1980's DX11 Synth / Keyboard (FM Heaven)

[DieHard]

Found this in my dad'd storage shed, looks close to new, re-soldered new battery and put it on craigslist.

I threw on some headphones and forgot how amazing these 80s synths sound, so fat, unfortunately plug-ins are just not there, even in 2023.

[ssp3]

Why Craiglist? Just use it!

[DieHard]

Why Craiglist? Just use it!

OMG, I would love to, but these days I am reduced to 1/4 of a man cave that fits just my rolling rack and 1 desk with an NI S61 Komplete Kontrol controller

[Protools5LEGuy]

Why Craiglist? Just use it!

To change a bank of sounds you will need a modern version of the cassette cable. Probably quicker now with an SmartPhone + an aproppiate cable. At least that is what happens with my Korg Poly-61 MIDI.

DX 7 was more popular. Never seen an DX 11!

It is hard to find a lighter alternative than a Nord/Midi master keyboard + Mainstage for iPad

[GaryN]

The DX11 was one of the models that Yamaha flooded the market with after the success of the DX7.
The DX9, 11, 21 and (my favorite) the tiny DX100 had 4-operator FM engines rather than the 6 the DX7 had.
Even with only 4 however, they generated most of the patch you wanted, just without some of the subtleties the extra two provided.
All of the DX'es can load complete patches over MIDI or from cartridge. The 4-ops also have a cassette port.
I can attest that there is nothing more tedious on Earth than trying to load/unload DX patches to/from cassette.
I kept and still keep all mine in Galaxy +Editors. It and SoundDiver both work perfectly.

I had a very early synth-enhanced band using two DX-100's and Roland TR-707 and 727 drum machines.
We had me on guitar, a keyboard player with a DX-7 and two chicks which gave us 4 singers - all thru one big SR system with no amps onstage.
It sounds pretty routine now, but back then (late 80's) it was pretty radical.
We were early students of the ups and downs of playing "follow the sequencer". 

[IIO]

yup, just use sounddiver. if you have MacOS9 you do not need cassette adapters

[DieHard]

Damn, you guys are making me almost want to keep it... wish I had room 

[ssp3]

Keep it. You can thank us later 

[IIO]

is it not a solution to store the keyboard elsewhere after use? i.e. upright?

or get a TX81z, it is better anway.

[DieHard]

Gone... went on 2 days on craigslist apparently, there are a bunch of old guys still playing with music like me

[teroyk]

The DX9, 11, 21 and (my favorite) the tiny DX100 had 4-operator FM engines rather than the 6 the DX7 had.

Yamaha numbering is interesting smaller number is better than bigger, but there is small or bigger changes between models. And thats why some even 2-operators FM models can make sounds that exceed possibilities of 8-operator FM-synth. And old D/A-converters are part of classic 80s fm-synth sound and that is why example DX7 and DX7-II sound different.