ROG's question is legitimate and so far nobody has addressed it.

My opinion has a few different facets:

1. The DX7 classic electric piano sound is tied to the era of heavily gated snare drum sounds in the same songs in which the DX7 EP sound was featured, which also for whatever reason is not considered 'cool'. DX7=Paula Abdul tart-pop songs, Rhodes=long list of classic rock, soul, R&B, funk hits. Recall however, that during the Paula Abdul era, the Rhodes and Wurlys were NOT cool during those 5 years or so. Moog synths could be had for pennies on the dollar at the same time in the used market due to their instabilities, etc. All the big synth manufacturers seemed to abandon their analogishness for whatever they could muster up with digital and they all strove for that clangy digital EP sound. I recall a Korg DW-x000 (can't remember the x digit) series of keyboards that had a good knock-off of the DX7 sound.
2. Rhodes and Wurlys have much more tonal variety depending on the long list of factors; age, electromechanical weirdness, how well the tines are suspended, where the pickups are and in what condition, etc.
3. Rhodes and Wurlys sound cool when overdriven by various amounts, DX7 does not. That is my opinion.
4. The DX-7 sound is to the 80's what the Farfisa organ and other electronic organ sounds were to the 60's and early 70's. Yes there are emulations, but they are more novelties do their generally unpleasant 'stasis' sound - what I mean by that is that there almost too 'pure', with very little of the sonic surprises that happen with instruments that have a bit of a mind of their own.

So, I guess all of that could be summed up into saying that the sound is in fact 'naff' - which I understood to mean 'kitschy' or 'not serious', but I only know the word through forum participation.

As a somewhat tangential discussion:

The youth pastor at my church when I was a senior in high school had a DX7, a Yamaha drum machine of the same vintage, and a rack of 2 or 3 of those TX modules, as well as an Arp Odyssey.

He would play barefoot - toes keeping an unbelievably decent rhythm on the drum machine (guess it was too hard to program patterns) and then had the DX controlling the TX modules. All presets of course, because there was almost nobody who could actually program the FM synthesis capability of the DX series.

I had a little fun on the Arp. At least it made sense to me.

Must admit, while I still have the DX and TX, I use the DX to drive romplers and an ol Matrix analog rack these days. Still, I find the nostalgic touch and feel of the DX to be inspiring even though I avoid any programming on it like the plague!

Scott.

Yeah, good answer. I hadn't realized it until now, but in my mind the sound of the DX7 is inextricably linked to a Phil Collins snare drum and gratuitous amounts of digital reverb.

I remember reading, back in the 80s, that out of all the DX7s which were returned for service during the first two years of manufacture, not one had any user-created sounds stored. Like you said, not the easiest beast to program.

ROG.

Maybe someday I'll go on 'oliday, rent a nice 2nd level flat, that requires me to take a lift!!

And Bob's yer uncle!!

Thanks Kevin for the soundfont download link. I converted it to a sfz file and loaded it into ARIA.

John,if you can convert sf2 files, the following link may be of use. It's to the DX7 Bank 1 patches in sf2 format. I'm in the process of converting them all with the sfZed editor.

http://soundfonts.homemusician.net/collections_soundfonts/dx7.html


Alos here is the link to the sfZed in case anyone is interested.

http://audio.clockbeat.com/sfZed.html


I don't get into the editing side as it's rather new to me,(read don't know what I'm doing!) I just do a straight conversion to sfz format. You could load them into any sfz player and they should work.

I still like the old gear even though I work "in the box" these days. My DX7 is under the bed waiting repairs. I'll never sell it or the D-50

Mac's suggestion to look into the GM Electric Piano was a good one. I like the EP's especially the Legend and the FM pianos in the GS format of VSC Dxi as well.

I don't think anything can match the real thing but at least it's something.

I still have my Ensoniq TS-10 which, by factory default, has about 16 different variations on the Rhodes theme. Deeper phasing, faster, slower.... Rhodes is still a great sound. Garage Band actually has an electric piano sound that is close. Wurlitzer had it's own unique sound as well. So I guess to be charitable, we can say that the DX7 went for a specific unique piano sound of it's own. It was done to death, but it was unique.

KVr search for DX7 :

http://www.manymidi.com/dx7.html

http://www.kvraudio.com/product/six_by_odo_synths

http://www.kvraudio.com/product/double_six_xxl_by_odo_synths

http://www.kvraudio.com/product/double_six_by_odo_synths

http://www.kvraudio.com/product/mrray_by_gsi

http://www.kvraudio.com/product/tramp_4_by_deztex_limited_productions

I can vouch that some of the list from zerozero are not even close to a DX7 sound. Mr. Ray in particularly is a physical model of Rhodes-type electric pianos.

FM7 was probably the best known attempt to emulate a DX7 in software. It's now called FM8 and it's a bit pricey, but available from Native Instruments. Also, you might want to check out Native Instruments Komplete free player. I bet you that a DX7 electric piano is amongst the freebies. However, be prepared for a big download.

I think that in zerozero's list, Double 6 is probably going to be the closest thing for free. It's a true FM synthesis engine that has 32 DX7 patches. If the DX7 electric piano isn't one of them, I will be surprised.

Sampletank was close enough for my needs.
Thanks to all.