The DX is widely known for it's great rhodes electric pianos, bells, killer synth basses (the "lately bass" being especially popular) and metalic type synth sounds. It's digital FM synthesis was able to create a wide range of new sounds that you just were not able to produce on a analog synth. Of course, besides the affordable price, what made it so popular were the sounds that you could produce on one. And boy was it every successful! Every keyboard player from guys playing in their garage to the biggest names in the music business bought one and before it was discontinued in the late 80's, the DX became one of the biggest selling synths of all time. The DX was the first commercially successful digital synths. Until the DX7 burst on the music scene, most synthesizers were all analog based. parameter to reduce the velocity sensitivity to taste.Released by Yamaha in 1983, the DX7 is another one of those landmark synthesizers in the history of electronic instruments. If you like, you can use the Brightness Vel. This means that some sounds may be brighter when played from the KRONOS’s keyboard, as compared to the original instrument’s keyboard.
The KRONOS’s keyboard, on the other hand, can produce velocities over the full MIDI range, up to 127. However, the local keyboards on some of the original DX instruments were not capable of producing very high velocities instead, they might max out around 105 or so. In other words, if you play both the original and converted sounds from an external MIDI controller, they should sound the same. There is no readable data will appear if the file is shorter than 4104 bytes, or if the SysEx header indicates something other than DX7 Program Bank format.įile contains unsupported data will appear if the header is correct, but the data is damaged for instance, if the fileʹs checksum doesnʹt match, or if the trailing F7 is missing.Ĭonverted sounds will respond to MIDI velocity in the same way as did the original instruments. If the KRONOS can’t read the file, it will show one of two error messages: SYX file, select the bank and Program range to load into.įor more information, see steps 8 and 9 under “Loading a single bank of DX7 sounds,” above. Follow steps 1 through 4 under “Loading a single bank of DX7 sounds,” above.Ħ. The sounds will be loaded into the KRONOS as MOD‐ 7 Programs. Important: If you select an HD‐1 bank, it will be changed to an EXi bank, and all of the banks’s HD‐1 Programs will be erased. Select the bank and Program range into which to load the sounds. Since DX7 banks contain 32 sounds, while a KRONOS bank contains 128, you can also select where to place the DX7 sounds within the KRONOS bank: into Programs 0‐31, 32‐63, 64‐95, or 96‐127.Ĩ. In the Drive Select parameter, select the media from step 2, above.Ī dialog box will appear, allowing you to select a bank into which to load the sounds. Press the front‐panel DISK button to enter Disk mode.ĥ. SYX file to KRONOS‐readable media, such as a USB flash drive.ģ. System Exclusive files from later‐generation FM instruments, such as 4‐operator “baby DX” synths and the TX81Z, SY77, etc., cannot be loaded.ġ.
There are thousands of these sounds available on the internet, providing a massive pre‐existing library of timbres (in addition to the many sounds created exclusively for the MOD‐7!). The MOD‐7 can load sounds created for the vintage DX7.
Wouldn’t it be nice to load the classic Yamaha DX-7 patches into your Kronos? Well you can and here’s how (source: the Kronos Parameter Guide):