DX1, TX7, TX816. If polyphony is an issue for
you, navigate to the DX Simulator’s “EDIT LIST”
view - there you will find the UNISON Switch. Set
this to OFF and you will have 16 note polyphony
on the sound. For those of you wanting more
polyphony for the FM sounds, you can add a
second or third PLG150-DX board to your S90 and
activate the POLY EXPAND function found in the
S90’s UTILITY mode/ F6 PLUG/ SF1 Status. The
UNISON POLY mode is about timbre – many of the
sounds are musical effects and polyphony is not
such a big issue.
Because of how musical sounds and ‘stuff’
generated in the DX engine, the programmers
would use a 2-operator stack (minimum) to
generate a complex tone. This is why an item like
the TX-Rack became so popular at over $4,000 –
it could be expanded to house eight DX7 modules
called TF1s – that’s eight 6-operator engines. The
TX816 original Voices sets, (and Yamaha only did
one or two official Voice sets), had great detail.
There was a Rhodes sound that had 24 different
sound components, including the knock of the
hammer, the tine, the tone bar, the ‘fling’ of the
felt, etc. It was a real shame – but most recording
studios owned TX816s, but no one ever did any
real programming beyond stacking a sound eight
times (which really only made it louder). Then
they would compound their lunacy by detuning
each module up or down a tuning increment – this
‘bad’ programming accounted for most of the DX
Rhodes sounds you hear on records from the ‘80’s
– poorly utilized and was mainly responsible for
the misconception that you had to layer sounds
because FM was thin. Not necessarily so! What
was done in the original TX816 program was the
additional modules were used for details (knocks,
and noises…i.e., the “stuff”). Oh well. So many
were sold that it was inevitable that it would be
misunderstood.
If you add a second or third DX board and
you turn the POLY EXPAND parameter to ON, the
boards will combine and follow the board Voice
selected by the lowest numbered slot. For
example you place a DX board in slots 1 and 2,
you will now have 32 notes of polyphony and you
will use the PLG1 Voice mode button to select
Voices. You must however, load the PLG150-DX
custom board Voice data to both boards
separately (otherwise the first 16 notes will play
from one board and the second 16 notes will play
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“Stuff” is a word that was adopted by the early
programmers of FM to describe a noise or artifact that
accompanies the creation of a musical tone. It’s the
acoustic noise inside a Clavinet as the hammer releases,
it’s the quill falling back on a harpsichord, it’s the finger
noise on the acoustic guitar string, etc.
from the other – not cool). POLY EXPAND is just
what it says – it allows you to expand the
polyphony. If you want to layer sounds to get
more complexity you would leave each 16-note
engine as a separate synth and program them
separately.
These sounds were derived from the
Yamaha LoopFactory DX200
and were
reprogrammed for use in the Motif/S90/Motif-
Rack.
The LOAD:
As is the way with the Yamaha synth engine plug-
in boards you have two files. One is the custom
PLG150-DX Board Voices that will load into the
board’s own user RAM bank (035/000), and the
second is the S90 level Voices that I created to
show off these sounds. Remember the DX7 had
no effects processor of its own (they didn’t exist
back in that day, circa 1983-88), so the S90 level
PLUG-IN VOICES use the custom DX board data
as the waveform but frame them with the
powerful functions and effect processing of the
S90. Truly the best of both worlds – I have
provided the “PluginAllBulk” for the three possible
slots (.w2b/.w3b) – load through the type for your
board’s slot; an additional file that can be opened
in the DX Simulator for those interested in
exploring deeper into FM programming (.dxc).
This contains the same data but allows you to see
the edit parameters – provided strictly for those
that want to learn more about FM synthesis. Plus,
of course, the S90 level Voice data in an ALL
DATA file (.w4a/.w5a).
•
S90 owners should copy the
DXDRIVER.w2b/w3b bulk files to a
SmartMedia card and copy the appropriate
ALL data file for your keyboard:
DXALLS90.w4a/w5a for the S90.
Parameters you should know about:
Note Shift: If you wish to note shift any of the
PLUG-IN Voices, you will find the NOTE SHIFT
parameter for a PLG150 sound by:
Press EDIT
Press Track 1 to select Element Edit
Press F1 OSC
Press SF5 OTHER
Overall Velocity Curve: Because of the dynamic
response of FM to velocity and the potential for
overly bright sounds on extreme velocity, you
may wish to tailor the velocity curve of the
PLG150-DX to mimic the original DX7. To do this
navigate to the PLUG-IN board parameters:
Press UTILITY
Press F6 PLUG
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