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FM as the system was known eventually made its way onto millions of soundcards, and here lies the first problem!
Most FM based soundcards sound terrible. The tinny pathetic little noises of your OPL chipset based FM style sound
card with its 2 operator (or if you are lucky 4) sounds, really were not what pro synth users had been used to with the
DX7. 6 operators were the DX7’s staple sound creation tools, and that was what made FM great... the control and
flexibility of the sound. The fact that over 160,000 people bought DX7 keyboards including some of the biggest
names in music history, meant that this baby had something special
So Yamaha decided with the PLG100-DX to recreate this sound, and recreate it exactly.
Six operators of pure power, and without all the bugs and the noisy outputs of the 1983 original, when strapped onto
the side of the SW1000XG. And the bonus here is that the PLG100-DX (along with all of the Yamaha PLG cards) can
pass all of its audio via the ultra clean digital out of the SW1000XG card. It can also use the effects processing of the
SW1000XG to add even more depth to the sound. You can also using software such as XGWorks or XGEdit mix and
match and even layer XG sounds and FM sounds together to create the sonic possibilities offered by Yamaha’s other
great flagship synth, the SY99. The SY99 was acclaimed because you had the ability to add AWM voices to DX
voices and use the 2 at the same time. This once more is possible with the SW1000XG/PLG100-DX combination.
There are many books written on the subject of FM synthesis available, this is not a daughterboard for the faint of
heart, although the editor software for XGWorks does make life a lot easier than it was for the original DX7 pioneers
with its quick editor. For people who want to relive the 80’s in full, we also provide an authentic 100% copy of the
original DX7 front panel with the DX Simulator, sure to send shivers up the spine of anyone who ever used one. Now
how is that for retro? The PLG100-DX is also supported (for voice selection) by XGEdit, though for full editing control,
you will need to run the editor inside XGWorks, or a third party DX7 editor that supports voice bulk dump mode.
PLG100-VH – The Harmoniser card
Creating accurate vocal harmonies can be difficult unless you are in a choir or barbershop quartet! The PLG100-VH
is designed to create just such a range of effects which when added to the SW1000XG gives it yet another effects
processing buss.
An intelligent vocal harmoniser effect using the ultra powerful DSP3 chip (as used by Yamaha’s state of the art 02R
digital mixing console amongst others), takes the sound of your voice (via a microphone connected to A/D Inputs of
SW1000XG), and generates multi-part vocal harmonies.
You can even change the harmony interval with the chords you play or by incoming note data from a sequencer,
which in essence gives you accurate pitch tracking to your MIDI file.
It boasts 4 types of harmony effects: Vocoder Harmony, Chordal Harmony, Detune Harmony, and Chromatic
Harmony. This card is supported in full by both XGEdit and also by software Plug-in modules for our XGWorks
MIDI/audio sequencer to control the parameters for each type of harmony effect. With an interface (in appearance)
just the same as the XG Editor of XGWorks, you can control parameters such as gender type of input voice, texture
of the harmonised sound, vibrato effect and volume balance.
Of the range of PLG cards available, the concept behind this is easiest to understand. It takes a sound, and creates a
harmony part for it. Great for simulating artists like The Everly Brothers (?), or for creating some really mad effects
and thickening up synth parts.
