Friday, February 1, 2008

Episode Four : FM Synthesis - Part 1

Episode Four is online.

There's also a handy guide for those of you using virtual analogs. It converts ratios to pitch settings.

39 comments:

Anonymous said...

Really great and interesting..
Very understandable...
Keep on this great series :)

Anonymous said...

Nice stuff, keep it up!

Anonymous said...

Your videos are amazing. Thank you so much for your insight into the world of synthesis.

Anonymous said...

I love your stuff man, keep pumping it out.

Anonymous said...

Awesome video, I love your work!

Dan Phillips said...

Great video! Clear, well-structured, and engaging. Now I have to check out the others...

Unknown said...

Very good video!!

Anonymous said...

----------------------------------

WELL DONE, WILLIAM !
THE SIMPLICITY OF THE JOB YOU MADE ITS' A GOOD CHOICE TO EXPLANE ONE LITTLE NAIL OF THE COMPLEXITY OF THE ARGUMENT RELATIVE TO THE MATHEMATICAL AND PHISICAL DISCUSSION OF THE THEORY OF HARMONICS AND FOUNDAMENTALS COMPONENT OF A SOUND EVENT.

THIS BECAUSE THE FOURIER ANALYSIS IT'S TODAY A COMPLEX ARGUMENT TO UNDERSTAND FOR VERY FEW PEOPLE.
IT'S A GREAT EXAMPLE YOU'VE MADE, DEMONSTRATING THE POWER OF FM IN CREATION OF ENTIRELY NEW SOUNDS AND THE RELATIVE EXPRESSIVE POWER OF FM
SYNTHESIS.

IT'S GOOD BECAUSE YOU' BRING TO PEOPLE GOOD TEACHEMENTS AND GOOD EXAMPLES REGARDING THE POWER OF MACHINES SUCH AS YAMAHA DX-1, DX-7
AND YAMAHA SY-77, YAMAHA SY-99.
WHERE THESE LAST ARE VERY COMPLEX AND POWERFUL MACHINES WITHOUT LIMITATIONS, BECAUSE THE FM (AFM) HAS MORE IMPLEMENTATIONS THAN THE
OTHER MACHINE FROM THE FM FAMILY TECHNOLOGY, (AWM+AFM+RCM).

AND MORE THERE ARE COMPLEX FUCNTIONS WHERE YOU CAN COLLECT AND JOB WITH OPERATORS IN A DIMENSION OF SCIENCE CALLED "ALGORYTHM".

YAMAHA SY-99 IT'S A GOOD EXAMPLE OF WHAT THINKING ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF ALGORYTHM AND A HIGH NUMBER OF DISPOSAL AND PROGRAMMABILTY.

PROGRAMMING MAY BE A BREEZE, NATURALLY YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW !!!!!
IN FACT IN THESE MACHINES ARE IMPLEMETED EXTREME HIGLY COMPLEX AND SOPHISTICATED DSP - CIRCUITRYIES. NOT AT END TO REMEMBER THE CAPABILTY TO CREATE UNIQUE SOUNDS, WITH UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS AND HARMONIC CONTENTS. THEN TO MENTION A LOT OF MENUES THERE ARE VERY TECHNICAL ORIENTED ARGUMENTS.

I ALWAYS BELIEVED THAT SIMILAR MACHINES ARE ORIENTED MORE TO VERY SKILLED PERSONS, NOT THEN "MUSICICANS". THIS BECAUSE MACHINES WITH 1500 PARAMETERS PER VOICE ARE TOO SCIENTIFIC FOR SOME BRAINS.

BUT THERE ARE SOME EXEPTIONS.

FURTHERMORE MACHINE SUCH THE
WALDORF WAVE HAS A FM IMPLEMENTATION, BUT THIS IS ANOTHER WORLD.

TO SUM UP IT'S OPPORTUNE TO SAY THAT THE FM TECHNIC IT'S POWERFUL AND IT'S A VERY GOOD CHOICE TO CREATE SOUNDS NEVER HEARD OR TO ADD UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS TO WELL KNOWN SOUNDS AND THIS YOU WELL DEMONSTRATE.

AT LAST THIS IS ACTUALLY AN UNDISCOVERED WORLD AT ALL.

REGARDS, FRANK
(ELECTRONIC ENGINEER).

----------------------------------

Unknown said...

Just watched your first 4 videos, great stuff, please keep it up :) Looking forward to ep 5

Anonymous said...

Please don't stop this blog!
The videos are great, a little funny and really easy to understand!
Keep up good work!

