Yamaha DX7 Synthesizer

Posted by his Label "Acid Test" John Frusciante names various Instruments he used over time. One of those is the

In [this transcript of an interview from the June 1985 issue of *Guitar Player* magazine](http://www.amnesta.net/edge_delay/musician_magazine_1986.html), the DX7 is listed among Edge's non-guitar stage instruments.

Speaking about his favorite pieces of gear, Chaz says "...I recently got this Yamaha DX7s synth. It's awesome. I'm using that on everything right now."

Underworld's Rick Smith on the Yamaha DX7: "The DX7 is my oldest and favorite synth. I have a set of sounds that I've programmed and that seem to work consistently. Recently I've started programming it again, but in ridiculous fashion, with sounds just coming out like noise. When you sample it and time-stretch and create other sounds and rhythms it can be interesting. It's true that most of my synths are analogue. I think most modern digital synths do too much. They fill all the gaps, and make up for a lack of imagination. And tweaking buttons is nice. You have to really struggle with these old synths. You may walk in on Tuesday, and for some reason it sounds shit all day, but the next day it may be sounding great."

In this twitter post, Kill the noise mentions he's "All about the 80's DX7 harmonica solo," referring to the Yamaha DX7.

He also told Musician magazine in October 1982, “the Multimoog is where I get the effect that everybody thinks is a saxophone.” That should put to rest any Internet chatter that it was a Minimoog, or even a Yamaha DX7, which he did use later in concert. Keyboard Mag January 15, 2015 Jerry Kovarsky

In this picture, Martin is clearly playing a Yamaha DX7.

BT tweets, "Whole family watching the wedding singer and installing a new display and SuperMax! on my DX7. Could a Friday possibly get better?" DX7 refers to his Yamaha DX7 Synthesizer. SuperMax is a modification/expansion for the DX7, providing more patches, more features, and better MIDI implementation.

The Yamaha DX27 can be seen in this image of Jonny.

"My first EP, Teddy Boy, was just made by one synthesizer, is the DX7. And that's it." (1:00)

Part of this 1993 interview says that his gear includes a Roland TB303, a Yamaha DX7, an old Korg analogue sequencer, an ST and monitor, CD player, DAT machine and loads of his own creations.

in this photo till use dx7 synth!

In this article it says Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) used a Yamaha DX7 when recording his last album, 22, A Million. It also states this in the liner notes for the album

“I used a Yamaha DX7 a lot on that song, which is so uniquely ’80s,” in reference to Taylor Swift's "Out Of The Woods".

At 28:22, It can CLEARLY be seen with brian playing on it while the band was playing the song "Who Wants To Live Forever" in the Hungarian Rhapsody concert in 1986 .

The Yamaha DX7 shows up in the pictures during this interview with Marc Houle RA:"What was your impression of the DX7 before you picked one up?" Marc Houle:"Awful, I hated the DX7. All the early '80s stupid digital pop music, "bling, bling, bling" and all the really bad R&B? All the DX7. All the bad metal bands. It was the worst synth. Every track that was on the radio had a DX7 at that time, because it was so revolutionary, but they used it all in such a strong, breathy way. I got it four years ago because there's something about me... Like as much as I hate it, I kind of love it too. 1985 Prince sounds, crap digital, it's kind of fun"

In [this transcribed interview](http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/interviews/sos90b.html) from *Sound On Sound* magazine's October 1990 issue, Eno is asked if he has a lot of instruments in his studio. He replies, "No, I don’t have a lot of instruments. I have a DX7 which is my main instrument. I still keep discovering great new things about it. I’m not really interested in all the options that an instrument can give you, and I know now that they are pretty much infinite. What I’m interested in is the kind of rapport I have with an instrument, and that takes a long time to develop. You wouldn’t just pick up a guitar and expect to immediately understand the thing."

Jon Lord is using his ARP Yamaha DX7 in this photo.

