YAMAHA TX81Z

The Yamaha TX81Z is a rack-mounted (keyboard-less) frequency modulation (FM) music synthesizer, released in 1987. It is also known as a keyboard-less Yamaha DX11 (and the subsequent Yamaha V50 (music workstation)). Unlike previous FM synthesizers of the era, the TX81Z was the first to offer a range of oscillator waveforms other than just sine waves, conferring the new timbres of some of its patches when compared to older, sine-only FM synths. The TX81Z has developed a famous reputation, largely based on some of its preset bass sounds. The Yamaha DX11 keyboard synth was released the following year, offering improved editing abilities. Features: The unit is multitimbral, and has 128 ROM voices, 32 editable voice slots, and 24 editable Performance memories. The RAM slots were rarely utilized[citation needed] due to the perceived high quality and usability of the original patches and the difficulty of programming new sounds with the limited front-panel interface. Among the presets is the famous LatelyBass, one of the most popular presets in synthesizer history. The TX81Z is backwards-compatible with sound patches developed for Yamaha's DX21, DX27, and DX100 synthesizers.[1] It is also very similar, and almost completely patch-compatible, to the DX11 synthesizer, which is essentially a TX81Z with a velocity and pressure-sensing keyboard and a pitch envelope.