Arturia DX7 V License FM Made Easy

Fm Made Easy

The DX7 V accurately models the FM digital synthesizer that became synonymous with the sound of the ‘80s. Our enhancements add more of everything to make the new DX7 V a sound for all time.

In 1983, the DX7 changed the world of music. Today, the DX7 V gives you the power to change it again.

Nothing says ‘80s like the sound of the DX7. Our authentic recreation gives you all the same FM digital technology and sounds that earned the instrument a revered place in the history of both keyboards and contemporary music. We didn’t stop at just replicating it, though —we re-imagined it. New operator waves, extensive modulation additions, arpeggiator and onboard FX chains enhance your sonic possibilities exponentially. For bonus points, an intuitive graphic interface makes what was once a daunting programming task a creative joy today.

We put booster rockets on the instrument that created innumerable ‘80s hits. Now you can create the definitive sounds of today and tomorrow.

The Inimitable Sound of FM

Your Music Is Unique. So is the sound of the DX7 V.

Frequency modulation (FM) synthesis works by modulating one waveform with another to produce much more complex harmonic profiles than its analog brethren. These sounds run the gamut from acoustic and organic to synthetic and mechanical, spanning energies from subtle to radical along the way. Thanks to an extensive preset library, you don’t have to be an expert on FM in order to tap into all this sonic power. The DX7 V comes complete with a library of all the signature 80’s hit-making FM sounds like electric pianos, basses, marimbas, synths and more, plus an extensive battery of hot new sounds from our elite sound design team.

Whether you’re looking for the familiar sounds that put FM synthesis on the map or charting new territory, the DX7 V is the definitive digital synth to have in your keyboard collection.

Unleash Your Inner Sound Designer With Expanded Features

The DX7 V gives you a unique tool for customizing and creating new musical instruments and sound effects.

With its radical departure from analog designs, FM synthesis helps you chart new sonic spaces. The DX7 V is capable of producing an incredible spectrum of sounds ranging from natural-sounding instruments to unique synths to alien worlds—complete with all the crystal clarity and punchy transients uniquely associated with FM. Since having an instrument with such extreme depth and potential is the dream of every sonic explorer, we challenged ourselves to go even further. We added a host of new features including multiple waveforms, a filter and feedback loop on each operator, new modulation sources, a monster unison mode, and more.

The DX7 V is the perfect design tool for designing unique new instruments and ear candy that help you make your own distinct musical statement.

Design Elegance Meets Sound Design Power

The DX7 V sports a stunning interface allowing intuitive control over all of the instrument’s dramatically expanded features

While retaining the feel of the original design, we’ve streamlined the main interface of the DX7 V to make it much simpler to use and understand. Here you’ll find an uncluttered presentation of only your everyday performance controls, as well as the fundamentals to start visualizing and exploring new sonic structures. When you’re ready to dig deeper and flesh out the detailed character and animation of your sounds, one click presents a programmer’s paradise of incisive controls and displays light years beyond the tedious original hardware interface. Balancing usability and all the added power in the DX7 V, tabbed windows easily put your fingers on logically grouped functions spanning enhanced operators, additional envelopes, matrix modulation, step sequencer, FX architecture, and more.

Whether you just want to play the extensive library sounds or program your own, the DX7 V is a dream to use.

Bringing Back One Of The Most Popular Keyboards Of All Time.

Working with a mainframe computer at Stanford University in the late ‘60s, Dr. John Chowning developed a new digital synthesis technology called frequency modulation (FM). In addition to pioneering new sonic territory, it’s harmonic complexity and rapid transients promised to be more adept at emulating many acoustic sounds than its subtractive analog predecessor. Seeing this musical potential, Yamaha licensed FM from Stanford in 1973 and patiently refined it as the required hardware could be scaled for marketable application.

Yamaha’s perseverance was rewarded when its 1983 introduction of the DX7 upended the keyboard industry. With a palette of bread-and-butter sounds, a modest price tag, early MIDI implementation and 16-voice polyphony, the DX7 outsold many six- or eight-voice analog polysynths costing significantly more. This made it the first commercially successful digital synthesizer by a landslide, with over 200,000 sold through the rest of the decade. It also spawned over a dozen other FM-based offspring with various improvements, many of which we’ve also incorporated in the DX7 V.

