MOD 7; DX7 and DX7II. the Taste Test

[JuneauUnderground]

Ok I got this idea to do a taste test from an earlier thread. Ok check it out. I took the Kronos/MOD 7, DX7 and DX7II and MIDI them all together. Loaded into MOD7 and DX7II the original DX7 factory bank. Recorded all three onto separate tracks in Logic. I used patch #01 Brass; #11 E.Puano (yes that one, probably the most used patch in the 80s) and #25 Tubular Blls. Now the results.

01. Brass - used opening lick for Africa by Toto.

DX7 is punchier than the MOD 7 and DX7II, probably mainly due to 12 bit versus 16 bit. DX7 is noisey in comparison. MOD 7 very clean naturally. DX7 II has it's own sound kinda in between. I prefer the DX7, old school I guess. Now one cool thing I did just screwing around, I panned the Kronos/MOD 7 left, and the DX7 right. Wow! talk about thick. The combo of the old and new school gets some synergistic mojo going.

11 E.Piano - used John Williams theme from Somewhere in Time

DX7 has mas cajones! Punchy punchy punchy. MOD7 super clean, mellow, nice. Panned left and right as noted above, Insane, were talking huge here! DX7II again in between. The nice thing about the II is you can switch between Dual and Split. I don't think Kronos can even do that, but I could be wrong.

25 TubularBells - used yes of course Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield

DX7 - psycho, MOD 7 clean, DX7II, again in between. Panned left and right again, holy moly it's a madman.

Bottom line: DX7 is noisey, which is to be expected given it's 12 bit DNA. However that 12 bit DNA provides the DX7 with its unique character. And for what they can be picked up for, $150/200, everybody should have one. Also there are about a billion patches out there for it.

MOD7 is clean and clear. I like what it does with the original DX7 patches. Certainly handy to be able to load those original billion patches.

DX7II - different than the other two. I would classify as a tweener. The dual and split keyboard are way cool of course. It also has stereo outputs unlike the DX7 which gives it some interesting variations.

Playing all three at the same time with with MOD7 panned left, DX7II, center, and DX7II panned right, thick thick thick. So many sounds so little time.

Billions of patches to try out, but this little experiment gives you a bit of flavor from someone with all three boards.

[Jon Lord]

Thanks for the comparison. No sounddemos?

[Crystalmsc]

Nice comparisons!

[carmol]

The nice thing about the II is you can switch between Dual and Split. I don't think Kronos can even do that, but I could be wrong.

of course it can do it and much more

Using the effects DECIMATOR and BIT SHAPE
you can even simulate the rate and resolution
of DX7 DAC's so you can achieve similar
"roughness"

[QuiRobinez]

Bottom line: DX7 is noisey, which is to be expected given it's 12 bit DNA. However that 12 bit DNA provides the DX7 with its unique character. And for what they can be picked up for, $150/200, everybody should have one. Also there are about a billion patches out there for it.

MOD7 is clean and clear. I like what it does with the original DX7 patches. Certainly handy to be able to load those original billion patches.

Nice idea,

what you also could try (i do this a lot in my own songs) is downgrading the the Mod7 sound with a bit reducer to 12 bits and see how that sound compares to the original DX7. I didn't try it, but i wouldn't be surprised if the sound had a quite comparable character and punch then.

[cynkh]

Thanks for the comparison. No sounddemos?

Indeed! I think some sound demos would be awesome; especially considering how much time, energy and science! you've put into this undertaking!

[JuneauUnderground]

The nice thing about the II is you can switch between Dual and Split. I don't think Kronos can even do that, but I could be wrong.

of course it can do it and much more

Using the effects DECIMATOR and BIT SHAPE
you can even simulate the rate and resolution
of DX7 DAC's so you can achieve similar
"roughness"

"Decimater" -- Well that goes to show what I know ! I'm not much of a tweeker, generally i would rather use my time to play music then enage in the propeller head stuff
But I do like to tweak from time to time so I will look into it. Thanks!

[JuneauUnderground]

Thanks for the comparison. No sounddemos?

Indeed! I think some sound demos would be awesome; especially considering how much time, energy and science! you've put into this undertaking!

A little bit of time and effort . . .uh, very little science! Just my trashed ears burned out from to many ELP concerts back in the day.

I can post some samples but I don't have a clue how o do that. Suggestions please?

[cynkh]

Thanks for the comparison. No sounddemos?

Indeed! I think some sound demos would be awesome; especially considering how much time, energy and science! you've put into this undertaking!

A little bit of time and effort . . .uh, very little science! Just my trashed ears burned out from to many ELP concerts back in the day.

I can post some samples but I don't have a clue how o do that. Suggestions please?

Soundcloud is probably the way to go. If you don't already have an account it takes less than 5 minutes to set one up: http://www.soundcloud.com.
It's just like posting a YouTube video to Facebook or a forum, really easy stuff!

Cheers!

