Should you buy a Yamaha TX81Z FM synth?
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- čas přidán 15. 07. 2024
- In this video I continue my exploration of rack mount modules with the Yamaha DX81Z FM synth.
Some links:
- FM Depths soundset: lfo.store/shop/hardware-synth...
- Ctrlr TX81Z patch editor: ctrlr.org/yamaha-tx81z/
- Dexed: asb2m10.github.io/dexed/
- FM8: www.native-instruments.com/en...
Sections
- 0:00 Intro
- 0:33 Basic Sine Wave FM
- 3:51 FM with different wave shapes
- 6:52 TX18Z Patch Play-through
- 12:12 Integrating with DAW
- 20:48 Software Alternatives
- 22:57 Conclusions - Hudba
Excellent video!
I still have 2 TX81Z synths in my studio besides my FS1R.
I used to program them from their panel without a computer editor. Although it may seem a bit tedious it's not that difficult once you have a global picture of a patch in your mind.
Although 'only' a 4 op FM synth, the alternate waveforms of its operators make the TX81Z a very capable FM synth.
And, yes, a TX81Z is much more than the infamous 'Lately Bass' preset!
Yes I think it’s the different waveforms that make it stand out over a six operator that only has sine waves. I’m impressed you have two of them! Hope your batteries are still going strong on them. I had to get the soldering iron out on this one!
I ended up just grabbing the sysex dumps of TX81Z and loaded them into FM8.. voila, instant access to all the
patches, especially the famous aforementioned bass patch. :) I love all the parameters in FM8, especially those built in effects.
Thanks for sharing this great video! I bought a Korg opsix in November as I'm a huge Korg fan and I like slightly less mainstream things, so FM seemed perfect. I think FM has a pretty steep learning curve and I've got a ways to go but it's a fun playground. Good content like this video really helps solidify the concepts of FM for me and encourages me to keep working away. Thanks again!
FM definitely requires a different mindset to get results that are musical. Thinking about it “adding harmonics” is the best way I’ve been able to visualise it so far.
I picked up a DX11 for £20.00 last month, quick battery change was all that was needed to get it up and running. I'm learning about SysEx messages etc. from greatvideos like this one. Many thanks.
That’s a great deal! Have fun with it.
Great, the DX11 has a couple of improvements upon that older rack, I believe. Pitch envelop and that strange envelop attenuation, where U can lessen the effect of an envelop of a modulator. This makes more possibilities to long evolving sounds.
As the envelops of that second generation of DX's were drastically simplified compared to the DX7's, it seems they tried to give a bit of an escape route.
Anyways, the TX81Z is an interesting module, more towards plucked sounds, because of these simple envelops and lack of another 2 oscillators, to make a fake chorus by copying and detuning two other ones to, wait for it, two other ones.
But! You can easily make up for that with copying that sound to an adjacent sound, and do the detuning there.
Have both of them played together, even in stereo separated;
and voila, the best "Roland Chorus" you ever experience is right there.
That makes this module and the DX11 actually an 8 operator synth.
Ok, you lose multitimbrality, now U down to four notes. Still cool for some chords to develop.
But what about these bass-lines, when U combine that famous TX Bass with that famous TX Hi Tine piano and Synth Pad, and U still have two voices of that mix to play, which sometimes just is the right room in a composition, where other synths or guitars are present.
Now. If U put your DX11 to "MONO mode" that thing is a beast. ( It really is much, much more than a "MiniMoog".
You can only do that though in "Performance Mode". There U stack up 8 instances of it, which results in 8*4 oscillators = 24 oscillators of anything between 8 basic oscillators.
That is fun, enjoy it.
MiniMoog has only 3 oscillators, which though can have 4 different variants, a bit like DX11 can have 8 different variants.
Only one of them can act as a modulator to the others, but only in very low register, putting Minimoog even less capable.
In DX11 U can have any in low register.
But, DX11 does not have any filters after the basic sound creation.
MiniMoog has that, though.
