The Shofuku
rebirth
Inside DX7 V
with Nori Ubakata
In the early days of FM synthesis, only a few synth masters were talented enough to crack the code of the DX7 V and create patches that were simultaneously innovative, inspiring, and sounded fantastic.
Nori Ubukata was one of those people.
1984 FM
Masters
After becoming a sound designer for the DX1 almost by chance, in 1984, Nori partnered up with Yasuhiko Fukuda to create two expansion cartridges for Yamaha’s FM legend. These “Shofuku” presets banks originally came on appropriately chunky memory cartridges, and gave the synth a whole new depth.
Behind the scenes, Nori has been busy working on importing these sounds from the original synth to DX7 V. Not only do they work seamlessly within the Arturia software, they’ve also been updated with some fun new features that Nori always wanted to add, but couldn’t on the original hardware.
”At that time, we didn’t have any internet or LAN, so we used cartridges.”
Explore the rare, vintage sound expansions from the mid-80s,
brought back to life by Nori and DX7 V
”There are no hard and fast rules to songwriting. If I sit down and say ‘today I’m going to write a song’, nothing will happen...”
Inspired to explore the world of electronic music by the synth soundtrack elements of Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 masterpiece A Clockwork Orange, Nori’s expertise grew as he studied the analog sounds of Carlos’ dramatic score.
Although his skill grew from his experience with analog synthesizers, it was with the pioneering digital synths of the 1980s that Ubukata made his name. Now respected as one of the greatest synth sound designers and a true master of FM synthesis, the team at Arturia are thrilled to have such an experienced, talented synthesist in our team.
Interested in DX7 V? Head to our dedicated page to learn more.