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    How To Program The DX7 PDF

    Uploaded by

    Chris

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    of 6
    Udesiudag Ad Ayplyig Ta Coupe Of Pee Datel FM Spiess ‘section ofthe DX tront panel showing agonthns melope dagran, and keyboard level cng ces By Bo Tomlyn ‘As Told To Jim Akin 'YNTHESIZERS HAVE akind of aura for the layman—exciting, butexoticand perplexing. Most experiencedsynthe- sizer players, on the other hand, can quickly become comfortablewithanew instrument, ippingaround the rontpanelasthey edit the factory patches to their own taste, Even for players, though, the Yamaha DX7 has some of thisaura of mystery. They ike the way itsounds, but they've heard that it’s Impossible, or at least very difficult, to rogram. ‘There are several reasons why people fee! thisway. First they'e dealing witha diferent typeof synthesisthanthey'reused to. The concepts of FM (frequency modulation) aren't familiar, the DX envelopes are not the typical ADSR envelopes, and features like linear and exponential keyboardlevelscaling may initially be difficult to grasp. Havingto enter all the data fora patch in numerical form rather than turing knobs can ako be stumbling block, ut more and more inst Bo Tomlynisa consultant and clinician for Yamaha, 2s well a 2 freelance synthesizer programmer based in Los Angeles. He was a member ofthe team that created the original factory patches forthe American release of the DX7 and DX9. This article isthe first in a new Keyboard series on working with specific instruments 66 KevBOARD UNE 1985 ‘ments these days operate inasimilar way, ‘evenifthe synthesistechniquesbeingused are different. Three yearsago, when we were firstcreat- ing the factory patches for the DX7, we were able to do-420 patches inavery short time, With no manual andstarting with onlysine, wavesinthe instrument. There's noreason why anybody else shouldn't he able to do the same. Approaching nyinstrument forthe first time, whether it's a Minimoog or a Buchla, means earning how itworks. You don’tjust walk up toitand set upa perfect ‘trumpet patch. You have to start by learning what rotating a pot means, By now we've all become used to certain standard configura- tions. fyau'rean Oberheim person you'll be able to get comfortable very quickly when Yyou move from an OB-Xa to an OB-8. Youtl know where you have tosetthe potsto geta certain envelope. Working with the DX7 means discarding some ideas that are prob- ably familiar to you from analog synthesssand Substituting other ideas. But its not inher= ently any more contusing—its just different, ‘One comparison that like to makeis that youwantto knita sweater, you can take out large needles, and you'll be done very quickly, Buti you want to get the litle flow erson the pockets all the fine detail, you've got touse smaller needles. The DXallows you totakeoutthose smaller needles and really fine-tune the details of the sound. So okay, ‘your sweater is going totake alte longer to frit Aswe lear to take full advantage of the programming canbecomemoreintricate, Most people, when they start programming the DX, take one envelopeand copy across toallsix operators, Ata result, the whole sound has one envelope. There's no intricacy in that area at al. The copy function is useful {for speed,or for when you're doing things lke organ sounds, which have an inherently simple envelope, butwhen youstartto get into higher levels of programming, you'll want to create an individual envelope for ‘each sinewave. Each sine wave should havea differentfunctionaspartof the composite sound, Getting Started IN TALKING ABOUT the Dx, the language we'll be using doesn't use terms like titer and sawtooth, We have touseadifferent language. To begin with, there ae sixsine waves inside the instrument. Each ofthose sine waves can be one of two things: acarier oramodulator. Acarcierissomething that you can hear. A modulator you cannot hear; iakters the tone color ofthe carrer Looking ata carrer, we see that we have controlof three things. First, wecan control its overall volume, using the output level parameter. Second, it has an envelope gen- trator which shapes this volume. Ifwe relate the DX to what we're familiar with from analog synthesis, we can say thatthe enve- lope generator ofa carrier i similar in func- tion to the envelope generator of aVCA, ‘And third, a carierhasaspecific pitch, which ' ' ' | eee eee eee ee eee een ee eee wecontrolusing the coarse frequency, fine frequency, and detune parameters. Coarse frequency breaks the frequency spectrum up into 32segments corresponding tothe natural overtone series starting an ‘octave below the fundamental. Fhenumbers you'llseeinthe display (50, 1.00, .00, 3.0, andso.on} represent frequency ratios. We on’thave space here to explain overtone theory in detail; ifyou'renot sure how it works, please goto your local public library and check outa textbook on the nature of Sound. Youcanalsothink of these numbers ascorresponding to organ pipe footage, if you're used to that terminology. 