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DX7 patches

What FM synths do load official DX7 patches?

  • which sounds best?
    -WHich is most advanced?
«1

Comments

  • An app? KQ Dixie, brilliant, cheap, loads sysex patches

  • wimwim
    edited October 2019

    KQ Dixie is great. I never felt the need to look elsewhere.
    FM Player 2 is also great and sounds fantastic, but doesn't load official DX7 patches. It's more of a "best of" collection of great patches, with simplified editing.

  • @Svetlovska said:
    An app? KQ Dixie, brilliant, cheap, loads sysex patches

    +1

  • Yup, KQ Dixie one of my favs

  • KQ - the best dx7 clone ever on iOS.

  • I still say Dexed sounds better, but even with constant updates something else always ends up buggy. So i begrudgingly give it to KQ Dixie.

  • Hw do you load external patches into Dixie?

  • Dixie is all you need. I think Dexed might sound better but Dixie is stable, lightweight af, and you can enhance the sound with heavy fx chains since it’s so lightweight on the cpu.

  • I don't have Dexed but a few people have sent me recordings of it running some patches I run on the KQ Dixie. There are some differences but I don't find them huge -- and boosting the highs on KQ Dixie makes them so close that one wouldn't notice differences in a mix. For the most part, I don't find the differences to be a better or worse type of thing.

    I like Dixie a lot.

  • edited October 2019

    @Sergiu said:
    Hw do you load external patches into Dixie?

    Find a source for Dexed cart 1.0 online - it is a compilation of all the many, many thousands free patches, your biggest problem is auditioning a thousand slightly different piano patches :) . Try here: https://www.audiobombs.com/items/1038/dexed-cart-1.0

    I use the app Documents for the download (it also lets me directly access freesound.org for samples, and other sources where you want to download direct from a browser) Then it’s just a matter of going into Documents, finding the patch, selecting it, and when it prompts you, ‘open in’ KQDixie. Then use the ‘cart’ button in it to compile your own megamixes of patches. Sorted!

  • Appreciated ! > @Svetlovska said:

    @Sergiu said:
    Hw do you load external patches into Dixie?

    Find a source for Dexed cart 1.0 online - it is a compilation of all the many, many thousands free patches, your biggest problem is auditioning a thousand slightly different piano patches :) . Try here: https://www.audiobombs.com/items/1038/dexed-cart-1.0

    I use the app Documents for the download (it also lets me directly access freesound.org for samples, and other sources where you want to download direct from a browser) Then it’s just a matter of going into Documents, finding the patch, selecting it, and when it prompts you, ‘open in’ KQDixie. Then use the ‘cart’ button in it to compile your own megamixes of patches. Sorted!

  • I have Dexed on my Mac, but didn’t realise it was an iOS app. Just bought it. Love the sounds but it is very buggy, as some folks have said. Don’t actually seem to be able to modify any parameters…the purple knobs keep “greying out” every few seconds. Anyone else experience this? Also, scrolling down to access the huge number of available sysex files is very fiddly.

  • edited January 2022

    @Kashi . Try KQ Dixie. https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/kq-dixie/id1330269027 , see above. It’s excellent, and reads sysex. Only drawback, a less than intuitive way of managing presets.

  • Oh that was the 1st or 2nd synth I bought when I got my iPad @Svetlovska ! Love it. Thanks though😊

  • I have owned a TX7 module, and I could load the original patches. But my conclusion was a lot of patches are more or less the same. I also got the Hydra rom patches, and from what I still remember that wasn't really special too. I found an interesting bass patch and kept that, and forgot about the rest.

    At the same time the NI FM7 synth had more interesting patches (sound output, I don't know anymore, I think the TX7 had a bit gritty sound signature, and bass could go pretty deep).

    So I am wondering what the best patches are from the DX7 era, I assume there are better presets these days.

  • Nope... everyone seems to draw from the old collections.
    When you browse bank collections, you may find enumerated banks with a common name.
    Check the 1st of each group and if you like some patches your chance to find cool content in the other ones increases.
    Aside from that it‘s just patience and or chance... just search for patches now and then and save the ones you like to your own collection.

  • Lots of bass patches and e-piano's, and useless sci-fi pads and other strange stuff. For me the TX7 excelled in bass sounds.

    And the TX7 had no internal efx, so every patch sounded dry, that could be also part of my (or the) problem.

  • edited January 2022

    For who doesn´t have this one yet:

    The DX7 patches in this zip file originate from a rare 1024-preset cartridge
    called the "Hypra-ROM".

  • @raabje said:
    For who doesn´t have this one yet:

    The DX7 patches in this zip file originate from a rare 1024-preset cartridge
    called the "Hypra-ROM".

    Thanks for sharing, the collection is really good and contains lots of variation :sunglasses:

  • @raabje said:
    And the TX7 had no internal efx, so every patch sounded dry, that could be also part of my (or the) problem.

    It could as well be the solution: finding a dry patch that really kicks you means you just picked a cherry ;)
    2 hints: watch for loudness (it may vary greatly with patches), compare only if set equal.
    Try octave switching, it may change the character a lot, as does different velocity/time settings that may not be immediately obvious.

