Last week, I was in my gaming club late at night. we hold the club in a computer lab where i often use one of the computers as well as play on the xbox one system that the club leader, David, brings. On that computer i was on this website, www.webaudiomodules.org, which holds a online synth module called DEXED which emulates the iconic Yamaha DX7 synthesizer.
Now keep in mind: I have no musical talent. i only know how to play two musical tunes: part of the opening to Sierra's Space Quest 3 and part of the Jaws theme (The latter is important to this story). So that night one of the patches i was playing was the Tubular Bell, arguably the most iconic sound from the DX, and one of the tunes i was playing was the Jaws theme. but when i was playing it, i noticed one of the notes, the E note sounds like this:
Does that sound familiar?
In order to understand this we need to go back the beginning, Back to 1948 in the city of San Bernardino, California. Taco Bell founder Glen Bell got his start in the restaurant business by opening up a small hot dog stand called Bell's Drive-In. The stand sold hot dogs and hamburgers for just 15 cents and 20 cents respectively
The original Bell's Drive-In
There was just one problem, The stand wasn't doing very well. That was because just across the street, there was a Mexican restaurant called the Mitla Cafe, and residents were more interested in its hard-shelled tacos than hamburgers and hot dogs.
In the 1950’s Mexican restaurants were common in California, but not really anywhere else. Glen Bell, who grew up on Mexican food, saw an opportunity with the idea to open a taco stand. He started by attempting to reverse engineer Matila’s tacos and later got permission from Matila’s to see how they make the tacos themselves.
11 years later, in 1962, the first Taco Bell opened in the city of Downey and one an immediate success. The crunchy taco was something most people had never seen before and was seen as a unique alternative to a regular hamburger. By 1967 they opened up they’re 100th location in Anaheim, California.
Taco Bell founder Glen Bell (center) at the grand opening of the 100th Taco Bell
1967
Meanwhile, 384 miles away at Stanford University, John Chowning a professor of music, is about to introduce a revolution of a different kind, FM synthesis. In 1971, Chowning demonstrated his invention by using it to emulate acoustic sounds such as organs and brass. impressed, Stanford patented the technology and hoped to license it, but the problem was they couldn't find a company interested in the technology. However all that changed when FM Synthesis caught the attention of Japanese instrument maker Yamaha. At the time, Yamaha was the largest manufacturer of musical instruments in the world, but they didn't have much market share in the United States. Interested in the technology, One of their chief engineers visited Stanford and was impressed enough to license the Technology in 1973. After another 7 years of developments, In 1980, Yamaha introduced the worlds first commercial FM synthesizer, The Yamaha GS1.
The Yamaha GS1
The Yamaha DX7
It was an immediate success, selling 150,000 units within just 1 year, making it the first commercially successful digital synthesizer and still one of the bestselling synthesizers in history. Due to complex submenus displayed on an LCD and no knobs and sliders to adjust the sound, many found the DX7 difficult to program, so most users used the presets, which became widely used in 1980s pop music. The DX7 was used by many famous musicians such as A-ha, Kenny Loggins, Laura Branigan, Whitney Houston, Chicago, Phil Collins, Luther Vandross, Billy Ocean, and Cyndi Lauper just to name a few.
So when did Taco Bell ads start using the DX7? Well, from at least 1968 to 1989, the Taco Bell gong was created with actual bells. here's a selection of a few of these commercials:
Taco Bell's first radio commercial 1968
Taco Bell Christmas commercial 1977
Taco Bell commercial 1981
The first commercials didn't feature the bell at the end but in 1990, the commercials stated to feature the DX7's Tubular Bell sound. Though there wasn't a set note standard gong there were multiple different notes that they used for the gong. here some examples:
It wasn't until 2001 when the bell became the standard E note that will still hear at the end of Taco Bell commercials today 21 years later.
It's crazy to think that one of the DX7 most long lasting impacts was made not in the music world but in the fast food advertising world! though the DX7 legacy isn't limited to this however.
It was the first digital synthesizer for many musicians, Yamaha had paved the way for low cost FM synthesis chips throughout the 80s, released several follow-ups including the TX81Z, DX1, DX11, and DX21, and continued to make FM synthesis chips based on the DX7 which found notable success in many arcade machines, video game consoles, and home computers. these chips include The Yamaha YM2151, also known as OPM, used in Atari's Marble Madness, The Yamaha YM2612 or the OPN used in the Sega Genesis, and the YM3812 or the OPL2 used in IBM PC sound cards such as the AdLib and Sound Blaster cards.
So the next time you hear that gong, think about the synth that made it and how it helped create on of the many sound common in pop culture.