Let's make Ambient with Yamaha's DX7

Let's make some DX7 Ambient! This synth can do so much more than just cheesy 80's sounds. It's my favorite synth for warm analog sounding pads, even though it's as digital as it gets!
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00:00 There's more to a DX7 than
00:48 Recording Setup
01:48 Basic Sequence
02:25 Adding Effects
04:34 Recording
05:45 Arpeggio Shimmer
08:00 Deeeeep Bass
08:53 Noise Texture

[@alexrusso401]

This is the first video I've seen that has made ambient feel really accessible. I feel like I can totally achieve those ethereal sounds and arrangements. Thank you!

[@optoproductions]

That's great! There are hundreds of ways to make Ambient. I call this the manual approach 🙂

[@Shred_The_Weapon]

There is always something to be admired about Musician’s who push to get blow and beyond the front panel of this synthesizer. After over 40 years, I’m glad to know that people are still trying to create their own patches on it, even though the main reason I never bought one for me was that I was nervous I would be stuck with the classic 32 presets. As the owner of a Roland JX-8p, whose shape, size and interface are all modeled after the DX7, despite it being an analog synthesizer instead of a digital, I understand what you’re saying about this one being heavy. This may come as no consolation, but imagine if it was the DX7’s precursor, the GS1. Apart from not being programmable from the front panel, the GS1 was built like a Yamaha CP80.

[@optoproductions]

I'm still looking to get a Hcard one day, so I can load more than 32 patches on there. The JX8p is great, I've been keeping the eye on the market for a while now but didn't come across an affordable one yet.

[@movingearthmusic1893]

I love it! I've gotten lots of ambient sounds from mine! It's definitely opened up another world of sounds. Watched a lot of MadFame videos to wrap my head around what these things are doing. I think they got a bad rap because they were misunderstood. Keep it warm if you have one!!

[@optoproductions]

Nice man, I'm definitely keeping mine :) Lots of synths from the 80s are misunderstood, people only tend to use the bundled presets without spending much time diving deep.

[@ChrisMills-AmbientSpace]

Mad Fame is a fantastic human with excellent resources!

[@Luigi64]

this is so amazing, truly utilizing the dx7's capabilities with this

[@personalwatching9312]

Amazing man. Thanks for sharing. Maybe i should turn mine on again after many years and be inspired.

[@optoproductions]

You should man! 😃

[@anndrew_gi]

I love the DX7 sound for pads and ambient (unfortunately, I don't have one); that's the reason I recently got a Korg Opsix (It's not the same same quality of course but if you have a decent pre-amp and with some good plugins you can get a decent sound). I really enjoy how you explain things. Keep it up 💪!! 😊

[@optoproductions]

Thank you! The opsix is amazing, the modern DX7, with a lot more functions, and easy to program 😄

[@GrvMUSIC4U]

The sound is so beautiful

[@Nrthrn]

Brilliant use of the DX7 man. It makes me want to explore mine more.

[@optoproductions]

Thanks man, mostly thanks to Madfames patches though 😃

[@manumistral9522]

Loved this video. Thank you for sharing.

[@JohnLRice]

Beautiful 😎👍

[@Overtourdriver1]

I'm a little older and only know this Synthesizer as a plugin for years now and the hardware from a friend where the Syhntesizer came onto the market in 1983. I was also able to find sounds for free, so I downloaded 297 Mb of presets and cards for VST Dexed (lately bass etc.). I don't even know if you can get these sounds these days or if the websites even still exist, but I do know that a lot of sound presets are also usable today. And I have saved these Prests on every hard drive I own. I hope other users are still lucky today. Maybe you can write in the comments if you have found links for sounds. Because I currently have enough sounds and unfortunately no longer have the links. That's why I saved the sounds 5 times one Hardrives Thanks

[@optoproductions]

There are still loads of patches to be found online. Plenty of DX7's were made back in the day, all still going strong. Arturia also has a DX7 plugin that loads Sysex patches, but it's always smart to store them locally as you never know how long these sites stay live 👍

[@neonwind]

Still got mine, heavy, tough, will never die, murder to program, but great for ambient, because of glitches in the adsr(s) you can have a sound evolving over 10 mins, attach a pedal and just let it cycle.

[@optoproductions]

Really? I'd have to try that thanks for the tip!

[@VarionJimmy]

I’ve done that by mistake and wondered why the sound kept on “forever”. 😅 The envelopes are a bit backwards so it’s easy to do that instead of changing for example the attack…

[@darrenhirst9900]

Bloody wimps its not a Rhodes :P

[@stoneyboyd]

My problem with the DX7 lies in all the cheesy 80’s presets and sounds. Unfortunately that’s all I saw the DX7 as, the 80’s version of the ARP Pro Soloist. Very few people seemed to have taken full advantage of this synth’s capabilities back in the 80’s. As a result I really cannot stand that cheesy Electric Piano sound anymore.

[@optoproductions]

Haha yeah but that's basically true for all famous synth presets. They are overused and that's what makes it cheesy. Even to this day there aren't as many 6 operator fm synths, it's still a very powerful instrument.