I like both. They complement each other.
WOW, that is really cheap. Did everything work and looking good?
My last one I picked up years ago at ten times that amount. It was though in a complete pristine condition.
Prices are falling down exponentially?
Yeah, maybe, because VST's are taking over. People are getting rid of their unused space invaders.
But, I'm not so sad. It is always nice to hit the keys of my DX11, although it is not the best keybed in the Yamaha range, it is just enough, same like these Motifs afterwards, which sported the same or worse, until the Montage.
The DX11 is so cute. And it works.
Try to assign the "Data Slider" to anything in U DAW. It works.
This cutie was a MF.
Wake up.
I have recently picked one up off ebay and I am loving it. The thing that really sets it apart is, yes it only has 4 operators but there are 8 wave shapes per operator. The dx7 only has sine wave. This adds to its soundscape while still having only 4 operators. I use this synth with Ableton and there is a Max editor for it that is really easy to use with visualization for the parameters. With that editor and the price I got it for, its a really nice way to get into vintage FM. Great video by the way!
Definitely makes a difference using something other than a sine wave as a modulator!
Stephen, this was a great video. I used to have a TX81Z but for some reason was not inspired to use it, possibly due to it being a rack and having a software alternative on my iPad, so I did not spend time with it to set it up as you explained. But the alternate note function and in built MIDI effects were interesting.
I would agree that it takes a bit of time to figure it out. For me it’s taken some time to work out how FM really works and then how to make (or tweak) sounds that don’t end up just sounding atonal.
Great FM primer, Stephen! I found the free DeXEd virtual instruments to be really useful - consequentially sold an old DX7. I realize some collectors of vintage synths swear the sound quality of the original keyboards/racks are better, but I can’t say I’ve noticed a difference. More importantly, there are 1000s of patches for DeXEd and the DX7 all free. I do have a Roland XP-30 that I keep because of it’s 1400+ patches and I haven’t found a strong equivalent from Arturia or Roland Cloud to replace it. I also saw your video on the JC 1080, which is equally good.
Fantastic demonstration & breakdown! For some reason the statement @9:29-930 just sounded... risque. lol
Don’t Google “performing FM on each other”
FM7/FM8 NI really did an incredible job on.
Agree! In particular the number of presets a fantastic. One of the biggest challenges of FM synthesises is that you have to get your head around how modulating carrier signals impacts the pitch.
I recently have interest in buying a 81z. My explorations go back a quite a few decades but never owned one of these.
Hey Stephen - Super video. I had a TX back in the day but reckon life is too short to learn FM 😄 I think Korg got it right with the OP6, although I don't have one, with easy-to-tweak front panel controls. Love FM8 👍
Yeah, it was the OP6 that influenced why I looked into trying to control the TX using the faders.
My FS1R is one of my favourite synths... 👍❤
Great synth… a touch more expensive to pick up compared to a TX81Z though!
2x V50’s which are essentially 2 TX81z’s in keyboard form with an RX drum machine and effects and a sequencer. Had one from new and the other I picked up a few years ago.
Brilliant!
Thanks for the great patches LFOstore!
The YAMAHA DX11 is the keyboard version of this rack,
Interesting if it's possible to tweak it the same way over software as shown on the video.
Thank you for showing and teaching us wonderful information in a pleasant way!
I believe so… it should have the exact same sysex codes and so the same editor should work I think.
I have an EMU Proteus 1 from 89. It still working. The other one is the EMU E6400 ultra w. Hard drive. It's good as I have these cd roms for world music. I like it
Great machines!
It's realy funny to see at 2:00 the sine slowly pitch modulated, it looks like a ghost under a sheet and it's quite the same sound used for a ghost in a movie 70 years ago, before the FM synths.
Well 35 some years ago I bought a TX81Z. It was at the time one of the few synths I can afford.
It's still in a rack in my studio, audio, MIDI pluged and CTRL editor onboard. For me, even if I don't use it every day now, it's a great piece of gear.
