fdl@houxs.UUCP (F.LAROCCA) (01/22/86)
DX7 OWNERS! I have agonized over which keyboard I should buy and I am down to the wire. I have decided on the DX7. I have a few concerns after a discussion with a salesperson. They tell me that splitting the DX7 is not easy. What I want to do is program the left side of the split for bass and the right side for all the other stuff. The question I have is does this split have to be programmed for each patch that is stored? I guess what I am hearing is that it is not possible to bring up one patch and assign it to the left side of the split and assign the right hand side of the split another patch. Ok! if that is not possible when one is in program mode can different timbres be created for each side of the split and then stored and fetched as one entity ready to be played. What the salesperson told me was this is possible but very difficult. Why? Also what I was told is that say your dealing with a brass patch and want brass on one side of the split and bass on the other side all you can do is change the texture of the brass to sound deeper (ie. go from a 16' to 32'). Is this the right keyboard for a keyboard player that is also the bass player in the group? Does a DX7 plus TX7 make the solution easier? I thank anyone in advance who can help with answers. Thanks, Frank D. LaRocca homxa!fdl 201-536-0582
agb@reed.UUCP (Alexander G. Burchell) (01/24/86)
In article <341@houxs.UUCP> fdl@houxs.UUCP (F.LAROCCA) writes: (Talking about putting one sound on one side of the DX7 kbd. and another on the other) > The question I have is does this split have to be programmed for each > patch that is stored? I guess what I am hearing is that it is not > possible to bring up one patch and assign it to the left side of > the split and assign the right hand side of the split another patch. Correct. > Ok! if that is not possible when one is in program mode can different > timbres be created for each side of the split and then stored and > fetched as one entity ready to be played. What the salesperson > told me was this is possible but very difficult. Why? To fully explain this, I would have to explain FM synthesis to you, which is better explained in the DX7 manual. But simply, there are six different little tone generating and modifying "operators" inside a DX7, which are called either "carriers" (if they are generating a sound) or "modulators" (if they are modifying a sound made by one or more carriers). You can "stack" the modulators and carriers on top of each other in various configurations that Yamaha calls "algorithms". In order to split the keyboard, you would have to do something like this: Modulator Operators: 2 4 6 | | | <- An Algorithm Carrier Operators: 1 3 5 Each of the carriers, 1, 3, and 5, is actually producing a sound, while the modulators (2, 4, and 6) are changing the sound of the carriers. In order to make a bass sound, you would make (say) Op. 1 modulated by Op. 2 sound like a bass and have these two Operators sound only at the left end of the keyboard. Then you would make Ops. 3 & 5 modulated by Ops. 4 & 6 sound like some horns and set them up to sound only on the right half of the keyboard. Yes, it's complicated, and it has a big limitation: to make the best possible sound (or at least the most interesting) you need all 6 operators. But in this set up, you use some for the left, and some for the right. But it is also set up so that you could have up to 6 (boring) different sounds on 1 keyboard. In practice, though, it's (VERY) hard to do more than 3. > Also what I was told is that say your dealing with a brass patch and want > brass on one side of the split and bass on the other side all you can do > is change the texture of the brass to sound deeper (ie. go from a 16' > to 32'). Forget about 16', 32', VCO, VCA, VCF, ADSR, etc. etc. if you are going to get a DX. It is all completely different from Analog stuff, and I think, much more powerful. > Is this the right keyboard for a keyboard player that is also > the bass player in the group? It would be a hassle. > Does a DX7 plus TX7 make the solution easier? With that, all above problems go away, and you can do things like put (through MIDI) a full DX7 brass sound on one side, and a full TX7 (same) bass sound on the other. > > Thanks, > Frank D. LaRocca > homxa!fdl > 201-536-0582 No Problem, Alexander G. Burchell UUCP: ..!{decvax,ucbvax,hplabs,ihnp4,zehntel}!tektronix!reed!agb MAIL: Box 172, Reed College, 3203 SE Woodstock Dr., Portland OR 97202