At 2:41, Neil is playing a Yamaha DX7.

Trent used DX7's on his Downward Spiral tour. That's where I learned about them as a teen. He beat the crap out of them. Plenty of articles about Trent and the old workhorse.

Phil Collins is playing the DX7 on this live version of 'One More Night' And is evident by its distinct classic E-Piano sound throughout the song

The item can be seen at 0:15 into this video. Another good reference of all things DX-7 - http://bobbyblues.recup.ch/yamaha_dx7/dx7_examples.html, which states that it was the BASS 1 preset.

Spotted in this photo

"My first keyboard, still going strong"

"Anyway, I had this Jupiter 8 which Bryan Ferry had always liked the sound of. In fact, I used two of them on stage for Roxy's Avalon tour. So most of the keyboard work that I was asked to play on the Boys and Girls album was Jupiter 8 synth... plus a little DX7."

At 0:23, Andy Fletcher can be seen playing a Yamaha DX7

Throughout the video, Alan Wilder is playing a Yamaha DX7.

This page from Keyboard Magazine lists the DX-7 among Geddy Lee's gear.

Iain explains in this interview, the new gear incorporations."We also added a Yamaha DX-7, a DSI Mopho X4 and most recently a Prophet 12. Still getting our heads around the latter - it's an absolute powerhouse of a synth."

He used Yamaha DX7 during his days as a paid Keyboard player with that time Music Directors

George Michael used a Yamaha DX7 on his "Faith" album.

"I'm most comfortable on the DX7 because it's got the easiest keyboard to play. It's definitely not the easiest to program, but in a live situation as well as in the studio, that's the one I use, MIDIing other things to it."

In [this interview](http://www.americansongwriter.com/2011/09/qa-grizzly-bears-chris-taylor-on-recording-cant/) with American Songwriter, Taylor states that he used a Yamaha DX7 Synthesizer.

Elton John is seen in this Advertisement featuring the Yamaha DX7.

Alex Metric takes future music on a studio tour

Yamaha DX7 Synthesizer in their studio

Purple Rain was the first album to introduce digital synths in Princes music. It was Yamaha dx7.

In this Audient Producer Profile from [Audient's Official Blog](http://blog.audient.com/post/96087135159/audient-producer-profile-shook), Shook is asked: "Q: What’s your synth setup? A: I really love old synthesizers and new ones. For my album, I used a lot of [Prophet 08](http://equipboard.com/items/dave-smith-instruments-prophet-08-synthesizer), [Juno 60](http://equipboard.com/items/roland-juno-60-synthesizer), DX7, [Arturia Minibrute](http://equipboard.com/items/arturia-minibrute-analog-synthesizer) and some old string synthesizers like the Korg PE-1000."

During Legowelt’s Studio Tour for *Future Music Magazine*, at 10:25 Legowelt shows us his Yamaha DX-7 with a wooden top. Legowelt says “I always like to put FM synthesizers through through little analog boxes, like this really cheap [Monotron](http://equipboard.com/items/korg-monotron-delay-analog-ribbon-synthesizer) so I can filter it a little bit."

I have a DX7 with nine lives. (Better that than a DX9 with 7 lives)

This photo shows a DX7 in Josh's rig.

A Yamaha DX7 is shown and described at 2:39 in this studio tour by *MusicTech*. Ulrich says "Over here, there is a classic that everyone will know, the DX7, but what's nice about this is that at some point I managed to buy a [programmer](http://equipboard.com/items/jellinghaus-dx-programmer) for it. Only, I think, about twenty or twenty-five of these exist. The DX7 is obviously a great and very versatile instrument, but it's very difficult to program, and the good thing with this programmer is that it makes this process a lot more intuitive."

As mentioned in this forum, Kaye used a Yamaha DX7 to "simulate" a lot of the Fairlight sounds.

