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The Yamaha DX7 digital synthesizer is one of the most important and influential electronic instruments of all time. Debuting in 1983, the DX7’s cutting-edge design, versatile array of sounds and relatively accessible price changed everything.
Though setting the standard for digital synths, the Yamaha DX7 wasn’t the first to incorporate digital technology. New England Digital’s Synclavier (1977) was the earliest commercial device to rely solely on digital FM synthesis to generate its sounds—the same principle that would be utilized in the DX7.
When it comes to digital sampling keyboards, two others preceded the DX7—the Fairlight CMI (1979) and E-mu Emulator (1981). Meanwhile, Germany’s Palm Products GmbH (PPG) introduced a line of wavetable synths throughout the ’80s, aptly dubbed the Wave family. In these instances, analog samples and waveforms could be further processed digitally, demonstrating an intriguing amalgamation of the two technologies.
Pictured: Yamaha DX7 Digital Synthesizer Rear Panel Logo
However, digital devices of the period could be clunky, wildly expensive in most cases and generally impractical for the everyday user. Additionally, analog synthesizers were far from being phased out. Roland’s iconic Jupiter-8, released in 1981, is a prime example. This remarkably powerful analog synth played a pivotal part in ’80s music, shaping the arrangement of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and the soundtrack for The NeverEnding Story.
Even with the synthesizer having been a firmly established instrument for over a decade, and with evolutionary leaps in synth tech punctuating the late ’70s and early ’80s, emerging digital FM synthesis had still yet to take hold. That remained the case until the summer of 1983, when Yamaha unveiled the DX7 at the NAMM Show.
In this article, we’ll learn more about the Yamaha DX7’s place in synthesizer history, what made it such a popular and innovative instrument, how it laid the musical foundation for countless hits and where its legacy stands today.
Table of Contents
Synthesizers Before the Yamaha DX7
Rethinking Analog Synthesizer Methods
What Is FM Synthesis and How Was It Developed?
Why Was the Yamaha DX7 So Popular?
Constructing the Yamaha DX7 Digital Synthesizer
Six Operators With Independent Envelope Assignment
Comprehensive Envelope Generator
Touch-Sensitive Keyboard Action
MIDI Capability
Early Adopters of the Yamaha DX7
Famous Uses of the Yamaha DX7
Tina Turner—“What’s Love Got to Do With It?” (1984)
Sade—“Smooth Operator” (1984)
Kool & the Gang—“Fresh” (1984)
Kenny Loggins—“Danger Zone” (1986)
Angelo Badalamenti—“Twin Peaks Theme” (1990)
Bruno Mars—“Versace on the Floor” (2017)
Koji Kondo—“Dire, Dire Docks” (1996)
Honorable Mentions of Music Featuring the DX7
The Yamaha DX7’s Legacy Continues
Synthesizers Before the Yamaha DX7
Synthesizers have roots tracing back to the early 20th century, but they began to take the shape we recognize today throughout the 1960s and ’70s.
Robert Moog was a revolutionary pioneer of analog synthesis, who illustrated the use of control-voltage (CV) technology to generate and process audio. He developed one of the first modular synthesizers in 1964.
At the same time, Donald Buchla and his consequential mid-’60s instruments were the first to implement a form of frequency modulation synthesis, laying the groundwork for tremendous breakthroughs in subsequent years—like those later seen in the Yamaha DX7.
In 1970, Moog Music launched the self-contained Minimoog. It was the first monophonic synthesizer sold in retail stores and a more practical, affordable alternative to the bulky, prohibitively expensive Moog modular unit.
By the mid-1970s, polyphonic analog synthesizers started to emerge. Oberheim’s Two Voice (TVS) and Four Voice (FVS) synthesizers, produced from 1975–1979, were important evolutions. Released in 1977, Yamaha’s flagship CS80 featured eight-voice polyphony and is regarded as one of the most popular analog polysynths in history.
Pictured: Yamaha DX7 EG/Pitch and Keyboard Level-Scaling Diagrams
The following year, Sequential Circuits introduced the five-voice Prophet-5—complete with onboard digital patch memory—and Oberheim launched OB-X series polysynths in 1979 to compete with the Prophet’s success.
These instruments were monumental advancements in the world of synthesis, but their sky-high price tags meant putting them in the everyday musician’s hands was virtually impossible.
In 1981, KORG developed the Polysix, which became one of the first affordable polyphonic synthesizers in the world and a direct alternative to the Prophet-5 and OB-X. Roland followed suit with the Juno-6 and Juno-60 in 1982, further democratizing the polyphonic synthesizer market with powerful, attainable instruments for budget-conscious players.
By this point, synthesizers were trending in new directions entirely.
