DX100

This is your main 'turn the value up or down' control while programming sounds. Slide it away from you to raise a number, toward you to lower it. When you're just playing (not editing), this same slider becomes your master volume.

tip: Use the slider to jump close to the value you want fast, then fine-tune the last few steps with the -1/+1 buttons for precision. Remember that during normal play it's your volume — if the sound suddenly gets quiet or loud, check the slider position.

Tap this to nudge a value down one notch at a time — perfect for exact settings. When the screen asks you a yes/no question, this is the 'No' button. It's also your escape hatch: pressing it partway through a save or load cancels the operation.

tip: For parameters that only have two states (like ON/OFF or POLY/MONO), this button is easier and safer than the slider because it can't overshoot.

Tap this to bump a value up one notch at a time for precise settings. When the screen asks you to confirm something, this is the 'Yes' button — you'll usually press it once to start and again to actually carry out saves, loads, and initializing.

tip: Most confirmation steps require pressing this twice on purpose (e.g. 'Init Voice?' then 'Are you sure?'), which protects you from accidentally wiping your work — so a single press never triggers anything destructive.

This one button does two jobs depending on the mode. When setting up the pitch wheel, it decides whether bends grab only the bottom note, only the top note, or every note. When you're building a sound, it picks which of the four tone-building blocks (operators) you're currently adjusting.

tip: Set PITCH B MODE to 'Low' and you can hold a chord while bending only the bass note underneath it — a great trick for expressive lead and bass lines. While programming, watch the 'OP1'–'OP4' readout on the right of the screen so you always know which operator you're editing.

This sets up the instant-transpose target. You tell the DX100, 'when I hit KEY SHIFT, jump the whole keyboard to this pitch.' The quickest way to set it is to just press the note you want the keyboard to shift to.

tip: Program a KEY SET a fourth or fifth away from your song's key, then use KEY SHIFT mid-performance to switch keys without moving your hands. Press KEY SET first each time if you want to keep picking new targets straight off the keyboard.

One tap instantly shifts your whole keyboard to a preset new key (set up via KEY SET) — great for jumping keys on the fly. Tap again to return to normal. A little 'K' on the screen tells you it's active.

tip: Hold this button down while switching the power ON to change the 'Welcome to DX!' startup message to your own name or text — a fun, hidden personalization feature.

This is your 'just let me play' button. It puts you into the everyday playing mode using the 24 sounds you've saved into the machine's own memory, so pressing the numbered buttons picks a sound to play.

tip: Hold this button and tap +1 to reach the hidden SHIFT-mode preset voices, and hold it with -1 to switch back — a quick way to double your available presets without menu-diving.

This is the settings button. Press it and the numbered buttons stop picking sounds and instead adjust things like tuning, pitch-bend range, portamento, breath-controller behaviour and MIDI. The 'F' on the screen reminds you you're in setup mode, not playing mode.

tip: Look at the brown labels printed below each numbered button — those are what each button does once FUNCTION is lit. Press INTERNAL PLAY when you're done to jump straight back to playing.

This is where you actually change how a sound is built. Once you tweak anything, the screen shows a small 'e'. Tap the button again and it flips to 'C' so you can hear the original sound for comparison, then tap once more to go back to your edited version — great for checking whether your change is actually an improvement.

tip: Warning: all editing happens in a temporary buffer shown by a 'p' on screen. If you exit and pick a new voice before storing, your edits are erased. Use the STORE function first. If you lose an edit by accident, RECALL EDIT (FUNCTION mode) can recover the last one.

This is the 'keep it' button. After you've built or tweaked a sound, hold this and press a numbered button to save it into one of your 24 slots. In editing mode it doubles as a copy tool that clones one operator's envelope shape onto another, so you don't have to dial in the same settings twice.

tip: You must turn MEMORY PROTECT off (FUNCTION mode, button 12) before storing — it's automatically switched back on every time you power up. Store BEFORE selecting any other voice or your edits vanish.