William Orbit (about the gear he used for the recording session of Madonna's Ray of Light album) : “How did I know you would ask me that? Oh, it’s all in a pile there if you wanna look at it . It’s not a ton of gear. Most of it is pretty retro; a Korg MS-20, a [Roland] Juno-106, a [Roland] JD-800. Much of the album was done on a Juno-106. You can get so much out of that synth. Also a significant amount of it was done on the MS-20 – the more spiky sounds. A few things that people think are guitar are actually the MS-20. And then there were a few more bits and pieces: a few modules, a Yamaha DX7, a Novation Bass Statlon, a [Roland] JP-8000, a lot of Roland stuff. I’ve always liked Roland stuff. ”

At 1:49 in the video for "Kayleigh" a DX-7 can be seen behind Mark. It is the second keyboard down.

Tony plays the organ sound in the Abacab verses on the DX-7 in this clip. There are various quick shots after the 8:40 mark. This is from one of the Wembly shows during the "Invisible Touch" tour, 1987.

In this image, found on Vangelis' [official website](http://elsew.com), taken at Nemo Studios, one can see some the equipment used by Vangelis, including a Yamaha DX7.

"At the other end of the studio I just have a Drumulator, DX7, grand piano and various guitars."

Bill mentions he still owns the synth. "Yes, I do still have the Yamaha DX7 keyboard, though I don't really use it these days. Many of the sounds on it are available on the Yamaha Motif, which is my main keyboard. But the DX7 was groundbreaking when it first came out, an astonishing instrument and very complicated to program."

This article lists Jakko’s gear in his Silesia Sound Studios, including this one.

This article states that Jerry played a Yamaha DX7 on the track "Road to Nowhere."

The 2nd synth from the top is a Yamaha DX7, picture from 2015

You can watch in the same picture of the Roland Rhodes MK 80

At 0:40, Mac DeMarco is seen with his Yamaha DX7.

Go Get One! You'll see I'm right when I say there's no way to start talking about his lovely synth. This synth is why Brian Eno got rid of all his analogs at a certain point in time. Okay, maybe he was overdoing it a bit, but still it does indicate what this synth is capable of. It was and it remains a revolutionary synth.

«I got the DX7 about three years ago maybe. It’s pretty cheap (they produced a lot of them back then) and a lot of its presets are used in classic songs that I love, whether it’s house, funk, new jack swing or pop in general. It’s very heavily used – if I played you a couple of notes it’d bring so many songs to mind. So yeah, I bought it originally for its ‘classic’ sounds, not really to fuck with it – it’s notoriously known for being a pain to program – but then I discovered FM synthesis is actually super interesting and weird compared to analogue»

Quote from Zoolook album (1984) booklets (cd and vinyl): "... Keyboard and electronic devices: Fairlight CMI, Emulator, Moog 55, ARP 2600, DX7, Prophet V, OBXA, AMS, Simmons SDS V, Matrisequencer, AKS, EMS Vocoder, Eminent, Doctor Click, Linn 1, Linn 2 ..." More information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoolook

"The down side of technology, and having lots of it and collecting lots of it, is that you tend to not make up your own sounds any more, because it's easier. When I first noticed it was happening to me was with the DX7. I was really lousy at trying to program a DX7 when they first came out, and I ended up falling back on the pre?programmed sounds, and that's when I realised that I was being told what colours to use, what palette to use, by tech people somewhere in Japan."

"The next instrument I put down was a synthesized bass which helped pull the elements together and made things tighter. I used an OSCar mono synth for that, on its own, as well as MIDI'd up to a Yamaha DX7. I find that a good combination soundwise because the OSCar has a very warm and thick sound and the DX7 is a bit thinner but adds the definition. If I want just a deep bass sound I'll use only the OSCar synth."

"The best string sound is a composite one. We'll use a sound from the OBX, then combine it with the Prophet 5 and the DX7. No one company makes a perfect programme. I prefer real people, but the synthesisers can definitely do things that real people can't. We can smooth out a string section. We'll take a string section with 12 strings, and put our MIDI'd-together string sound and we can pump that out to sound like 28 strings. The Mishima soundtrack is a good example. That's a small section, maybe 18 strings, but you listen to it, it's gorgeous."

