Basic Sound Design: Yamaha DX-100

The smallest DX, the DX-100

Born in the year ’85, the Yamaha DX-100. The smallest DX-synth of the DX-line up. Although the DX-27 has the same specifications, the big difference lies in the 49 mini keys. But more than 30 years later this synthesizer is still used in todays music. The most important sound is of course ‘The Solid Bass’ which is used in hiphop, house, dance and more genres. A lot of non-Yamaha gear do have copies of this famous sound. I dare to say that this is a Roland TB-303 effect. What I mean is that the original is the one that counts. 🙂

FM Synth engine

The synth engine of the DX-serie is the so called FM-engine. Sounds based on Frequency Modulation created with Operators and their Algorithms. Each operator contains a Envelope Generator (ADSR), an LFO with it’s Pitch and Modulation info. Sounds all very difficult but I’ve created a basic sound design video to show how you can create your own sounds. The Yamaha DX-100 has 4 Operators and 8 Algorithms. You will see that just a small change to the Algorithms already gives a different sound.

Conclusion

You see…it’s not that difficult. When you understand the basics of the Operators the world is yours and like always…it’s try and error!

Have a good one and we keep in touch!

Roger