Which songs have loads of DX7 on them?

[Annoying Twit]

Which songs have loads of DX7 on them? Preferably a more extensive and interesting usage than "The Greatest Love of Aaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllll".

[elsongs]

 

Which songs have loads of DX7 on them? Preferably a more extensive and interesting usage than "The Greatest Love of Aaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllll".

 

 

FYI, Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love Of All" does NOT use a DX7; the Rhodes sound is an actual Fender Rhodes, with a Dyno-My-Piano modification (that brightens up the tines). The DX7 E. Piano sound was meant to be an emulation of the Dyno-My-Piano modded Rhodes.

[Annoying Twit]

 

FYI, Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love Of All" does NOT use a DX7; the Rhodes sound is an actual Fender Rhodes, with a Dyno-My-Piano modification (that brightens up the tines). The DX7 E. Piano sound was meant to be an emulation of the Dyno-My-Piano modded Rhodes.

 

 

Point taken. OK, can I ask for tracks other than straightforward FullTines usage such as (going out on a limb here) Hard Habit to Break or After All.

 

To my ears Heart's "These Dreams" sounds pretty DX7-y.

 

Edit: Got these: http://www.01xray.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=1,2,4&Board=voices&Number=349273&page=6&view=collapsed&sb=7&o=&fpart=2&vc=1

[springrhubarb]

Enya, The Celts

Vangelis, Direct

 

Plenty of creative usage of the DX7 in these albums, not just the typical sounds.

[soundwave106]

 

Point taken. OK, can I ask for tracks other than straightforward FullTines usage such as (going out on a limb here) Hard Habit to Break or After All.

 

 

Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do With It" uses a DX7 preset for the flute / harmonica sound and a couple of stabs here and there.

 

The "DX7 80s bass" is pretty popular, think John Parr's "St. Elmo's Fire" or Kenny Loggins "Danger Zone". (The Parr track has a lot of stereotypical DX7 e-piano, it sounds like.)

 

The "DX7 tubular bell" shows up in a few places, think Enya's "Storms in Africa" (which actually seems very heavy on the DX7) and Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer". (New Age artists from 1984-1987 loved the DX7; aside from Enya, Ray Lynch was big on the DX7.)

[kpatz]

Pick just about any popular song from 1984-1988 or so. Richard Marx's first album comes readily to mind. That gorgeous digital pad at the beginning of "Hold On To The Nights" was a DX7 I think. Tiffany's first album (whether you love it or hate it) sounds like it's all DX7 to me.

 

I wonder how many DX7-using acts in the 80s actually programmed the danged things, vs. those who used the presets.

[Spleencage]

Scritti Politti were heavy into FM, compressed out the ying yang and time aligned with a Russian Dragon

 

Gino Vanelli's album Black Cars is supposedly all DX7

 

Theme to Doogie Howser MD is ALL Dx7

[tim gueguen]

Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms album has quite a bit of Yamaha FM on it, but most of it comes from a DX1, which was sort of two DX7s in one box. The metallic sounding chords in the verses of "Money For Nothing" are a good example. Pretty sure the "steel drums" on "Ride Across the River" are DX as well.

[tim gueguen]

Pretty much anything Brian Eno was involved with from say 1984 to the mid '90s or later is going to have DX7 on it, such as his albums Nerve Net and The Shutov Assembly. Eno is well known for having really invested a lot of time learning to program one.

 

There's DX7 on Rush's Power Windows and Hold Your Fire albums, but good luck trying to figure out what is DX and what is Geddy's PPG Wave 2.3 digital synth, which does sounds that can be mistaken for a DX.

[soundwave106]

 

I wonder how many DX7-using acts in the 80s actually programmed the danged things, vs. those who used the presets.

 

 

Most used the presets, I'm sure.

 

Which is why you can actually identify the DX7 in songs. It's a synth with only 32 patches, it has a distinctive sound, and it's pretty cryptic to program. The same thing happened with the D-50 (although I don't find that one as cryptic, the button pushing is annoying).

 

In the modern era, it's harder to identify presets. We have softsynths like Komplete coming with over 10,000 patches and Omnisphere with over 7,200; and it's not so cryptic to "tweak" a preset either. Frankly, I'd be surprised if anyone actually discovers a preset these days. (Although I remember it happening with Atmosphere, so who knows...)

[kpatz]

 

Most used the presets, I'm sure. Which is why you can actually identify the DX7 in songs. It's a synth with only 32 patches, it has a distinctive sound, and it's pretty cryptic to program. The same thing happened with the D-50 (although I don't find that one as cryptic, the button pushing is annoying).

Didn't the DX7 originally come with something like 4 ROM carts with it? So that would be 128 presets, though not all accessible at once.

