Just in case somebody wants to know what is a DX7... The DX7 was the first affordable fully digital synthesizer on the market. It appeared in 1983 in a world o

Just in case somebody wants to know what is a DX7... The DX7 was the first affordable fully digital synthesizer on the market. It appeared in 1983 in a world of mostly-analog synthesizers that had polyphony limited to 8 voices (at hugely expensive prices for an 8 voice model!) and a limited amount of presets. A typical popular polysynth of the era would be the Prophet-5, with 5 voices. Also, only the most expensive analog polysynths were velocity sensitive, and only one had aftertouch (the sublime Yamaha CS-80 and the Yamaha GX1). Finally, the analog synthesizers that had no DCO (digitally controlled oscillators) could have some tuning problems due to temperature changes, etc. So in 1983 this DX7 synthesizer appears on the market, offering 16 (sixteen!) voices and 32 presets (expandable to 64 by use of a ROM cartridge) plus this new stuff called MIDI (that only two or three synths supported by that time). The typical analog substractive polysynth had two oscillators per voice (remember, 5 voices was "good", 8 voices was "deluxe" in the early 80s), one envelope generator per voice, and one filter. This DX7 thing had 6 oscillators per voice (total = 96 oscillators) and 6 envelope generators per voice (total = 96 EGs); but no filters. Also, by that time almost no true synthesizer could give you a decent (credible) electric piano or flute sound. The DX7 could do very decent electric pianos, and a very credible flute sound was included as well. Thus this was a monster synth that sold like hot cakes, so much, that Yamaha couldn't keep up with demand and many musicians had to wait for one... The DX7 wasn't the ultimate Yamaha, however; The DX1 was the deluxe model, with polyphonic aftertouch, 32 voices, balanced outputs, weighted keys and a much more comprehensive interface. Later the DX5 was released -- a stripped-down DX1, without the nice interface and no poly aftertouch. The DX7 was used in massive amounts of songs until the people got tired of the presets ("why they didn't program it?" is another story worthy of an article). Later the Roland D50 appeared, with easier-to-create sounds, and the mainstream abandoned the DX7 and FM synthesis.