FM Synthesis (techniques, anecdotes)

[TubularCorporation]

Finally managed to connect with the guy who had the TG-33 hidden parameters Sound Diver editor (for some reason gmail was disappearing any emails he sent to me from his gmail account, I've never seen that before - he would send them and they would just disappear, never made it to me but never bounced either). This thread seems like a more useful spot than the TG-33 thread to post it.

 

It's probably on the Yamaha Yahoo group but as far as I've found it's pretty much gone from the web (the person who made it took their site down ages ago and the wayback machine archive of it has dead links because it was hosted on some old Apple cloud service).  Once I have a chance to actually try it out tomorrow and confirm that it really works, I'll upload it to archive.org for posterity, but for now here's a dropbox link in case anyone here has any use for it:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/egr4wsmuxzaxibl/tg33v2.zip?dl=1

 

Thanks for that link, telefunken!  The music is pretty good and the old Electronic Musician article linked at the bottom went straight into the folder with the FB-01 service manual for future use.

Edited July 8, 2018 by RSP

[Nil]

I never realized how much FM got used in so many circa 2000 Warp & co records... until now.

Here's a simple Bazille patch with some reverb, running a simple 160bpm rhythmic melody. Reminds of something halfway between Ae and SP's Go Plastic / DYKS era: https://www.dropbox.com/s/iv0j67a8qmdsuiy/%C3%A6uto1.wav?dl=0

 

Not the sort of music I want to write (nor the most inspiring loop ever, to say the least), but I'm quite satisfied to slowly get a better grasp at FM. I'm now seriously considering saving for a Digitone. I'm a software guy, and it's weird how I'm more appealed to digital hardware than analogue synths... while I guess I could do it all in the box, right?

 

Using a somehow similar patch as above, I can go into Gabor Lazar'ish territories... but it's still way to unpredictable to be usable (and not as hmmm refined, though definitely as organic sounding). I really want to nail these sort of timbres and tones, to make something quite different in the end though.

[acid1]

Nice sounds

[ignatius]

I never realized how much FM got used in so many circa 2000 Warp & co records... until now.

Here's a simple Bazille patch with some reverb, running a simple 160bpm rhythmic melody. Reminds of something halfway between Ae and SP's Go Plastic / DYKS era: https://www.dropbox.com/s/iv0j67a8qmdsuiy/%C3%A6uto1.wav?dl=0

 

 

 

 

kinda reminds me of brothomstates

[d-a-m-o]

I never realized how much FM got used in so many circa 2000 Warp & co records... until now.

Here's a simple Bazille patch with some reverb, running a simple 160bpm rhythmic melody. Reminds of something halfway between Ae and SP's Go Plastic / DYKS era: https://www.dropbox.com/s/iv0j67a8qmdsuiy/%C3%A6uto1.wav?dl=0

 

Not the sort of music I want to write (nor the most inspiring loop ever, to say the least), but I'm quite satisfied to slowly get a better grasp at FM. I'm now seriously considering saving for a Digitone. I'm a software guy, and it's weird how I'm more appealed to digital hardware than analogue synths... while I guess I could do it all in the box, right?

 

Using a somehow similar patch as above, I can go into Gabor Lazar'ish territories... but it's still way to unpredictable to be usable (and not as hmmm refined, though definitely as organic sounding). I really want to nail these sort of timbres and tones, to make something quite different in the end though.

 

Nice one Nil ! can't wait to ear your next release !

[Nil]

Thanks Friend!   

I've spent most of 2018 on defining a sound-palette that inspires me, experimenting quite a lot with drum-synthesis, patching everything and everything in Bazille (what a beast!), and currently properly investigating FM... and it feels sooooo rejuvenating.

So yeah, by the end of the year, definitely.

[fullfallus]

Finally managed to connect with the guy who had the TG-33 hidden parameters Sound Diver editor (for some reason gmail was disappearing any emails he sent to me from his gmail account, I've never seen that before - he would send them and they would just disappear, never made it to me but never bounced either). This thread seems like a more useful spot than the TG-33 thread to post it.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/egr4wsmuxzaxibl/tg33v2.zip?dl=1

 

 

 

is sounddiver available for pc running a modern OS? I cant seem to get the other editors to work with the tg33, an would like to give it a try. Thanks a lot for the link!

 

 

 

FM synth is all over the place! I find the tx81z to have really large resonant peaks in comparison which I think is a big reason it makes it feel more 'glassy'. i find its important to always run the tx through compression of some kind (distortion compresses too) to try and control these peaks. the sine on a dx21/100 feels more much controlled and more pleasant as a result. Compress the shit out of it and serve it into your favorite rackmount sampler, serve hot.

