FM Synthesis (techniques, anecdotes)

[sheatheman]

18 hours ago, nikisoko said:

for the record i agree with this

Let the record show that nikisoko is a fellow FM elitist 

[Nil]

18 hours ago, mcbpete said:

I guess horses for courses - I bloody love the sound of the old PSS series. Though I'm in no need of the hardware as I've Plogue's PortaFM

 

Plogue does the dirty, lo-fi, characterful FM stunningly well. Chipsynth MD might be my fav though.
FWIW, they're working on a DX-7 model : i have absurdly high expectations for this. If they nail the UX / workflow and include variable revisions / chips (just like they did with Chipsynth MD) it could be stellar. I bet the sound engine itself will be impressive.

[cern]

That is lush! 

Btw has anyone bought and tried the OPL3LPT FM-synthesizer soundcard? You just plug it in and can produce FM-tunes with Adlib 2 tracker for example. 

It is only 53€ and Im really consider to buy one and plug it in an old computer
https://www.serdashop.com/OPL3LPT
 

 

[zkom]

5 minutes ago, cern said:

That is lush! 

Btw has anyone bought and tried the OPL3LPT FM-synthesizer soundcard? You just plug it in and can produce FM-tunes with Adlib 2 tracker for example. 

It is only 53€ and Im really consider to buy one and plug it in an old computer
https://www.serdashop.com/OPL3LPT
 

 

That's the most early 90s demoscene sounding track I've heard in years.

[sheatheman]

Has anyone tried making demoscene-esque stuff on the digitone?

[cern]

12 minutes ago, sheatheman said:

Has anyone tried making demoscene-esque stuff on the digitone?

YES!

Zabutom from Sweden is an old tracker/demoscene dude that made patches for Elektron. He is really good with the Digitone!

Here you go buddy
 

 

[Grain Bastard]

With the talk of old computer stuff doing FM I did a bit of digging for the old DX plug-in boards for the Yamaha XG1000 sound card that I always lusted after in the days of soundfonts etc before VSTi’s were a thing.

 

I didn’t find anything of any use other than chancers offering the SW1000’s for sale at ‘vintage’ prices so I stopped looking.

 

Anyway, what turns up on matrixsynth a couple of days later is this :-

 

https://www.matrixsynth.com/2021/03/yamaha-plg150-dx-yamaha-plg100-xg-demos.html?m=1
 

It is actually a really expensive and awkward way of getting a 16 voice non multi timbral FM synth  
 

If I was going to do the old pc thing I would look at getting as many Creamware cards as I could find and stick those in. I used to have the small Luna card and loved it. Way under powered though with only 3 dsp but landing on a Scope with 15 dsp and the modular software would give you plenty of FM and a ton of shit more.

[d-a-m-o]

@TheBro

[ignatius]

On 3/4/2021 at 5:54 AM, Nil said:

FWIW, they're working on a DX-7 model

oh that's nice to hear. any word on the timeline for release? i have the arturia DX and get some nice sounds out of it.  a plogue version would be interesting. 

worth mentioning that NI FM8 got an update recently. 

Edited March 23, 2021 by ignatius

[Nil]

No timeline, all the info I have come from a topic in KVR in which Plogue’s David regularly posts updates :

Source

David has an amazing ear for old digital synths (and the chops to code stunning emulations), I’m super impatient.

I had no clue FM8 got an update, anything new worth mentioning ?

 

Edited March 24, 2021 by Nil

[d-a-m-o]

https://gitlab.com/noyzelab/dx100-freq-ratios-decoded

[d-a-m-o]

 

[Nil]

I've had these videso bookmarked somewhere for a while, great content.

[d-a-m-o]

Any tips for advanced sound design with FM synthesis ? It seems that most articles and videos are focusing on the basic of FM...

[chim]

PLogue dropped their DX7 emu. I lost my TX7 so this is a gift from heaven, it's dead on so just get it. 

https://www.plogue.com/products/chipsynth-ops7.html

 

[TubularCorporation]

On 3/4/2021 at 9:28 AM, cern said:

That is lush! 

Btw has anyone bought and tried the OPL3LPT FM-synthesizer soundcard? You just plug it in and can produce FM-tunes with Adlib 2 tracker for example. 

It is only 53€ and Im really consider to buy one and plug it in an old computer
https://www.serdashop.com/OPL3LPT
 

 

Oooh, I've got a Windows 2000 era miniITX computer (minus case, drives and power supply) that I might have to get running in a lunchbox with one of these.

[TubularCorporation]

On 3/4/2021 at 10:43 AM, cern said:

YES!

Zabutom from Sweden is an old tracker/demoscene dude that made patches for Elektron. He is really good with the Digitone!

Here you go buddy
 

 

this is a good reminder that once I finish moving in a few weeks I need to finally do some demoscene style stuff with the Octatrack, since it has just about all the ingredients to be Octamed-in-a-box.

[sheatheman]

On 9/21/2021 at 8:29 AM, d-a-m-o said:

Any tips for advanced sound design with FM synthesis ? It seems that most articles and videos are focusing on the basic of FM...

Advanced how?

[d-a-m-o]

1 hour ago, sheatheman said:

Advanced how?

I mean stuff that goes beyond the simple two op bass or classic bells.

[YEK]

4 hours ago, chim said:

PLogue dropped their DX7 emu. I lost my TX7 so this is a gift from heaven, it's dead on so just get it. 

https://www.plogue.com/products/chipsynth-ops7.html

 

All of their products look super nice actually

[Nil]

I have their 3 FM chipsynths (bought OPS7 as soon as it got released). They sound absolutely lush.

[cern]

16 hours ago, TubularCorporation said:

this is a good reminder that once I finish moving in a few weeks I need to finally do some demoscene style stuff with the Octatrack, since it has just about all the ingredients to be Octamed-in-a-box.

Yeah! That is really good but I must say Machinedrum rocks in this Tracker-style demoscene music. 
It has first of all 16 channels and now inside the unofficial OS It has more sound engines! 
 

 

[sheatheman]

On 9/24/2021 at 11:59 PM, d-a-m-o said:

I mean stuff that goes beyond the simple two op bass or classic bells.

You can make great organ sounds if you use the carrier-only algorithm. Then each operator is a drawbar. 

[TubularCorporation]

On 9/26/2021 at 9:24 AM, sheatheman said:

You can make great organ sounds if you use the carrier-only algorithm. Then each operator is a drawbar. 

Definitely.  DX7II/TX802 into a tube amp (real or emulated) is one of the better sounding tonewheel organ emulations around.

Edited September 27, 2021 by TubularCorporation

[Himelstein]

One cool, really complicated way of creating evolving tones that I’ve found with the dx 11 is to use the multi channel feature (up to 8 tones on different midi channels) and create different attack or decay points for every operator throughout all 8 tones. So 32 operators could have all different envelopes creating a really wild type of sweep. I’ve actually never gone all the way, normally I only use a few channels when I do this type of stuff- I get lazy, but in theory it could get really insane. Of course when you have that many operators going, and some of the tones have different carrier things happening based on the algorithm they are set to- things can get even crazier.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Himelstein