You may think you know the Yamaha DX7 from those couple of presets that dominated the 80s. But Oliver Greschke’s Elastic OSC for iPhone and iPad is a reminder of just how much potential Yamaha’s breakthrough FM synth can offer. And now Elastic OSC app can easily import those sounds, with a bunch of unique presets to get you started — plus a link to a cool generative tool that works with anything.
This is sort of a story about Elastic OSC, but also a story about DX7 patches generally. And once you get started discovering, generating, and importing those patches, you may find yourself addicted to weird and unique DX7 sounds all over the place.
For its part, Elastic OSC is like an oscillator module that can also be a synth voice and even a full instrument. The iOS app takes as its starting point open source engine code from the now-legendary Mutable Instruments Plaits by Èmilie Gillet. Plaits from the start included FM synthesis among the various sound generation techniques in its multi-engine core (plus FM input from other modules) — see the official documentation. From version 1.2, Plaits firmware also supported FM import; see below.
Elastic OSC has three OP6 engines, found at positions 19-21. Each OP6 engine is capable of six-operator FM, just like the original Yamaha hardware. (I’ll stay out of the nuances of the difference between phase modulation and frequency modulation; the important thing is to listen to the sound!)
With new DX7 sounds included and an import, you may be giving those OP6 engines a lot more use.
Now, what’s really nice here that you don’t get from Yamaha’s original hardware is gestural control of parameters to bring these signs alive. One of the real problems with the DX7 was its lack of hands-on control. Watch what happens in Oliver’s demo video, by contrast:
Elastic OSC’s new import feature lets you grab sounds from wherever you wish, but to give you a leg up, the app now comes bundled with a bunch of presets:
- Classic DX7 presets
- AI-generated presets by theintrovert (I haven’t looked at these yet, but I’m assuming this is some latent space-parameter magic)
- DX7 sounds preset by Jexus (known from YouTube for many, many, many years — sadly removed the video I want to share)
- DX7 sounds and other Elastic OSC engine presets by sound designer SOI
Still want more? Oliver points to this wonderful generative tool with an amusing title:
This DX7 Cartridge Does Not Exist
Also in this update
1.1 has a lot of enhancements:
- Added Preset Compare feature: instantly switch between the current and original preset version
- Improved preset saving: the current preset name now appears in the text field above the SAVE button
- Bugfix: fixed audio hum/engine issue that sometimes occurred when opening the app
- Bugfix: incorrect layout on iPad Pro with 13-inch screen
- Improvement: knobs respond more sensitively now
- Improvement: harmonics slider now has 32 steps for OP6 engines (reflecting DX7 preset switches) instead of linear values
- Bugfix: Improved DX7 envelope behavior – the app now more accurately reflects the envelopes of DX7 presets
In addition to DX7 import, there’s also wavetable import. (Yeah, I buried the lede for anyone who doesn’t care about DX7 stuff.) You can generate wavetables from Emilie’s site! That includes this cool little visual editor:
https://pichenettes.github.io/plaits-editor/wavetable.html
That site also includes a handy browser-based FM patch editor you can use to test banks, plus a wave terrain editor. Wave terrain isn’t supported in Elastic OSC (yet, anyway); I have to check some of the other software versions, like those in VCV Rack and Surge XT.
Ready to import on the hardware, too?
Here’s a nice overview of how you would load patch banks on the hardware. And don’t forget you can still build your own Plaits, thanks to it being open source hardware, as well as finding various purveyors who are doing current production runs since Mutable Instruments ceased operation.
More DX7 inspiration
Yamaha’s 1983 icon seems to be having a moment. (It had a moment before, then was disparaged, then made a semi-comeback, but — this could be really the 21st century moment.)
Legowelt is giving it lots of love:
Espen Kraft is saying things about the DX7 that I might not say. (I mean, I do love it, but you’re not going to see me run this headline! I don’t even know what I’d choose for that honorific.)
And for a refresher of what made the DX7 popular — and eventually typecast — here’s a refresher. Gen X can tap into this nostalgia now, plus anyone else discovering 80s music. But it’s a double-edged sword, in that these presets tended to narrow the view of what the instrument could be. Ironically, Roland’s drum machines fared better, despite a narrower sound palette, because of the wide variety of genres and playing styles that musicians came to use, pushing boundaries.
Sorry, half of this just makes me break out in hives, but that’s where the generator comes in!
Let’s instead enjoy this incredible video with Francis Monkman (Sky. Curved Air).
Why are we not opening each video we make with a reveal through venetian blinds?
Check this 2007 video by Jexus / WC Olo Garb, demonstrating DX7 can be hard and weird and not like top-of-the-pops 80s dreck. This is how aliens with superior intelligence to our own would play the DX7.
As I was looking for other videos, I wondered why the heck YouTube kept autocompleting to “Yamaha DX7 Taco Bell.”
Oh my.
Stay on topic, Peter.
Don’t get lost in 90s ads involving this bell and, for some reason, Johnny Cash.
It’s too late for me. Save yourselves.
Updates:
Added Jexus / WC Olo Garb video.
Added section on 1.1 updates with clarification on non-DX7 features, including support for wavetable import.