Rethinking Analog Synthesizer Methods
The Yamaha DX7 helped usher in the digital age. Analog synthesis was cumbersome. You had to manually create sounds from scratch, using cables and patch points with modular units, or by manipulating the various sections and parameters housed within devices like the Minimoog. Until Sequential Circuits introduced programmable memory in 1978’s seminal Prophet-5, it was tediously difficult—or otherwise impossible—to recall a sound you’d once played before.
From a sonic standpoint, analog synths hadn’t completely gone out of fashion yet. But there had been a substantial amount of time for the dust to settle since Robert Moog’s modular meteorite fractured the earth upon arrival.
The warm, fuzzy timbres of analog synthesis began to make way for the chilly, glassy tones of digital FM synthesis—it would become the new sound of the future.
What Is FM Synthesis and How Was It Developed?
Frequency modulation (FM) synthesis was invented by John Chowning at Stanford University in 1967. As a method of transmitting sound, frequency modulation and its association with FM radio broadcast had already been understood for decades. Chowning developed a way to adapt frequency modulation for audio generative purposes, separate from analog synthesis.
FM synthesis begins with an oscillator, or operator, generating a sine wave. Operators can function as either carriers or modulators, where the carrier frequency determines pitch, and the modulator frequency shapes its timbre. Operators (carriers and modulators) can then be fed into each other to form complex groups called algorithms. The multiplicative nature of several operators arranged in various algorithms lends itself to an immense number of possible sounds.
Within several years of beginning his research, Chowning was able to demonstrate FM synthesis’ powerful sonic capabilities by emulating the timbre of acoustic instruments. Stanford University patented the technology, and licensing for FM synthesis was initially shopped to American brands Hammond and Wurlitzer. Both declined to adopt the technology, which Chowning attributed to their engineers’ underestimation, or misunderstanding, of FM synthesis and its power. Enter Yamaha.
Pictured: Yamaha DX7 Function Mode Controls
In 1973, Yamaha was simultaneously the biggest musical instrument maker in the world, with very little market share in the U.S. Expressly curious about the murmurs of FM synthesis at Stanford, the Japanese conglomerate sent engineer Kazukiyo Ishimura to visit John Chowning. Ishimura immediately understood the significance and potential of his discoveries.
Backed by Yamaha’s then-president Genichi Kawakami, Yamaha agreed to license the burgeoning tech from Chowning and Stanford. They entered into a partnership, and for the next 10+ years, would endeavor to bring FM synthesis from a mainframe computer to a portable keyboard.
In 1981, Yamaha debuted the GS1 keyboard, utilizing dual four-operator frequency modulation. It was loaded with preset sounds from the factory that could not be customized, though players could load up new sounds on magnetic foil strips. This was quickly followed by the slightly scaled-down GS2. Both were big, expensive devices, finding homes in only top studios around the world.
The following year, Yamaha released the CE20 synthesizer, which was remarkably compact and relatively inexpensive compared to the GS series keyboards. It, too, played only preset sounds, but it did offer basic tone-shaping controls—unfortunately, edits could not be saved.
Despite the limited success of GS keyboards and the CE20 synth, the stage was set for the Yamaha DX7 to shine.
Why Was the Yamaha DX7 So Popular?
The Yamaha DX7 marked an entirely new approach to synthesis, and for many users, it was the first digital synthesizer they’d touched. Contrary to conventional synthesizers of the day, the DX7 sported a sleek dark brown chassis with no knobs. Instead, it featured a small LCD panel, a pair of linear faders and a series of eye-catching green buttons flush with the keyboard’s frame. The vivid “DX Green” hue, as it would eventually be known, became a symbol for the digital age.
Internally, there were no voltage-controlled oscillators, amplifiers, filters or envelope generators. Rather, the heart and soul of the DX7 consisted of two large-scale integration (LSI) chips worth millions of transistors, ensuring the synthesizer was not only powerful, but portable as well.
At the time, Yamaha’s mesmerizing DX7 was a marvel sonically, too. The timbres digital FM synthesis could reproduce were fresh and inspiring. Often described as bright, metallic, punchy and bell-like, FM synthesis was a notable departure from the rich, wooly analog sounds that had dominated the synthesizer world for almost 20 years.
Pictured: Yamaha DX7 Pitch and Mod Wheels
And there were plenty of patches to play with out of the box—the DX7 came programmed with 32 presets stored on internal memory, in addition to a pair of ROM cartridges containing 64 voices apiece. Sounds included pianos, electric pianos, strings, brass, guitar, bass, organ, marimba, flute, cowbell, train sound effect, laser gun noise and more.
For most users, these factory patches proved more than sufficient. And it’s a good thing, because—despite being the “world’s first fully user-programmable” digital synthesizer—the DX7’s editing menus proved notoriously impenetrable to the average user. The workflow was so tedious, in fact, that in the wake of the keyboard’s popularity, dedicated programming houses opened to equip enthusiasts with new sounds.
