26 MB

A Windows/cross-platform VST3 + Standalone + Android 15 Port synthesizer plugin that wraps the bit-accurate VDX7 Yamaha DX7 emulation (real DX7 firmware ROM running on an emulated HD6303 CPU + emulated OPS/EGS sound chips) behind an original, Dexed-inspired editor GUI built in JUCE.

The DX7 firmware ROM and the factory voice ROMs ship inside the project as the raw binaries in Firmware/ (dx7.bin, voices.bin, example.ram), embedded into the plugin at build time. You do not need to supply any ROM yourself.

What it does
REAL SOUND: MIDI in → authentic DX7 FM audio out, generated by the emulated firmware and chips (not a DSP re-implementation).
REAL LIMITATIONS: The original sound engine only supports the keyboard range of the original hardware, and tweaking knobs while sound plays is not supported.
Original 6-operator editor: every voice parameter (per-operator envelopes, frequency, keyboard scaling, plus global algorithm / feedback / LFO / pitch envelope) is editable with rotary controls.
Live emulated LCD and voice-number LED read straight from the running firmware.
Factory ROM browser (ROM1A … ROM4B, 256 voices) plus an INIT voice.
FILE menu (SysEx import/export):
Import bank – load any standard 32-voice .syx bank (4104-byte bulk dump); its 32 voices appear as a USER bank in the browser.
Export current voice – save the current (edited) voice as a 163-byte single-voice .syx.
Export bank – save the current bank as a 4104-byte 32-voice .syx, with the current edited voice written into its slot.
Live edits / automation: turning a knob sends a lightweight DX7 parameter-change SysEx (the firmware boots with SYS INFO AVAIL enabled), so every new note instantly reflects the current knob/automation values with no patch-reselect glitch. Note: like real DX7 hardware, editing a parameter sends any currently-held note into its release – a single sustained note will not morph in place, but automating across a playing sequence is smooth.
Accessibility: every knob has a full descriptive title (e.g. “OP3 EG Rate 1 (attack)”) exposed to screen readers and shown as a tooltip, is keyboard-focusable and arrow-key manipulatable, and its whole tile is grabbable.
Patches are saved with the host session.

Changes to the Android Version over the VST3 version
The .vst3 version does not contain the FX section the android version includes. This is because I wanted the VST3 version to be a faithful port of the original (V)DX7 project, as the original did not have any effects either from what I know.

The Android version has an FX button in the top left, which switches to the FX viewer with Chorus, Delay, Phaser and Reverb Effects. These are direct copies of the modules from my synth Aquanode Modular. I added these as I thought the DX7 can sound rather dry without any effects, and you can’t easily add FX like you can in your Windows DAW for example.
You can add these effects on windows when you load my Aquanode Modular FX on a mixer track in your DAW.

This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Yamaha. “DX7” is a trademark of Yamaha Corporation and is used here only descriptively.

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VirtualDX7  ( 26 MB )