The DX7 was notoriously difficult to program owing to a seemingly arcane technology and a programming interface that was the opposite of intuitive. The instrument also had only 32 memory locations, which could be supplemented with data cartridges of matching capacity. This confluence resulted in most musicians and producers re-using the limited palette of stock patches or third-party libraries that wound up helping to define the soundtrack of the ‘80s.

The DX7’s iconic pseudo-slapped bass patches rocked the bottom end of chart-toppers like Howard Jones’ “What is Love” and A-ha’s “Take on Me”. Its crystal-clear electric pianos supplanted the bulkier and more temperamental Fender Rhodes on zillions of pop and R&B tunes including Phil Collins’ “One More Night” and Steve Winwood’s “The Finer Things”. The instrument’s aptitude for mallet percussion was displayed on tracks like Sting’s “Love is the Seventh Wave” and Harold Faltermeyer’s famous “Beverly Hills Cop” movie theme. Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It” is a DX7 tour de force, showcasing it on bass, electric piano, flute and harmonica.

A Different Breed Of Synthesizer

Arturia’s acclaimed engineering delivers a faithful recreation of the instrument that brought the unique sound of FM digital synthesis to the masses.

At its simplest, FM creates sound by modulating the frequencies of one signal (called the carrier) with those of another signal (called the modulator) at audio rates, resulting in much more complex harmonics. Just as with FM radio, changes to the frequency and amplitude of the modulating waveform can radically alter the sound. Let’s dig a bit deeper.

Operators

The DX7 V’s six signal generators—called operators—can be used as carriers or modulators. Each operator consists of a simple oscillator with its own frequency and level controls, plus a dedicated envelope-controlled amplifier. In general, the envelope of a carrier operator controls the amplitude of the overall sound over time, while the envelope of a modulating operator changes the timbre. Engaging keyboard tracking further affects operator amplitude over the note range, the most common application being the emulation of how acoustic timbres change with pitch. Maintaining a fixed modulator frequency provides consistent timbre across the keyboard such as you might desire for a mechanical noise such as a guitar pick or adding a consistent formant to the timbre.

Modulation

The timbre of an FM sound is very dependant on the relationship of the carrier and modulator operators. When the modulator frequency is under keyboard control, its frequency ratio to the carrier determines the basic harmonic profile of your sound, with integer ratios producing more recognizable waveforms and the fractional ones typically resulting in more clangorous, inharmonic ones. Modulator amplitudes also affect timbre, with higher frequencies generally yielding brighter sounds. Modulator level can be influenced by a variety of factors including the associated envelope and keyboard scaling.

Algorithms

A selection of 32 algorithms determines the architectural relationship of the DX7 V’s six operators as a combination of carrier and modulating waves. These algorithms provide sonically predictable foundations for creating or modifying sounds with vast timbral possibilities. Carriers are connected directly to the audio output chain, combined in much the same way you would select the number of oscillators on an analog synth. The modulator operators affect those carriers in various hierarchies. Some algorithms also provide a feedback loop for either a single operator or a stack of operators, adding anything from a raspier effect to full-blown distortion.

A User Interface Finally Worthy Of Fm’s Capabilities

The DX7 V’s beautiful, intuitive graphic display makes it easy to understand and control every aspect of the instrument’s formidable array of sonic controls.

Simple Interface

While remaining aesthetically faithful to the original, the DX7 V’s basic interface is greatly simplified. Presets have moved to the library, algorithms are selected and intuitively displayed with color-coded operators in a center graphic window, and the detailed programming controls are hidden until they’re needed. You’ll also find four assignable macro data sliders, plus easy-to-access controls for performance features like the arpeggiator, portamento, glide and transposition.

Advanced Interface

One click reveals all the programming goodness you could ask for. You’ll find controls for similar parameters grouped on different pages for intuitive access. The Overview page accesses all your operator controls—even an oscilloscope to help visualize your work. The Envelopes page includes overlapping color-coded envelope graphs for all the operators, making it extremely easy to visualize their behavior and relationship. The Mods page has your matrix modulation grid, LFO’s, and step sequencer. The FX page is where you combine built-in effects in serial or parallel architecture.

The DX7 V’s intuitive user interface is as modern as the additional sonic capabilities Arturia’s enhancements bring you.

A Whole New Palette Of Sounds

Significant improvements to the sound generating section dramatically expand the sounds you can get with the DX7 V.

