Heads Up: DX7 SuperMAX+ v3 (1024 patches) on the drawing board

During the COVID I had a bit of time to do what no one wanted to do. Write an emulator for the DX7 microcontroller. That is, EVERYTHING BUT the sound generation.  There are lots of virtual DX7’s out there but my passion is hardware. I have tinkered with, made and sold hundreds of DX7 memory expansions, constantly trying to make each new iteration a bit better.  It’s quite a challenge because it’s all reverse engineering of old assembler code and there is very little code space left to jam new things into.

Windows Yamaha DX7 simulator screen cap

Command Line DX7 emulator/simulator shown with companion MIDI test button panel

My latest success is the doubling of the “voice” memory for the SuperMAX+. This is just an advance notice. It exists and works in the simulator and on a test board, but it will be some time before I have new hardware for v3 available for sale (months). The current v2.x has lots of interesting improvements, but still contains the standard 16 banks (512 patches). As mentioned, the new version will be double that: 32 banks (1024 patches).  It will be a little bit more expensive, but it will be a monster.

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Korg Nu:Tekt NTS-1 MIDI In and Out

NTS-1 MIDI In and Out working

MIDI In and Out working

While waiting on the availability of the Korg Nu:Tekt NTS-1 Custom Panel Rev C, I thought I would play around a bit with MIDI In, Out and Thru for the thing. I might make a board that provides 5-pin DIN MIDI and A:B switchable TRS MIDI and maybe activity LEDs.  Proof of concept worked out OK and I have functional IN and OUT.  The mod would require soldering, but nothing major.

In the meantime, if someone knows of a Custom Panel Rev C that is available as bare board or stuffed, please pass the info on. There are a couple of options out there now, but not ideal.

I’m a bit disgruntled about the amount of software that needs to be installed to do firmware development, but I guess they wanted to make the coding easier than putting together the toolset. 🙂

 

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Yamaha DX7 Backlit LCD and OLED Current Draw

Received a good question from Andy P. today, asking about the current draw for the OLEDs keeping in mind the DX7 has a very old power supply.**

MTG DX7 OLED

MTG DX7 OLRD

Here are some numbers I came up with for a limited, but representative, sampling of what I have on hand.  These are actual current measurements, not voltage drop across diode measurements.

  • Original non-backlit LCD … 1mA
  • Yamaha’s updated backlit LCD … 24mA
  • My drop-in replacement backlit LCDs … 18mA
  • My drop-in replacement OLEDs … 21mA to 26mA

So I guess that the drop-in backlit LCDs save a little bit of power over the original and the OLEDs are about the same or maybe a few mA more. It should be noted that Yamaha offered the backlit kit for non-backlighted DX7’s for around $100USD back in the day. So I think we can conclude that the original DX7 had enough reserve current handling capacity for an additional 20-something mA at least.

** I haven’t had to rebuild any of these power supplies yet, but I have seen SXP90’s and DX7S’s that definitely stopped functioning due to power supply issues.

 

 

Posted in Yamaha DX7 | 1 Comment

Getting the guts sucked out of my eyeball

Hey kids,

I’m having surgery this week.  Soldering and programming to resume as soon as I’m able, but I imagine that’s many weeks away.  Here’s my surgeon doing the same procedure. Eeek.

https://www.csurgeries.com/video/pars-plana-vitrectomy-macular-hole/

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6809 & 68HC11 Monitors, Assemblers, C Compilers, RTOS … from the 90s

I retrieved some old embedded fun I had in the 90’s off an old disk. More to come at some point once I find the other disk.  Anyway this is a recreation of an old website I had. Retro fun.

http://musictechnologiesgroup.com/HC11/

 

Posted in Motorola 6809 68HC11 | 1 Comment

TurboCPU MIDI Board – Alternate Source

If you are in the UK or EU (ouch), here is a source for a DIY MIDI IN/OUT/THRU bare PCB that can be used with the TurboCPU. No DAC option, but otherwise it’s pretty similar to the MTG MIDI board. Two wires need to be flipped and a couple parts I substituted with my preferred values, but it’s the only viable TTL-to-MIDI board I’ve seen anywhere that sticks to the spec just like the MTG one does. All the Arduino one’s I’ve seen suck.

Here is the bare board:
https://electricdruid.net/product/midi-inoutthru-pcb/

Here is the schematic:
https://electricdruid.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/MIDISchematic-3-1024×724.jpg

Here it is connected to a test setup on my bench:

TurboCPU MIDI by Electric Druid

Alternate MIDI Board

Power (red) and ground (black) go “straight through”, but the Tx/Rx data lines need to be crossed (yellow, blue).  I also changed a few components.  Here is the parts list I used:

R1, R2              470R        Make sure to use high efficiency LEDs
R3                  4k7
R4                   -          Not used, leave empty
R5 to R9            220R
IC1                 74LS14      
IC2                 6N137       Different IC than the schematic!
C1                  0.1uF

Also refer to the TurboCPU Installation instructions for more guidance such as wiring the jacks.