We liked digital because it presented a new sound. I'm always looking for something fresh, and when Yamaha came out with the DX7, which I think was the first fully programmable digital synth, the sounds were amazing. They had those ring modulators and ring sounds – the ring-modulating overtones and undertones that the DX7 provided, no other keyboard had. The digital keyboards were a nightmare to program, but if you were just starting out programming synths, the DX7 was like your first bicycle. You could get really good at it.

Accoring to this article Roland Orzabal used a Fairlight CMI when recording Tears For Tears classic album Songs From the Big Chair

Accoring to this article Curt Smith used a Yamaha whe DX7 when recording Tears For Tears classic album Songs From the Big Chair

"Their layered style of recording also made it easier to work from Stanley's home studio, which the band had recently upgraded using advance money from the second album. Stanley's newly expanded home studio included a 32-channel Soundcraft console, a 24-track analog tape machine and room for the band's keyboard and synthesizer collection, which included such classic designs as Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, Fairlight CMI, Roland Jupiter 8, Yamaha DX7 synthesizer and PPG Wave. They also had a LinnDrum LM-2, another recent acquisition."

BADAROU'S COMPASS POINT studio has a full Synclavier system as its centerpiece. Apart from that, there's a Macintosh computer, a DX7, a couple of TX816 modules, a Roland digital piano and two analogue synths: an Oberheim OB8 and a Prophet 600.

"I've got a Fostex portastudio and TR808 drum computer. Then there's a Juno 6 and recently a Juno 60 for stage 'cos the '6' is virtually useless as you can't program it. Then there's the DX7, a Yamaha fretless bass, a Boss RX100 reverb plus some junky old AKG 90 microphones."

"The instruments I'm using at the moment are an Oberheim OB8, a Jupiter 8, and a Yamaha DX7 that I've just bought. I got it when we were about halfway through recording the new album, so I've only really just started using it. I was really surprised by the DX7, first because it was so cheap, and second because the digital sound quality is very high. No matter how softly you're playing, the DX can still lift your sound above the other instruments in the band, and that's something very few other keyboards that I've tried can do."

"To anyone with Dave's attitude towards synthesis, MIDI must be a great source of satisfaction, and in fact on Here Comes That Sinking Feeling, there is a recognizable MIDI solo, comprised of the American Voyetra 8 synth, DX7 and an Emulator using a sitar-type sound."

"There is quite a lot of synth on the album though, including the Roland JX-8P, the Yamaha DX7, some Emulator sounds sampled into the PPG, and even a Synclavier which we had for a short time."

Photos from Roskilde Festival, Denmark June 29 1985

At his photo Jan hammer sits with a CMI Fairlight, Roland Jupiter 8, Moog Memorymoog, Yamaha DX7.

in this video of the Michael Jackson Bad Tours Bad Groove (Interlude) you can see Phillinganes surrounded by multiple keyboards. the upper keyboard in front of him is a Yamaha DX7 as you can see at 2:09.

Williams displays his synthesizer collection. The DX7 is the topmost rack.

Yamaha DX7 can bee seen in this Instagram post

Garcia started using his Yamaha DX7 Synthesizer around 1984 ("Piano Bar" era) and he used to record "Parte de la Religion" y "Como Conseguir Chicas"

Chick here uses a DX7 while touring with Elektric band

ryansullivanmusic: I'm so happy with my new addition to the machine family. Time to dive into programming it. #Yamaha #dx7 #classic 80s #fm #digital #synthesizer #keyboard #synth

In this article Bicep say: "We have (or borrow) Korg M1, Yamaha DX7, SH101, Juno 6, Roland midi keyboards, Akai MPC 2000xl and Mackie monitors."

