u-he

mkastrup · Post by **mkastrup** » Sat May 17, 2008 9:22 am

Some people are in the dark when we talk about using FM for synthesis so i've created some FM patches which can introduce you to FM synthesis on Zebra.

Each patch is designed to take you to the next step of FM synthesis with documentation on the PERFORMANCE page. These patches are NOT splendid wow super nice sounding patches but patches which are made to help you understand FM synthesis on Zebra.

Its only 9 patches but they show you 9 typical ways to use FM synthesis.

Consider it an experiment, can we learn something by using the performance page and patches in this way. Let me know.

http://www.synthtronic.com/demos/Z2_FM_School.zip

/Michael

The following table is provided by Howard and is used to figure out FM tuning when it comes to harmonics. It requires some knowledge of FM synthesis before you can see the point with this table. So for now we just let it rest here until we need it

bootsie · Post by **bootsie** » Sat May 17, 2008 10:09 am

Thanks for sharing Michael!

peace,
bootsy

sinkmusic · Post by **sinkmusic** » Sat May 17, 2008 10:13 am

Thank you, it should be useful !

psycox · Post by **psycox** » Sat May 17, 2008 6:12 pm

sinkmusic wrote:Thank you, it should be useful !

and there was light...
thanks

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Sun May 18, 2008 1:27 am

Hey Michael!

Thanks for the "FM tutorial" patches. Might be a good idea to include that list of harmonics I did (remember?) or a better annotated version. Do you still have that file somewhere? I can't find it on my computer...

mkastrup · Post by **mkastrup** » Sun May 18, 2008 1:55 am

Howard wrote:Hey Michael!

Thanks for the "FM tutorial" patches. Might be a good idea to include that list of harmonics I did (remember?) or a better annotated version. Do you still have that file somewhere? I can't find it on my computer...

Yup i remember we did some harmonics research, i'll try dig it up from somewhere

EDIT: Done, found it and posted it in initial post.

/Michael

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Sun May 18, 2008 11:23 am

I just loaded 003 FM Bass into MainStage (which may or may not be significant), and FM1's volume modulation (from Env2) appears to be unipolar (it's set to 0.00 but has a 50% effect). Clicking on the knob changes it to bipolar, so 0.00 means no modulation. Bug? Can anyone verify this?

Edit: Same problem in Logic 8. iMac, Logic 8 / Mainstage, AU.

bmrzycki · Post by **bmrzycki** » Sun May 18, 2008 4:21 pm

Howard wrote:I just loaded 003 FM Bass into MainStage (which may or may not be significant), and FM1's volume modulation (from Env2) appears to be unipolar (it's set to 0.00 but has a 50% effect). Clicking on the knob changes it to bipolar, so 0.00 means no modulation. Bug? Can anyone verify this?

Edit: Same problem in Logic 8. iMac, Logic 8 / Mainstage, AU.

I see the exact same thing here with Logic 8 express and the latest Z2 Beta5 AU. If I don't touch the Env2 mod source knob in FMO1 I get a nice FM bass sound. As soon as I click on it and the bar above shows "VolumeModDepth 0.00" the sound changes to a deep bass sine wave. I'd definitely say something weird is going on.

bmrzycki · Post by **bmrzycki** » Sun May 18, 2008 4:28 pm

Thanks Michael for these. I'm very new to FM synthesis and this helps a lot to learn the theory behind it all. When I first started I bought Live + Operator (good marketing over at Ableton!) and was completely and utterly baffled by Operator. After looking at these presets some of it makes a bit more sense. Gotta go read more and twiddle knobs...

One thing I'm wondering if anyone has really explored is the "generator" types in the "More FMO" tab. I haven't seen any presets use anything other than "pure sine". I sent the waves through Sme(X)oscope to look at them and they all look and sound quite different. What I don't know (and can't seem to find any information about) is why one would want to use the different waves. I'm hoping for some information more than "different sonic palate" and more along the lines of "combs were added because they emulate plucked and struck sounds well".

Anyone mess with these? If you're unsure what I'm talking about, here's a screenshot:

beej · Post by **beej** » Sun May 18, 2008 4:43 pm

Yep, whenever I use FM stuff I always check out the extra waveforms - in most cases I haven't found the extra ones any more suited to what I was doing than the regular pure sine, but sometimes you get something interesting, especially when there's FM modulation going on...

Urs · Post by **Urs** » Sun May 18, 2008 5:10 pm

Regarding weird behaviour: Current betas have a bug in that tweaking a parameter directly "detaches" it from XY assignments - until one moves an XY. It's something that got lost when working on Program Changes. I'll bring it back.

Regarding FMO waveforms... they are somewhat inspired by those that can be found in certain FM hardware modules. Some people here asked for this kind of stuff.

djsubject · Post by **djsubject** » Sun May 18, 2008 5:19 pm

FM scares the hell out of me

maybe one day it will click

intill then i will play with the useful info in this thread!

thanks all!!

Subz

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Sun May 18, 2008 5:23 pm

Urs wrote:Some people here asked for this kind of stuff.

Please don't listen to those people again!

djsubject · Post by **djsubject** » Sun May 18, 2008 5:27 pm

bmrzycki · Post by **bmrzycki** » Sun May 18, 2008 5:43 pm

Howard wrote:
Urs wrote:Some people here asked for this kind of stuff.
Please don't listen to those people again!

So I'm glad I'm not totally alone about the "WTF are these?" moment I had looking at those.

Thanks for the clarification Urs. By any chance can you name some of the gear this was inspired by? Maybe hearing demos/musicians using these types of sounds can help me better understand their sonic usefulness.

Thanks!

u-he

KVR Audio

Zebra FM School