bha@vaximile.UUCP (B.AXELROD) (09/05/85)
Being a new DX7 owner, I too wanted references for information both
for programming, and for some home electronics add-on projects.
Yamaha sells three manuals which may be interesting.
All three together go for about $24.
1. DX7 MIDI Data Format Manual
2. DX7 Service Manual
3. DX7 Technical Guide
Contact Yamaha at 800-521-9479 (parts) for the books.
Their sevice number is 800-854-3619 (fyi).
Of course, the owner's manual (blue cover) has a lot of
operational information in it.
I bought the translated Japanese book already mentioned on the net, and I
think it is pretty good. You can tell very easily that it is a DIRECT
translation from Japanese, and it does lose meaning sometimes because
of that, but the principle are enunciated, and the diagrams help a lot.
So far, my approach to learning how to program the machine is to disect
the factory presets. This would be facilitated by dumping the parameters
to a computer via MIDI so they can all be examined on a one page display.
I don't have that yet, so I transcribe the parameter settings onto the
DX7 voicing data format pages supplied in the owner's manual.
These settings and the effect of changing various settings must be studied
and documented. Eventually, with enough experience under my belt,
(It stinks, but there ain't no substitute for experience!) I will develop
a feel for it.
If there is an easier way, I'm all ears!
Barry Axelrod
AT&T Information Systems
(201) 834-1078
{world}!hou2h!vaximile!bhagtaylor@astroatc.UUCP (09/19/85)
I have a suggestion. After having picked up my DX a while back
and trying to wade through Fukuda's book and an early draft of
the user's manual (you think the *current* one is a little
difficult to follow......) and a few "It's easy to do" articles
in places like CKybd., it occurs to me that the lot of us should
get together and write a manual of our own. There are certainly
enough DX owners on the net, and enough people who are painfully
making the transition from analog synthesis to FM that we'd be
likely to come up with something which is at least useable. The
thing I'd most like to see written up has in some way to do with
constructing a sort of conceptual model that allows you to think
about the creation of sounds ("if you sit down to design a 20-foot
flute that overblows *very* easily and has little synpathetic
rattles on the inside that make noise when the thing is blown, you
start with.....")
Anyone out there interested in trying the thing out? Drop me a
line and we'll talk about it. We could even make some bucks on
the thing, I'll bet....but AT LEAST do a service to humankind.