MATRIXSYNTH: FnsideSynthesis04: FM Synthesis Pt1


Friday, February 01, 2008

FnsideSynthesis04: FM Synthesis Pt1


Be sure to see the write-up on Sonic State.

12 comments:

  1. Yes, I agree, good vid.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Am I the only person who thinks that FM patches generally sound shrill and unpleasant?

    Nice tutorial though.

    ReplyDelete
  3. On their own, yes FM can sound shrill or "cheesy", but once you put it into a mix it can compliment the usual subtractive sounds quite well. In addition to being good at emulative synthesis FM offers some really far out effects that you just can't achieve without audio rate modulation. Pick up an old TX81Z and play with it, the 80 dollars it will cost you is well worth it, you may just keep it in your rack for what it is capable of.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think the main barrier to using FM synthesis is psychological - people hear an FM synth patch and they have a kneejerk "OMG 80's BLERGH" reaction. There's nothing wrong with the sound of FM, it's the historical baggage that comes with it, it's strong association with a time that many people think of as dated. Sort of like the Synare drum sound is associated with late 70's disco records.

    ReplyDelete
  5. BTW, nice tutorial, it made FM a lot clearer. I look forward to seeing more.

    ReplyDelete
  6. FM is great! I just grabbed a TX81Z for pennies. Editing is more of a pain due to the interface more than anything. Many of Yamaha's later DX and TX synths have fairly extensive midi implementation and are much easier to edit with an external controller. I'm in the early stages of creating a dedicated knob box for controlling all the functions of my 81z based on the Midibox platform.
    Now that I have at least a baseline understanding of FM I am looking forward to obtaining some 6 and 8 operator synths or a VA that has enough juice to give me 6 or more oscillators with linear fm.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey Ryan,

    Check out the TX81Z editor/librarian from this page:

    http://the-all.org/tx81z/

    It's well worth it. It allows you to edit the sounds without having to squint at the screen and punch those little buttons. Thanks to this editor the TX81Z has been a great edition to my studio.

    ReplyDelete

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