FM Synthesis, The DX-7 and TX81Z

Since really getting back into the studio I have been reawakening the drive to get the most out of my synthesizers. Analog synths are always fun and easy to manipulate with hands on knob tweaking and turning. But in the 1980s a bunch of scientists came up with a new form of synthesis called FM synthesis. Yamaha adopted this new mathematical form of synthesis and released the DX-7 in 1983 which became a power house synthesizer in the 1980s used by nearly everyone. Here is a video showing off the power of the DX-7 II FD which was a re-release that came out in 1987. You can hear how a lot of Italo songs got their sound from FM synthesis.



Years ago I got a Yamaha TX81Z rack mount synthesizer which is an affordable way to get DX-7 sounds. But editing on the TX81Z can be very difficult given that all you have is a LED screen. Here is a great site that I found that has some helpful hints as well as software to help edit the TX81Z. Also check out this great youtube vid from Muzik4Machines editing his TX81Z.



Nowadays you can get these sounds in software form without all the pain of editing. Native Instruments released the FM-7 and FM-8 which have some great sounds. But of course software sounds still don't always capture the depth of hardware.

Check out Audiopirate to test drive these powerful software tools.