As seen on the picture, taken in his studio.

RAC in this vieo show his gears for everybody: 1:23

In the video in which Moonlight Matters is taking Future Music Magazine on a tour of his studio, at 1:05:12 he says "Next up is something of the same caliber [about the Roland Juno-106], I mean a very nice bread and butter synth. Obviously totally different style of synthesis, this is FM synthesis, the DX7 . . .".

At 1:13 a DX7 is shown

In an interview with Fabric London, Jordan lists the Yamaha DX7 among his favorite synths. via [Fabric London](http://www.fabriclondon.com/blog/view/in-the-studio-with-juju-jordash)

From the FAQ page found on The Enigma Archive: "From the credits of various albums, it is known that Michael Cretu uses or has used the Waveframe 1000, Audi Frame Workstation, MIDIMoog, PPG System, Korg M1, C-Lab Notator, Takamine 6 and 12 String, Tom Anderson Electric Guitars, Otari DTR-900, Akai 900, Linn 9000, Prophet 2002, X-Pander, EMS Vocoder, DX-7, and Roland Super Jupiter."

sharooz takes future music on a studio tour

In the interview "Watermark recording process". The Music Magazine (Australia) July/August 1989 THE SET UP: They use a variety of keyboards but the mainstays are a Yamaha KX88master Yamaha DX7 Emulator 111 Oberheim Matrix synths and Akai S900 but particularly Roland's D50 and Juno 60. Enya: "The Juno is one of our favorites. We had intended to replace its parts with better sounds but we couldn't find better substitutes so we left them in. It's not always possible to have all the sounds I want for a song at the time of composing .I'd usually start with the D50. But most often, sounds suggest parts and the ones I use then are usually used on the final recording. Like on Storms in Africa... that arpeggiated line on the Juno 60 was the basis of the piece." Also mentioned in the cover album Enya - The Celts (1986 / 1992 remastered).

"The Yamaha QX1 and the TX816 live right by the mixing desk because they're the brains that everything else triggers off. The MemoryMoog and DX7 are the most used instruments for immediate sounds when working out an idea, particularly for Steve Bronski who likes to get to a sound quickly. I tend to have the analogue synths like the Pro One and the OSCar together, and the drum machines are littered about wherever we're working."

Donovan started his musical life on the piano, and still prefers piano keyboards to those on any synthesiser he has played. Throughout the time he was learning piano, he looked forward to the day he would acquire his first synthesiser. That was a Roland JX3P and it was quickly followed by a Yamaha DX7. In retrospect he sees these two purchases as the best investments of his life - six months later and he was recruited into the band. However, neither synth is retained in his current line-up.

BOTH CLIMIE AND Fisher have their own separate home set-ups. These have Fostex B16's, A&H mixing desks and recently acquired D50's in common, but very little else. Climie works mainly with the Sequential Studio 440 linked to a Macintosh run Performer sequencing program, while Fisher prefers the Atari based Steinberg Pro24 driving a combination of DX7, TX802, Akai S900 and LinnDrum. Between them they also have a full complement of effects including the Roland SRV2000 ("thoroughly recommended") and the Yamaha REX50.

"I had just moved to NYC and I didn’t have much equipment with me – a LinnDrum, DX7 and a Juno 106 and I made the record with just those instruments."

In this video, the DX7 is being used in the background, playing mostly pad sounds.

S.O.S interview of Air members on how they built their own studio. Air give up the names of their synths plus give photo of them

Photos taken by Hypnos Studio of Seismal D

Source: in the article and at the bottom of the page, under 'Music Gear Mentioned'>'Hardware'

at :58 seconds you can see the Yamaha DX7

This synthesizer is used live in order to play songs from Flying Microtonal Banana. It has some of it's notes changed to microtones in the 24 TET system. It can be seen to the left of Ambrose in this video.

