Plogue has introduced chipSynth OPS7 – a new software synth for Mac & Windows, based on the sound engine of the Yamaha DX7 and offering the the patch layering feature of the rare DX1 and DX5 synthesizers.
Plogue says that they’ve gone ‘all in’ on modeling the original’s sound:
“In terms of emulation, Plogue goes all-in: by exactly matching the digitally captured output of the original EGS and OPS chips, we’ve recreated every nugget of sound from the original keyboard.
This includes exact envelope stepping patterns that vary note-to-note, every facet of the convoluted pitch calculation, and absolutely identical operator math for each algorithm down to the bit.
The analog side of the original keyboards and modules is also recreated with lavish attention to detail: you want the unique crunchiness of the original DAC?
We got it down to its insane compander and the full analog filtering section.”
While Plogue has closely modeled OPS7 on the DX7 sound engine, they’ve also expanded on it in several ways:
- Dual-layer system of the DX1 & DX5 for creating more complex sounds
- Full effects section
- “Game-changing dynamic patch editing system” that they say makes FM patch creation easier than ever
- Full SysEx bank file support
- Full hardware SysEx interfacing
Audio Demos:
If you want to know more about the emulation process, here’s behind-the-scenes look at the development of OPS7 from Plogue’s David Viens:
Pricing and Availability
chipSynth OPS7 is available now for $49.95 USD.
I’m very fond of Plogue’s meticulousness and attention to detail in all their releases. As an emulation, I find that these technical explanations on the process they went through to develop the plugin appeal more to me than having a sleek design by big industry names such as the Arturia DX7 V – even though I suspect it would be very hard to tell which is which in a blind test. What I generally don’t like about Plogue is their user interface design, at times awkward and counter-intuitive, but at least it seems they improved on that aspect for this release – the block layout seems adequate to handle FM programming, and the feature list seems good. I wish them success with this one.
I’m not sure if this will convince me to let go of my SY-77 or TX7. But the technical dive video is very cool. Reverse engineering the dataflow seems like it was a real a labor of love.
this is all very good – however I still look for a good soft combo that
is a tad quicker to program than my Yamaha TX816 / DMP11. The two units form a huge monster synth that’s able to compete with the high end systems of our decade. Somewhat noisier of course, and very time consuming to program – even when using midi-editors.
I hope the next step is for Plogue is to offer the 16 bit sound of the DX-1. Then after that recreate the SY-99 with all the algorithms and samples that were in that and the SY-77.
When it comes to things like aliasing, noise, and various oddities; it would be cool if these sims would give you the option to turn them off. I think there is value to having a “clean/modern” version, as well as a “dirty/authentic” version
The newer arturia sythns have this option, I believe it’s on the juno or jupiter.
I think DEXED has that feature of which chipset emulation to use.
You can choose the DAC resolution and compander behavior, DAC errors, output filter, type of voice mixing (normal or time multiplexed) and even choose between a couple of firmware versions in OPS7.
Is there a demo version? The manual mentions it runs in demo mode until license entered but i don’t see it on their site.
They said it’s coming soon.
Yeah, I have no idea what he’s talking about, but it’s so awesomely nerdy and obsessive I have to watch them
yes Plogue needs to work on their UIs… its frustrating when it sounds so good but is too unwieldy to use properly … its far too tedious and needlessly perplexing
Strange, the description reads very good, but the soundcloud demos sound nothing like a DX to me… and we had one in the 80s… much too bright, for starters. Almost jumping at me. Maybe one can tame that with an EQ, but in any way, it seems to be a modern interpretation of the sound, rather then going for a perfect recreation. But maybe it is an option somewhere? I want to see a spectogram side by side for classical DX sounds.
So, they didn’t implement the one thing Dexed is missing: the portamento mode. That’s a real bummer.
Why are my comments concerning portamento mode being deleted?
Thanks, synthhead. It’s why I’m coming back to this site for a few years now. Thanks for your work.
sebseb2000 – nothing’s getting deleted, but all comments from first-time commenters are flagged for manual moderation. This just means that an actual human reviews comments from people with no history of commenting on the site. This is to keep spam and hate speech off of the site.
This approach has worked for the site, as Synthtopia has very active commenting, with lots of differing opinions being shared – but with little spam or hate speech.