DT-81Z

DTronics DT-81Z - Tactile control for your Yamaha TX81Z

Yamaha's TX81Z came just at the right time to be part of the revolution of electronic dance music. Its straight forward FM-sound-engine offered a great addition to play along with Roland TR drums and the infamous TB-303. And since programming FM-synths is really not everyone's cup of tea, we all got to hear a choice of its presets.
The DT-81Z changes this right away. The compact yet robust desktop controller adds 37 trim potentiometers and 17 back-lit switches to the synthesizer and puts most of the TX81Z parameters in direct control. Give new life to this classic synth! And not only that: The DT-81Z is compatible with the DX100, DX21 and DX27 keyboards.

The DTronics DT-81Z is a custom-tailored hardware desktop-controller for the classic FM-synthesizers TX81Z, DX100, DX21 and DX27 by Yamaha. It comes in a sturdy desktop format. It offers a vast amount of dedicated controls to allow for hands-on-control of these instruments via MIDI. To be precise: 37 trim pots and 17 back-lit switches allow for
immediate control over the parameters of the TX81z and compatible synthesizers. Connection is via the included MIDI-cable while power is supplied via USB-C (cable included). Bring new life these synthesizers on stage and in your studio!

The best possible upgrade to your TX81z!

FM synthesis is known for its unique sounds. However, the underlying synthesis is not as easy to handle as your typical analog instrument. This is true for most FM-synthesizers, even those offering only four operators per voice.
However, this is about to change! Simply connect the DTronics DT-81Z to your synth by MIDI and start having fun by tweaking the parameters in real time.
The panel offers sections for global parameters, portamento, the four effect sections for delay, panning, chorus and reverb, LFO modulation and operator specific parameters including waveform selection, level, frequency, envelope, velocity and scaling.
The DT-81Z also includes a dedicated section of eight back-lit-buttons to select and combine the four operators and switch these on and off. Simply select the desired operator and start tweaking. And you may even edit the same parameter for multiple operators at the same time!

About the Yamaha TX81z

Yamaha's TX81Z from 1987 was designed as a low-cost rack-mount alternative to the DX7. Its single FM-chip (Yamaha YM2414B) offered eight voices of polyphony, full multitimbral capabilities, 128 presets and 32 user memories plus 24 performance memories. It is driven by a scaled down FM-sound-engine which relied on four operators.
Unlike the DX7 each operator was not limited to a sine wave, but instead offered a choice of eight waveforms. The sound engine itself is compatible to the keyboard-models DX21, DX27 and DX100, plus partly to the DX11. The TX81Z is mostly famous for its bass sounds, especially the “LatelyBass”, as it was not easy to program on the unit itself. The lower price made the TX81z a fine choice for home producers, but still a choice for producers such as Babyface.

- Programmer for Yamaha TX81Z, DX100, DX21 and DX27
- Hands-on control of FM parameters, designed with best components and latest technology
- Sturdy desktop format