Got a DX7 at a flea market - 30€ including four memory cardridges full of sounds was a price worth a gamble for me.
Works well so far (also nice sounds on the cardridges!) - with the excepion that one key doesn’t produce any sound at all. Already removed the key, looked at the contacts and tried to clean them with alcohol. Didn’t help. On first sight the contacts look like all others - nothing bent. The key also looks good, found no visible difference.
Any ideas what I could still try?
It is Eb3, so one of the more central keys…
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Congrats!! nice find! ohh and its always great to have physical “stuff” to interact with.
Im sure you know about Dexed more so as a librarian for your “new-sonic-friend”
Im curious about the Cartridges… but I think 99% of created sounds for DX7 are online somewhere;-)
http://bobbyblues.recup.ch/yamaha_dx7/dx7_soundbanks.html#VRC-107
I never had problems with my DX7, but reading a bit online, keybed is notorious for some issues (the plates tend to bend?.. and don’t make contact/play)
Does Eb3 sound from sending it MIDI? probably yes…
I recall doing this…after some “house keeping” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEiI95IRIXI
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Thanks for the links! Just listened to the “default presets” that a DX7 usually has - for mine all internal presets were completely replaced. So either someone who liked to look up interesting sounds - or an avid sound designer him/herself. Some of the presets sound nice! Two of the cardridges were commercial, Yamaha provided ones, two “RAMs” full of own (or recreated?) stuff.
Thanks for the Dexed link! Will have a look and see how I can get the presets into and from the machine to the computer.
Yes, the sound engine can produce Eb3, if I e.g. transpose the keyboard I can play it at another position.
Cool setup with the Eigenharps and effects! 
Adding a little of some nice reverb sounds like a good idea, indeed…
Also found this: That seems to add multitimbral support (e.g. to play it VpC-style) and full MIDI resolution - tempting, but twice as expensive as my entire synth… 
https://www.ebay.com/itm/E-Grey-Matter-compatible-Extension-Card-for-DX7/163543985450?hash=item2613fb2d2a:g:DPAAAOSwSYdbyId3:rk:1:pf:1&frcectupt=true
Got some additional repair hints on kvr, will look what I can do…
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I had the Grey Matter board. It does not make it multitimbral.
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ah, ok. They meant that in the posting I found the link in. Thanks for the clarification!
I’ve started collecting/assembling a TX816, which is essentially a rack full of DX7 guts. Like, there are 8 slots, and each one that you fill (with TH1 modules) is an additional DX7.
These can be treated as a multitimbral DX7 (by setting each module to a different MIDI channel), or set to unison detune for a super thick stereo chorus effect. (Each unit has a mono out, to be mixed externally)
I only have two such modules right now. I’m planning to add two more, for what shall be dubbed the “MPE-X7”. Unfortunately, those modules are expensive and hard to come by, so it might take a while.
This was largely off topic, but I can perhaps reign it in by saying that my actual DX7 would be serving as a third voice alongside those, except that some of the keys aren’t working.
(More importantly, some of the buttons are unreliable, so I can’t turn off memory protection to send patches in from the computer.)
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Also, Dexed doesn’t entirely match the actual hardware, as a synth. But you can use it as an editor, sending every change to the DX7 as you make them. Trick being, parameter changes are sent through SysEx, and the DX7 gets stuck notes if they’re held while SysEx data arrives.
I’ve built four different workarounds in max, trying to throttle the number of SysEx messages sent, but thus far, nothing’s worked.
On the plus side, I think I’ve at least proven that it isn’t a 5 pin DIN packet loss issue.
So I’m wondering now if Grey Matter or Supermax or any of those would actually circumvent the problem.
Probably not…
Sounds interesting!
Playing the DX7 mostly as a DX7, not as sound source for expressive controllers. Some sounds are really nice - “digital and proud of it” 
Didn’t get into sound design for it yet (mine come with several cardridges of interesting sounds though). This would be quite another deep rabbit hole to crawl into…
Sound design is the challenge. There’s just so much menu diving. Dexed puts all the parameters on screen, which is great, but if you’re developing sounds with it on hardware, the intuitive workflow of “press note, move parameter, release and reattack” is causing stuck notes.
I’m desperate to know how this guy is handling it differently:
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This pops up used occasionally, but it’s stupidly expensive.
http://www.dtronics.nl/pages/dt7.html
They made a pared down version for the Reface DX, though.
So I’m curious whether this, plugged into a Reface DX, plugged into the DX7, would get the job done.
http://www.dtronics.nl/pages/dtrdx.html