Most of what's out there on Youtube is just the basics, where they'll demonstrate how it works. Aside from that, Seamless is just a little too advanced. Or rather, there's a gap between where I am and where I can get the most out of his material. He jumps right into the making of a sound but not as much the concepts behind why an FM synth behaves the way it does. I want to be able to predict the behavior, if you will, of an FM synth. Enhance my understanding of what kinds of timbres are produced by modulators of certain waveforms, pitch, etc. and why.

Any suggestions?

 

You can't really predict the behaviour of an FM synth (aside to a certain extent in FM8 by looking at the harmonics shape in the upper right side of the interface), it's just a matter of hours of deconstructing presets, the experimenting with routings, ratios and envelopes.

Plus, the "classic" FM has only sine waves as sources. FM8 has an army of waveforms you can chose. In theory one can recreate any sound in FM, I honestly prefer to use the FM for classic sounds (like bells and some basses) and get the other sounds from other synths. Maybe I'm lazy.

If you want a proper tutorial (I'm starting to sound like a broken record by recommending the same source, I know): http://www.dancemusicproduction.com/index.php/tutorials/technique/synthesis-2-frequency-modulation

 

FM is a synthesis that needs a lot of experimenting, it's the only way to get result while knowing what's happening. Technically what is called FM (the dx7 fm) is actually PM, it's operators playing with each others : modulators modulate the phase of the wave (the carrier) form you start with, the dx7 algorithms are different combo of modulators and carriers for example : algorithm number x is going to have mod1 and mod2 added to each other modulating the phase of osc 1 + mod3 modulating the phase of mod4 which itself modulates osc2. That's how you get the basic sound that you next carve.Of course in all these modulators and osc there are many aspect you can tweak beore getting to filtering etc : volume, frequency, shape of the wave how you combine them (addition of the mods, multiplication), etc. You do things by ears, you can get nice sounds, always very special, great for bells, pucky weird sounds, it's a nice synthesis to have in your toolbelt.
Two synths fun to use for that synth. Synthmaster 2 and Bazille, see the two screenshots above, on bazille you'll love it you can even see on the oscilloscope what happens as you combine the different operators and modulate.






Synthmaster2 has been really nicely upgraded with v2.8.3, and considering you can do almost any synthesis (exept Granular, and addtive is really in its basic form), it's a good choice to learn and test. If you don't take all the presets packs it's like 85$.

 

Dance Music Production - Synthesis 2: Frequency Modulation - Theory & Practice

http://www.dancemusicproduction.com/index.php/tutorials/technique/synthesis-2-frequency-modulation

Spoiler: Content

DVD Contents:

Disc One:

Introduction
An introduction to the DVD

Session 01: The Nav Bar:: 24 minutes.
In this first session, we begin simple by examining the Navigation Bar of the FM8 and discuss the available options.

Session 02: The Browser: 10 minutes
For the second session, we move onto to discuss the FM8 browser and attributes pages.

Session 03: Easy Page: 23 Minutes.
Here we examine the easy page and decipher each parameter available.

Session 04: The Effects: 30 minutes
In this session we discuss the effects section and the individual effects that are available within the FM8.

Session 05: The Master Page: 20 minutes!
In this session, we look at the master page and decipher each of the parameters on offer..

Session 06: The Arpeggiator: 22 Minutes
Here, we examine the arpeggiator and discuss all of its functions.

Session 07: The Operators: 25 Minutes
In this session, we take a look at the operators, their parameters, the waveforms and the envelopes.

Session 08: The Matrix: 10 Minutes
During this session we take a closer look at the matrix and how its used to design FM algorithms.

Session 09: X and Y: 20 Minutes
For this session, we discuss the X and Y operators in the FM8.

Session 10: The Pitch Envelope: 10 Minutes
We examine the pitch envelope and also the multiple envelope parameter page..

Session 11: The Modulation Matrix: 20 Minutes
Here, we take a closer look at how to apply modulation to the FM8 operators.

Session 12: Keyscaling: 15 Minutes
For the final session we examine the key scaling envelopes and also take a look at the spectral analyser.
Disc Two:


Session 01: Harmonics and Ratios:: 15 minutes.
Before using FM to its full advantage its important to understand the relationship of harmonics to mathematical ratios.

Session 02: Basic Waveforms: 30 minutes
For the second session, we examine how operators can be combined and the fundamental wave shaping processes required to synthesise the basic waveforms within frequency modulation.

Session 03: Ratio Waveforms: 25 Minutes.
We continue from the previous session on the creation of fundamental wave shaping within FM, this time employing ratios.

Session 04: Amplitude Modulation: 15 minutes
Here we investigate the importance of the amplitude envelopes on the operators and discuss their uses.

Session 05: Return to Ratios: 40 minutes
In this session, we examine the importance of ratio differentials and how they can dictate the sound in various ways.

Session 06: Synthesis Basics: 30 Minutes
Here, we discuss the approaches for programming and sound design in frequency modulation.

Session 07: Programming FM Part 1: 20 Minutes
In this session, we begin to program some timbres and show how to employ the previous theory in the tutorial to create useable sounds.

Session 08: Programming FM Part 2: 30 Minutes
During this session we continue to design FM algorithms for sound creation.

Session 09: Programming FM Part 3: 40 Minutes
For this session, we continue to show the basics of design and how sounds can be programmed within the FM8.

Session 10: The Final Approach: 25 Minutes
We discuss further sound design principles within frequency modulation.

 

Last edited: Jun 10, 2016

From your posts my guess is that you have Ableton. If you have Operator that is a great learning tool.

Tutorials that have been really helpfull to me are:
- Lynda.com - Up and Running with Ableton Operator
- Sonic Academy - Synthesis & Sound Design Understanding FM Synthesis with King Unique
- the aforementioned Dance Musuc Production tutorial.

Then really take your time and start simple, like experiment what one carrier and one modulator are doing or just start with sines.

 

Last edited: Jun 10, 2016

Nah, DMP is a good source for education. One of the best, really.

As expected, help arrives fast and plentiful on Audiosex. Many many thanks to all of you.

@MrAnonymous you seem to always appear from out of nowhere, whenever I have some sort of problem. I just want to take a second to recognize that and offer my gratitude.
@Gnib agreed about Operator being a good starting point. Especially because what I'll probably end up using is Sytrus, and both have that nice little additive functionality. Thanks for the advice about the tutorials. I'll be digging in on some of these

Yeah I used it a little. Actually made my track NPR mostly with synthmaster and a little Omnisphere. I like it, especially with the double XY pads. I've been thinking about getting it forever. Anyway, thanks for all the help bro.

 

Buy a synth from the DX7 family while they're still cheap and spend a few evenings experimenting with the amplitude envelopes and ratios between the different operators. FM synthesis is a bit of an art and it's not the kind of thing you can learn from watching tutorials.

 

agreed, best way to go about sound design is just not thinking too much about how it was done and just going in for it. Same with FM synthesis.

All you need to know is whats in front of you and thats the interface.

 

Man I tend to agree with you most of the time but this one I just don't know about. I mean, obviously there's a lot of truth to the fact that all the tutorials in the world without any experience won't do you a ton of good, but once you've already dipped your feet in the water a bit (like I have with FM, and obviously I'm rather more competent with subtractive & additive) I think it pays dividends to study up on the machinery behind it all and find out why shit works the way it does