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The Yamaha DX7 is a digital synthesizer and electronic keyboard manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first commercially successful digital synthesizer, featuring a whole new type of synthesis called FM (Frequency Modulation). It was the moderately priced model of the DX series keyboard synthesizers that included the larger and more elaborate DX1 and DX5; the feature-reduced DX9; and the smaller and not directly compatible DX100, DX11, and DX21. Over 200,000 of the original DX7 were made, and it remains one of the best-selling synthesizers of all time.

The DX-7 was MIDI-compatible, which meant that it could be connected to other MIDI-compatible synth modules, drum machines, audio sequencers and computers.

Its distinctive sound can be heard on many recordings, especially pop music and dance music from the 1980s. Its preset sounds were particularly popular due to the difficulty of FM synthesis programming combined with the immediacy of the stock (preset) DX7 sounds, meaning that players tended to perform and record with the sounds they had at their fingertips. These stock sounds ultimately proliferated to the point that they were regarded as clichéd by the end of the 1980s.

Kate plays the DX7 on the albums The Sensual World and The Red Shoes.

References

  • Yamaha DX7. Vintage Synth Explorer, retrieved 31 August 2017.
  • Yamaha DX7. Wikipedia, retrieved 31 August 2017.