Yamaha DX7 Synthesizer

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

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

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.

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

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 .

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.

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.

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

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

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

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."

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."

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

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.

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

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."

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.

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

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.

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 first keyboard I ever owned was a Yamaha DX7. Remember the “Belly” patch, man? We used to kill that thing! " - Cory Henry

“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".

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.

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

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

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

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

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](https://equipboard.com/items/korg-monotron-delay-analog-ribbon-synthesizer) so I can filter it a little bit."

"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."

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

From a 1988 concert.

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

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](https://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."

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

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

theres a pic online from pinterest that shows him with the yamaha dx-7

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

Chick here uses a DX7 while touring with Elektric band

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."

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

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

Alex Metric takes future music on a studio tour

Chris Lowe can be seen using this instrument throughout the attached video.

Yanni used a Yamaha DX7 in his albums and concerts up until 1997. You can see it used in the first part of this video. He used it for many of his famous sounds such as his Guitar (Keys to Imagination) and Harmonica (Reflections of Passion) pacthes. It was also used as the "Crash" sound that is heard in 'Santorini'.

Edgar Froese is credited with Yamaha DX7 in the liner notes for *Poland*.

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.

As seen on the picture, taken in his studio.

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

at :58 seconds you can see the Yamaha DX7

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

You can see it in the full video that he uses it.

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. ”

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."

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"

"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."

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

"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."

Spotted in this photo

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

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.

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.

"I'd worked something out on the piano, and was trying to play the chord shape on the bass. It was impossible for my fingers to reach it, so I started tuning up two of the strings so I could use a simple shape and play the thing I wanted to play. Then it led on to all the shapes I played on a normally tuned guitar giving me a whole catalogue of new songs. It plays havoc with John, as I now play A/C/D/A# instead of E/A/D/G. And I've used a DX7 on 'Red Over White'."

"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."

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"

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

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."

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

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

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](https://equipboard.com/items/dave-smith-instruments-prophet-08-synthesizer), [Juno 60](https://equipboard.com/items/roland-juno-60-synthesizer), DX7, [Arturia Minibrute](https://equipboard.com/items/arturia-minibrute-analog-synthesizer) and some old string synthesizers like the Korg PE-1000."

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

"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."

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

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

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."

"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."

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

"We got into using Roland Juno keyboards – we used the 6 and the 60 a lot on that record. I’ve also just got a Yamaha DX7, so yeah, some classics.”

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).

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

You can see Kate using a Yamaha DX7 in this video

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

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

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

Nowadays the Western Works is furnished with machines of an altogether different calibre. The workhorse is E-mu's SP12 sampling drum machine, which Kirk used to sample and sequence up most of the rhythm tracks for *Code*. Further sampling power is provided by the Emax, sequenced by the Korg SQD1 which is synced to the SP12 and a trusty TR808 with a Roland SBX90. And if this little lot isn't enough, an adjoining room contains an Alpha Juno 2 and a DX7 to be called upon when required: usually to provide synth bass samples for the SP12. With a six-foot high rack of effects to one side of the mixing desk and a 2" 24-track machine to the side of that, the Cabs have everything they need to produce master quality recordings just as and when it suits them.

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.

Recital de Fito Páez en vivo en la TV, durante el año 1984.

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

"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."

He shows it at 1:58

This photo shows a DX7 in Josh's rig.

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.

nada que añadir, no?

yes he sold it a few years ago, now he uses an tx802

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 . . .".

Here Arthur Russell is seen with a Yamaha DX 7

Yamaha DX7 can bee seen in this Instagram post

Simon Stockhausen is seen in this photo with his father, Karlheinz Stockhausen, working on the composition Oktophonie. In front of him are several keyboards, one of which is the Yamaha DX7.

sharooz takes future music on a studio tour

"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."

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

in this photo till use dx7 synth!

As mentioned in this interview with Steinberg Japan.

"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."

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.

Mumdance shows it in this studio tour @4:33

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

Used only for live performances of "Don't Come Around Here No More", as mentioned by Tench in this May 2017 *KeyboardMag* article. > **What gear are you using on the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 40th Anniversary Tour?** > > I’m using my Hammond C3 organ that I’ve had forever, with a Wurly on top. Also, my Steinway B grand piano that I picked-out for the tour. The people at Steinway set a bunch of them up and I was like, “Wow. This one’s terrific!” They were great, and it’s the best one I’ve had in a while for touring. I have a Nord Stage EX on top of the Steinway, and I also have a Vox Continental with a Yamaha DX7 on top. I use the DX7 only for “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” because I don’t like DX7’s at all. But that’s what makes that sound! > > So you’re still using your original DX7 from the time that song came out in 1985? > > It’s the only one I’ve ever had! But there’s a spare one somewhere. Before they were ever available in America, Don Henley got me one when they were only available in Japan because he loved it. And I had fun with some of the sounds in it for a while, but they got old fast. They didn’t wear well to me, and the fact that the DX7 doesn’t have an ADSR and you can’t just reach over and turn a knob and say, “Ok, I need to change the filter on this,” or, “I need less *attack*,” is insane to me. It actually makes me furious. If we didn’t play “Don’t Come Around Here No More” ever again, which *wouldn’t* make me happy, I would have a party and get an axe, and I’d make a big bonfire, and I would *destroy* that damn thing. I hate the DX7. > > The Nord has been really effective and good, but for the purposes of playing with The Heartbreakers, I’m thinking of getting my Oberheim OB-Xa’s from storage and going back to them. There’s just something about analog that’s special. Also, on the last couple of tours, I used the digital Mellotron, but I couldn’t get it to sound right. I realized the deal is that if you take a *mono* sound out of it, you can turn the tone down. But if you’re taking it out direct and you want two different stereo signals, it bypasses the tone and it sounds too harsh. So what I’ve done is I’ve gone back to the old, lower quality Mellotron and Chamberlin samples that I used on the *Echo* tour. They come from the [David Kean library](http://www.mellotron.com/cdrom.htm), and they’re playing through an [Akai] S-series sampler, triggered off of the DX7. These are the samples I used back on the Johnny Cash records and other things with Rick Rubin, if I wasn’t able to get the Chamberlin into my car! And they sound infinitely better to me.

