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You aren't alone. Almost no one could figure out how to program the DX7. Even today with the resurgence of FM (Digitone, FM8, Volca FM, etc.), it's still just a

You aren't alone. Almost no one could figure out how to program the DX7. Even today with the resurgence of FM (Digitone, FM8, Volca FM, etc.), it's still just a really unintuitive way to build sounds. That's not to say it's a bad, or powerful way, it's just really hard to build a correct mental model of how changing parameter X will affect the sound in the way you want.

fit2rule 7y ago
Aphex Twin figured out how to program his: https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/articles/aphex-twin-midimutant https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/articles/aphex-twin-midimutant
- acomjean 7y ago
  wow.. That is a good use of a pi. Though the button labels are a little odd (given that its a genetic algorithm..)
- munificent 7y ago
  I can't tell if that's an argument in favor or against my claim. :) If you have to have a brain like Richard D. James to grasp it, what hope is there for us?
rch 7y ago
ALM makes some eurorack modules that are fun to use and sound great. This one provides 4 operator digital FM using ‘new-old-stock’ Yamaha ICs: https://busycircuits.com/alm011/ https://busycircuits.com/alm011/
dreamcompiler 7y ago
I was something of a synth expert in the 80s. Built my own analog synths using Paia kits, used giant wall-sized modulars with rats nests of patch cords, programmed Arps, owned a few Korgs. Later I learned the Fairlight, hooked two of its channels up to galvos and did laser shows with it. But I could never figure out the DX7.
- acomjean 7y ago
  >Later I learned the Fairlight, hooked two of its channels up to galvos and did laser shows with it. That seems neat. I did some poking around about how that could work.. Oscilloscope music. fun.
dharma1 7y ago
There is a new, very nice sounding open hardware FM synth running on a Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA chip that I really want to build (by René Ceballos, creator of z3ta+) - https://www.futur3soundz.com/ https://www.futur3soundz.com/ But yes - it has 400 parameters, programming the sounds isn't going to be easy! I wonder if you could use a neural network to map many parameters into a reduced set of useful controls. Advanced physical modelling synths can have the same issue - too many parameters to meaningfully control while playing.
- kmill 7y ago
  I'm vaguely remembering a talk I saw at Microsoft Research in 2013 by someone who studies psychoacoustics at a university I can't recall. They created an acoustic model that predicted certain qualities of a sound (wetness, harshness, brilliance, etc.), trained with data where subjects assigned such qualities on a scale for many example sounds. They used this to create 2D synth controls using the salient parameters. I believe this ended up being a somewhat popular VST plugin.

fit2rule 7y ago

Aphex Twin figured out how to program his: https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/articles/aphex-twin-midimutant https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/articles/aphex-twin-midimutant

acomjean 7y ago
wow.. That is a good use of a pi. Though the button labels are a little odd (given that its a genetic algorithm..)
munificent 7y ago
I can't tell if that's an argument in favor or against my claim. :) If you have to have a brain like Richard D. James to grasp it, what hope is there for us?

rch 7y ago

ALM makes some eurorack modules that are fun to use and sound great. This one provides 4 operator digital FM using ‘new-old-stock’ Yamaha ICs: https://busycircuits.com/alm011/ https://busycircuits.com/alm011/

dreamcompiler 7y ago

I was something of a synth expert in the 80s. Built my own analog synths using Paia kits, used giant wall-sized modulars with rats nests of patch cords, programmed Arps, owned a few Korgs. Later I learned the Fairlight, hooked two of its channels up to galvos and did laser shows with it. But I could never figure out the DX7.

acomjean 7y ago
>Later I learned the Fairlight, hooked two of its channels up to galvos and did laser shows with it. That seems neat. I did some poking around about how that could work.. Oscilloscope music. fun.

dharma1 7y ago

There is a new, very nice sounding open hardware FM synth running on a Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA chip that I really want to build (by René Ceballos, creator of z3ta+) - https://www.futur3soundz.com/ https://www.futur3soundz.com/ But yes - it has 400 parameters, programming the sounds isn't going to be easy! I wonder if you could use a neural network to map many parameters into a reduced set of useful controls. Advanced physical modelling synths can have the same issue - too many parameters to meaningfully control while playing.

kmill 7y ago
I'm vaguely remembering a talk I saw at Microsoft Research in 2013 by someone who studies psychoacoustics at a university I can't recall. They created an acoustic model that predicted certain qualities of a sound (wetness, harshness, brilliance, etc.), trained with data where subjects assigned such qualities on a scale for many example sounds. They used this to create 2D synth controls using the salient parameters. I believe this ended up being a somewhat popular VST plugin.