The DX7’s FM engine was also largely unrecognizable compared to subtractive analog synthesis that was previously the norm. Simply put, most users didn’t understand how its sound generation worked, and the learning curve was steep.
Still, nothing was stopping the Yamaha DX7 from becoming the first commercially successful digital synthesizer and one of the best-selling keyboard instruments of all time. At a list price of $1,995 (approximately $6,300 in 2024 money), the DX7 moved a whopping 150,000 units within a year of its release—a staggering number that was completely unheard of in the pre-DX7 electronic keyboard market.
For further reference, the DX7 was, in fact, an affordable instrument. The Yamaha GS1 cost six times as much in 1981—the Fairlight CMI went for a cool $25,000 in 1979, and the Synclavier sold for anywhere between $200,000 and $500,000 at release. In several short years after these outrageously expensive devices initially saw the light of day, the Yamaha DX7 jumpstarted an era of digital synthesizers that were actually accessible to the average musician.
Pictured: Yamaha DX7 External Connections
The DX7 became so prevalent that, in 1986, its E. PIANO 1 (modeled after a Fender Rhodes) preset could be heard on roughly 60% of #1 hits on the pop, R&B and country Billboard charts. For recording studios in the ’80s, the gear list must have included a Yamaha DX7, or it was unlikely to get booked.
Yamaha’s revolutionary instrument profoundly impacted an entire decade’s worth of popular music, becoming a hallmark of the era’s signature “synthesized” sound. Let’s have a closer look at some of the DX7’s most innovative technical specifications that helped solidify not only its popularity, but also its influence on the future of synthesizer design.
Constructing the Yamaha DX7 Digital Synthesizer
Six Operators With Independent Envelope Assignment
The DX7 featured six operators, or digital sine wave generators, for a total of 32 algorithms. Within each algorithm, individual operators could then be switched on or off. Plus, operators could be arranged “horizontally,” in which each contributes its own pitch to the sound, or “vertically,” in which the upper operator modulates the lower one. The possibilities were truly endless.
For even greater waveform depth and complexity, each operator had its own independently customizable envelope generator—more on that below.
Pictured: Yamaha DX7 Control Panel
Comprehensive Envelope Generator
The DX7 offered extensive control over attack, decay, sustain and release (ADSR) settings, with 100 discrete increments per parameter for detailed, repeatable settings. Such careful, precise manipulation lent itself to a huge variety of timbres, and the DX7’s envelope is one reason why the synthesizer’s acoustic voices sounded so convincing at the time.
Touch-Sensitive Keyboard Action
The Yamaha DX7 featured one of the best, most responsive keybeds of the day. Sensitive to velocity and equipped with aftertouch response, 16-note polyphony and polyphonic glissando/portamento capabilities, the DX7 was exceptionally nuanced and expressive.
MIDI Capability
The Yamaha DX7 was also one of a handful of early instruments to be equipped with the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) protocol. New at the time, it’s a data transmission standard still in use (and largely unchanged) today. Users could control the DX7 from another MIDI-equipped keyboard and vice versa.
Pictured: Yamaha DX7 MIDI I/Os
Early Adopters of the Yamaha DX7
Previously, we alluded to the fact there were approximately 150,000 “early adopters” of the DX7, though the vast majority seem to have barely scraped the synth’s surface, relying instead on the preprogrammed, and highly usable, stock sounds.
Brian Eno—iconic producer, songwriter and godfather of ambient music—broke the mold as one of the few practicing musicians to master the DX7 inside and out, using it throughout his 1983 album Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, on the track “Alhondiga” (conceived in 1988 and released on 1992’s The Shutov Assembly) and on productions for U2 and Coldplay.
Eno even contributed four handcrafted patches to a 1987 issue of Keyboard Magazine, spelling out his settings for others to enjoy. In a classic interview with Future Music from 1995, Eno, still a devotee, explained, “I use the DX7 because I understand it … I know there are theoretically better synths, but I don’t know how to use them. I know how to use this. I have a relationship with it.”
Another early adopter and DX7 “whisperer” was Ryuichi Sakamoto—a prolific solo artist, producer, member of legendary Japanese band Yellow Magic Orchestra and one of the godfathers of techno. Upon the DX7’s release, Sakamoto took to it naturally, developing a deep, intuitive understanding of how the synthesizer fundamentally generated sounds.
Pictured: Yamaha DX7 Volume and Data Entry Faders
In 1983, he produced Mari Iijimia’s debut album Rosé, which is the first record showcasing his use of the DX7. The album is also a perfect example of how the synthesizer quintessentially sounded immediately after release. Sakamoto’s use of the DX7 can be heard throughout his solo work of the era, as it helped define the sonic palettes of 1984’s Ongaku Zukan and 1986’s Futurista.
