Audio · synthesizer
Yamaha DX7
People recommend it for its polyphony, touch sensitivity and presets, and for helping make FM synthesis affordable and central to electronic music. Critics say programming is hard and the keybed is poor.
Summarized from 11 comments.
People recommend it for its polyphony, touch sensitivity and presets, and for helping make FM synthesis affordable and central to electronic music. Critics say programming is hard and the keybed is poor.
- recommend
- 8
- criticize
- 3
- months recommended
- 5 of 13
Why people love it
Shaped electronic music · 2
M1, DX-7, Juno, Jupiter. All of electronic music grew out of those.
May 2026 · commentSynth music elevated electric bound tones to anything ever heard.
Feb 2026 · commentAffordable, accessible synthesis · 2
Just the fact that a synth thing was so (relatively) affordable and accessible
Jul 2026 · commentwas essential in 'democratizing' synthesis
Sep 2026 · comment
What people warn about
Hard to program · 2
doing so on the DX7's interface is a whole other level of frustrating
Feb 2026 · commentabsolutely arcane when it comes to programming
Feb 2026 · commentNarrow range of sounds · 1
opened the door to a pretty narrow but interesting range of sounds
Feb 2026 · comment
What hackers pick instead
- KORG phase8 Acoustic SynthesizerRecommended as a fun, creative physical synth with microtonal options. Main caveat: critics find the sound unimpressive for the price.21recommend
- Roland TB-303People praise its accent and glide sequencer for wild dynamic acid lines. Critics say emulations miss its sound.8recommend
- Brume synthRecommended as a fun 24-voice multi-timbral desktop synth for the CM5, with a Lua scripting layer; commenters note the voice engines could be faster.7recommend
- ZynthianRecommended as an open-source synth and groovebox platform on Raspberry Pi, praised for innovation, future-proofing and value.6recommend
Every quote
The 11 most detailed of 11 comments. Each links to the original.
Just the fact that a synth thing was so (relatively) affordable and accessible
Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “My Favorite Keyboards”
M1, DX-7, Juno, Jupiter. All of electronic music grew out of those.
Recommends · May 2026 · in “Why Japanese companies do so many different things”
opened the door to a pretty narrow but interesting range of sounds
Mixed · Feb 2026 · in “Jimi Hendrix was a systems engineer”
Synth music elevated electric bound tones to anything ever heard.
Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Jimi Hendrix was a systems engineer”
was essential in 'democratizing' synthesis
Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Oral history of John Chowning, inventor of FM synthesis [video]”
doing so on the DX7's interface is a whole other level of frustrating
Criticizes · Feb 2026 · in “Jimi Hendrix was a systems engineer”
absolutely arcane when it comes to programming
Criticizes · Feb 2026 · in “Jimi Hendrix was a systems engineer”
absolutely reliable and a musical instrument really has to be because you're going to put it in a case that is going to get banged around in shipping
Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: Is a human brain more like a CPU or an FPGA?”
The DX7 was a hit because of the polyphony and touch sensitivity, but also because the presets
Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Oral history of John Chowning, inventor of FM synthesis [video]”
I fell in love with it in my youth
Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “My Favorite Keyboards”
DX7 had a dreadful keybed.
Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “My Favorite Keyboards”
Counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, Nov 2025 to Nov 2026. How we count · Report a mistake