Vintage Synth Explorer

Yamaha • TX816

The TX816 is a monster of DX and FM digital synthesis. It is a unique system in that it is a rack unit that could take up to eight TF1 modules. A TF1 module is basically a DX7 condensed down to a single circuit board with almost no front panel controls. Definitely designed for use with external hardware and software controllers the TX816 allows you to easily carry around up to eight DX7s! Software such as MOTU Unisyn, Emagic SounDiver, or even another DX7 can be used to program the sounds in each module via MIDI.

Each TF1 module consists of a 16-voice, 6-operator digital FM synth engine. So a complete TX816 with all eight TF1 modules would offer up to 128 voices and 48 operators! Each TF1 also features an indepednent audio out (XLR) and MIDI I/O for a total of eight audio outputs and MIDI I/O's. It also has one global MIDI in/out port with 8-part multitimbrality, but no common stereo or mix output.

The TX816 was designed for demanding live use where portability, polyphony, and lots of outputs are a must! The TX816 is fully compatible with all other DX synthesizers including Native Instruments FM7 software-based plug-in. You can use the TX816 like it's eight seperate DX7s or mix and pan each module together to layer your sounds into one monsterous DX powerhouse! It has been used by Kitaro, Chick Corea, Michael Jackson, Europe, and Scritti Politti.

In the early eighties these sold for anywhere between $2,000 to $5,000 depending on how many TF1 modules were installed (from two to eight typically). Luckily for today's musicians you can get a software plug-in like FM7 for ten times less money and you still get everything the TX816 could do, and much more too!

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Posting Rules: Please keep your comments relevant! Do not post requests for help, do not use for sales, do not post unless you have something interesting to say about this instrument, or we may delete your post.

 

DX

Posted 3 days ago

users info update:
It was used by Madonna (on Blonde Ambition Tour, 90, I got that info from her road keyboards tech)

Samuel

Posted 65 days ago

Hunt down a copy of Chick Corea's "Electric Workshop" DVD...you can see him in the (Mad Hatter) studio programming a patch with his sound engineer...They use the TX among other things. Corea plays it via a MIDI'ed KX5. :)

jack

Posted 107 days ago

one for sale on classifieds,,,

Eus

Posted 126 days ago

This is how you should see it.
An FM7 is like having a Toyota in the drive way, always ready to take anywhere and with all the convenient features one can wish for.
In your garage sits this monster of a race car, that you only ever take out when you really feel like a real car experience.
That's what the TX816 is. It's that Gran Torino that you only take out when it matters. Sure, when composing it's easier to have an FM7, but to get that huge shimmering rhodes sound, only the 816 qualifies.

john

Posted 142 days ago

Ok , this is really just 8 dx7 or tx 7 - a cheaper option and very similiat is the tx802 , its virtually identical.Sound wise - fm7 plug ? you must be joking - ive used a dx for years and i do like the ease of plugs and i did many a/b tests with fm7 and the dx and i can say how bad the fm7 sounds next to the dx - its like miles away in body and tone and how it sits ina mix - the problem isnt that the fm7 cant emulate the patches - it can and sounds identical in ' patch ' terms but lacks body - its like take a good sound and daw record it - even with good convertors you lose a % of that body and warmth etc - take a fm7 ? you already have lost it.......these power is in the circuits and the ad/da these synths throw their sounds through

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