0.50isa32 Pipe, 1.00isa 16,200 isan 8, 400isa4’, 8.00is 5 2. The settings in between are smaller in- tervals; 300 corresponds tothe 5-1/3’ draw- baron Hammond organ, which isan octave anda fith above the 16 drawbar. ‘The fine frequency setting breaks each of thesedivisions into 100smaller steps, And detune breaks up thesmallerdivisionsino 15 subdivisions (from +7 to 7), Detuning is very subtle; people tryouse the way they do.on ananaloginstrument, tocreate chorusing, But there’sa better way to do chorusing, ‘which 'll mention below. Detuningismost Often used for fine-tuning high harmonic; Itsother effect isto introduce a sight timbral shift, awah-wah effect. There are ways of using detuning atspeciticrequenciestoadd tothe chorusing effect, butitshouldn’t be the only approach you use for chorusing Inthe normal mode of operation, the frequency of the sine wave tracks the key- board. You can also take it into a fixed fre- {quency mode, in which it does not track the keyboard atall,butremainsthesame from ‘one end ofthe keyboard tothe other. In this. mode, youcan set tanywhere from THz (one cycle per second) to 9,772H2. Fixed fre- quency carters and modulators are used for alot of different things—adding grit oa tone, adding fixed-frequency formants 0 vocal sounds, adding the sound of apick ona buitar. Youcancreateachorusingeffectby pultingthe carrier in fixed-frequency mode below 32. allof the harmonicstructure created by the modulators, which we haven't spoken about yet, will chorus atthe fre- ‘quency ofthe carrier asthe phase angle of the sine waves changes. ‘Modulators have the same control pa- Fig The citeence tween mavefom aon an re (2) tequeny taf mar rie (0) ry min cree rameters as carriers, butthey are used ina diferent way. Amodulatorusedto change thetimbre (one color of acarter. output level determines the amount of change; the more outputwe have fromthe modulator, the eighterthe sound willbe you like You anthinko the outputleveicontrolofthe ‘modulator as silt the cual frequency ontrolonalowpasstiter Instead of moving the cutolfpoint,wenow move the output levelofamoduiatorto change the sound frommellow to bright. Theenvelopeo! the modulatorismoreoriessequivalent tothe CF envelope on an analog instrument Becausethe frequency of the modulator is independent ofthe frequency ofthe r= tier, there willbe afrequency relationship between the wo. Thisrelationship dete minesthe overtone structure othe sound, andisroughly equivalentin function toa ‘ery complex and flexible waveform selec: {or Note that havingamodulator modulate the frequency ofacarrieris not the same as adding the two waveforms; the mathemati {al relationship is more complex than addi- tion, a Figure shows This requency modu- lation what ives Maymthest tsname,and is characteristic sound IMthecarrierand modulator are onthe same frequency the sound ofthe carer wil eequivalenttoasawtooth wave ig. 1a). The high harmonics on thisare not aston, 2s those on a sawtooth on an analog instr ment; wehavetoadd more modulatorsto fetthat brights sound. Butitisawave with ll heovertones,oitiabasic sawtooth sound. When weraisethe outputof themodulator ‘one octave above the frequency ofthe cat= fier, we havea square wave (ig. 15). Taking the frequency of the carter above the fre= ‘Quency ofthe modulator gives us various puke waveforms TTohear this, choose amemory slot you don't want to Keep and start with voice ini tializatoninthetunction mode. Whenyou see "VOICEINIT?"inthe LCD, press"yes" twice. This kicks you into the edit mode, ready to program from seratch, Rafe the outpuitlevelof operator 2t072. When you ply the keyboard, youshould hear the basic Sawtooth waveform: Now raiethe coarse frequency of operator? rom 1.000 2.00 Thiswillgive yous square wave. Lower oper. ator 2's frequency back to 1.00 and raise enon ta cont SA operator from 1.00t02.00, 300,600, andso on, Ateachstep youwillhearanarrower Pulbe waveform: there does conse point of horeturn wherethefrequency ofthe cari Startsto override, andthe waveform turns intosomethingelse, But thsishow we get into aboes, Anice oboe might be achieved bysetting the carrer toa frequency of 400, withthe modulator on 1.0. So that'sthe ABC of programming the DX-Thecarrierdeterminesthe volume ofthe sound; the modulatorsenvelope creates the {imbral movement in the sound, and the frequency relationship between the two determines thewaveform. Incidentally 2s tong a5 you stick to whole-number fe- quency elationships, you're limiting the Soper heinsirument Non-whole-number relationships ill give young modulator Soundsandother ypes of overtonestha can becharacterticofsome acoustic inst ment noo mention saunents hat never oustedbeforeAndeverything we've {aid so far has used only twossine waves! Piling up more modulators wil give you overtones that are more and more complex. Algorithms ISUALLY, PEOPLE'S MINDS minds just turn off when they hear the word ‘algo- rithm,’ because they assume it's something too complex to deal with. But in fact the ‘concept is very simple and straightforward The term ‘operator’ seems mysterious (00. You can think of an operator as a unit or module that includes a sine wave oxilator (either modulator or carrer), an envelope Benerator, and a VCA (see Fig. 2). In fact, ig 2h simplified conceptual dsgrm ofa OX ALI mee eae YF | these are not discrete components, the way they would be on an analog synthesizer, They all exist as software inside a micropro. cessor. But you don't need to worry about this in order to understand how they work. The front panel graphics on the DX show ‘exactly how the operators in any algorithm are patched together. All you have to re ‘member i thatthe bottom row of operators are the carriers, and those above them are ‘modulators. Operator one salwaysa