f. 'em - a new FM synth from Tracktion

[Big Tick]

I never liked the AWM2 stuff that came with the SY77. Opzilla also turned me off because it relied on samples. Imagine if they tried that with an analog synth.

Opzilla doesn't rely on samples - the whole FM part uses analog style waveforms. The samples are only for adding realistic attacks that would be hard to do in FM without using up a lot of operators. Like a cross-breed between a Tx81z and a D50.

[MitchK1989]

I just went through the F'em factory library and the vast majority of the patches do not use samples, the vast majority of the ones that do use samples use them for background ambience or layering and don't suddenly sound like nothing if you turn the samples off, and there are admittedly a very small amount of patches that essentially amount to being rompler patches where the multisample is the patch essentially.

Overall making patches from scratch the UI has a lot of tabs but I think that's kinda a necessary evil with a complex FM synth, and I would agree it honestly feels like the FM9 NI declined to make.

EDIT: I will say using field recordings at a fixed pitch as an FM source for some of your operators in an FM patch gets into really really creepy/horror vibes real fast.

[Muziksculp]

I was experimenting with F'em for a few hours last week, and I discovered that it's a great synth for making ambient sounds, textures, evolving pads, ..etc. great for Ambient music producers.

[Mumdad]

Currently demoing this, has anyone figured out a way to approximate FM8's morph feature? I gather that actually morphs some parameters but a simple volume crossfade between layers on the XY pad would be a nice enough alternative, I don't think the volume of the layers is assignable though?

[OrionAlpha101]

I need to say very bad bad sound design on this synth ,what's wrong with you Wolfram?

[Examigan]

AFAIK he didn't design any presets in it.

[fuse]

The manual says:

"Sound Design and Sample Content: Alessandro Cardinale, Ed Ten Eyck, Jay de Miceli, Klaus-Peter Rausch (KPR), Stranjah, Vasil Ivanov (The Editor), Yuli Yolo"

[Gribs]

The market is saturated with FM synths, plus I have an OpSix and an Iridium. I am sure the synth is capable in the hands of the right sound designer, but Tracktion has more interesting products IMO.

[fairlyclose]

The market is saturated with FM synths, plus I have an OpSix and an Iridium. I am sure the synth is capable in the hands of the right sound designer, but Tracktion has more interesting products IMO.

I had Waves Flow Motion - which is fantastic - and bought f'em to cover other territory. I dont need any other FM synth at all.

[Gribs]

The market is saturated with FM synths, plus I have an OpSix and an Iridium. I am sure the synth is capable in the hands of the right sound designer, but Tracktion has more interesting products IMO.

I had Waves Flow Motion - which is fantastic - and bought f'em to cover other territory. I dont need any other FM synth at all.

For me it is the venerable FM8, Blue 2, and Arturia’s DX7 emulator. Falcon and Halion have smaller FM synth options, too. I demo’d Flow Motion a long time ago and decided against it but I can’t remember why. I would probably buy Xils Kaox before F’m tbh.

I won’t talk hardware here, but I have a couple of smaller FM things, too. If I were going to recommend one piece of hardware, though, for FM and mixed digital sound design it would be the OpSix.

[fairlyclose]

The market is saturated with FM synths, plus I have an OpSix and an Iridium. I am sure the synth is capable in the hands of the right sound designer, but Tracktion has more interesting products IMO.

I had Waves Flow Motion - which is fantastic - and bought f'em to cover other territory. I dont need any other FM synth at all.

For me it is the venerable FM8, Blue 2, and Arturia’s DX7 emulator. Falcon and Halion have smaller FM synth options, too. I demo’d Flow Motion a long time ago and decided against it but I can’t remember why. I would probably buy Xils Kaox before F’m tbh.

I won’t talk hardware here, but I have a couple of smaller FM things, too. If I were going to recommend one piece of hardware, though, for FM and mixed digital sound design it would be the OpSix.

Kaox seems a great design but is so ugly to me that I couldnt use it

[concon]

Just bought F'em, and I'm pretty wowed so far. I used to stare at FM8 as a kind of blank wall in the "expert" mode, although the synth sounded great. Maybe after playing with this newbie I'll go back and mess with FM8 again.

[briefcasemanx]

The market is saturated with FM synths, plus I have an OpSix and an Iridium. I am sure the synth is capable in the hands of the right sound designer, but Tracktion has more interesting products IMO.

I bought Abyss and Hyperion from Tracktion marketplace instead (both massively on sale right now), and for FM bought just Tone2 Nemesis. I disliked every single preset in F'em except one. The sound had a cheap quality to it in every single preset and there were a LOT of presets. I didn't even bother programming my own sounds, I've never found a synth that had ALL bad presets that I liked after doing my own sound design. Meanwhile Nemesis had some very good presets and when I started programming sounds came up with cool sounds.

The concept of *F'em seems cool but at the end of the day it's about getting cool sounds.

*Typo edit

[Gribs]

The market is saturated with FM synths, plus I have an OpSix and an Iridium. I am sure the synth is capable in the hands of the right sound designer, but Tracktion has more interesting products IMO.

I bought Abyss and Hyperion from Tracktion marketplace instead (both massively on sale right now), and for FM bought just Tone2 Nemesis. I disliked every single preset in F'em except one. The sound had a cheap quality to it in every single preset and there were a LOT of presets. I didn't even bother programming my own sounds, I've never found a synth that had ALL bad presets that I liked after doing my own sound design. Meanwhile Nemesis had some very good presets and when I started programming sounds came up with cool sounds.

The concept of Nemesis seems cool but at the end of the day it's about getting cool sounds.

Nice! I bought those two from Tracktion today as well. I was waiting for a sale. I noticed someone near the top of this thread posted a Reaktor 4-operator synth they wired together. It can be done in Softube modular, too, using the Intellijel Rubicon oscillator add-on module in linear FM mode, though I have tried with only a 2-operator synth. I would guess that it can be done in Voltage Modular and Hyperion, too, but I haven't tried it in either one.

[Xryz]

Just got F'em on BF sale and yes, it is indeed a fantastic synth but I was surprised how much CPU it demands in some factory patches.

I am on a M1 Silicon Mac running the VST and AU versions and patches like "D(X)iamonds" maxes one core with just a couple of notes being played. Just wondering if anyone is experiencing this too.