 

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Found Another DX7 Bug

This one isn’t a huge bug, but anyone with an original DX7 running OS version 1.7 or earlier (on an expander based on it) can see this bug.  If you edit a patch and set an oscillator mode for Fixed Frequency, you can see that the display shows the frequency table is corrupted in one place.

The table should go (for example with a starting freq of 100Hz):

166.0Hz -> 169.8Hz -> 173.8Hz -> 177.8Hz

but the buggy version has this:

166.0Hz -> 169.8Hz -> 133.8Hz -> 177.8Hz

DX7 v1.8 and later has fixed the table bug

DX7 v1.8 and later has fixed the table bug

It sure would be nice to find some Yamaha Service Notes with information on the changes from one version to the next.  Also this version boots significantly slower. All the expansions I’m selling either have these both fixed or were not affected by them.

DX7 v1.7 and earlier has this table bug

DX7 v1.7 and earlier has this table bug

 

 

 

Posted in Yamaha DX7 | 1 Comment

MIDI Velocity Tester

While looking into the DX7 and some of the expansions for it, I needed a way to capture all the possible velocities that a given MIDI keyboard could put out. Not all of them send all 127 possible velocities.

I threw together a quick PC application to show and log them.  Here is the main form of said application:

MIDI Velocity Test results for the Oxygen 8 controller

MIDI Velocity Test results for the Oxygen 8 controller

Here is a link to the software. I may continue to update it, not sure. If you have issues with it let me know. It’s a Windows 32-bit application and I’ve tested it on Win8.1 .

http://musictechnologiesgroup.com/files/MidiVelocityTest.exe

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DX7 Velocity Issues

A lot of comments, cliche’s, criticisms and chit-chat exists about the original DX7 Velocity limitations.  I will address a few of those, mainly from the perspective of someone looking at the underlying code. It’s another level of fun for someone sitting or standing in front of one and playing it.

NOTE: This is only about the MIDI-OUT, I’m not commenting here about the internal sounds.  That’s another matter, albeit related somewhat.

Original DX7 Velocity Curve

Original DX7 Velocity Curve

The curve.  This is what the DX7 MIDI-OUT Note-On velocity curve is supposed to look like and it does. Almost.  The X axis (horizontal) is the time it takes for the key travel and the Y axis (vertical) is the resulting MIDI Note-On velocity.  So, to the left we see very quick key travel meaning high velocity.  As you go to the right you see slower key travel and lower velocity. It looks like a piece-wise approximation of a curve but I have not figured out the math for the curve at this point.

First thing you notice is 32 points. That’s it. That’s the resolution of the DX7’s MIDI Note-On velocity. And that also includes 0 (zero) AKA Note-Off.  What’s interesting as I look at the BIN files for the various versions (I don’t have them all) is that the OS code is buggered. The $7F value cannot be accessed by the code. Impossible. It’s a glaring bug. I think the highest the code will allow is something like $7B, but in order to achieve that you need a hammer almost.

I can see this behaviour in firmware versions 1.7 and 1.8 of the Mark I DX7.

FWIW, I think the DX7S has a 64-byte table and the DX7II has a 128-byte table. I haven’t  done a lot of work on those yet as I don’t have either keyboard.

I am planning on fixing this as much as I can in the expansions that I sell. Two of them, the DX7 4X EXP and DX7 8X EXP have a Velocity Offset setting that can add a value to the table value I’ve been discussing. This solves the major issue and the one most people are familiar with, that it’s hard to get the upper values.  As they say, “you can’t get much above 100”.

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Yamaha DX7 OS without Active Sensing

While peeking around at the various DX7 firmware versions I was able to identify the code that is responsible for the DX7 transmitting $FE (MIDI Active Sensing) constantly.  I did not have the time to look at adding a menu item for it, so I just disabled it. If anyone is disgruntled by the DX7 sending MIDI $FE (Active Sensing) then this will alleviate your pain.

This link points to the updated v1.8 firmware that I renamed v1.8a:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qm8rhtkje1dn12z/DX7-v1_8a_MTG%28NoFE%29.bin?dl=0

This link points to the updated Special Edition ROM firmware, SER7, that I renamed SER7a:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sq0eknyoh0g6fjf/SER7a_MTG%28NoFE%29.bin?dl=0

One other issue that kind of irked me about the DX7 is the burst of MIDI Note-Off events and controller settings that occur at power on. I haven’t had time to sort that out yet.

 

Posted in Yamaha DX7 | 1 Comment