yamaha_dx97 VS dexed

I've been writing a lot of 8-bit assembler for the 6303, which is in the same processor family as the CPU in the TRS-80, which the author is writing code for (for this project in case anyone is wondering: https://github.com/ajxs/yamaha_dx97). I ran into the exact same issue. I wrote a MAME driver for the target platform, so I could test my builds on my development machine. Obviously that sped things up a lot. The MAME debugger isn't really a tool for unit testing, and can't really be easily instrumented, but I was able to write a lot of scripts for the debugger which would set up the breakpoints and system memory for an individual 'test'. Not quite unit testing, but as close as I could get cheaply.

I'm super impressed that someone has emulated the CZ-101's sound generation LSI!

Lots of people use MAME as an emulator to help reverse-engineering vintage synthesisers. I only recently discovered this too. Since most 80s synths were built mostly out of 'off the shelf' components, it's not too difficult to build a MAME driver which is capable of running the synth's firmware. The actual sound generation is another story though.

I wrote a MAME driver for the Yamaha DX9 while working on this project: https://github.com/ajxs/yamaha_dx97

I wrote a little bit about the project here in case anyone is interested: https://ajxs.me/blog/Hacking_the_Yamaha_DX9_To_Turn_It_Into_...

Very cool! I've been doing a lot of work reverse-engineering the firmware from Yamaha's 1980s synthesisers[0], all of which feature Hitachi 6303-series processors. The 6303 is Hitachi's second-source implementation of the Motorola 6803 architecture. I'd love to know how these devices were developed. I'm guessing a development platform like this would have been used by Yamaha. If anyone has any more information regarding development targeting the Hitachi 6300 series chips in the 1970s/1980s, I'd love to know!

[0] In case anyone is curious, my latest successful work is hacking the Yamaha DX9 to have the full DX7 feature set: https://github.com/ajxs/yamaha_dx97

If you don't mind swapping some chips, there's a project to bring out the full potential: https://github.com/ajxs/yamaha_dx97

Did you already find https://github.com/asb2m10/dexed/wiki/Dexed-as-a-DX7-editor ?

There's a full DX7 emulator available for free (think FM8, but open-source). It's at: https://github.com/asb2m10/dexed/releases For the original DX7 sounds (including the classic EPs and basses), there's a .tar file containing a bunch of SysEx backups here: https://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/d.j.benson/pages/dx7/syx/sysex.tar The main page that lists some other files and other general information is here: https://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/d.j.benson/pages/html/dx7.html There are a bunch of sysex dumps in that .tar file, some with other patches, some duplicates, but all worth trying out. The original ROM dumps have names that, oddly enough, start with "rom" (so rom1a, rom1b, rom2a, etc). A page that goes into some good detail on each patch is here: https://www.synthmania.com/dx7.htm By combining Dexed with the SysEx dumps above, you can get a very lightweight DX7 for a grand total of $0. It takes way less RAM than FM8, and it's Apple Silicon Native now, too! I used this plugin a TON for Joseph, to get that 80s synth vibe.

MicroDexed Touch is a fork of MicroDexed which is a port of Dexed for Teensy 3.6/4.1 with a lot more functionality including multiple sound engines (2 x 16 voice DX7, 2x VA Monosynths, Layered Multi Samples, MDA ePiano, 8 voice Mutable Instruments Braids Oscillator), basic audio effects and a 8 track pattern song (tracker like) sequencer.

If you want an FM synth specifically to use in your DAW of choice you have plenty VSTs, both free and paid and even included in FL Studio itself, which do much more than the Volca, but there's a trade-off, you lose some imediacy but get much more power.

I downloaded dexed-0.9.6-win.exe from https://github.com/asb2m10/dexed/releases/download/v0.9.6/dexed-0.9.6-win.zip and installed it in its default location: C:\Program Files\Dexed for the stand-alone app.

How familiar are you with how this sort of genre is produced? You could certainly do it in a DAW, there are cheap/free ones available like Reaper or Bandlab, plus many free VST instruments that you can use as plugins.

Maybe grab Dexed - https://www.kvraudio.com/product/dexed-by-digital-suburban https://github.com/asb2m10/dexed

Its called DETUNE parameter. But I can't find information about units. Issue is discussed here: https://github.com/asb2m10/dexed/issues/88 but I don't know how to interpret that table.