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Comment by kens | Hacker News Reader

Author here if there are any questions about my latest DX7 post.

I just wanted to thank you for this.

I ‘grew up’ on the YM2612 due to the Genesis being my childhood console.

As a rapper/producer these days - I’m always reaching back there when composing Beats - with the self-imposed limitations included, of course. Some prouducers still prefer an MPC2000 over a DAW.

Have you interacted with the folks at Plogue making the OPS7 emulator? They seem to be obsessed with reverse engineering to get bit-level hardware accuracy (but with a logic analyzer).

What do you think about the dexed softsynth [0]? It's supposedly the closest modeled softsynth to the DX7 in existence.

0: https://asb2m10.github.io/dexed/

Maybe the closest free plugin, but it's not on the level of accuracy as Plogue's Chipsynth OPS7, which is bit-accurate. The author has an interesting video here, with more to come hopefully: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ97iXQrqzw

It's not bad, but I've heard that the person who started it is a jerk who constantly posts self-serving comments on HN, and always seems to pop up on threads about the DX7.

When I started doing my research into the DX7 I pored over Dexed's source code to understand how its emulation worked. It was really amazing to discover what an interesting legacy its source code has! The bulk of Dexed's code is derived from Raph Levien's (hi Raph!) Music Synthesizer For Android (msfa). However there's additional code derived from Steffen Ohrendorf's ppplay[0], which in turn builds upon different people's research, reverse-engineering, and experimentation going back decades. Going through it, I really felt like I was looking at something organic built not just from, but upon the passion, and dedication of so many different talented people, over many years. Very cool!

[0] https://github.com/stohrendorf/ppplay

Hi Anthony!

Yes, I'm really pleased with the way it started as an individual project and turned into a collaboration. And I think it's likely that Ken's detailed and excellent investigative work will find its way into further code improvements.

Thank you so much for doing these, my childhood is complete!

None yet, reading with great interest. Really, I just want to echo the many, "THANK YOU!!" sentiments related to your work out there.

They'd like this over in https://www.reddit.com/r/ReverseEngineering/

It looks like someone submitted it there.

I love your work and your site, thank you.

Thanks for this! Will you be dissecting the M1? ;)

Will you donate an electron microscope? ;)

They are most likely referring to the Korg M1, not the Apple M1. Similar vintage as the DX7, so probably no electron microscope needed.

Ah yes, that possibility exists as well. Good call.

I wasn't planning on looking at either M1 :-)

How about the D-50? ;-)

I'm trying to avoid taking on more projects. The DX7 has a second custom chip, so if I look at that one too, I'll be busy for a while...

Have you tried out the korg Opsix?

No, I'm more on the chip side of things than the synth side so I haven't tried out much.

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