audible.

The most obvious thing I notice is that one has a lot more zipper noise (from the amplitude envelopes) than the other. The other one also has some high frequency rolloff starting at around 17 kHz. I'd guess that's the real DX7.

I will let you know which is which later. For now i have to go off and do my day job.
I am not worried about differences on the spectrogram as long as they remain pretty much inaudible.

Whats the word on these hypersynth cards? I've tried to start a new thread on the subject as there doesnt seem to be one but for some reason I'm not able to start a thread! Think it's some kind of bug.
Anyway just wondering if it's worth investing in one of these cards for my mk1

Want!

Not quite sure what the problem is. Want the OG DX sound? Get a TX7. Simple. Got mine for $100 (mint, heh heh). Does anyone know what the Hyperspace cards sold for? They're currently sold out and the price isn't listed. Dig the display option.

They are around $100

Is that discussion available online?

Nice comparison Jim..!

The Aurturia DX7 V patch at 1:50 into the video sounds like it has the oscillator synch parameter turned on, this causes the waveforms to reset when a note is triggered.

Could you check that and let us know?

Zmix,

I checked that parameter and it was turned ON. I turned it off and listened to it again and it did remove of that "static shotgun" effect.

I'll make a new video for this and add some additional info to the existing one.

That is a very useful bit of info for sure. Thank you for the heads up!

Jim

Glad we were able to sort that out. You might mention on the YouTube video that this is responsible for the "sample playback" effect.

Be aware that the OSC SYNC parameter is per operator, not global. Make sure eit's turned off on all 6 operators.

If this patch was loaded from sysex this parameter should have defaulted to off so maybe a bug?

I added the additional info in the "Video Info Section."

I'm heading to NAMM tomorrow so I'll make an updated version when I get back.

I would say that is a bug. :-)

Glad we were able to sort that out. You might mention on the YouTube video that this is responsible for the "sample playback" effect.

Be aware that the OSC SYNC parameter is per operator, not global. Make sure it's turned off on all 6 operators.

If this patch was loaded from sysex this parameter should have defaulted to off so maybe a bug?


EDIT:

From the DX-7 manual:

I have a few questions:

Does the DX-7 itself have the SYNC parameter set to OFF on this patch?

Do the other DX emulations have this parameter?

DEXED has a global osc key sync switch.
Which has a very strong effect on the most famous DX-7 sound: ROM1A Brass 1.

Had a lucky find lastnight! The 4 Eno patches are in sysex here:
Sound like Brian Eno with his Yamaha DX7 synth patches from 1987

And it loads into Arturia DXV. And if memory serves, the Tamboura sounds exactly the same as a mark1 DX-7 even though the patch loads in with oscillator sync turned off, when the patch sheet says it should be on. It doesn't seem to make a difference in this patch though.

So this would demonstrate that Arturia DXV has the DX-7 envelope bug. Will check it in DXED tonight.

It would be very cool if someone with a DX-7 can confirm the sound is the same for this patch?

The Arturia DX7 V replicates the original DX-7 envelope "bug" exactly. I have several patches I created that rely on this bug. DEXED cannot play them properly, nor can FM-8...

So which is which?

Dan

I do apologize, i completely forgot about that. Good job i keep records of everything.
Here is the order
1 DX7 - DEXED
2 DX7 - DEXED
3 DX7 - DEXED
4 DEXED - DX7
5 DEXED - DX7
6 DX7 - DEXED
7 DEXED - DX7
8 DX7 - DEXED
that is if I uploaded all 8 test recordings.

I bet you thought I wouldnt have kept any record of this

So as I thought, the DX7 is slightly duller sounding (Dexed doesn't seem to emulate the output filtering, not that it's really that noticeable) and Dexed has the excessive zipper noise. There's nothing about either recording that's noticeably attributable to the DAC. If the envelopes in Dexed were improved, it would be very, very close.

Exactly. Tweaking the envelopes does bring it closer but also tweaking velocity sensitivity helps too as there is a slight diference there. One thing i did notice is the overtones are slightly different like its aliasing at a different frequency. Of course this would not be noticable in a mix but can be heard in isolation. But for a software emulation and dx7 editor, at the price it's offered, it is really, really good. I would happily use this in place of my dx7 if i had to. I would not bother paying for the arturia version.

I was wondering if Arturia's emulation is better in terms of sound of the MkI compared to Dexed? I know it features the envelope bug and added waveforms but if you just consider the sound, would you say it's an improvement over Dexed?

I have FM8, Arturia DX7 V, Dexed, DX 7 Mk1 and a TX-816 though I've never got around to comparing them thoroughly. I have tried loading the same presets from the DX7 Mk1 into Dexed (in Mk1 mode) and had a quick play through them - not a double-blind scientific test!

Some sounds seemed to me to be spot on - the classic presets that I tried seemed perfectly adequate replacements for the DX 7, particularly for live. It is very impressive for free software. Some more custom synthy sounds - sort of PPG/synclavier character - really didn't sound as effective on Dexed and certainly sounded different - there are clearly some limits to its authenticity. Next time I'm in a "compare this with that" mood, I'll try loading those sounds into everything to see what happens.

It seems you need to test the actual sounds you're using to see if they work on whatever substitute you pick, YMMV depending on the nature of the sounds.

The v50 and TX18z fm engine are very similar but the difference , apart from polyphony is that the v50s low frequency can go to 1hz, so not all v50 patches will work on a tx18z