All user reviews of 2/5 for the Yamaha DX21

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UTILIZATION

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SOUNDS

I gave at the time the "sirens" of DX, after long hesitation ... He absolutely had to have the "grain" DX and never go to a hippie ringuard! Lacking the financial means to buy a DX7, I rabatu on DX21. Partly because he had two generators with separate outputs (but less than the DX7 algorithms). I thought that spending time in programming, I was going to get something
Time, I spent, believe me, for hours and hours of concentrated effort to try to make it sound. Yes, but here, one is a DX DX. I know that these instruments are still strong advocates, which I certainly respect the opinion, but in my case, on arrival, there is one word that characterizes their sound to my ears overall, and particularly the DX21 (the poor relation, it is true!): "plastic" ...
When I re-listen all I was able to record with, including the studio, I feel like crying, so it seems to deal with a toy. Say that I almost take the place of a Korg DW6000 at the same price (a synth of the same period, with digital oscilloscope, but much more loving and caring, and with a real analog filter)! Almost 30 years later I still regret that choice, that says it all ...

OVERALL OPINION

Go, go, I do not really hate you Pet, we still spent a lot of flying together, even if you're not by my side ...

You're like the ugly duckling, ugly but endearing.

FM synthesis algorithms with less than the DX7 therefore fewer opportunities. It is his main weakness.
Otherwise the construction is solid and reliable.

UTILIZATION

Configuration type Chinese puzzle with manual enormous. It's hard to just turn on and use it in an intuitive way as there are key combinations to know. This is another weak point. Otherwise the parameters are also long enough to edit and it might be necessary to a rotary knob to scroll through the numbers.
Program his own sounds thus takes a lot of time if you want to get a result.

SOUNDS

If you forget completely the sounds of the factory and that you get into programming it might be exploitable. We can draw some nice sounds, see warm. The trick is to try to smear the sound often too cold.
Or you can also use it squarely for what it does best and move towards the next cold and metallic.

It fits very poorly with musical styles that I like anyway, so I have not kept.

OVERALL OPINION

If you find it has less than 100 euros it can be valid if not more expensive there are other synths of the day more interesting.

The main interest of this synth is precisely that it does not cost anything because it has a bad press and it is not easy to use. It is a reliable machine that can produce sounds pretty amazing if you spend time on to the program, outside the box.