Multiple Waveforms

While early FM technology produces a surprising range of sounds using just sine waves as operators, we’ve expanded the possibilities exponentially with a selection of 25 waveforms per operator. These include traditional and additive waveshapes, plus those from Yamaha’s later TX81Z and OPL 2/3 chipsets—exponentially expanding the DX7 V’s versatility for both music and sound effects.

Filter Per Operator

Each operator also features a resonant tri-mode filter (low-, high- or band-pass). One of the many uses of this design is to modulate the filters for a blend of FM and subtractive synthesis—even employing different filters for each carrier to create complex parallel sound chains.

Upgraded Output

We’ve upgraded the audio output from mono to stereo to accommodate the added stereo FX. You can also switch the output DAC resolution to keep the original artefacts supporting the vintage authenticity or to get rid of them for the most pristine audio.

Individual Feedback And Unison

In addition to the original algorithm-related feedback loop, each operator now integrates an individual feedback loop at your service when you want to get edgy. Furthermore, unison mode complete with detune lets you combine up to 32 voices on a single note for massive leads, basses and more.

Beyond Beyond

Enhanced modulation capabilities and onboard effects make the DX7 V a new instrument in its own right.

Envelopes And Level Scaling

We’ve added two independent modulation envelope generators routable to many targets. You can set each one to the original style, a more conventional DADSR, or a new multi-segment envelope (MSEG). MSEGs even let you set loop points and tempo sync—complete with metronomic grid-based editing—great for trailblazing effects in loop- and dance-based music. These new envelope types are also now available for you to apply to the original pitch EGs for additional programming flexibility. You can also switch from the original keyboard level scaling to the modern multi-point keyboard tracking to create dramatically different sounds at specific scale break points.

LFOs And Step Sequencer

The DX7 V gives you not one, but two multi-waveform LFOs—each of which can be synchronized to note triggers and/or tempo to add metronomic energy to your tracks. For example, you might send a square wave to a carrier for a trill and sample-and-hold to a filter—all in sync with your beat. We’ve also added an extremely flexible step sequencer that let’s you infuse metronomic energy into your tracks by routing it to a wide variety of parameters. Apply the sequencer to operator pitch for melodic progressions or parameters like frequency modulation ratio to animate only the sonic textures.

Onboard Effects

The original DX7 lacked any on-board effects, leading to the prevalent use of external processing. We’ve simplified that for you by including a complete suite of custom-crafted effects including analog delay, analog chorus, reverb, distortion, parametric EQ, filters, and more. Better yet, you can either run effects in serial or parallel chains, and blend them into the mix to get just the sound you’re looking for.

Modulation Matrix

The intuitive 8 x 24 modulation matrix puts a whole new world of modulation capabilities at your disposal. Want to route separate EGs to the filter cutoffs of different operators? Go for it. Control the amount of feedback with an EG and LFO at the same time? No problem. In fact, every parameter you can imagine is available in the matrix. You can route up to eight different modulation sources to a single destination, with as many as eight destinations modulated by a given source.

The new enhancements in the DX7 V simply blow the lid off of what you could previously do with FM synthesis.

Ready To Rock Right Out Of The Box

The DX7 V’s extensive preset library let’s you get right to work with go-to sounds—plus inspire you to edit and create your own signature sounds

While we’ve lovingly added many enhancements, the DX7 V is still compatible with patches from the simpler hardware architecture—and we’ve included all 128 original factory patches so you’ll find all the sounds you know and love. We’ve also kept a team of world-class sound designers busy creating a ton of new jaw-dropping sounds that take advantage of all the enhanced sound design capabilities we’ve added. You’ll find fresh ideas for just about any kind of music you’re into. Edit any of these presets to make them your own. Better yet, start from scratch to embark on endless new sonic journeys. What new sounds will you create? We can’t wait to hear them!

Preset Browser

Our redesigned preset browser lets you quickly find just the sound you’re looking for.

Search by name or simply select the appropriate tags to dial in on the exact sonic character you’re looking for. You can mark and recall your own favorites, enter comments, and set up playlists. There’s never been a more intuitive way to manage your library of designer and personal presets.

Resizable GUI

The user interfaces for all your Arturia instruments are now resizable, making it easy to work with any High Resolution screen, UHD or Retina.

You can decide whether you want to fill the screen with awesome graphic reproductions of classic instrument goodness, scale the window down when you’re working in a DAW and screen real estate is at a premium, or even zoom for detailed work.