Is subtractive synthesis more popular than FM synthesis?

is subtractive synthesis more useful than FM?

thank you

 

Although I like FM synthesis a lot, there's no question that subtractive synthesis is a lot more popular than FM.
With a bit of practice, you can program a lot of sounds the way you have them in your mind or by copying an existing sound by ear. I've done that a lot, and by the time you can get a feel for what you have to do to achieve a certain type of sound.
With FM, programming is a lot less deterministic. Some VSTi programmers have tried to make FM somewhat more accessible by adding macro controls known from, well, subtractive synths, or by adding filters, modulators, samples and a greater choice of oscillator/operator waveforms.
IMHO, none of them succeeded to make FM as easy to program as a subtractive synth, so I guess that's the reason why it's so much less popular.

Anyway I do like NI FM8 a lot, I just use it differently: Instead of programming sounds from scratch, I usually rather browse through many presets until I've found something I like (especially when I'm *not* looking for a specific, exact sound). Also, FM is for me more like icing on the cake by mixing harmonically rich FM sounds with other (subtractive) synth sounds, so both are valid synthesis methods that can complement each other, because each can do what the other one cannot.

 

like fiction said yes its easier to program and u get much quicker result, thats why its more popular

useful?? no id say, it depends on what you want to achieve and work for ...FM is know for clean lush bell type of sounds that in subtractive would not sound the same at all, as much as you try ...