[Andy Leary]

My 2 cents on DX7 to MOD-7 import and the differences between the two here:

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... 955#195955

Overall, the DX7 import works really well especially considering the differences in many of the internal details like EGs, velocity scaling, key scaling, etc. As for the difference in punchiness, I suspect that the 12 vs. 16 bit is a factor but not the largest factor. I have not done a detailed analysis and I did the DX7 to MOD7 conversion many years ago. But, I would guess that the biggest factors are Envelope curvature and the velocity curve / vel. mod depth differences. The Envelopes on the DX7 had rather different curvature (especially the attack segment) and also would sometimes hold at the top before switching to the next segment. Also, the DX7 keyboards would typically only generate velocity up to about the 104 to 112 range. So, when played from an external keyboard (or over midi) you'd get a brighter sound than when played live from the local keyboard. This issue has been covered somewhere else on Korg Forums I think.

Anyway, glad to hear that our DX7 to MOD7 conversion works pretty well for you. I bet you could tweak the imported sounds a bit to make them more punchy if you wanted to take the time. But hey, you already have a DX7 so you can use both! I bet that sounds pretty nice!

[haissamhajjar]

Dear sir can you help please if there is a way to load a sound from a triton korg to kronos

Ok I got this idea to do a taste test from an earlier thread. Ok check it out. I took the Kronos/MOD 7, DX7 and DX7II and MIDI them all together. Loaded into MOD7 and DX7II the original DX7 factory bank. Recorded all three onto separate tracks in Logic. I used patch #01 Brass; #11 E.Puano (yes that one, probably the most used patch in the 80s) and #25 Tubular Blls. Now the results.

01. Brass - used opening lick for Africa by Toto.

DX7 is punchier than the MOD 7 and DX7II, probably mainly due to 12 bit versus 16 bit. DX7 is noisey in comparison. MOD 7 very clean naturally. DX7 II has it's own sound kinda in between. I prefer the DX7, old school I guess. Now one cool thing I did just screwing around, I panned the Kronos/MOD 7 left, and the DX7 right. Wow! talk about thick. The combo of the old and new school gets some synergistic mojo going.

11 E.Piano - used John Williams theme from Somewhere in Time

DX7 has mas cajones! Punchy punchy punchy. MOD7 super clean, mellow, nice. Panned left and right as noted above, Insane, were talking huge here! DX7II again in between. The nice thing about the II is you can switch between Dual and Split. I don't think Kronos can even do that, but I could be wrong.

25 TubularBells - used yes of course Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield

DX7 - psycho, MOD 7 clean, DX7II, again in between. Panned left and right again, holy moly it's a madman.

Bottom line: DX7 is noisey, which is to be expected given it's 12 bit DNA. However that 12 bit DNA provides the DX7 with its unique character. And for what they can be picked up for, $150/200, everybody should have one. Also there are about a billion patches out there for it.

MOD7 is clean and clear. I like what it does with the original DX7 patches. Certainly handy to be able to load those original billion patches.

DX7II - different than the oth

Playing all three at the same time with with MOD7 panned left, DX7II, center, and DX7II panned right, thick thick thick. So many sounds so little time.

Billions of patches to try out, but this little experiment gives you a bit of flavor from someone with all three boards.

[SanderXpander]

There isn't.

[conundrum]

Read through this thread, not noticing the dates, eventually expecting to see links to some demos. What a letdown.

[SanderXpander]

Me too! Haha

[Corgy]

My 2 cents on DX7 to MOD-7 import and the differences between the two here:

http://www.korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/ ... 955#195955

Overall, the DX7 import works really well especially considering the differences in many of the internal details like EGs, velocity scaling, key scaling, etc. As for the difference in punchiness, I suspect that the 12 vs. 16 bit is a factor but not the largest factor. I have not done a detailed analysis and I did the DX7 to MOD7 conversion many years ago. But, I would guess that the biggest factors are Envelope curvature and the velocity curve / vel. mod depth differences. The Envelopes on the DX7 had rather different curvature (especially the attack segment) and also would sometimes hold at the top before switching to the next segment. Also, the DX7 keyboards would typically only generate velocity up to about the 104 to 112 range. So, when played from an external keyboard (or over midi) you'd get a brighter sound than when played live from the local keyboard. This issue has been covered somewhere else on Korg Forums I think.

Anyway, glad to hear that our DX7 to MOD7 conversion works pretty well for you. I bet you could tweak the imported sounds a bit to make them more punchy if you wanted to take the time. But hey, you already have a DX7 so you can use both! I bet that sounds pretty nice!

May be, I can add one thing to this. If more punch is needed in the MOD7, waveshaping could at least provide more punch. Just use one free oscillator, apply one of the "smoothed step-functions" as a waveshape and experiment with the input gain sensitivity etc. and avoid distortion levels ...

BTW - I am not sure - but wasn't there a waveshaper also in the "effects" section?