Yamaha DX7

The Yamaha DX7 is an FM synthesis based digital synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first commercially successful digital synthesizer. Its distinctive sound can be heard on many recordings, especially pop music from the 1980s. The monotimbral, 16-note polyphonic DX7 was the moderately priced model of the DX series keyboard synthesizers that included the larger and more elaborate DX1 and DX5; the feature-reduced DX9; and the smaller and not directly compatible DX100, DX11, and DX21. Over 200,000 of the original DX7 were made, and it remains one of the best-selling synthesizers of all time.

Synthesis engine

Tone generation in the DX7 is based on frequency modulation synthesis, which was developed based upon research by/licensed from John Chowning at Stanford University. This uses multiple sine wave oscillators, which can modulate each other in various configurations offered as 32 "algorithms", thus generating a wide variety of possible harmonic and inharmonic spectra. Yamaha's implementation used DDS oscillators based on linear phase modulation, allowing improved precision and stability. The DX7 was known for the precision and flexibility of its bright, digital sounds, which could be clearer and less linear than those of the subtractive analog synthesizers that preceded it. The DX7 is well known for its electric piano, bells, and other "struck" and "plucked" sounds which emphasize complex attack transients. Phase modulation as used in this and later synthesisers is capable of generating a wide range of both imitative and purely synthetic sounds.

Yamaha Corporation

Yamaha Corporation (ヤマハ株式会社, Yamaha Kabushiki Gaisha) (/jəˈmɑːhə/ or /ˈjɑːməhə/; Japanese pronunciation: [yamaha]) is a Japanese multinational corporation and conglomerate based in Japan with a very wide range of products and services, predominantly musical instruments, electronics, motorcycles and power sports equipment.

History

Yamaha was established in 1887 as a piano and reed organ manufacturer by Torakusu Yamaha as Nippon Gakki Company, Limited (日本楽器製造株式会社, Nippon Gakki Seizō Kabushiki Kaisha) (literally Japan Musical Instrument Manufacturing Corporation) in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture and was incorporated on October 12, 1897. The company's origins as a musical instrument manufacturer is still reflected today in the group's logo—a trio of interlocking tuning forks.

After World War II, company president Genichi Kawakami repurposed the remains of the company's war-time production machinery and the company's expertise in metallurgical technologies to the manufacture of motorcycles. The YA-1 (AKA Akatombo, the "Red Dragonfly"), of which 125 were built in the first year of production (1954), was named in honour of the founder. It was a 125cc, single cylinder, two-stroke, street bike patterned after the German DKW RT125 (which the British munitions firm, BSA, had also copied in the post-war era and manufactured as the Bantam and Harley-Davidson as the Hummer. In 1955, the success of the YA-1 resulted in the founding of Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.