Can someone please help with some DX Sys-Ex?

[The Elf]

Is software any good? I could see if FM8 reads them. I also may be able to find my old copy of MIDI Quest.

FM8 does read them, I loaded in all my DX7 sounds, seems to work fine.

That wasn't the problem. The problem was that the files *I* had couldn't be read by FM8. And FM8 doesn't have an export function.

[bonefixer]

What a wholesome thread (like most on these boards, to be fair)

I wish I knew what you were all on about though. FM is a mystery to me (I’ve read about it, watched videos explaining it, and loopop reviews of FM things, but still…)

[The Elf]

Just download Dexed and click on some presets - there's no need to understand it to use it.

FM is all about snappy, twinkley, glassy, bell-ish tones. It does those fabulously. Not so hot for pads, strings and the like.

Cue other posts disagreeing with me in four... three... two... one...

[muzines]

Cue other posts disagreeing with me in four... three... two... one...

I agree with you (which is quite common*, tbh)

The plucky, attack transientey, mallety, belly and plucky things is what classic Yamaha FM really excels at (and why eg David Gamson used the DX's for exactly that, layered with analog for depth and warmth and thickness).

* But not about the K1, sorry...

[sonics]

Layering FM attacks from a DX with the body of the sound from a Prophet was regular practice for me a few decades ago. I made excellent, fairly realistic brass sounds that way.
Great bells and mallets, too. You couldn't get those fast attacks elsewhere without using a sampler.

[MOF]

FM is all about snappy, twinkley, glassy, bell-ish tones. It does those fabulously. Not so hot for pads, strings and the like.

Cue other posts disagreeing with me in four... three... two... one...

I got the pads by putting DX7 string patches through a Dimension C footpedal, still necessary when I got the TX802 which in theory was eight DX7s which could all be separately micro detuned to each other.

[The Elf]

FM is all about snappy, twinkley, glassy, bell-ish tones. It does those fabulously. Not so hot for pads, strings and the like.

Cue other posts disagreeing with me in four... three... two... one...

I got the pads by putting DX7 string patches through a Dimension C footpedal, still necessary when I got the TX802 which in theory was eight DX7s which could all be separately micro detuned to each other.

Me too! I still have my Dimension C chorus pedal, which I must dig out to try with the Nymphes.

[ajay_m]

The original sine only FM carriers on the dx series synths and lack of filters did limit the sonic palette. You could not create the spectrum of a true sawtooth and so strings were always just out of reach. Also the lack of filters meant that timbre changes over the duration of a note had to be accomplished by modulation depth changes which led to a characteristic "boingy" timbre due to the way Bessel functions work. But fm synths like the fs1r had other waveforms and filters and their sonic palette is huge, certainly strings and pads were well within reach

[N i g e l]

FM's also good for hard edged bass, wubs and wobbles.

[sonics]

I got the pads by putting DX7 string patches through a Dimension C footpedal, still necessary when I got the TX802 which in theory was eight DX7s which could all be separately micro detuned to each other.

CE-1 and Dimension D here... plus an occasional altercation with the Electric Mistress.

[BigRedX]

We stuck ours through a distortion pedal...

You can get decent sustained pad sounds out of an original DX7, but it's hard work compared with how easy it is with even the most basic of analogue synths, so these days why even bother?

[The Elf]

I got the pads by putting DX7 string patches through a Dimension C footpedal, still necessary when I got the TX802 which in theory was eight DX7s which could all be separately micro detuned to each other.

CE-1 and Dimension D here... plus an occasional altercation with the Electric Mistress.

Yup, I have Dim D and a couple of CE-1s here still too. Love 'em all!

TBH the Line 6 Helix, and a few plug-ins, emulate any of these to my satisfaction, but some things you just don't feel you can part with.

[sonics]

Yup, I have Dim D and a couple of CE-1s here still too. Love 'em all!

TBH the Line 6 Helix, and a few plug-ins, emulate any of these to my satisfaction, but some things you just don't feel you can part with.

You're right. However, on my list of things to do are some A/B tests with some of my old gear. If software gets close enough, I'm selling it. I actually like the idea of that gear going to someone who really wants it, and will use it more than I do (hopefully). Just haven't got around to it yet...

[MOF]

If software gets close enough, I'm selling it

I’ve replaced my Dimension C with UAD’s Dimension D, very good, as are the bulk of their plugins.

[bonefixer]

Just download Dexed and click on some presets - there's no need to understand it to use it.

FM is all about snappy, twinkley, glassy, bell-ish tones. It does those fabulously. Not so hot for pads, strings and the like.

What about the Korg OPSIX? I don’t generally get on too well with soft synths, in terms of playing with them to figure out sounds. Dexed looks pretty complex. And I like to understand how stuff works

[The Elf]

Just download Dexed and click on some presets - there's no need to understand it to use it.

What about the Korg OPSIX? I don’t generally get on too well with soft synths, in terms of playing with them to figure out sounds. Dexed looks pretty complex. And I like to understand how stuff works

Then FM isn't for you. I doubt more than a dozen people ever knew how FM worked!

I've never even seen a OPSIX.

[BillB]

The files look like MIDI files to me. I've converted them for you. PM contains the links for you to try.

So they were .MID files containing Sysex but named as .SYX files? Was that the issue?

[sonics]

It was a MIDI file containing multiple (20, I think) tracks. The SysEx data was on the first track. The Elf might remember what created the original file.

[The Elf]

It was a MIDI file containing multiple (20, I think) tracks. The SysEx data was on the first track. The Elf might remember what created the original file.

Clearly there's been some confusion somewhere along the way. There's no way these files should have been given a .syx suffix. But these files go back many years, so I'll never know what truly happened.

I suspect the files in question were actually Cubase MIDI file exports, despite me believing they were clean Sys-Ex dumps. I was using a hex editor to try to isolate the Sys-Ex, but couldn't see the wood for the trees.

Sonics found the data and saved the day!

[bonefixer]

Just download Dexed and click on some presets - there's no need to understand it to use it.

What about the Korg OPSIX? I don’t generally get on too well with soft synths, in terms of playing with them to figure out sounds. Dexed looks pretty complex. And I like to understand how stuff works

Then FM isn't for you. I doubt more than a dozen people ever knew how FM worked!

I've never even seen a OPSIX.

I got the Opsix. Only had it a day, but having watched tutorials and reviews, and reading about FM, I’m finding it fairly easy to use and am getting to grips with the concepts.