Yamaha DX7 - The Synthesizer that Defined the '80s

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Huge thanks to Yamaha's synthesizer team for helping me put this video together. They gave me a ton of resources and helped me with my researches. This video wouldn't have happened without them.

00:00 Intro
00:35 Title Card
00:43 The Science
01:34 Application
02:10 Yamaha DX7
02:44 Electric Piano Sounds
03:51 Other Tones
05:06 “Ahead of its time”
05:34 Brian Eno
06:11 Conclusion

[purpleninja]

Wait... there’s people that hate the “electric piano” instrumental ... now that is sad. It defined the ‘80s ballads. And it sounds so beautiful and it brings so much emotion for the song.

[edvaira]

I actually owned one of these as a synth-head teenager in the mid-80s and I LOVED the clean sounds! So VERY worth the three months of minimum wage I saved up for it!

[StellarStreak]

This video explained the reasons why 80's music sounds so good and nostalgic. I had absolutely no idea why the sounds are so reminiscent of 80's. Now I know. Thanks a lot.
Cheers !

[LFOVCF]

"People COULD experiment with it"
Famously, hardly anyone could or did. The 80s was its presets through effects.

[JerryC]

Just found a playlist on Spotify of just songs using the DX7. Just made my day lol

[DecibelAlex]

My dad pulled a DX11 from a dumpster. it only had a few broken keys and the ram battery had to be changed. Now I've been using it for some of my music productions and I just love it. Sometimes I'm just glad there are stupid people

[EricJEarley]

Tony Banks (Genesis) once said that with older keyboards, the best musicians would have to squeeze every ounce of customization out of their instruments, but once keyboards like the Yamaha DX7 came around, you'd be lucky to use even 1% of their potential.
Great video!

[NPGLAMB]

That “electronic piano” setting is in every 80s ballad.

[lundsweden]

The DX7 is actually still a very usable synth even in the 2020s. I use it from time to time in Ableton (Dexed)

[AndrewKay]

Fun fact: Yamaha also made the sound chips for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive consoles. All your fond memories of the music from those games are of FM synthesis.

[ClassicTVManX]

The DX7 harmonica sound on Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do With It?, " Starship's "Sara, " and Gregory Abbott's "Shake You Down, " among others, was what caused a decline in the number of actual harmonica players in the years after 1983. The only real harmonica that sounded close to that, then, was the one Stevie Wonder used.

[chiefindisguise]

Polyphonic should do more vids of legendary instruments, excellent work!!!

[mikeoley]

As a motion graphic designer who's obsessed with music, this channel is a dream come true.

[Flickstro]

I actually had the privilege to work with a DX7 when I took my MIDI course. I especially liked its bell presets.

[jtmichaelson]

I don't know how old you are, but for me (and us) that piano sound was so popular that we became deaf to it. It was almost like it was its own instrument. Hell, even I have a recording or two lying around with its usage.

[WillsJazzLoft]

You're absolutely right. The sound of the DX-7 was ubiquitous. Between 1983 and the end of the decade there was hardly a hit record that did without it.

[csu]

The 1st reasonably priced digital synthesizer. The 80’s sound also came from Roland and Oberheim as well.

[atarkus]

There's no DX7 on Brian Eno's Apollo. It was recorded before the synth was released. This is one of those myths that seems to get regurgitated because of wikipedia. In reality "The main synth was a Yamaha CS-80... Eno put a massive treatment on everything. The complexities of the chain are unspeakable! But those treatments were worked on for weeks on end."
As a DX7 owner I actually bought the album thinking the same thing, but it's a misconception.

[HowlingMoonCinemas]

The 80s had some of the best music ever made. Such great chord structures, basslines, styles, rhythms and unique sounds from synths and effects.

[StottMikel]

Three things that define the 80s: Roland's TR808, Yamaha's DX7, Brian Eno.