FM synth recommendations please?

[nichttuntun]

I dived further into my journey into FM-VSTs and I want to add two more which I really like and both are absolute fantastic on their own approaches:

- Rob Papen´s Blue / veeeery good (expensive) ... more of a hybrid synthesizer but with 6 freely routable FM-operators if you like.


- Audio Nebula´s AURORA FM / complete and non-compromise pure FM with very special extras like frequency selection relative mode, loopable and freely definable envelops and many modulation sources. It outsmarts the DX 7 and DEXED by far. Only 17 canadian dollars for a limited introduction time...you can´t go wrong here.

Made a litte sound-demo with AURORA FM with only 3 designed patches:
https://soundcloud.com/user-564309669/a ... -my-pocket

[discoDSP]

This is all Phantom: https://soundcloud.com/discodsp/phantoms-of-the-void

[nichttuntun]

What synth did you make it with?

[fmr]

What synth did you make it with?

This one: https://www.discodsp.com/phantom/

He told that in his post.

Contrary to what some people may think, FM synths are out there by the dozens, since a very long time

[nichttuntun]

What synth did you make it with?

This one: https://www.discodsp.com/phantom/

He told that in his post.

Contrary to what some people may think, FM synths are out there by the dozens, since a very long time

yes of course...early 80th I guess. The birth of the commercial digital synth.

[Distorted Horizon]

I'm looking for a good FM softsynth?

Thanks

Audio Nebula Aurora is very nice and easy to use.

Tone2 Nemesis too, but has a little more of everything and is very limited with osc numbers.

FM8 from NI if you feel like digging deeper.

[pdxindy]

My favorite FM synth is Bazille... I find the sound quality and diversity of sonic palette unmatched.

I'm also very pleased with the new Bitwig instrument Phase-4... it's really good.

[teilo]

Dexed for authencity

As someone who owns a DX7 and uses Dexed as a library manager and editor, I cannot agree with this statement. It is authentic in the sense that it has the same structure as the DX7 (minus portamento and glissando), but any patch with higher order harmonics aliases terribly, far more than on a real DX7, and thus certain patches become very scratchy and harsh when they are smooth on a DX7.

This can be mitigated by tweaking the cutoff filter in Dexed, but you can't leave it at just one setting to fix this problem, so really, unless you can do an A/B against a real DX7, you can't really call a Dexed patch authentic.

Also, the envelopes, despite having recently improved, are not accurate. The same patch on Dexed and the DX7 can have very different EG profiles, and the difference is not subtle, but obvious. (And yes, I have Dexed set to the Mark I engine.)

I don't have it to compare, but the consensus seems to be that the Arturia V DX7 does not suffer in this way, and is remarkably accurate.

[fmr]

Dexed for authencity

As someone who owns a DX7 and uses Dexed as a library manager and editor, I cannot agree with this statement. It is authentic in the sense that it has the same structure as the DX7 (minus portamento and glissando), but any patch with higher order harmonics aliases terribly, far more than on a real DX7, and thus certain patches become very scratchy and harsh when they are smooth on a DX7.
.../...

I don't have it to compare, but the consensus seems to be that the Arturia V DX7 does not suffer in this way, and is remarkably accurate.

Agree what you said about DeXed 100%. As I said, Arturia DX7 V is much more accurate, sonically, than DeXed. And DX7 V goes way beyond DX7, although it respects and user can limit itself strictly to DX7 features, if so he/she wants it.

[SMH]

Dexed!!

[nichttuntun]

Dexed!!

Dexed is actually good sounding and it is somewhat true to the spirit of the original DX7. Exactely here lies the problem too. It inherits all the diseases of the DX7. Dexed is complicated (the envelops are horror) to use and it is limited. I think going a next and logical step on the stair of technical development can´t hurt. Dexed can be considered totally old-fashioned in comparison to new VST-synth and I don´t think Yamaha would make the same limited architecture again, now over 30 years later, would they?

And so I think it is time to let go and take that wonderful FM synthesis approach and mix it with modern synthesizers architechtures, routing- and modulation options and easy to use envelopes and interfaces and such. Such products carry names like:

BLUE2
AURORA FM

and whatnot. These are eventually the more interesting choices for many people without beeing bonded to terms like "past", "authentic", "old-school" and such.

Cheers

[fmr]

And so I think it is time to let go and take that wonderful FM synthesis approach and mix it with modern synthesizers architechtures, routing- and modulation options and easy to use envelopes and interfaces and such. Such products carry names like:

BLUE2
AURORA FM

and whatnot. These are eventually the more interesting choices for many people without beeing bonded to terms like "past", "authentic", "old-school" and such.

Blue 2, yes, naturally. Aurora, NO. It is limited, much more limited than, for example, Arturia DX7 V, without being more faithful to the DX7 architecture than it.

Actually, placing Aurora at the same level than Blue 2 is ignoring what is Blue 2. Aurora can't compete with Blue 2, as it can't compete, for example, with FM8, or Sytrus, or Rhino, or Octopus (Rhino and Octopus being already quite old). And it certainly can't compete with DX7 V. Not to mention Aurora has a horrible GUI, by far one of the ugliest and hard to look I ever saw.

There is only one point in favor of Aurora, and that is the price. But it is more or less at the same level as DeXed and Oxe FM (both of them FREE).

[SMH]

Dexed!!

Dexed is actually good sounding and it is somewhat true to the spirit of the original DX7. Exactely here lies the problem too. It inherits all the diseases of the DX7. Dexed is complicated (the envelops are horror) to use and it is limited.

That's what I like about it- I wanted something to make those classic sounds.

[fmr]

Dexed!!

Dexed is actually good sounding and it is somewhat true to the spirit of the original DX7. Exactely here lies the problem too. It inherits all the diseases of the DX7. Dexed is complicated (the envelops are horror) to use and it is limited.

That's what I like about it- I wanted something to make those classic sounds.

Actually, as tello told, I don't think that's true. I think Dexed sound has a quality considerably inferior than DX7. And you can make those very same sounds without compromise the quality, using other alternatives, as has been repeatedly said.

[SMH]

Dexed!!

Dexed is actually good sounding and it is somewhat true to the spirit of the original DX7. Exactely here lies the problem too. It inherits all the diseases of the DX7. Dexed is complicated (the envelops are horror) to use and it is limited.

That's what I like about it- I wanted something to make those classic sounds.

Actually, as tello told, I don't think that's true. I think Dexed sound has a quality considerably inferior than DX7. And you can make those very same sounds without compromise the quality, using other alternatives, as has been repeatedly said.

Have to disagree- I A-B'ed them when I used to still have a DX-7 and with a bit of EQ they sounded virtually identical except the real DX-7 made more noise.