As seen at the timestamp, Minoru still owns his two trusty Yamaha DX7 keyboards as he toured with Casiopea.

"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."

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

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."

Jonas is seen with Yamaha DX7 from 12:11 to 12:56, he is then seen playing it from 21:17 to 21:35

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.

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.

One of Jeremy's old 80s synthesisers

This early interest led Phil to his first experiences in programming synths - more through necessity than choice…"I had to learn it otherwise I'd be useless," he explains. "I went mad on it - did things like take DX7 books on tour. I can program DX7s and most people can't."

Discussed on this forum post about DiCola's Equipment.

Dragos can be seen playing a Yamaha DX7 in this photo of the band playing live.

Photos taken by Hypnos Studio of Seismal D

"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."

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

Summer Heart posting photos of his equipment

The instrument appears on the list of instruments on official artist's website (http://olszak.pl/).

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)

Seen used in Hoodboi's Instagram story.

Picture from his studio in 1987

from the equipment list on his website

In his hardcorejunglism.com interview, John recounts the studio setup of his Foul Play days: > "... the set-up changed quite a bit over the first couple of years but the kit we used included an Atari ST, Akai S1000, Yamaha DX7, Roland W-30 Workstation and later an Apple Power Macintosh 8100"

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

Gear list: Access Virus TI, Moog Sub 37, Yamaha DX7, Waldorf Microwave I rev a, Yamaha TG77, Roland JV2080, Kawai K5000R, Oberheim Matrix 1000, UAD Apollo, Eurorack with Mutable Instruments & Intellijel, Valhalla Vintage Verb, Waves H-Delay, Ableton Live 10.x

«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»

Harrison used the DX-7 on the score to George Romero's Day Of The Dead

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

"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."

The first to join was keyboardist Mickey Billingham, who uses a Yamaha PF15, a DX7 and a Roland JX3P.

" I had already got a few old synths (Juno, DX7, Korg MS20) "

Borrowed from Brian Eno for Sleeps With The Fishes

The album's an unusual one enhanced by text relating the essence of Steve's experiences. Already another album is in the pipeline and the equipment used on 'Journeys' has been replaced by some of the latest in technology — a Yamaha DX7 and Roland JX-3P permanently MIDI-linked, a TEAC 38 8-track and mixer and a selection of wind instruments — minus the Lyricon which has been retired in favour of the more traditional expression of flute and sax.

Yamaha DX7 Synthesizer in their studio

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

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

Included in gear list

Both Thomas Leer and Claudia Brücken have home studio setups, although Brücken's is at an early stage in its development. Having lost his Fairlight, Leer has had to settle for a less elaborate, though still useful, personal system. He now owns an Amstrad PC running Voyetra Sequencer Plus software, linking it up to an Akai S900, Yamaha DX7 and Roland Jupiter 6 - the only surviving keyboard from his 1984 line-up.

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.

Photos from Roskilde Festival, Denmark June 29 1985

from his instagram pic

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.").

'We used our own keyboards, a Jupiter 8, Yamaha DX7 and a Juno 60, linked up to an MSQ700 using Roland's MD8 converter, which lets you use MIDI keyboards with DCB ones. Apart from that, there was nothing really special at all.'

"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."

Grzegorz Ciechowski performing on Yamaha DX7.

SOUND MODUALS and SAMPLERS Kurzweil KR2500-S Kurzweil KR2000-S Roland V-synth Roland S-550 Roland D-70 Roland JP-8000 EMU Procussion Korg 01R/W Korg Wave station A/D Alessis DM-5, DM-4 Alessis DM Pro Peavey Spectrum Bass Yamaha DX7 with E!

At 1:48 check DX7.

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.

You can see in this Japanese video of Life in a Northern Town, that Gilbert Gabriel's synth on top is a DX7

At 1:13 a DX7 is shown

> Der [Sequential Circuits] Prophet 5 war mein erster Synthesizer, dann hat mich Froese gefragt, ob ich den Moog kaufen will. Dann hatte ich noch den [Roland] Jupiter 8 und dann kam irgendwann die FM- Modulation, ich war ja der Erste, der hier im Osten einen Yamaha DX7 gehabt hat, was ich allerdings auch in erster Linie Edgar Froese zu verdanken hatte. Ich habe das erste Mal auf einem Minimoog gespielt von der Gruppe Omega aus Ungarn, das war so um 1973 oder 1974, da habe ich gestaunt, was man damit alles machen kann! Den großen Moog habe ich so um 1981/82 gekauft. Den Moog finanzierte Lakomy mit einem Kredit der GEMA.

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.

"My first keyboard, still going strong"

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

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

Seen standing upright against the wall