The Abstractlogix label listed this piece of equipment as something Adam Holzman used while recording „Adam Holzman & The Brave New World: Jazz Rocket Science”

In a reply to a fan who asked what synths he used on his album Pool, he says "Juno 106 and dx7".

He shows it at 1:58

Richard Dorfmeister: "I have a Moog Prodigy, the classic Yamaha DX7 Mk2 and use both the Moog Voyager and Memorymoog."

This is Finn's latest purchase, a 1980's classic Yamaha DX7

One of Jeremy's old 80s synthesisers

Seen standing upright against the wall

DX7 when I started studying classical music, my dad couldn’t afford an acoustic piano.

The item was showed on media on his Twitter account on late 2015

On Twitter, in regards to some of his most used gear, CFCF says: > "I don't use much hardware but dx7 and Minitaur are in the mix" "dx7" refers to the Yamaha DX7 Synth.

Starting on 2:48, he can be seen playing a Yamaha DX7 in a 1989 episode of "Night Music".

Used on synth-y songs on "Born in the USA".

Summer Heart posting photos of his equipment

A Yamaha DX7 was used on the soundtrack for "They Live."

From a 1988 concert.

In this video you can see Kiefer playing the DX7 In the caption it says, "sometimes its kinda hard to play the dx".

> learning to fly surely can’t be as hard as rapping in two languages or programming Gus’ DX7.

from his instagram pic

As mentioned in this interview with Steinberg Japan.

nada que añadir, no?

Some sounds in this song come from the DX7, namely the main riff which is doubled with an analog synth.

He used a DX7 for all the instruments in the song except the drums.

According to this article on the making of Goldie's *Timeless* album from the [June 1998 issue of *Sound on Sound* magazine](https://web.archive.org/web/20150416233330/http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun98/articles/goldie.html), Playford's studio gear includes a DX7 synth.

Borrowed from Brian Eno for Sleeps With The Fishes

"The track 'Colour By Numbers' must be the very first use of a Yamaha DX7 on record," recalls Steve Levine. "The importer brought one down to the studio to show it to us. It was a Friday, and he said 'You can have it here for the weekend but I must have it back on Monday.' The first moment you heard a DX7 it was the Holy Grail, particularly for the famous Fender Rhodes sound. Most of the Culture Clubs tracks had Fender Rhodes on them, but we were always struggling to get the brightness in the sound, and then when this thing came, the fact that the MIDI didn't really work didn't matter — it was the best piano sound I'd ever heard at that time."

Instruments around the room include a Fender Strat with a telecaster neck; a Yamaha CS80 ("still my favourite synth") and a MultiMoog, both of which he tries to steer clear of since they are distinctive of After The Fire days; latest acquisition: a Yamaha DX7 with the KX5 ("it's a dummy MIDI keyboard that works with the DX7 for slinging round your neck and posing with. It's great actually. It's got all the things the DX7 does; all touch response, breath control, modulation, pitch bend, sustain.").

Space Harrier is perhaps most memorable for its lengthy and melodic opening theme, in which SEGA’s renowned in-house composer, Hiroshi “Hiro” Kawaguchi (OutRun, After Burner), armed with a Yamaha DX-7 and the most minimal of resources, sought to recreate the sound of a full band

Equipment used on Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," which was recorded at Stock, Aitken & Waterman's PWL Studio, included "The Linn 9000, which most sequences and drums were done on, was run from a [Friendchip] SRC synchroniser, and a [Yamaha] DX7 was used for virtually all of the bass lines. There was also a [Roland] Juno 106; a [Yamaha] Rev 5 and Rev 7; Dbx 160 compressors; SDE 3000 delays; an Emulator; and the wonderful Publison Infernal Machine 90, which was the first sampler that could actually pitch?change without really affecting the time signature. You could time?stretch things and make them fit reasonably well — It was a little choppy, but for the time it was phenomenal. Other than that, there was an AMS delay/harmoniser, which always had a number of kick and snare samples, and that was pretty much it."