This has to be one of the
coolest synths I have ever heard. FM synthesis and DX synths are
truly awesome in their results, and those who spit out primitive judgments like "DX is
useless"
are most probably malicious haters taking their revenge on the synth's
horrible interface (because it really is horrible...)
This is paradoxical, or ironic, but the DX7 which is the epitome of
digital technology that ousted analogs back in the '80s is the most
'organic' synth soundwise. And I don't mean instability or little
inaccuracies in sound; I mean that the patches you can create using
this thing astonish people to the point that they're not sure if
they're listening to an instrument or some natural phenonmena.
Moreover, DX7 (FM) sounds are not as obvious and "customary" as analog
sounds, so they enrich the music to a great degree and you no longer
have any reason to say "oh, that's a synthesizer-song". And I guess
this would be the ultimate reason for me to choose DX7 as the best
synth ever - because it doesn't sound like a synth... at least a synth
everybody has heard before. A real individuality still having
potential despite being so overused and cliched. One of the greatest
rides of my life was the discovery that underneath the official,
glossy surface of the typical DX sound, DX7 can sound like some
diseased, genetically modified living organism with complex technology
incorporated as its interface. And this is what I decided to show to
you in the
demo (I'm sorry if you wanted to hear the Rhodes patch for
the 1000'th time).
DX-7 2 has some fine add-ons,
in terms of specifications (LFOs, Layering) as well as operation
(programmable controls, easier navigation) but if I were to write some
painful music and then perform it on stage, I'd definitely go with the
Mark-1. It's the original soul, whereas DX7-2 feels like the second, more
poppy album which a band releases to cash in on the fabulous original debut.
But Mark 2 reads patches from Mark 1, so I guess all in all, the
recording studio environment welcomes Mark-2 with open arms.
But yes, the interface is a real shame and there's now way of brushing it
under the carpet. Remembering the horror I was going through during editing,
I must drop the experience mark from superb to proper. Nevermore this kind
of stupid horseplay.
*This version gets additional
half-point in UI rating for the sliders and the lcd.
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