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Giorgio Robino Yamaha DX7II
393 original patches collection
Exploring FM soundscapes is an inner trance around
the consciousness 
An introduction about my synth
programming modus operandi
All the patches are Yamaha DX7IIFD original patches programmed by myself in the past years, between 1993 and 1996. I spent so many nights working with the synth and an old Mac patch editor; I do not remember exactly but surely I spent almost tree hundred days of my life. All the sounds come almost completely from the synthesizer sound exploring trips. Sometime I started a sound using an existing patch (download from internet or gave to me by friends), modifying the soundscape time by time, but in many cases I start from scratch (status zero), also using some controlled random features of the computer editor.
About the kind of sounds
When exploring soundscapes with DX7II years ago, my target is to reach very slow-motion evolving sounds, but all my work is imperfect in this way. In true, only sometime in these patches I have achieved what I had in mind. The soundscapes I truly love are sounds with very low attach and release with smooth tonal evolving/morphing. Just in these times I discovered musicians like Robert Rich that have implemented these slow-motion evolving music at artistry levels.
All the sysex patches are composed by a DX7II "bundle" of 3 banks: a performance bank (32 performances), a voice bank (64 voices), an internal microtuning banks (2 sets). I collected all my work in 15 bundles, here below named and detailed; all the performance names and some notes are detailed in a description text file (.txt), associated with the sysex file (.syx):
bank 01: alienazi.syx,
32 patches, very psichedelich\dark ambient sounds
Download
for free a patch example: alienazi.syx alienazi.txt
bank 02: allucinazioni.syx,
30 patches, slow-motion, very psichedelich\dark
ambient sounds
bank 03: analogia.syx,
32 patches, analogic\power synth
emulations '70 like
bank 04: archettiestringhe.syx,
acoustic and electronic strings emulations, 17 patches
bank 05: bassissimi.syx,
acoustic and electric bass emulation, 28 patches
bank 06: brassonerie.syx,
acoustic and keyboard-like brass, 25 patches
bank 07: cordemultietniche.syx,
stranges plucked strings, 31 patches
bank 08: drummatica.syx,
psichedelic percussions, 22 patches
bank 09: infinitasprimordiali.syx,
slow-motion electronic pads, 32 patches
bank 10: orgiaorgani.syx,
organ emulations, 32 patches
bank 11: percussionidanzanti.syx,
stanges ethnic percussions, 32 patches
bank 12: rimarginazione.syx,
strange pads, 6 patches
bank 13: sinteticaextasy.syx,
slow-motion analog-like dark-ambient pads, 6 patches,
bank 14: tastierebarocche.syx,
acoustic and electric keyboards emulations, 26 patches
bank 15: vociatroci.syx,
human strange voice emulations, 20 patches
I think my patches are pretty unusual soundscapes
also for the DX7II synth. The soundcapes
genre is Techno music, dark-Ambient music, Electronic-Experimental music,
Psychedelic music, beside I studied to emulate also acoustical and vintage
electronic synths; I love especially brass sounds
(there are beloved trombones in brassonerie.syx,
electric organs in orgiaorgani.syx, cembalos on tastierebarocche.syx, etc. etc.). It's strange that a
digital synth like FM DX7II have a real/likely
acoustical emulation of strings, brass and percussions. All in all re-listening
my patches nowadays (many years ago after times when I programmed these), I
feel that crippled psychedelic, analogic-sounding,
fuzzed-freak sounds, are really suitable for TECHNO music contexts,
and real-time controllers programming I realized in many patches, are the
cherry on the cake for techno-dance live performances!
Some programming technical details
About micro-tunings: In the most of cases I programmed almost 64 voices and 32 performances, but I do not programmed special micro-tuning intonation; this is because: On one hand, years ago I didn’t have the sensitivity and the musical technical knowledge for appreciate microtonal intonations outside the "equal temperament". Indeed at the moment I am very interested in Just Tunings, but at times when I programmed DX7II I, I didn’t have the knowledge for program my tuning ideas... maybe because I have not an editor for do that. Btw, JI Calculator, is free Mac microtuning utility by Robert Rich. On the other hand, many patches I programmed simply do not have any particular intonations: many times are drones, atonal "noise" sounds, not intended for a "classical" keyboard player, but mainly for techno-ambient-electronic music environments.
About DX7II MIDI controllers: in many (but not in all) cases I programmed
performance sounds as stereo, programming in detail CS1/CS2 slider sensitive,
modulation/picth weels
sensitive, velocity/after-touch sensitive, with some keyboard mapping. Please
note that I didn’t program any Foot Controller (because at programming
times I didn’t posses one). Anyway it’s very simple to modify
patches to add this feature (in facts it’s important to control volume
swell especially, because in some slow-motion complex patches, because the lack
of DX7II polyphonic power, it’s a good idea to smooth attack with volume
pedal to avoid some attack transitory noises-clicks). Please note that my
patches are some time extreme-programming put DX7II at his limits regarding
polifony, etc. (I mainly used long decay, bundle
patches, etc.).
About stereo (pan) feature: please remember to switch on (see photo below) is you like stereo output! In my model pan-on is not a default and you have to switch on manually! In facts pan (= stereo) mode on DX7II do not run perfectly and you could prefer to switch off, resulting in a mono output (mixing together left and right channels).
About excessive velocity sensitivity of the patches: I have check my sounds on
my particular DX7II that have a know "firmware bug", so my DX7II can
not achieve all the velocity dynamic (0-127), but instead I have a limited
(0-1xx) dynamic, this is because probably many sounds seem to be too loud on
velocity touch; simply play soft :)
About DX7 outputs audio postprocessing: I think that
DX7 audio signal is too poor, cold, harsh, to put them directly in the mixer,
so I get the best results putting the synth outputs
into a multieffects for some riverberation
(obligatory in my opinion) and delays effects (for that I programmed many
delays patches on a ART Multiverb Alpha).
How to buy DX7II Patches 
You can buy now via Paypal account! 393
original patches collection cost is 29 EUR
Payment steps:
- Please send
an e-mail at solyarisMusic@gmail.com before
any payment, in this way you will be sure that I can feedback and sell in
a reasonable agreed time framework. If you don’t receive my feedback
via e-mail this means that I am temporarily unavailable, but usually I
could reply in few days.
- Make the
payment to the Paypal Account I’ll
feedback to you.
- After
payment I’ll mail you all info to download patches (encrypted zip file
+ password).
Please note that now I can accept only Paypal payment also with a credit card transaction, please assure you to get your Paypal Account before make any payment (see www.paypal.com for details). Please do not ask me Paypal process understanding / general concepts user help.
How to use DX7II Patches
About
upload patches into DX7II: After download the .zip file at URL I’ll
specify when received payment, you need to extract/decrypt patches files from
the .zip container, and finally you will able to upload sounds into the DX7II.
All files (/sysex/*.syx)
are in SYSEX format, so you can use any sysex utility
sw, a program that can transmit and receive system
exclusive (sysex) messages via
Important note: I currently do not more program DX7II and I have difficult to give you technical detailed assistance on using DX7II, managing sounds, etc. Please buy sound patches here only if you already have good skills on personal computer usage and DX7II (almost basic) programming. Last but not least, on.txt files and README files you will found obsolete reference to my e-mail and web site (no more valid); please refer to this website and e-mail address here specified to contact me.
Wanderer Ascension and Revelation Cellardoor Mellow Stasis Western Detunes
Solyaris home DX7 friends contact
Last update: 16st March 2008, Giorgio Robino