Think of the four BANK buttons as four folders of 24 sounds each. Pressing BANK A opens the first folder so the numbered buttons play those sounds. The same button also has jobs in other modes: browsing preset sounds, and switching operator 1 on or off while you're building a sound.

tip: When editing, this button turns operator 1 on/off — a '1' or '0' in the leftmost of the four digits by the algorithm number tells you its state. Turn unused operators off to keep voices clean.

The second of your four sound folders. Press it and the numbered buttons play the 24 sounds you've arranged in Bank B. Elsewhere it helps you browse presets and switches operator 2 on or off during sound-building.

tip: Banks are ideal for setting up different groups for a gig — e.g. all your piano-type sounds in one bank, brass in another — so a single button press gets you a whole set at once.

The third sound folder. Press it to make the numbered buttons play the 24 sounds stored in Bank C. It also browses a different block of preset sounds and switches operator 3 on or off while editing.

tip: Remember the BANK memory only stores voice numbers, not the actual sound data — so if you re-edit the underlying INTERNAL or PRESET voice, what the bank plays changes too.

The fourth and last sound folder. Press it and the numbered buttons play Bank D's 24 sounds. Like the others, it also has duties browsing presets and turning operator 4 on or off when you're designing a sound.

tip: Use EDIT BANK (FUNCTION mode) to drop any voices you like into consecutive slots in a bank, in whatever order suits your performance — handy for lining up sounds in song order.

One button, three jobs depending on the mode. Normally it's just 'sound number 1'. When you're building a sound it picks the algorithm — the wiring diagram that decides how the four tone-generators feed each other, which sets the whole character of the sound. In settings mode it's the overall tuning knob for the whole instrument.

tip: For tuning to another instrument, use MASTER TUNE ADJ and watch that 0 = concert pitch (A=440). For sound design, the algorithm is the single most important choice — algorithm 5 gives two independent stacks (good for layering two textures), while algorithm 8 makes all four operators sound sources for rich organ tones.

During sound editing, this dials in how gritty or buzzy one of the four tone-generating parts sounds by letting it modulate itself — low numbers stay smooth and clean, high numbers add harsh, edgy overtones (great for adding bite or noise). As a setup switch, it decides whether the synth talks to other MIDI gear at all. Otherwise it just picks the second sound in memory.

tip: Feedback of 6–7 is the fast way to fake sawtooth-like brightness or add rasp to strings and brass without adding another operator.

While editing, this picks the shape of the automatic wobble that creates vibrato and tremolo effects: triangle gives smooth up-and-down (classic vibrato), square jumps between two pitches/levels, sawtooth ramps, and sample-and-hold gives random stepped changes. As a setup control it tells the synth which MIDI 'radio channel' to send and receive on. Otherwise it just picks the third sound.

tip: Triangle is the natural choice for musical vibrato; save square and S/Hold for special or sci-fi effects.

While editing, this controls how fast the wobble effect moves — low values give a slow, lazy sweep and high values give a fast flutter or buzz. As a setup switch it decides how much of the extra performance data (wheels, breath control, patch changes) gets shared over MIDI. Otherwise it just picks the fourth sound.

tip: For a natural vibrato aim for roughly the low-to-mid 30s; crank it high with the modulation wheel routed to pitch for fast trills or effects.

While editing, this makes the wobble hold off and then fade in after you play a note — just like a singer or brass player who starts a note steady and adds vibrato a moment later, which sounds much more human. As a setup control it lets you back up all your sounds to another device or receive edits. Otherwise it just picks the fifth sound.

tip: A delay in the 20–40 range gives that expressive 'vibrato blooms in after the note starts' feel on brass and lead voices.

While editing, this adds a constant, hands-free vibrato to the sound (independent of the modulation wheel) — a little for gentle warmth, a lot for a seasick pitch wobble. As a rescue function it can bring back a voice you were editing after you jumped away and lost it. Otherwise it just picks the sixth sound.

tip: Keep PMD low (single digits) for built-in warmth; use RECALL EDIT immediately if you overwrite an edit — it only holds the single most recent one.

