f. 'em - a new FM synth from Tracktion

[fairlyclose]

so far the most interesting pieces I have made using F'em are long and varying soundscapes (think soniclab Fundamental) rather than instruments in the classic sense. Switching my approach away from - this is an FM synth, toward this is an FM environment.

[zerocrossing]

I downloaded the demo and it seems a mess from a UI standpoint. Things that should have been pretty straight forward weren’t. Set it for MPE mode (made sure Bitwig agreed) and it didn’t seem to work at all. Pass.

[WasteLand]

I downloaded the demo and it seems a mess from a UI standpoint. Things that should have been pretty straight forward weren’t. Set it for MPE mode (made sure Bitwig agreed) and it didn’t seem to work at all. Pass.

you must also set the layer to MPE......

[zerocrossing]

I downloaded the demo and it seems a mess from a UI standpoint. Things that should have been pretty straight forward weren’t. Set it for MPE mode (made sure Bitwig agreed) and it didn’t seem to work at all. Pass.

you must also set the layer to MPE......

Hm, well the fact that I did not see a layer system also puts me off. That should be pretty obvious.

Maybe I’ll take another look. I’ve got a sh!t ton of v.o. work to do this weekend, but maybe I can take a break and have another look. Maybe I’m just crabby and not in the mood to have a plugin feel like work.

[WasteLand]

I downloaded the demo and it seems a mess from a UI standpoint. Things that should have been pretty straight forward weren’t. Set it for MPE mode (made sure Bitwig agreed) and it didn’t seem to work at all. Pass.

you must also set the layer to MPE......

Hm, well the fact that I did not see a layer system also puts me off. That should be pretty obvious.

Maybe I’ll take another look. I’ve got a sh!t ton of v.o. work to do this weekend, but maybe I can take a break and have another look. Maybe I’m just crabby and not in the mood to have a plugin feel like work.

that was obvious, indeed.. i didn't like the workflow either, although i own and like Biotek 2.

but after, setting frustrations aside and first only try to navigate, after that... it is quite a synth, more impressed than i predicted.

have a good weekend!

[Examigan]

I downloaded the demo and it seems a mess from a UI standpoint. Things that should have been pretty straight forward weren’t. Set it for MPE mode (made sure Bitwig agreed) and it didn’t seem to work at all. Pass.

you must also set the layer to MPE......

Hm, well the fact that I did not see a layer system also puts me off. That should be pretty obvious.

Maybe I’ll take another look. I’ve got a sh!t ton of v.o. work to do this weekend, but maybe I can take a break and have another look. Maybe I’m just crabby and not in the mood to have a plugin feel like work.

The 4 layer tabs are at the top.
To enable MPE for a layer, click Layer at the lower-left and you'll see the button on the next screen.

[Tj Shredder]

Why so many places to set it to MPE? Its totally confusing. Why do I have to set it at all? A synth only needs at most a global setting for Midi channel and one of these options should be MPE (and must not be saved with the preset… )
The times where layers had been used to listen to separate Midi channels was the last millennium and made only sense with hardware… (yes, also Kontakt is a flow killer…)
There are a lot of synth concepts from old times which simply don’t make sense in software…

[SLiC]

I agree global settings should be obvious and fast, but I guess if layers are used as pseudo multitimbral it makes some sense to save CPU usage (ie just load one instance but play different sounds) there are still a lot of multitimbral synths for this reason- Omnisphere, Falkon, Kontakt etc.

[don_sook]

I am happy we live in a time that we aren't so easily persuaded by fire sale discounts on software which doesn't baby feed us in terms of workflow.

[KBSoundSmith]

Has anyone figured out a useful way to use multiple slots in the flow lfo's? I kind of hoped it would sequence through the lfo slots somewhat like the wavestation or so, but I haven't found a useful way to make use of it through a modwheel assignment of that red dot or so as the transition is always non-smooth.

Control it with the other Flow LFO (make sure to play with Phase Start, Clock, Modifiers for things like Unipolar signal, etc).

[KBSoundSmith]

After reading the past few pages, I'm a bit mystified about the negativity. This synth is ridiculously powerful. The GUI isn't the most elegant (with the name f'em, should it be?), but the functionality is plenty clear. And as far as finding options, it doesn't really require much effort -- it seems people are making a mountain out of a molehill. Spend an evening learning the synth and there won't be any problems navigating its options.

[bnz]

Control it with the other Flow LFO (make sure to play with Phase Start, Clock, Modifiers for things like Unipolar signal, etc).

Boom, there is finally the answer I was looking for and it kind of makes me headscratch why I didn't figure this out myself Thanks a lot!

[bnz]

After reading the past few pages, I'm a bit mystified about the negativity. This synth is ridiculously powerful. The GUI isn't the most elegant (with the name f'em, should it be?), but the functionality is plenty clear. And as far as finding options, it doesn't really require much effort -- it seems people are making a mountain out of a molehill. Spend an evening learning the synth and there won't be any problems navigating its options.

I fully agree. It's a great synth and it's really awesome that it was developed given the whole everything is wavetable synth landscape (well, more or less). It's pretty much the VST plugin I have always wanted as somebody who still has a SY77 on the keyboard stand right next to the computer.

[KBSoundSmith]

this synth is very good i don t know why you feel it s bad, maybe the Ui, sonically it s not really special or like a old yamaha sound but the possbilities can lead to plenty of great sounds

It's interesting though how most of the patches don't make use of the 11 ops - makes me wonder is it just that many are not really needed or more the level of complexity that many OPs entails is challenging for sound designers to really make full use of (which I can relate to)

It's a mix, certainly.

Often, only a few operators are needed for a patch. For most patches, 11 ops is overkill. Part of it is also philosophical -- economy of means is one of the interesting aspects of FM. Small changes yield large results, so there's an enjoyable challenge to using as little as possible to get a desired sound.

That said, the extra operators are very desirable because when you DO need them, there's no substitute for having them available -- some patches just need the extra operator to push the sound that last 5%. Sometimes it's also nice just to have something available for experimentation.

It is also true that many people have a hard time programming FM. It is, in all fairness, not as straightforward as a subtractive synth. Knowing the variety of effects achievable with different configurations of operators requires study and experimentation, and for a lot of people that is more of a time commitment than they can reasonably justify.

[nominil]

I have this (probably silly) theory that AI might eventually allow for extremely complicated FM synthesis patch design, making lots of operators useful.