Yamaha DX7
The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units.
Yamaha DX7
May 1983–1989
16-voice
Monotimbral
Bi-timbral (DX7 II)
6 digital sine wave operators per voice, 32 patching algorithms[1]
Digital linear frequency modulation /
Additive synthesis (alg. #32)
none
1 pitch envelope & 6 amplitude generators per voice
Yes (channel)
Yes
32 patches in RAM (battery backup); front panel ROM/RAM cartridge port
none
YM21280 (OPS) operator chip
YM21290 (EGS) envelope generator
61-note with velocity
and aftertouch sensitivity
pitch-bend and modulation wheels
MIDI in/out/thru, input for foot controller x2, input for foot switch x2, input for optional breath controller
In the early 1980s, the synthesizer market was dominated by analog synthesizers. FM synthesis, a means of generating sounds via frequency modulation, was developed by John Chowning at Stanford University, California. FM synthesis created brighter, glassier sounds, and could better imitate acoustic sounds such as brass and bells. Yamaha licensed the technology to create the DX7, combining it with very-large-scale integration chips to lower manufacturing costs.
With its complex menus and lack of conventional controls, few learned to program the DX7 in depth. However, its preset sounds became staples of 1980s pop music; in 1986, it was used in 40% of the number-one singles on the US Billboard Hot 100. Its electric piano sound was particularly widely used, especially in power ballads. The English producer Brian Eno was proficient at programming his own sounds, and it was instrumental to his work in ambient music. Chips based on the DX7 sound chip, such as the YM2612, were used in technologies such as the Sega Genesis game console.
The DX7 was succeeded by FM synthesizers including the DX1, DX21, DX27 and DX100. In later years, the DX7 sounds came to be seen as dated or clichéd and its use declined.
Sales[edit]
The DX7 was the first commercially successful digital synthesizer[10][11][12] and remains one of the bestselling synthesizers in history.[11][13] According to Bristow, Yamaha had hoped to sell more than 20,000 units. Within a year, orders exceeded 150,000 units,[7] and Yamaha had sold 200,000 units after three years.[14]
The DX7 was the first synthesizer to sell more than 100,000 units.[7] Yamaha manufactured units on a scale American competitors could not match; by comparison, Moog sold 12,000 Minimoog synthesizers in 11 years, and could not meet demand.[14] The FM patent was for years one of Stanford's highest earning.[15] Chowning received royalties for all of Yamaha's FM synthesizers.[3]
According to Dave Smith, the founder of the synthesizer company Sequential, "The synthesizer market was tiny in the late 70s. No one was selling 50,000 of these things. It wasn't until the Yamaha DX7 came out that a company shipped 100,000-plus synths."[16] Smith said the DX7 sold well as it was reasonably priced, had keyboard expression and 16 voices, and was better at emulating acoustic sounds than competing products.[16] Chowning credited the success to the combination of his FM patent with Yamaha's chip technology.[4]
Successors [edit]
According to Sound on Sound, throughout the mid-1980s, "Yamaha flooded the market with a plethora of low-cost FM synths."[6] In 1987, Yamaha released the DX7II, which did not match the success of the DX7.[7] Further successors included the TX81Z, DX1, DX11, and DX21.[6] Yamaha manufactured reduced versions of the DX7 sound chip, such as the YM2612, for use in technologies such as the Sega Genesis game console.[28] In 2015, Yamaha released a smaller FM synthesizer, the Reface DX.[29]