While editing, this adds an automatic pulsing to the volume or tone — a gentle tremolo on carrier parts, or a wah-like shimmer on modulator parts. As a setup function it wipes the current sound back to a blank starting point so you can build a new voice from scratch. Otherwise it just picks the seventh sound.

tip: Use INIT VOICE when you want to program something truly original rather than editing a preset; a small AMD adds lively movement without obvious tremolo.

While editing, this decides whether the vibrato/tremolo always starts at the same spot each time you play a note (on = tight and predictable) or starts randomly (off = looser, better for natural-sounding chorus and detuning). As an organizing function it lets you arrange your favorite sounds into custom banks for quick access on stage. Otherwise it just picks the eighth sound.

tip: Turn SYNC off when using the LFO for chorus/phasing so each note drifts independently and sounds richer; leave it on for uniform vibrato.

While editing, this is the master enable for pitch vibrato — if it's at 0, no vibrato will happen no matter how you set the wheel or LFO, and higher numbers make the pitch swing wider. As a backup function it records all your sounds to tape and checks they saved correctly. Otherwise it just picks the ninth sound.

tip: This must be above 0 for the modulation wheel to bend pitch at all — a common gotcha when your vibrato 'won't work.' Always run VERIFY after a cassette SAVE to catch recording errors.

While editing, this is the master enable for the volume/tone pulsing effect — at 0 nothing happens, and higher values let the tremolo or wah get stronger; you also pick exactly which of the four tone parts it applies to. As a setup function it loads a saved bank of sounds back in from tape. Otherwise it just picks the tenth sound.

tip: Apply amplitude sensitivity to carrier operators for tremolo and to modulator operators for wah-like tone sweeps. Remember to turn Memory Protect back on after loading from tape.

While editing, this lets breath pressure directly push the loudness or brightness of the sound — blow harder and the note swells or brightens, which is how you get realistic wind-instrument tonguing and dynamics. As a setup function it grabs a single sound off tape instead of a whole bank. Otherwise it just picks the eleventh sound.

tip: This only does anything if you have the optional BC-1 breath controller plugged in — set it high on carriers for expressive brass and wind swells.

When you plug in a MIDI keyboard that senses how hard you hit the keys, this decides whether playing harder makes the sound brighter or louder (for that one operator). Note: setting it above 0 actually lowers the overall volume of soft playing. Memory Protect is a safety lock so you don't accidentally erase your own saved sounds — it turns itself back ON every time you power up.

tip: Always turn MEMORY PROTECT OFF (via FUNCTION) before trying to STORE an edited voice or load from cassette, or the DX100 will refuse the save — then turn it back ON afterward so you don't lose work.

For carrier operators, this picks the actual pitch (0.50 is one octave down, 1.00 is normal, 2.00 is one octave up). For modulator operators it changes the tone colour — whole-number ratios sound musical, oddball fractional ratios like 1.73 give clangy, bell-like or effect sounds. Poly/Mono chooses between playing chords or a single-line lead.

tip: Set MONO if you want portamento (glide) between notes — glide effects only work in MONO. In FUNCTION mode, the −1 button picks POLY and the +1 button picks MONO.

Detune nudges one operator very slightly out of tune with the others. On carriers this thickens and fattens the sound like two instruments playing together; on modulators it adds a subtle shimmer. Pitch Bend Range decides how dramatic the bend wheel is — set it to 2 for guitar-style bends or 12 for wild octave dives.

tip: You can reverse the bend wheel's direction by holding the PITCH B MODE button while switching the power ON. Detune is per-operator, so apply it to two carriers for the richest chorusing effect.