  • Forgot stating the obvious: the dry DX/TX 7 always sounds kind of humble.
    But it shines with proper fx usage... it‘s the P-Bass equivalent in the synth domain. B)

  • @raabje said:
    For who doesn´t have this one yet:

    The DX7 patches in this zip file originate from a rare 1024-preset cartridge
    called the "Hypra-ROM".

    Thanks for these! Great sounds!

    I had to remember how to save patches in KQ Dixie and thought other folks might need a friendly reminder so here are my notes for KQ cartridge management etc. These are copied and pasted from previous posts here, hopefully nothing has changed in KQ since then. Thanks again!

    KQ Dixie saving

    1. Make sure that the cart you want to copy to isn't a "32+1" cart.**
    2. Load the patch you want to copy into memory.
    3. Press cart, then press the cart you want to save the patch to. Don't touch any slots in the cart.
    4. Press the patch name next to the cart button at the bottom left. You'll get a popup showing all the slots in the cart you selected above. Still don't touch any of the slots.
    5. Press Save.
    6. Now press the slot you want to save it to. The name of the slot will change to the name of the slot.
    7. Press Done
    8. Press the little tiny "DX+" button at the bottom left of the carts list
    9. Change to the right cart type (I use 32), and type the name of the bank. Yes, you do have to re-type the name of the bank.
      1. Confirm that you want to overwrite the bank.

    Confusingest preset save mechanism I could possibly imagine. Maybe there's an easier way, but if there is, I haven't found it.
    ( ** 32+1 carts load a patch when you open them, so the patch you wanted to save will no longer be in memory if you open a bank of that type in step 3!)

    You don’t have to retype the name of the bank. Do up to step 7 above and then tap the little cart icon with the down arrow on lower right and you can choose your favorites cart and save/overwrite.

  • edited January 2022

    I am wondering, when you have to wade through all these banks and patches, get a PC or Mac softsynth that accepts these banks more easily. Like FM7 or FM8. And when you have found the good stuff, make a note, and import that one in the IOS synth.

    And when I think back, a FM synth has no traditional filters, LP, HP, BP, etc. I used to own an external filter bank too (Roland EF-303), but when I used this filter on the whole sound instead of single notes, the chord goes out of tune. If remember well, too long ago. But if this is true, I would prefer a FM synth with a more hybrid design, than a spartan "vintage approved" one.

  • @yowza said:

    KQ Dixie saving

    1. Make sure that the cart you want to copy to isn't a "32+1" cart.**
    2. Load the patch you want to copy into memory.
    3. Press cart, then press the cart you want to save the patch to. Don't touch any slots in the cart.
    4. Press the patch name next to the cart button at the bottom left. You'll get a popup showing all the slots in the cart you selected above. Still don't touch any of the slots.
    5. Press Save.
    6. Now press the slot you want to save it to. The name of the slot will change to the name of the slot.
    7. Press Done
    8. Press the little tiny "DX+" button at the bottom left of the carts list
    9. Change to the right cart type (I use 32), and type the name of the bank. Yes, you do have to re-type the name of the bank.
      1. Confirm that you want to overwrite the bank.

    Confusingest preset save mechanism I could possibly imagine. Maybe there's an easier way, but if there is, I haven't found it.
    ( ** 32+1 carts load a patch when you open them, so the patch you wanted to save will no longer be in memory if you open a bank of that type in step 3!)

    You don’t have to retype the name of the bank. Do up to step 7 above and then tap the little cart icon with the down arrow on lower right and you can choose your favorites cart and save/overwrite.

    Thank you!

  • edited January 2022

    These days I've given up the hassle of saving in the cart system, much better just saving your patches as AUM presets which also saves the engine settings per patch :)

  • edited January 2022

    I found a big zip file with patch banks ( http://www.parnasse.com/dx72csnd.shtml ) with the .DX7 extension, I could not converted them to sysex. But when I searched for a convertor, I found this website

    http://dxsysex.com/

    Might be old news for a lot of you, but I think this is the FM synth goldmine. You could convert these banks for the rest of your life, this will take some time.

    I imported some of the hydra rom files in FM8, takes some time too. There are 4 x8 = 32 banks and one extra = 33. You need to convert the banks one by one.

    And, last one, here is someone who filtered patches and put them in 3 banks

    https://www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/comments/e4jkt7/my_curated_dexeddx7_patches_3_banks/

  • looks good :+1:

  • edited January 2022

    So I have bought KQ Dixie, and loaded the 3 Finetales banks and the Hydra rom. Was pretty easy to do, just download the zip, unpack, and from the file browser app on Ipad I could send each sysex file to Dixie. Import started instantly.

    Only pain is you have to do this like 36 times, that is pretty monotone to do. Now I have to find my favourite bass patch again.

  • edited January 2022

    @raabje said:
    So I have bought KQ Dixie, and loaded the 3 Finetales banks and the Hydra rom. Was pretty easy to do, just download the zip, unpack, and from the file browser app on Ipad I could send each sysex file to Dixie. Import started instantly.

    Only pain is you have to do this like 36 times, that is pretty monotone to do. Now I have to find my favourite bass patch again.

    >

    All you have to do is Share the zip file to KQ Dixie. No need to unpack. And honestly, rather than go through creating a favorites cartridge I just use the Notes app to make a note of where things are. Even a screenshot is easier. 😆

  • But a screenshot cannot do a midi program change... ;)
    (if you want to layer certain sounds from different sources, or switch an effect preset matching the tone, etc)

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