 

The D-50 presets are even more distinctive than the DX I think. You can't miss those presets. Plus I think a lot of D-50 users never even bothered to hit the "patch" buttons, choosing to hit only the "bank" buttons, since it seemed like patches 11, 21, 31, 41... were the most-used (Wild Wild West anyone??)

In the modern era, it's harder to identify presets. We have softsynths like Komplete coming with over 10,000 patches and Omnisphere with over 7,200; and it's not so cryptic to "tweak" a preset either. Frankly, I'd be surprised if anyone actually discovers a preset these days. (Although I remember it happening with Atmosphere, so who knows...)

True, and especially with romplers that have many hundreds or thousands of presets on board. That plus everyone just punches up the acoustic sounds (piano, organ) on them anyway, makes them even harder to spot.

 

And since the holidays are fast approaching, who can forget Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmastime?" with those DX7 bells (other sounds are probably DX7 too).

[piano39]

I seem to remember Keyboard mag doing an article about Michael Jackson's Thriller album- tons of DX7 on that album.

[Gribs]

A lot of the songs on my two Howard Jones CDs sound like they have DX7 on them - lots of bell and EP sounds and little tinkles.

[kpatz]

I seem to remember Keyboard mag doing an article about Michael Jackson's Thriller album- tons of DX7 on that album.

Thriller predates the DX7 by several months. There was a ton of Synclavier, Minimoog, Prophet 5, Jupiter, and many other synths, I think maybe some pre-DX7 FM synths like the GS series too.

[piano39]

 

Thriller predates the DX7 by several months. There was a ton of Synclavier, Minimoog, Prophet 5, Jupiter, and many other synths, I think maybe some pre-DX7 FM synths like the GS series too. Today 06:39 PM

 

 

You're right and I'm wrong. This article from Keyboard magazines describes synths on Thriller:

 

http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/michael-jackson-/September-2009/99883

 

Perhaps I was thinking of "Bad"?

[kpatz]

Perhaps I was thinking of "Bad"?

I don't know about the DX7, but "Bad" had D-50 all over it.

[Annoying Twit]

I watched the 1980s "Day of the Dead" on BBC Iplayer last night. A lot of the background music sounded very 80s synth, bell and digital pads sound. Could easily be.......

 

I haven't listened to The Shutov Assembly for quite a few years I'm listening to it now and appreciating it much more than when it first came out.

[Artmuzz]

Level 42 used a lot of Yamaha DX7 on their 1980's albums aswell as albums by Nik Kershaw.

 

The DX7 was also used a lot by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop when they scored a lot of television programmes including Doctor Who.

 

Art

[DevilRaysFan]

80s dance acts like Company B and Expose had albums full of non-standard DX7

[mikael488]

 

Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms album has quite a bit of Yamaha FM on it, but most of it comes from a DX1, which was sort of two DX7s in one box. The metallic sounding chords in the verses of "Money For Nothing" are a good example. Pretty sure the "steel drums" on "Ride Across the River" are DX as well.

 

 

The flute sound in "Ride Across the River" is indeed the DX-1 but the cricket sound was a sample in the Emulator I.

You're right though, there's quite a bit of DX-1 on that album. Besides Money for Nothing and Ride across the River it's also used on the chorus of The Man's too strong, Why worry (textures), Walk Of Life (lead line doubled w/synclavier), Latest trick (DX-1 electric piano with some GS-1 bell sounds doubling it) etc.

There's also little bits of DX-7 on the album.

[mikael488]

 

I watched the 1980s "Day of the Dead" on BBC Iplayer last night. A lot of the background music sounded very 80s synth, bell and digital pads sound. Could easily be.......

 

 

John Harrison's "Day Of The Dead" score does feature the DX-7, alongside Kurzweil K250, Prophet 5, Rhodes chroma, Emulator and Fairlight.

[mikael488]

David Spear performed the entire soundtrack to "Exterminator 2" (1984)

with a DX-7 and an Oberheim drum machine.

[ChristianRock]

 

Pretty much anything Brian Eno was involved with from say 1984 to the mid '90s or later is going to have DX7 on it, such as his albums Nerve Net and The Shutov Assembly . Eno is well known for having really invested a lot of time learning to program one.

 

 

Right on.

 

When you listen to Eno's ambient stuff (which since the 80s is pretty much ALL Dx7), you also come to the conclusion that a lot (if not all) of the synth sounds in U2's Joshua Tree are DX7, probably even played by Eno.

 

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Compare that to the beginning of this, and you'll see:

 

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and obviously this too:

 

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[mikael488]

Twice A Man's albums "From A Northern Shore" (1984) and "Slow Swirl" (1985) contain lots of DX-7 too.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmZd9ztqmjQ

 

 

[Devnor]

Sounds like lots of DX onAlan Parson's Stereotomy.