Attack Rate is how quickly a note fades in when you press a key. High values (near 31) give an instant, percussive start like a piano or plucked string; low values give a slow swell like strings or a pipe organ warming up. Portamento Mode picks how glide works: Full Time glides on every note, Fingered only glides when you hold the previous note down (great for guitar-style slides).

tip: For punchy sounds like electric piano, set AR to 31 on the carrier for an instant attack. Fingered portamento only works in MONO mode.

Decay 1 Rate is how quickly the note settles after its initial peak — fast values give a plucked/percussive drop, slow values let the note ring. Portamento Time sets how long the pitch takes to slide from one note to the next; small numbers slide quickly, big numbers slide slowly and dramatically.

tip: For a piano-like decay, use a moderate D1R (around 10) so the note falls off naturally after the attack. Portamento only sounds if POLY/MONO is set to MONO.

Decay 1 Level is where the note 'rests' after its initial attack and decay — a high value holds the note loud (like an organ), a low value lets it fade toward silence (like a piano tailing off). Foot Sw Assign just tells the DX100 what your foot pedal should do: hold notes (sustain) or switch glide on and off.

tip: In SUSTAIN mode the footswitch holds notes based on the D2R setting; if D2R is 0, the D1L level is held until you release the pedal — handy for organ-style sustained chords.

Decay 2 Rate is what happens while you keep a key held down: set it to 0 and the note sustains forever like an organ; raise it and the note gradually dies away even while held, like a real piano string decaying. Mod Wheel Range (Pitch) sets how much vibrato you get when you push the modulation wheel up.

tip: For the mod wheel to add vibrato, the voice's PITCH MODULATION SENSITIVITY (button 9) must be set above 0 — otherwise the wheel does nothing to pitch. Set D2R to 0 for sustained organ/pad sounds.

Release Rate is how quickly a note dies away once you take your finger off the key — high values cut off sharply, low values let the note ring on and fade slowly like a pedal held down. Mod Wheel Range (Amplitude) sets how much wobble in loudness or tone colour you get when you push the wheel up.

tip: Note the smaller range here: RR only goes 0–15 (not 0–31 like the other rates). For amplitude mod-wheel effects to work, the AMPLITUDE MODULATION SENSITIVITY (button 10) must be set above 0.

This is one of the most important sound-shaping controls. Turning up a carrier makes it louder in the mix; turning up a modulator adds more harmonics, making the sound brighter, buzzier or more complex. It's how you balance the four operators against each other. Breath Range (Pitch) lets a breath controller add vibrato as you blow harder.

tip: When building a sound from scratch, set carriers to 99 and gradually raise the modulator levels to dial in brightness — small modulator changes have a big effect on tone. Breath pitch effect needs PITCH MODULATION SENSITIVITY above 0 to work.

Rate Scaling copies how real acoustic instruments behave: on a piano or guitar the high notes decay faster than the low ones. Turn it up (max 3) and high notes on the DX100 will die away quicker than low notes, making plucked and struck sounds feel more natural. Breath Range (Amplitude) lets a breath controller add tremolo/wah as you blow harder.

tip: Use RATE SCALING of 2–3 on piano, guitar and other plucked/struck voices for a realistic feel where treble notes fade fast. For breath amplitude to work, AMPLITUDE MODULATION SENSITIVITY (button 10) must be above 0.

Depending on the mode, this one button picks a sound, controls how much quieter high notes get as you play up the keyboard, or lets your breath into the breath controller directly slide the pitch up or down. For level scaling, higher numbers make the top of the keyboard fade out like a real acoustic instrument; at 99 the highest notes almost vanish. For pitch bias, blowing harder shoves the pitch as far as four octaves in either direction from the 50 center.

tip: For a natural piano or guitar feel, use a modest level-scaling value so high notes thin out gently rather than disappear. Leave breath pitch bias at 50 unless you specifically want breath-controlled pitch slides.

