every bell on
every radio
the DX7 wasn't a normal synth — it was a math problem you played with a piano keyboard. yamaha licensed FM synthesis from john chowning at stanford in 1973, sat on it for a decade, then shipped the DX7 in 1983 and sold 200,000 of them. for the next 7 years it was the default keyboard on every record made.
fm = math you can hear
subtractive synthesis (the moog next door) starts with a rich sound and filters away what you don't want. FM synthesis does the opposite: it starts with a pure sine wave and uses ANOTHER sine wave to modulate the first one's frequency. modulate fast enough and you get harmonic sidebands — overtones that didn't exist in either oscillator on its own.
the DX7 had 6 of these operators. you can wire them in 32 different patterns (algorithms). this room has 4 operators + 3 algorithms — enough to make all the famous patches, not enough to get lost.
what to do: load bell. play one note, hold it, listen to the decay. now go to OP4 and turn its LEVEL down — watch the bell get softer. now turn its RATIO down from 14 toward 1 — listen to the bell turn into something simpler, then into a pure tone. you just learned what FM modulators do.
try this: load e.piano, switch the algorithm to fan. completely different patch from the same operators — that's why algorithms mattered so much.
the people on the machine
the DX7 was the default keyboard for half a decade. every bell on every ballad, every slap-bass line, every gospel keys part. nobody programmed it from scratch — they ran the factory ROM presets and the entire 80s was born.
go listen
the DX7 bell intro. textbook FM — high-ratio cascade, fast attack, no sustain.
the lead synth is a DX7 patch. parallel algorithm, ratio 1 + ratio 2 carriers.
eno doing breath-pad FM textures years before everyone else. slow attack, long sustain, low op levels.