Equipment I currently own - updated April '07

Yamaha DX7 mk 1 (x 4, ranging from mint condition to tortured ! )

Yamaha TX7 (x 2)

Yamaha DX7S - Now partially stripped to fix DX7IIFD

Yamaha DX7IIFD  - PSU & kybd repaired with bits from my DX7S

Yamaha EX5R     Yamaha PSR340     Yamaha DJX    Yamaha TG300   Yamaha DX100

Yamaha NS-10M's      Yamaha TQ5     Yamaha QY10 & QY22     Yamaha PS6100

Korg Trinity Plus     Korg Triton Extreme     Korg 707

Casio VL1    Casio MT45     Casio CZ101

Ensoniq ESQ1      Roland TB-303       Roland E-20 & Roland E-66    Boss DR550

Roland D-50      Roland TR-505

Sony BETACAM UVW-100      Sony HR-MP5 (x 2)

                    Why did I do this site ??

I first became interested in the DX7, and synths in general in May 1987.  It was whilst on holiday in Menorca with my parents.  Every evening in our resort, there were different entertainers, either juggling burning batons, or trying to serenade the women with their Spanish guitar music - it was all pretty dull. On one night, a guy turned up with three big boxes and various other items.   The patio door to our apartment was no more than 15 metres from where he set up his 3-piece keyboard set, comprising of a Yamaha PS6100, a Roland JX8P, and the first Yamaha DX7 I can recall seeing.  Even while he was setting them up, I wasn’t that bothered - they were just keyboards to me, and in those days, I only had a vague, slightly above average interest in synths. 

The keyboard guy finished setting up, and then walked off to the bar to get a quick beer in before he started his set.  I remember my father coming back from the bar saying to me “look, he’s got a Yamaha DX7 !”, like it was supposed to mean something to me!  It seems as though at that time, even my father knew more about electronic music than I did... 

The keyboard guy (who called himself ‘Adolfo’) came back from the bar, switched a number of boxes and things on, and gave a brief, well rehearsed introduction about himself in English.  I thought "here we go again...yawn."

But when he began to play,  I was surprised.  The full, rich sound quality and the music itself made me feel a bit ashamed of what I'd previously been doing on my 'measly by comparison' set up back home – a Casio CZ230s, a Casio MT-45 and a VL-Tone. 

That night I was hooked.  I knew I wanted to have equipment that would sound as good as Adolfo’s – Even though I couldn’t actually play very well then (or now)!! 

Adolfo was selling tapes of his work for £5.  I bought one and spent weeks after the holiday trying to re-create his work on my CZ’s sequencer!  Of course, mine sounded terrible by comparison, but this early stage taught me a lot more about music and arranging.  

So why was it the DX7 that caught my attention, and not the JX8P, or the PS6100 ?? Well, I guess by 1987, almost every band had a DX7 on stage, and I was quite jealous of the lucky individuals standing behind them.  I started reading ‘Music Technology’ and ‘Sound-on-Sound’ magazines and almost every article in them mentioned something about the DX7.  I have to admit, I just wanted one because everyone else seemed to have one! 

But sadly, there was no way I could afford one.  in 1987, even second-hand they were at least £900 and the new DX7IIFD was about £2000. 

In 1987, I was 15, and had a job delivering newspapers.   I was earning £9 per week, which together with my pocket money and some of my savings, I put towards a Yamaha DX100.  For now, anyway, this would be the closest to a DX7 I would get. 

So it was August 1987 when I got my first DX keyboard, and started to learn about the possibilities of MIDI, hooking it up to the CZ230s.  Later that year, I bought a Roland TR-505 drum machine.  In 1988 I bought an Ensoniq ESQ1.  During the last two years of the eighties, I also bought myself a Yamaha REX50 effects unit, a Kawai K1m and a Yamaha TQ5.

By 1990, the price of second hand DX7’s had come right down.  I could finally get my hands on the synth I had dreamed of owning for 3 years!!  I got hold of an immaculate DX7S for £300.  Not a bad price in 1990. 

Throughout my student days in the early 90’s, I was broke and really couldn’t afford anything new.  But in 1996, I got my first proper job, and for three years spent quite a lot of money buying studio equipment, past and present.  

I now have far too many DX7’s  :-)   the DX7S I bought in 1990.  I bought a mk1 (which is the version I really wanted in the first place) in 1996.  It wasn’t in very good condition, but I spent about £150 renovating it with a complete new outer case and all new externals (except keyboard, which must have been replaced by the previous owner as it was unused).  It is now immaculate, like a brand new DX7 straight from the factory.  This one lives in a box and is never played for fear of damaging it - even the battery has been removed!

I then bought a third DX7 - another mk 1 which is a bit tatty, and is the one I generally use.  Update: I now also have a DX7IIFD, plus another DX7 with the Grey Matter E! expansion board ( I will be writing a feature on this soon).  Oh, and I think there's another DX7 tucked away somewhere.

Having both the original mk1, and latter 'II' models, I definitely prefer the mk1;  its coloured membrane buttons have a positive 'click' to them, just like the 'II's, and aren't anything like ZX81 keys, as I have read online frequently!   Although the DX7 II's are cleaner sounding and better spec'd than the original, they can suffer from intermittently working buttons, because the dust tends to get underneath the contacts.  This doesn’t seem to happen with the flat buttons of the good old mk1 ! 

Bearing in mind the DX7 was released in 1983, these days it is somewhat dated.  The average PC soundcard, or sub £200 keyboard can do a lot more 'technically' than a DX7 and generally sound immeasurably better.  If anyone  is thinking of buying a DX7, but doesn’t really know much about them, then DON’T!  At least, not until you have seen one and tried it out - you may be very disappointed otherwise.  They are nowhere near as sophisticated as today’s synths and home keyboard.

I still really like the DX7 though, and it is the keyboard I can just sit down with and play the most.  The keys feel just right, and the sounds - although very dated - bring back those 80’s memories, whether you want them or not!  The simplicity and basic, raw nature of the sounds can be quite inspiring, I find.  Routing the DX7 through a half decent effects processor can really shed years of it's life, bringing it up-to-date and not out of place in any electronica line-up

I created this web site in 2001, because I wanted to contribute towards keeping the memory of the DX7 alive.  There are a number of good web-based resources for the DX7 out there, and I have simply brought all the best ones together and added a few original bits of my own.  I hope you enjoy it.

Steve Sims.