kind of tutorial: Making a sawtooth bass on a 4 op FM synth

[Muzik 4 Machines]

[tranel]

The next question is of course: WHY would you want to make a sawtooth bass on a TX81z, when most of us have sawtooth-sources in abundance anyway?

Bass though is something that it does extremely well, just ask my neighbours...

(sorry, don't mean to rain on your parade there, Muzik 4 Machines, just asking...)

[Audio Gnostic]

The next question is of course: WHY would you want to make a sawtooth bass on a TX81z, when most of us have sawtooth-sources in abundance anyway?

lmfaoo, this is exacttlly what i was goign to say when i first saw the titel of this post.

[justin3am]

Thanks dude! That was pretty cool. I'd really like to have a better understanding of FM synthesis because I have a feeling that I haven't even explored a small part of what can be done with a multi-operator FM synth (and I have gotten pretty deep with FM8). Little tutorials like this one make the simpler concepts behind programming FM synths more approachable and the math behind the more complex concepts a little less scary.

Cheers.

[Audio Gnostic]

when i approach an fm synth my brain starts to melt liek the witch in teh wizard of oz.

[MOK19]

Why?
Because perhaps someone would want to use an FM synth for it's possiblities, and then morph the sound over time into a more familiar axe.
Among other reasons.

And for petes sake Audio Gnostic, could you please start spell checking?

[Muzik 4 Machines]

why?
cause it was the only hardware synth i had available and I needed a sawtooth
and second, just for the heck of it, having a synth and NOT using it to full potential is SO not me

[Acid Mitch]

The next question is of course: WHY would you want to make a sawtooth bass on a TX81z, when most of us have sawtooth-sources in abundance anyway?

Not all saw tooth sources sound the same and because "most of us" have an abundance of Saw tooth sources doesn't mean everyone has.

[tony tony chopper]

making a sawtooth bass on a 4 operators FM synth

I didn't fully watch the video because if I wanted to stare at an old LCD crap, I'd sit in front of my printer, but is it a 'real' saw, or a saw-sounding shape?
Because on FM synths a quick & dirty saw-sounding shape is just a sine with FM feedback, no need to look further.

[Aroused by JarJar]

A sawtooth with FM is a great idea because you can "filter" it without filters, by varying the modulation index. And detuning can be a whole different story- for example, 1:1 is the basic ratio but what happens if you layer it with another saw(like) wave at 1.01:1? It's not the same as detuned saws from an analog, for the fundamental of the second saw-like wave can be in unison (with different phase) with the first, but it partials are stretched.

And even if you never use an FM sawtooth, it's "FM 101" to start with a "saw" (1:1), a "square" (2:1) and a "pulse" (3:1).

Phase modulation (FM, PD, etc.) actually isn't hard if you take it step by step like this.

[Aroused by JarJar]

making a sawtooth bass on a 4 operators FM synth

I didn't fully watch the video because if I wanted to stare at an old LCD crap, I'd sit in front of my printer, but is it a 'real' saw, or a saw-sounding shape?
Because on FM synths a quick & dirty saw-sounding shape is just a sine with FM feedback, no need to look further.

That depends on the modulation index, regardless if it's one sine modulating another or itself. There's a point where it "is" a theoretical sawtooth, but just like any non-aliasing wavetable sawtooth for example, or an analog sawtooth through an AD for that matter (or any saw in our reality actually) it's bandlimited.

[tony tony chopper]

There's a point where it "is" a theoretical sawtooth

is it? I think it reaches noise before it gets the full brightness/the higher harmonics of a sawtooth

[Aroused by JarJar]

There's a point where it "is" a theoretical sawtooth

is it? I think it reaches noise before it gets the full brightness/the higher harmonics of a sawtooth

I put "is" in quotes because I was meaning "practical reality". I don't know if you can get a truly "perfect" saw, and I would be kind of suprised if you could. Would it reach noise or would the energy just go into the highs too much? Don't know.

But in practical reality, if you don't alias, you do get what are clearly different flavors of bandlimited saws, and maybe even more theoretically accurate than on various analogs (certainly more accurate "saws" than some VAs have put out).

[foosnark]

There's a point where it "is" a theoretical sawtooth

is it? I think it reaches noise before it gets the full brightness/the higher harmonics of a sawtooth

That's correct. In FM8 about as close as you can get is 42 feedback on the modulator, 33 from the modulator into the carriers:



Any more modulation and you start to lose the sawtooth shape:



Any more feedback and you add noise:

[Muzik 4 Machines]

i also did it cause some people asked me to do it, not because i think itÈs a needed tutorial (especially not here on KvR)