DX7

The Yamaha DX7 is a digital synthesizer introduced in 1983 that generates sound through frequency modulation (FM) rather than the analogue oscillators and filters used by most synthesizers of the period. It provides 16-note polyphony, with each voice built from six operators routed through one of 32 fixed algorithms, and it was among the first commercially available instruments to include MIDI. It is characteristically associated with electric piano, bell and metallic percussive timbres, which were used widely across 1980s pop and R&B production.