Lately, I've been all over Dexed (that cheeky clone of the YAMAHA DX7). No doubt about it: what really saves me is the ridiculous amount of presets!

 

Yamaha FS1R
Owned one for years, never got to grips with the programming. It's like they took a DX7 and made it more complicated. The display was a bit bigger than a DX7 but it didn't help. Wish I'd kept it because today it is worth 10 times what I sold it for...

I don't think anyone has managed to make a VST equivalent of it, which I find odd.

 

My vote goes for the Crumar Bit One. When you want to change a value you have to tap the + or - button to edit the value from 0 to 100. So when changing a decay value from 1 to 80 you have to tap 79 times just for that one parameter. So imagine having to make a whole sound like that and how many presses that becomes. So it's not difficult just extremely tedious and unfriendly. .. luckily the bit99 you could hold the button so it would scroll and also a vst editor exists so it easy breazy. So if you ever want to get one of those get the bit99 or the bit01 rack.

 

Roland JV-1080 and stuff
also Matrix 1000 was terrible without external controller

 

Softwarewise, recently I have rediscovered Arturia Modular and why despite a nice sound and tricks I have always dismissed it: spaghetti nightmare plus scrolling up and down all the time to access the different modules plus ultra tiny fonts and jacks on a laptop screen drove me nuts after 5 min.

Everything spaghetti is a put off in my book, but I think this is the worst contender (Softube modular being a close second).

 

Oh yea, that screen was absolutely HUGE!!

Digging through the menu was not very easy for me on the 2500XS, but the sound was a dream. After a while the click of the jog wheel gave up it's tiny little teeth from zipping around and around and was silent as I maneuvered around the parameters after that.

 

I once had a beta version on Battalion for iPhone before it was finally out for iPad… yeah no way I’m going to be able to reach all the little knobs and such… I might still have it but it’s probably expired and I gotta get the $35 iPad version instead, which is what Battalion only might support now, much easier to edit and drag to change window size in AUM

 

Yes, turn it on... TX81Z are still good and useable units, particularly if you like lofi crunchy 12 bit style sounds. Programming one from the front panel though is as much of a nightmare as any of the other Yamaha FM synths of that era. Thankfully, there's plenty of computer editor solutions available such as:

https://mgregory22.me/tx81z/programmer.html

https://coffeeshopped.com/patch-base/editor/yamaha/tx81z

https://squest.com/Products/MidiQuest13/Instruments/YamahaTX81Z/index.html

I'm gonna throw a Matrix-1000 into this thread as there is absolutely no way to program it from the hardware alone. It is of course a breeze with a computer editor but from a pure hardware point of view it's a dead duck with presets.

 

Had one about 20 years ago, made the most awesome insane sounds, but JFC the front panel. The only thing that kept me from launching it off the roof of the house was Sound Diver. Ended up selling it to a good friend, who still has it, and somehow that weirdo can navigate it on his own.

Surprised no one has mentioned the Ensoniq Mirage yet.. Talk about 'fun'..

 

Roland U110......

 

Aaaa...! Just mentioning this brought the plugin GUI to mind and it's still brain-meltingly... something else.

 

The developer was so happy with his 3D GUI, but hardly any user could handle it without getting eye cancer. Another GU designer took on the task, the Skin Designer is: Limeflavour https://flavoursoflime.blogspot.com
Take the " Poly-Ana Custom Skins " --> www.admiralquality.com/poly-ana-custom-skins

 

Last edited: Aug 17, 2025 at 4:00 PM

If you don’t want your TX81Z I could take it off your hands, assuming shipping won’t be too much… I bet even with the interface I could still dive in and explore this incredible monster

 

We used to use patch sheets like this:



to plan out patches for the DX7, then just go through parameter by parameter to enter them. It rendered the synth easy to program as long as you could conceptualise the sound in your head. We also had similar sheets for the CZ101 and other 'complex' synths with digital programming like that.

Then SoundDiver came along and nothing was hard ever again.

 

Synth1 is quite awful but sounds great!

 

Absolutely. I'm not sure if I installed it last year on my new audio desktop but if I did I'll crack it open and use it on what I'm working on today.

Good dog. Thanks for the reminder!

 

Synth1 Librarian is a free VST plugin designed to accompany Ichiro Toda’s Synth1 Analog Synth VST instrument. It allows you to quickly find patches within your patch library – useful when you have over 17,000 patches! Here’s a video explaining what it is, and how it works:

Free Download: https://neutrinosky.com

 

I donated CHF 5.72 but got screwed at checkout as it wouldn't send me back to the vender. That kinda sucks although I finished the track already without it.

 

This thing is free, I think you donated something! https://neutrinosky.com/downloads

 

Thanks. Got the installer and library now. The donation helps support...past work.