DX7 · quincy '85 territory

the DX7 didn't replace acoustic instruments — it became its own instrument. john chowning's FM synthesis patent + yamaha's silicon = a sound that defined a decade. patch 11 (the electric piano) was on every record from 1984 to 1991. you can hear it on whitney's "greatest love of all," every TV theme song, every prom slow-dance, herbie hancock's "rockit" sub layer, the bridge of stevie's "part-time lover." it WAS the 80s.

the pattern here arpeggiates a i-VI-III-VII progression in C minor — Cm → Ab → Eb → Bb — playing each chord as four notes (root, 5th, b7, 3rd). monosynth approximation of a chord progression: where a real DX7 would let you hold a full triad, ours plays them sequentially fast enough that your ear fills in the chord. that's a piano trick from the romantic era; arpeggios IMPLY harmony.

bell stab on the top of every bar adds the ear-candy. bells were the SECOND DX7 sound everyone used — anywhere you hear that metallic ping-and-fade, that's cascade-algorithm FM with high-ratio operators. it's literally just sine waves modulating each other.

tape + plate on by default. the DX7 sounded sterile out of the box — every engineer in the 80s routed it through cassette processors and EMT plates to put some grit on the perfection.