carer The modulators control the timbre of the ‘atrets to which they are connected by ver- tical or diagonal lines explain algorithms at my clinic by bulld- ing asound for people on the blackboard, Generally! do this before leven mention the word ‘algorithm,’ s0 as not to alarm them. Let’ssay we want to makean electricpiano sound. By analyzing the sound we'te aiming for, we can igure out what algorithm to use. For now, though, don't worry about the JUNE 1H5/KEYBONRD 67 How To Program The DX7 principlesbehind thiskind of analysis. Just {akealook at algorithm 26 (Fig 3). thasthree Fig. Algorithm 26 being used for electri plano = FEE (jie al % carriers, each of which will make its own Contribution tothe finished sound. (Operator isacarrier that has asingle modulator (operator 3),We'llusethese two tomakethe body ofthetone—the mellow, slowly decayingsound, The carier with two ‘modulators (operator 4 is going to make the bright, complex attack sound of the tine. Both the carrier and the modulators here wil have higher frequencies and faster decaying envelopes. Thesecond modulator on that carrier willereatea ring-modulation effect ‘onthe left half of the keyboard, sothatthe lefthand willbe distorted while the right hand ill be pure. (Thisis done using the keyboard levelscaling feature, which we'll talk about abit more below.) That particular modulator willbe ona strange frequency. The one carrier by itself will beon a fixed frequency of about 97H, When we give this afaxt knocking envelope, itwillereate the thud of the hammer hitting the tine. Put the three elements together, and presto—elec tte piano! In order to get the touch response of the lectticpiano, we need tosetthe key velocity sensitivity for the various operators. There should be a great deal of velocity on the hammer thud (operator) so that when we play softly we don’t hearit. We would put ‘only amoderate amount, maybe 2points,on the carrier thats making the body of the sound, and only 1pointon ts modulator. For the tine, we could play around withit. Maybe wedon’t want the tine at all when we play "tly, or maybe we want some of the carrier Sine wave withoutits modulator. I’samazing, how totaly you can change the character ofa sound using the key velocity sensitivity This ilustrates how each ofthe carriers in analgorithmmakesits own contribution 10 the sound. Totake an even simpler example, look at algorithm 32,in whichallsix operators are cariers with no modulators ata. Wecan assign the firstonea frequency of 1.00, the Second a frequency of 200, and s0.on—300, ‘4.00, 5.00, and 8.00 for the lst one. This gives tus sic of the drawbars on an organ. (Obvi- ously, the effect willbe more realisticifyou five allsic operators the same instan-on,full Sustain, instant-offorganenvelope, but you ‘might experiment with giving some of them abitlonger attack and release than others ‘Adjusting the outputlevels ofthe operatorsis now equivalenttomoving the drawbarsin And out, You add in one sine wave ata time Until you get the organ sound you want. We could give lotsofather examples, but bynaw the idea should be clear. You begin 68 KEYBOAROIUNE 1985 bycreatingamental map ofthe sound you wantto create. In some cases this might mean thinkingaboutthe mechanicaloperationof the instrument you're trying toimitace; in ‘other cases the process might be more ab- stract. Once you have this map in mind, you look acrossthe DX’salgorithm char unti you find an algorithm that matches it. Some- ‘where down the road you may find that you neglected to think about some aspect of the sound, because of which you may not be able to getitwiththatalgorithm.Soyougo back, choose another algorithm, and start Ityou'recurious the term’algorithm’ is. borronved from computer programming. An algorithmis a procedure (aftenin the formof a flow chart) for solving a problem. The rea Son this term is appropriate forthe X's that the instrument does not actually have sx separate sine wave generators for each of Tb voices. In fact, it doesn’t even have 16 voices; ali of thenotes that are playable fromthe keyboard re being generatedby ‘one microprocessor. This uses various algo- rithms that instruct ithow to construct a single compositesound wave, One way 10 think about this that the way the computer data are being shuffled around the micro~ processor by the algorithm is similar to the ‘way voltages are routed through a modular synthesizer using patch cords. A particular ‘configuration of patch cords isa kind of ‘analog algorithm. ‘Once in a while somebody raises the question whether the existing 32algorithms Inthe DX are really enough to create ll the kinds of sounds we can imagine or want. There are several ways oanswerthis. Most general users, find, can barelyhandle where the instrument is at right now. On the other side of the coin, | hope tl have the oppor- tunity inthe future towork with Yamaha to developanevenmorepowerfulinstrument Using the same FM technology, an instru mentthat those of us who spendallof our time programmingcan go totaly nutswith ‘And atthe same time, lknow that thaven’t even come close totapping the potential of the instrumentasitstands right now. Every time isitdownatthe DX, learn something, The Envelopes HE ENVELOPES ON THE DX are a com- pletely new approach. We've gotten used tothestandard DSR, solet’scompare the ‘wo. Onthe ADSR, we haveno controlof the

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