And a dude who opens LPX MIDI Environment and can count in hexadecimal can't be a bad guy.
Edit: Dexed is so "similar to the DX7" that it can read DX7's sysex. In other words you have access to all the DX7 sysex sounds available online. It's a great tool.
Ghost-Sheet Sine. Sounds like a patch name to me!
One good thing about the Yamaha TX-8Z is that you can still find them for a reasonable price weather or not I itend to buy one
is another story. I do also have FM Lab as part of Halion 7, Yamaha Montage and MODX also have FM synthesis capible of
loading DX/DX patches but Dexed is still my favourite DX7 emulator because I like it's gritty lofi sound whereas Halion 7 sounds
a bit to pristine. But at the moment for hardware FM synths I'm still focussing on Yamaha Porta Sound keyboards like my Yamaha
PSS-470 which I bought in 2018 and Yamaha PSS-470 which I bought in 2021 and I'm also going to be getting a Yamaha PSS-380
at some point in the new year and maybe I might also get a Yamaha PSR-36 even if it means selling a PSR-18 that belonged to my
late maternal grandmother. The Yamaha consumer level keyboards were 2 operator FM and sound more like a Casiotone. As I still
have Kontakt 6 and only the Player version of Kontakt 7 if I wanted the full version of Kontakt 7 I would buy it as part of Komplete
so having FM Lab by Native Istruments might be a nice addition. I have also given the Yamaha Reface synthesizers some thought
as they are small so if space is an issue that's one way to have some hardware synthesizers. The Yamaha FB01 sound module is
also OK if you just want a box with solid presets.
Wow that’s a lot of FM! What are your thoughts on the Korg opsix? It seems to have an intuitive interface for FM programming
Yes, Midi buffer full message, when controlling via system exclusive, happens with my DX11 as well.
But I was perplexed with your M1 demonstration, where you very smoothly controlled even the distortion amount with Sysex without any glitches.
What is the explanation? Korg made more room for buffers?
I never tried to control my M1 with live Sysex variations. Maybe I should.
I use MidiQuest to reprogram my synths.
Yeah I didn’t really see that issue with the M1 when controlling a single parameter. I expect I could create the problem if I did many Sysex at once. Maybe because the M1 was sample based it has bigger memory buffers than the pure FM of the TX81Z/DX11.
Thanks a lot Stephen for this review. I was about to buy one of these but I think I may have to hold off. I was looking for something with more usual instruments like piano / piano + strings / electric piano / warm lead tones / expansive pads, etc. I would say piano sound realism is a must for me. I was wondering which sound module do you recommend that has these good tones but they are sitting in the lowest zone of budget scale. Thanks a lot.
If you haven’t checked out the other sound modules videos on my channel (JV1080, M1R and Proteus) then that might be an avenue and all of them can be picked up reasonably cost effectively. But bear in mind they are all tech from the 80-90s and so compared to something new they will be a long way the level of realism we enjoy today. The thing is, the rack mount module seems to have died and so if you get something newer you are likely to be also paying the expense of a keybed etc. I really like the piano on my Roland FP80 (which I’m using as a controller in this video) and you can sometimes pick it up out one of it’s older relatives (e.g. FP-4) at not too bad a price but then you aren’t going to get a particularly wide range of sounds and you’ll need the space for it.
This is icredible thank you so much, just a little thing, I´m using my arturia keystep 37 to control the TX81z and at the same time as a midi interface so I can send midi to the TX from my DAW, the thig is that I can´t make the TX to receive the Midi mesages from this ctrlr virtual editor through the Arturia, is there any chance you tell me or make a very short video of how to correctly connect/sync the editor to the TX81z? I´d really apreciate it 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 I´m using Mac OS
yes
Hello my friend that so Awesome you just recreated the famous Klubbheads Donk Bassline at 13:20
Like!!!
Thanks Vlad!
It sounds so weak.
I think that’s common with FM synths and usually compensated by using external effects (delays, reverbs, chorus etc)