One button, three jobs. Transpose shifts the pitch of every key so you can play in a different key without moving your hands. The EG bias setting lets your breath into the breath controller swell the volume (on a carrier) or brightness (on a modulator) of a note, like tonguing and pushing air on a wind instrument.

tip: After pressing TRANSPOSE you can just press any key between C1 and C5 to set the new center pitch instantly; that pressed key becomes middle C. For realistic brass or wind sounds, turn up EG bias so blowing harder makes the note louder and brighter.

This is how you type a name for a sound you've made. Each press bumps the blinking cursor to the next letter position, and you use the slider or the +1/-1 buttons to dial in the letter or symbol you want. It doesn't change the sound itself, just the label you'll see when you call that voice up later.

tip: Name a voice before you STORE it, otherwise it keeps the old name. Set each character first, then move the cursor right with this button and repeat.

This is the screen that tells you everything — which sound you're on, what you're adjusting, and its value. The single letter at the far left is a quick status clue: it tells you whether you're playing, editing, or in a menu, and warns you when unsaved edits are about to be lost.

tip: Watch that leading letter closely: a small 'p' means your edited sound is NOT saved yet and will vanish if you pick another voice — STORE it first. If the screen is hard to read, adjust the Contrast Control on the back panel.

This little light tells you the DX100 is switched on. If it starts blinking instead of glowing steadily, your batteries are nearly dead and the sound could cut out or get unreliable soon.

tip: If you see it flashing mid-gig, plug in the optional PA-1210 AC adaptor rather than swapping six 'C' batteries — Yamaha recommends the adaptor anyway because it's far more economical.

Push or pull this wheel to slide the pitch of your notes up or down smoothly, like bending a guitar string. Let go and it snaps back to normal pitch. How far it bends depends on the range you set — up to a whole octave.

tip: Set the range to 12 for dramatic octave dive-bombs, or 2 for realistic guitar-style bends. Combine it with the MODE SET 'Low' setting so a bend only affects the bottom note of a chord for slick bass-slide effects.

Roll this wheel forward to add wobble to your sound — either a wavering pitch (vibrato) or a pulsing volume/tone (tremolo or wah), depending on how the voice is set up. The further you push, the stronger the effect.

tip: If the wheel does nothing, the voice's modulation sensitivity is set to zero — the wheel can't create an effect out of nothing. Set the PITCH range around 30–50 for a musical, hand-controlled vibrato you can bring in whenever you want.

This is where you play. The keys are small but cover three octaves. Pressing a key harder or softer makes no difference to the volume or tone when playing the DX100 on its own — loudness is fixed. You can play up to 8 notes together, unless the voice is set to MONO (one note at a time).

tip: Because the built-in keys ignore how hard you play, expressive dynamics have to come from the Mod Wheel, Breath Controller, or an external velocity-sensitive MIDI keyboard driving the DX100. Use the small keyboard itself to quickly set TRANSPOSE and KEY SHIFT targets — just press the key you want.

This only affects how easy the little screen is to read—it does nothing to the sound. Turn it until the letters and numbers on the display are crisp and dark against the background.

tip: If the screen looks blank or washed out on a bright stage or in dim light, reach around back and tweak this before assuming something's broken.

Turns the synth on and off. There's no sound-shaping here—it's just the power. Note that switching it on always resets a couple of things: MEMORY PROTECT turns back ON automatically, so your saved sounds are guarded each time you power up.

tip: Always turn the DX100 ON before switching on your amplifier or speakers, and turn the amp off first when shutting down, to avoid a power-on thump that could damage speakers. To reverse the pitch-bend and mod-wheel direction, hold the PITCH B MODE (MODE SET) button while flicking this switch on.

This is where you plug in the wall-power adaptor so you don't burn through batteries. It has no effect on the sound; it just keeps the synth running.

tip: Yamaha recommends using the PA-1210 adaptor over batteries whenever possible because it's far more economical—the batteries only last about 10 hours of continuous use. Make sure the adaptor matches your local wall voltage.