BTW: Every day I hope for the next video! They're really amazing!

Unknown said...

For those with setups with oscillators that do not have volume control, route your modulator wave output to a vca and then from there to the pitch input on the oscillator you wish to modulate. This is handy for most using a modular synth.

These videos are absolutely fantastic btw.

Anonymous said...

Excellent introduction! I really love how you explain theory and put it into practice straight away. Please keep it up!

Anonymous said...

great stuff, thanks!

Unknown said...

This is awesome, man! Congratulations and keep up the great work!

p

Anonymous said...

I will make a small donation to help you keep making these videos. This is not only usefull for myself but for my wife (who is a math geek and a pianist) to get into synthesizers and for another band member who plays keys to get some of these programming principles down. You teach it way better than I could.

Please continue to make these videos.

Well I'm off to continue on an ongoing project: Tackle a realistic piano sounds using fm synthesis and keyboard tracking on my ION. I just need to figure out what oscilators to use... good fun.

Anonymous said...

excellent videos! a HUGE help!

Anonymous said...

great videos..
looking forward to the next one on FM synthesis

thank you!

Anonymous said...

Eagerly awaiting the next installment... thanks for your hard work. Love this stuff.

RetroSound said...

AWESOME! Very good work!

thanks

Anonymous said...

thankyou for explaining FM synthesis in such an easy to follow way

keep up the great blog :)

Unknown said...

that was one of the most useful tutorials i have seen on the internet on any subject.

its a complex subject and you managed to make it very accessible by reducing it to the important things you need to know.

well done and thanks.

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU! I've spent the last few weeks researching FM synthesis, trying to find a good introduction to the subject. I wish I'd come across your blog earlier.

In less than 10 minutes, your video just covered everything I'd managed to find out in that time, plus a whole heap of stuff I hadn't been able to find any good info on. Your video has genuinely been a big help. Thanks again.

dagosto said...

Truly exceptional. I was pussyfooting around FM until I saw this video.

Anonymous said...

great video. very easy to understand. keep up the great work and good production values!

Anonymous said...

FANTASTIC VIDEO!

I'm starting school on synth programming this fall, and I was truly lost on FM synthesis..

Your video broke it down to me and made it incredibly easy to comprehend! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

superb stuff! just love watching the koukou bit at the start.. just that bit has me in stitches!

Anonymous said...

Top Notch! Thank you so much. Very helpful and great delivery. Got me all fired up on going beyond just tweaking other peoples FM patches. I watched this video last night and ended up staying up until 4am :)

Question: On virtual analogs with matrix routing capabilities like the ION etc. where you can route the LFO's to osc pitch. Could you not use the LFO's as additional modifiers in those cases? Or is the frequency too low for this type of use?

And I have to echo everyone else. please keep these coming if you can. Great stuff.

Regards,
John

PS. Your 1995 reaction reenactment made me laugh. :) funny!

Anonymous said...

ur DA best !

been reading on synth programming for couple of years now and wrapped my head around the idea of filters envelopes oscillators but the way you put everything in perspective and show how all of the mentioned parameters are used is priceless - I definitely owe a thanks section to you in all my upcoming releases, thank you very much again !

Greatly appreciated

Lunatique said...

This is the best explanation of FM synthesis I've ever seen, because it's so helpful to draw direct correlations to subtractive synthesis--which most synth heads already know. Thanks so much for doing the video! When's part 2 going to happen?

Anonymous said...

is your last patch on the G2 is on electomusic.com ?

Gennaro Giugliano said...

Hi,Thanks for your tutorial
Best Regards

Gennaro

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for this video. It explains FM very well.

Anonymous said...

seldom do you see information on this sort of topic from someone who actually understands it so well, and also has the capacity to communicate it clearly - well done.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so VERY much for the tutorial. After all these years, I think I FINALLY understand the concept of FM synthesis. I was always thinking in terms of subtractors and making horrible noises while trying to create FM based sounds.

Thanks again and best wishes!
Shan

Mike said...

Great stuff!

Anonymous said...

http://corpuscul.net/sintez-i-obrabotka-zvuka/sintez-zvuka/fm-sintez/

Anonymous said...

Hi,

this last catchy melody you played on nord, whats the name of original track? or is it yours? I like it!
Also I like music from debunked, you should upload it to some online shops.


Please answer.
Cheers.

dew said...

Don't ever take this off of the internet. I watch it again before creating a new FM patch.

Joe Marvelly said...

Best explanation of FM synthesis I've ever experienced! Well presented, well explained!