Edited July 15, 2018 by fullfallus

[TubularCorporation]

Sound Diver hasn't been legally available in a long time, but if you use 32 bit Windows there's a free TG-33 editor that's supposed to be really good and is still available on archive.org:

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20140618084244/http://www.plompy.co.uk/software/

 

 

Won't even install on a 64 bit system, though, so I've never gotten to try it.

[modey]

Yeah the Plompy one works really well. The interface isn't great, but it's possible to adjust parameters not available from the panel.

 

I use it on a shitty ASUS XP netbook that a friend gave me, along with an old Roland USB-MIDI interface. I'm sure a combination like that can be acquired for less than $100.

[sheatheman]

I wish technology had gone in a different direction, and instead of car stereos playing radio and tapes, they just played midi files with onboard sound cards. My car would have a sound blaster.

[modey]

wow that looks sweet!

[TubularCorporation]

Yeah the Plompy one works really well. The interface isn't great, but it's possible to adjust parameters not available from the panel.

 

I use it on a shitty ASUS XP netbook that a friend gave me, along with an old Roland USB-MIDI interface. I'm sure a combination like that can be acquired for less than $100.

 

I was doing that with an ancient HP tablet for my FB-01 but the hard drive died last fall and I haven't replaced it.

[TubularCorporation]

I wish technology had gone in a different direction, and instead of car stereos playing radio and tapes, they just played midi files with onboard sound cards. My car would have a sound blaster.

 

The first sound card we ever got when I was a kid was some off brand Sound Blaster clone called a BOOM BOARD that I can hardly even find any evidence of ever existing on line.  It didn't work that well.

[acid1]

Anyone else got the Dixie, Rubicon, µFold combo?

 

I'm getting great results after banging my head against a wall for a while, and would love to share strategies.

[d-a-m-o]

Yup bring it pls !

[d-a-m-o]

Any preenFM2 users ? Any feedback on this little beast would be great !

[Entorwellian]

speaking of the tx81z, i'm working on a tribute in reaktor that is close to being finished. here's a peek..

 

 

you can see that it expands upon the envelopes by giving you dx7 style ones, and the times of each env can be made longer or shorter with velocity and or keyboard position. also, the SCL knob moves all the times down together so that when an env needs to be made longer or shorter you don't need to change each time knob. also as you can probably tell there are no algorithms, just free patching (as much as i like algorithms as a good jumping off point for patch creation).

 

so far i'm pretty happy with the sound, it certainly doesn't have the magic of the TX81Z but i think it's just as fun to use. only using about 12% cpu on my laptop with 8 voices of polyphony. i've already made a sample pack with it which i'll post ITT soon and i'll put the patch up when it's done.

That looks really cool. You did a good job on the UI parts. Would love to hear it.

[kausto]

Any preenFM2 users ? Any feedback on this little beast would be great !

 

I love PFM2. I have it since 2014 iirc. I helped Xavier to find first fm-related bugs since PFM2 is fm synthesizer not pm like yamaha. Recently some user found more fm-engine bugs and they were fixed. Now it is close to an ideal.

Dave Noyze shows some grey territories:

http://ixox.fr/forum/index.php?topic=69399.0

My try to visit this territories

https://clyp.it/on3zi2nq

 

You can use 4 instruments simultaneously:

https://clyp.it/niwpah2r

 

You can upload your own waveforms as txt

and scala files also

Edited December 3, 2018 by telefunken

[d-a-m-o]

Thanks for the feedback and for the links, great read.

[marf]

Mutable Instruments Rings Resonator will get you most of those sounds

[iococoi]

https://mmontag.github.io/dx7-synth-js/

[chim]

How would you do the bass on Last Rushup 10M, three minutes in? I'm sure it's some dumb modular thing but it sounds pretty doable with FM and some expression control. 

[Grain Bastard]

Not much to add other than if you have a Korg Nu-Tek (or compatible unit) there is a FM engine from the Mutable Instruments Plaits - MO2 Fm for free over at the Korg site along with other ports.

 

great sounding simple fm engine. A bit like the FM synth on the OP-1. Great having the fix section of the Nu-tek to run it through too.

[d-a-m-o]

https://www.waves.com/fm-synthesis-how-richard-devine-designs-sounds

Nice read

[sweepstakes]

This thread made me finally try Dexed. I hated the experience so much that it kind of made me want to get rid of my Volca FM.