This is the one jack that carries the actual sound out of the synth. The DX100 only has a single mono output, so everything it plays comes out here as one channel.

tip: Run this into one channel of a mixer or a keyboard amp. Since it's mono, if you want a stereo image you'll need to add external effects like reverb or chorus after this output.

Plug headphones in here to play silently without an amp. Even with stereo headphones the sound comes through in mono, since the DX100 only makes a single-channel signal.

tip: Use the top-panel VOLUME slider to set your headphone level—there's no separate headphone volume knob.

This is where you plug in a sustain-type foot pedal so you can hold or glide notes with your foot. Set to sustain, holding the pedal keeps notes ringing after you lift your fingers; set to portamento, pressing it turns the note-to-note pitch glide on or off.

tip: In SUSTAIN mode the pedal holds notes for as long as the voice's D2R decay allows; if D2R is set to 0 the note stays at its D1L level until you release the pedal, giving true organ-style sustain.

Plug the breath controller in here and hold its mouthpiece in your mouth like a wind instrument. Blowing into it adds expression—it can add vibrato-style wobble, tremolo, direct volume swells, brightness changes or pitch bends, depending on how you set the breath parameters. It makes brass and wind sounds feel much more alive and playable.

tip: For realistic wind-instrument tonguing, route breath to EG bias (parameter 23) so blowing harder makes notes louder and brighter. Combine breath parameters for more complex, expressive control.

This makes no sound by itself and changes nothing about the DX100's tone. It's just a copy of whatever performance data is coming into the synth, sent back out so you can hand it off to another instrument. If a sequencer or computer is playing the DX100, THRU lets that same stream reach a drum machine or another sound module further down the line, so several devices can all follow the same signal.

tip: Use THRU to daisy-chain a third device without an extra splitter: computer's OUT into the DX100's IN, then the DX100's THRU into the next module. Keep chains short, as passing through many boxes can eventually cause timing sloppiness.

This is how the DX100 tells other gear what you're doing on its keyboard. Playing a note here doesn't make the DX100 louder or different; instead it sends the note out so another synth or a sequencer can respond or record it. It can also send out your whole set of edited voices so you can back them up to a computer.

tip: To back up all your sounds via MIDI: turn MIDI on, press SYS INFO twice to reach 'Midi Transmit?' and answer YES — the DX100 dumps INTERNAL voices 1–24. Voices 25–32 come out as blank INIT VOICE data, so don't rely on this for those slots.

This is the DX100's ear for other gear. Because the DX100's own keys can't sense how hard you play, notes coming in here can carry that 'how hard' information from an outside keyboard — so an operator set for velocity sensitivity will actually change brightness and loudness with your touch, something the DX100 can't do on its own keybed.

tip: Set the receive channel with FUNCTION button 3 (CHANNEL) to match the sending device, or use OMNI mode to accept every channel at once. If nothing plays, check that MIDI (FUNCTION button 2) is ON and CH INFO is set as you expect.

This is the DX100's way of storing your custom sounds before it had memory cards or USB. It records all 24 of your INTERNAL voices onto an audio cassette as a screechy data tone, and reads them back later. It doesn't affect live sound at all — it's purely a backup and restore feature.

tip: Always run VERIFY right after a SAVE to confirm the tape recorded cleanly. Before LOADing, turn MEMORY PROTECT (FUNCTION button 12) OFF, and turn it back ON afterward. You can even load individual DX21 voices this way — the DX100 reads the first 24 of a DX21's 32-voice set.

This lets the DX100 run without being plugged into the wall, which is why it was popular as a strap-on 'keytar' for playing while moving around a stage. It has no effect on the sound — it just keeps the instrument powered. The Power-ON LED on the top panel flashes to warn you when the batteries are getting low.

tip: Yamaha recommends the PA-1210 adaptor over batteries whenever possible, since it's far more economical. When you do fit batteries, set the removal ribbon under the second cell from the left first, or you'll struggle to get them out later. Note this holds your voices only while powered — save important sounds to cassette.