I keep reading this derogatory mantra about the DX7 being the poster boy for bad sounding synths. But really it was the popularity (best selling synth of all time) and complexity of programming that led to the same factory preset patches of the DX7 being used on multiple hit songs. Though I don't see anyone making similar statements about Stratocasters and Marshall amps, even though the exact same guitar tone has been used by thousands of wannabe Hendrix and Clapton slingers. FM synthesis (if you actually understand what it is) was and is a remarkable technology with a staggering amount of sonic possibilities, yet people can't seem to put down their torches long enough to accept this.
It may depend on when you were born. Most 70s children luuuv everything about the 80s because that was their time. I was born in the 60s, so I love the 60s and 70s. I used to slag off the 80s music, but, recently, I realized just how much 80s music I really do enjoy. But, unlike most of you, I like just about all of the 80s music, not just some of it.
I do recall an artist noting in their album's liner noted that no Fairlight was used in the making of the album.
The 80's was rampant with corporatized, formulaic music. Most of the great stuff never got promoted or released. Ask the members of Heart, as an example. They'll tell you they had no desire to do most of the music they did in the 80's, but were forced to use those sounds to keep their career going. Basically, musicians did not have as much freedom to do what they wanted as they did in the early-mid 70's. The industry has suffered ever since.
Big 80's fun 1983 Def Leppards Pyromania was. Mutt Langes production was overkill but spot on setting a tone for other future 80's melodic rock album productions.
I love a lot of 80s music. Born in the 70s (I can appreciate the 70s and 60s as well). Truth is every decade has great and not so great music.
Can't believe how many artists and how many (billions) of songs used the Yamaha DX7 It has about the worst, most horrid "sounds" ever put on a keyboard. Instantly dated, it does sound like a toy, instead of a real instrument. Today's CASIO's sound way better. Compare the DX7 with the lush, warm, organic, beautiful, breathtaking analog gear of the 70s.
The factory DX7 patches are very dated. The synthesis part is incredible though. You can get some very unique sounds once you learn how to use it as a synthesizer and not a keyboard. Casios can't do that.
That video shows the 32 factory presets patches which everyone was too lazy to change. There are literally thousands of different sounds it can make if you alter the carrier and modulator parameters and algorithm settings (Google DX7 patches and see for yourself). Yes, it's not easy but it is sonically infinite, and much more than the original analog designs of the 70s. What people seem to assume is the DX7 is just like the later digital sample playback synths that followed, which contained only digital presets with no kind of modulation. The "warm and organic" sounds of analog gear was also touted as dated and stilted during the 80s, because tastes had changed. But now in 2018 we have new FM synthesizers being produced along with new analog synths, and a new generation of musicians is discovering the wonderful world of synthesis.
Yes well sadly thats what people started being re-programmed in the 80s to do.. Think crap was better and its really sad..... The re-programming had just started in the 80s....... Phil Collins used one in the 1990 concert I have he did..... It sounds OK..... Just really sad.....
I thought the 80's started out great, you had Elvis Costello, The Ramones, Graham Parker and The Rumour, Rockpile etc, what did you have By 1985? Van Halen, Bon Jovi, and Motley Crue, Corporate rock, boring as hell. I realize I'm generalizing and I like some of those 80's bands' stuff but the punk and rock n roll revival stuff was just so much more creative and the production was real, you actually heard the sounds from the musicians' equipment, when you heard a snare drum, it WAS a snare drum not some synthesizer triggered by the snare drum hit.
If you want to hear synthesizers cued up to sound real sinister, check out Serge Gainsbourg’s Love on the Beat (1984). This album makes the 80s sound interesting. My favorite synth pop album.
I probably biased since I grew up in 80s, and in constantly gets slaggged off, mostly for top 40 radio. But the era spawned hip hop, new wave, reggae revival, industrial, college/indie (alternative in the 90s), house, new brit metal, etc. Rem, Metallica, U2, Cure, Police, to name a few mega artists. Outside of Nevermind and possibly Defintely Maybe, shortage of landmark lps in 90s imho.
No Depression, Girlfriend, The Bends/OK Computer, Time Out Of Mind, Trace, Bossanova/Trompe le Monde/Frank Black/Teenager of the Year...
Eh, there were plenty of landmark LPs in the '90s, across many genres. Dr. Dre, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Wu-Tang, Beck, Nine Inch Nails, Snoop Dogg, PJ Harvey, etc. I'm sure there are more I'm missing. I'll admit I'm not into several of these, but they were big era/genre-defining albums just the same.
the Casio CZ series was more than capable and yes they can do that. Like FM, the Casio phase distortion method of synthesis was not easy to understand or manipulate. The Casio presets were probably even worse than the DX7, but both were fine machines for anyone that wanted to learn how to use them to their full potential.
Those are impressive, but dont resonate or have staying power like Back in Black, Joshua Tree, Appetite for Destruction, Thriller, Born in the USA, Public Enemy, Pyromania, etc
Ummm..."Pyromania" resonating more than Pearl Jam "Ten" or Pumpkins "Siamese Dream"? I get it, you came of age in the '80s. But hey now.
Even without that diamond + lp, you get my point. 80s had FM radio still poignant, MTV, Live Aid , US Festival, etc. A record didnt become just popular, it was woven into the cultural fabric. It became a phenomenon .
And to add further measure, the 80s were pre-internet, smartphone, gaming, video streaming. In other words, music had very little competition: that was it. You purchased the lp, and then had a dedicated listening session. It was front and center. Mega lps often had 5-7 hit singles, entire hard rock lps such as Appetite/Back in black became classic rock staples. In short, one had to be there.
