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Any of the preset voices can be edited to change them
slightly, or totally In fact, the term "primary voice" might
be better than "preset voice," since these voices are not
permanent like the presets of most other synthesizers. In
fact, all DX7 presets are completely programmable. So,
too, are any voices you may have created from scratch
or copied from another DX synthesizer.
A special EDIT mode is provided for editing the
voices, preset or personally programmed. We'll provide
a brief example of editing a preset voice, and you'll see
that the process is almost identical to that of program-
ming from scratch, as previously detailed.
1. Select the Electric Piano 1 voice from the Master
Group of the DX7 voice ROM cartridge. Play the
voice. Lets suppose you want to change the timbre of
the sound so it becomes more penetrating... but not
alter any of the envelopes, fundamental pitches, mod-
ulation, or touch sensitivity.
The display should look like this
2. Press the [EDIT/COMPARE] button, and notice that
the display changes to show the last programming
function which had been used. If you've been going
straight through the manual, that function would be
"algorithm select," though it is not important really
3. From the diagram for algorigthm 5 (which the display
tells us is the algorithm of this voice), we see that
operator 2 is the modulator of one stack, and there-
fore increasing its output level may "brighten" the
voice. We won't know for sure until we try it. Press
[OPERATOR OUTPUT LEVEL]
and then press
[OPERATOR SELECT]
until operator 2 is set as the
current operator.
So far, the only clue you have that you are in the Edit
mode is that the LCD display shows editing functions
such as "Algorithm Select" and "Output Level." You
are about to see that another aspect of the display can
show you whether
anything has yet been changed.
(So far, you have not actually changed the voice.)
4. Play a few notes, varying the velocity with which you
press the keys. Then move the [DATA ENTRY]
slider to change the output level of operator 2 to 90.
Notice that the instant you change this parameter, a
decimal point appears to the right of the voice num-
ber in the LED display This decimal is your clue that
the voice is no longer the same as the preset. Play a
few notes and hear for yourself.
Notice this decimal point appears
when the output level changes
5. If you want to compare the newly edited sound to the
original sound, you can press the [EDIT/COMPARE]
button once. Notice the decimal point in the LED
voice number display disappears, and the number
itself begins to flash. While the number is flashing,
you can play the original, unedited voice. Press
[EDIT/COMPARE] again and the edited voice reap-
pears, decimal point and all.
You can see that this is exactly the same way you use
the controls to create a voice "from scratch" using the
[VOICE INIT] function. In fact, [VOICE INIT) really
does nothing more than to set all parameters to a
default value, and then places the DX7 in the EDIT
mode. If you want to change any other parameters,
just press the appropriate selector butlon(s) and use
[DATA ENTRY] or any other buttons required to
program the new values. We strongly recommend
that you rename an edited voice by using the [VOICE
NAME] function.
6. If you wish to save the edited voice, you have sev-
eral choices. If you have edited a preset ROM voice.
you cannot save that voice on a ROM... ROMs are
Read Only Memories. You can, however, save the
edited preset on a RAM (Random Access Memory)
cartridge or in an internal memory within the DX7.
If the "original" voice you edited was selected from
a RAM or an internal memory, you can over-store
the edited voice in the same place, or in a different
memory location so you retain the original and
edited versions. The method of storing the edited
voice is identical to that for storing a voice you
created "from scratch"; we repeat this below for
convenience.
7. You can store the edited voice on a RAM cartridge, or
store it in an internal memory If you're going to use
the RAM cartridge, make sure its On-Off slide switch
is set to OFF so that the memory is not protected. You
will then have to turn off the software memory protec-
tion in the DX7 for the cartridge or internal memories
by pressing the corresponding [MEMORY PRO-
TECT] button and then pressing the [OFF] DATA
ENTRY button. The memory is now ready to accept
the voice.
8. Press the [MEMORY SELECT-INTERNAL] or
[MEMORY SELECT- CARTRIDGE] button, depend-
ing on where you want to store the voice, then press
and hold down the [STORE] button. While holding
[STORE], press the voice selector button correspond-
ing to the specific location (1-32) in which you want to
place the voice. If this is the same location where the
original voice was located, the edited voice will erase
(and replace) the original. The moment you store the
voice, the decimal point in the LED voice number
window disappears, and you are out of the EDIT
mode.
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