Korg Forums

Hello!
There's plenty of material available for how to program the DX7. Given the specs of the opsix, I consider it capable of doing the same with ease.
I do notice however that it behaves different when just taking over the settings from any DX7 tutorial. And by that I mean operator levels and feedback in specific, as envelopes, mods and such of course are setup in a different way. I'm looking for rules to keep in mind for how to convert settings.

For modulators levels, I found that setting the half of what the DX7 would take, to make the OPsix produce a similar sound. With a nuance in the word similar, because it's not exactly the same.
For feedback settings I'm a bit undecisive. For what would be 7 (full) in the DX7, it's a bit more than 50% on the OPsix. A rule of thumb for me is not to go beyond 60%, because that's where the chaos and noise starts. Sometimes better to just disable feedback and set the waveform to sawtooth.

So for both one could say the OPsix goes up around the double of what a DX7 would do. I wonder what your findings are in here?

Also, there are approaches on the DX7 to make it 'kind of' produce different waveshapes. Like a triangle. It would take two operators, one carrier and one modulator. The ratio of the modulator is twice the carriers ratio. Output on the DX7 is 75, which would be with approx. 37% on the OPsix. Don't forget to set sustain levels to 100%.
Though I'm not getting a triangle wave when looking at the (built in) oscilloscope. Am I missing something? Or is the analyser unreliable?

madFame has made a nice video about getting basic waveshapes, which is what I tried:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSBEHaw6jyg
(I know there's a triangle just built in, but I just want to go to the basics right first)

Any findings or suggestions are very welcome!

Is there way to load DX7 patches (SYSEX) into OPSIX through some librarian software?

Trader One wrote:Is there way to load DX7 patches (SYSEX) into OPSIX through some librarian software?

https://www.synthanatomy.com/2020/11/ko ... orial.html

Loading DX7 sounds is described pretty thoroughly on page 92 of the manual. But it does include this caveat:

"Note that as the opsix and DX7 use dfferent parameter configurations, the conversion will not be perfect, and some sounds might end up quite different from the way they sounded on the DX7."

With the DX7 import, yes, that's kind of pointless if you don't have the same structure...Okay maybe the algorithms or something, but then you have to reprogram everything else anyway.. why does a korg synthesizer have a yamaha patch import for when the patches sound different anyway because the device is constructed differently? I mean sample rate and stuff like that, of course, not an issue. but other envelope functions?

Otherwise I can understand that you want to make the FM as simple as possible, but here and there shortcuts have been taken with the opsix, which make it difficult to create typical FM sounds. The operator envelopes are missing - in order to be able to create reasonable FM sounds with them - at least two further parameters

The DX7 has an offset for the start and end at level 4, so the opsix lacks an offset for the start in many cases, with a modulator it is otherwise like a filter that always starts closed. The parameter goes so far with the DX7 envelopes that you can go up with the mod amount during the release phase, For many typical FM bass sounds, a Sustain Time/Slope parameter would be helpful - the Curve parameter doesn't compensate 100% for that.

Well, it wasn't my intention to make an exact reproduction of a DX7 on the opsix. In my opinion, if you're looking for that, then get a DX7.

Envelopes behave different and that's something I expect and accept to be different. Also I'd like to build patches and not just import downloaded patches.
FM tutorials out there help for inspiration and showing possibilities. I just like to get a similar timbre.

The thing I'm wondering about is when you go back to the very basics of FM, as shown in madFames video which I linked to in the TS. One carrier and an operator. One sine wave affects the frequency of the other, at the same rate or a multiplication of it.
It seems like some 'basic' maths to me. Different brands of calculators may have some slight differences in number roundings, but globally the result should be the same. But maybe I'm thinking too simple about the maths that FM.

What is the reason why the result isn't the same? Is there some phase difference between the DX7 and opsix?
I haven't thought of some way to debug this. Make it even more simple and find something that both synthesizers actually do do the same.[/u]