DX7 SysEx import

The Yamaha DX7 has one of the largest patch libraries of any synthesizer ever made: decades of banks, thousands of .syx files, and every classic FM sound you have heard on record. Aconite’s FM oscillator can load those patches directly, so all of that history is available as a starting point for your own sounds.

There are two ways in, depending on whether you want one sound or a whole bank.

What a DX7 .syx file is

A DX7 patch travels as a SysEx file, usually with a .syx extension. Two kinds turn up in the wild, and Aconite reads both:

• A single voice: one DX7 patch on its own.
• A 32-voice bank: the classic DX7 cartridge, thirty-two named patches in one file.

Aconite works out which kind a file is automatically, so you do not have to say in advance.

Import one voice into the FM oscillator

Use this when you want a single DX7 sound to build on inside the current patch.

1. Set an oscillator’s WAVE to FM (see FM oscillator).
2. In the FM editor’s header, click Import DX7….
3. Choose a .syx file.

What happens next depends on the file:

• If it is a single voice, it loads straight into the current FM oscillator.
• If it is a 32-voice bank, Aconite pops up a list of the thirty-two patch names so you can pick the one you want. Choose a name and that voice loads into the oscillator.

The import fills in the current oscillator’s FM structure: the operators, the matrix, the envelopes, the ratios. Your filter, effects, amp envelope, and everything else in the patch are left exactly as they were, so you are dropping a DX7 tone into your sound rather than replacing the whole thing. Once it is loaded, every part of it is editable in the FM editor like any patch you built by hand: sweep the matrix, redraw an operator envelope, add feedback.

Vibrato comes across too. If the DX7 patch has pitch-mod (its own LFO driving vibrato, as strings, brass, and lead voices usually do), Aconite maps it onto LFO 1 on import: the LFO’s rate, its shape, and how much it moves the pitch. So a vibrato-heavy DX7 voice moves the moment it loads instead of sitting static, and you can then reshape or re-route that LFO like any other. A patch with no pitch-mod imports with your LFO 1 left untouched.

Import a whole bank into presets

Use this when you want to browse an entire cartridge as ready-to-play sounds.

1. Open the preset browser (click the preset name in the header).
2. Click Import DX7… along the bottom of the browser.
3. Choose a .syx file.

Aconite imports every voice in the file as its own preset and files them under a dedicated “DX7 Imports” collection. You will find that collection as its own category in the browser’s filter rail, and the browser jumps you straight to it after the import so the new sounds are right there.

Keeping the imports in their own collection is deliberate: they stay out of your Factory and User lists so a big cartridge full of patches never clutters the sounds you have made yourself. Browse, audition, and favourite them exactly like any other preset; each one is a complete patch you can then edit and re-save into your own User library if you want to keep a tweaked version.

Note

The bank import brings each DX7 voice in as a full Aconite patch (FM oscillator plus Aconite’s default filter, amp, and effects around it). A single-voice import into the FM oscillator, by contrast, changes only that oscillator and leaves the rest of your current patch alone. Reach for the bank import to browse a cartridge, and the single import to drop one sound into a patch you are building.

What to expect: faithful, not a clone

Aconite’s DX7 import is a faithful import, not a bit-exact DX7 emulation. The goal is that a patch loads in recognisable and musically right: the algorithm, the operator ratios and levels, the envelopes, feedback, velocity response, and the way the tone changes across the keyboard all come across, so a bass sounds like that bass and a bell sounds like that bell.

What it is not is a hardware-accurate reproduction of the original chip. Aconite runs the imported voice through its own anti-aliasing, oversampling, and voicing, and once it is loaded it lives in Aconite’s world: you can send it through Aconite’s filters, its effects rack, and its modulation matrix, and reshape the FM structure freely. That is the point, an imported DX7 patch is a starting point inside Aconite, not a frozen copy of the original. If you specifically want a bit-exact DX7 emulation, that is a job for a dedicated DX7 emulator; Aconite gives you the sound and then hands you the whole instrument to take it further.

Tip

A few DX7 files carry a slightly off internal checksum (common with older banks shared online). Aconite imports them anyway and simply notes it, so you rarely need to worry about it.

Where to find .syx banks

Aconite does not ship DX7 banks and does not point you at any particular set: where you get .syx files is up to you. There are large collections of freely-shared, user-made DX7 patches available online. Original Yamaha ROM cartridge sets are a different matter: those are copyrighted, so sourcing them is your own responsibility. Whatever .syx files you have, the import steps above are the same.

See also

• FM oscillator — the 6-operator FM voice an imported patch loads into, and everything you can do to it afterwards.
• Presets & A/B — the preset browser the bank import fills, and how to favourite and re-save imported sounds.