It’s a TX816 on a keychain! Someone (“Kevin”?) has put together a Raspberry Pi Zero-based build that lets you carry around eight DX7 emulator instances on a USB stick.
Is this the most practical way to emulate the DX7? Of course not! Is it fun? Yes! And is it playable? Also yes!
You connect via USB for power and MIDI connectivity – meaning you will need something as a USB host. Audio is provided via the Audio DAC SHIM from Pimoroni. I have not tried this, and expect I’ll focus on other RasPi projects instead, but it’s worth checking the comments below the Hackaday story, as there is some useful feedback on making this (and related solutions) actually work:
A YAMAHA DX7 ON A USB DONGLE [Hackaday]
But whether or not we take it on ourselves, here’s a fun video where we can vicariously watch someone else take the DX7 stick approach, from Floyd Steinberg of Woody’s Piano Shack:
Details on other parts are in comments of that video.
Hey, keep it next to your DJ USB sticks, just in case you … need … a small FM synth at some point.