Herbie Hancock—legendary jazz musician, genre transcendentalist and one of the godfathers of hip-hop—was also a huge fan of the DX7. He was known to experiment with every manner of keyboard and synthesizer during this period, always charting new sonic territory, and had previously used the Fairlight CMI sampling synth on 1983’s Future Shock. In 1984, Hancock played the Yamaha DX7 throughout his 30th full-length album, Sound-System.
These are a few notable artists who famously employed the DX7, and the following chart displays more examples of where the synthesizer played a part in hit music, from the 1980s through the 21st century.
Famous Uses of the Yamaha DX7
Tina Turner—"What's Love Got to Do With It?" (1984)
Tina Turner’s 1984 smash hit spent three weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was her first (and only) solo number one. The tune’s production relied on the CALIOPE, E. PIANO 1, FLUTE and BASS 1 patches from the Yamaha DX7.
Sade—"Smooth Operator" (1984)
The DX7’s E. PIANO 1 was one of its most famous presets, and it can be heard providing rhythm on Sade’s top-10 hit “Smooth Operator.” The timeless classic peaked at number five and spent a total of 13 weeks in the top 40.
Kool & the Gang—"Fresh" (1984)
Kool & the Gang’s post-disco dance hit, “Fresh,” established its driving low end using the BASS 1 patch on the Yamaha DX7. This was yet another top-10 single from 1984 featuring the world’s hottest new digital instrument.
Kenny Loggins—"Danger Zone" (1986)
Written and produced by Giorgio Moroder with lyrics by Tom Whitlock, “Danger Zone” was recorded by Kenny Loggins for the 1986 film Top Gun. The song utilized the DX7’s BASS 1 sound.
Angelo Badalamenti—"Twin Peaks Theme" (1990)
Big Billboard hits weren’t the only tunes to consistently feature the DX7. Composer Angelo Badalamenti used the popular E. PIANO 1 patch for the theme song to David Lynch’s cult classic television series Twin Peaks.
Bruno Mars—"Versace on the Floor" (2017)
In recent years, session keyboardist Greg Phillinganes contributed DX7 to the retro-styled Bruno Mars hit “Versace on the Floor.” The track showcases the legendary E. PIANO 1 sound, as well as the DX7’s touch-sensitive keys. While hitting harder gives the sound a sharp, bell-like edge, playing softer generates those smooth, dulcet Rhodes tones.
Koji Kondo—"Dire, Dire Docks" (1996)
Meanwhile, in the burgeoning video game world, composer Koji Kondo wrote “Dire, Dire Docks”—featured on the Super Mario 64 soundtrack—using a slightly modified E. PIANO 1 patch from the Yamaha DX7. The piece is regarded as a nostalgic, memorable moment from the game’s musical backdrop.
Honorable Mentions of Music Featuring the DX7
|
Year |
Artist |
Song |
Yamaha DX7 Preset |
|
1983 |
Howard Jones |
BASS 1, FLUTE, TUB BELLS |
|
|
1984 |
Prince |
KOTO |
|
|
1985 |
a-ha |
BASS 1, FLUTE |
|
|
1985 |
Chicago |
E. PIANO 1 |
|
|
1985 |
Stevie Wonder |
E. PIANO 1 |
|
|
1985 |
Tears for Fears |
PIANO 1, PIANO 4 |
|
|
1986 |
Berlin |
BASS 2 |
|
|
1986 |
Bon Jovi |
STRINGS 3 |
|
|
1987 |
Michael Jackson |
BASS 1 |
The Yamaha DX7's Legacy Continues
The Yamaha DX7 sent shockwaves through the synthesizer world, and the reverberations are still being felt (and heard) to this day. Its breakthrough success with early FM synthesis continues to fill contemporary hardware and software synth libraries with glassy electric pianos, punchy basses, cutting brass, vibrant strings and so many more iconic sounds. Chances are high your favorite virtual instrument contains presets paying homage to the legendary DX7 hardware.
Shop Now: Yamaha Reface DX
If you’re strictly in the box and want to experience everything the timeless synth has to offer, check out the meticulously modeled DX7 V plug-in by Arturia. On the modern hardware front, Yamaha’s top-rated MODX8+ 88-key synthesizer packs the power of the DX7, DX7II, TX802 and TX816 instruments all under one hood, with 61- and 76-key versions also available. If you're looking to explore the sounds of the DX7, but are in a pinch for space, check out the Yamaha DX Reface. Feel free to peruse Guitar Center’s vintage keyboard and synthesizer offerings and our used Yamaha synth offerings, too, where old-school DX7s make an appearance from time to time.