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Yamaha TX-7 Synthesizers
The TX7 is basically a DX7 without any keyboard or programming capabilities. It was meant to be an "add-on" to the DX7, giving it 16 more voices on one more MIDI channel.
The TX7 has exactly the same synth engine as the DX7's siv operator FM synthesis, a quantium leap in synth design, and one of Yamaha's greatest achievements. Synth patches are perfecly interchanable between the DX7 and the TX7 and can be stored into the later's memory from controls on the former's panel.
Programmers immedeately saw the TX7s possibilities and started writing patch librarians and patch editors that allowed musicians to create sounds on the device by using a personal computer.
The first patch editor/librarian for the IBM MS DOS machines was called Bacchus, and it ran memory resident (Terminate-and-stay-resident), a very clever feature at the time, because it allowed one to sequence and change over to programming features on the TX7 without having to boot in and out of programs.
Opcode brought the TX7 to fore with it's brilliant patch editor and librarian for the Macintosh, that made patch transfer a snap between the various members of the DX-TX family of synthesizers.
As with the DX7, it's TX brother has six operators, arrangable in an almost unlimited number of configurations. The DX7 and it's family of synthsizers, the TX7, TX802, TX416 and TX816 are among the most intriguing electronic musical instruments ever devised, and still have not yet been explored to their ultimate potential.
Yamaha later developed the TX81Z, which is a fine synth module in it's own right, but is really a maverick from the DX family, because it contains four operator FM synthesis instead of six. It did, however, graduate to 16 bit, giving it a lot of dynamic punch.